Days of the New Year

Research

Over the last couple of months, while working on other university assignments, I have been looking into more of what others view of Autism is, looking into multiple books explaining what Autism is, watching films with autistic characters and looking as games that mention that someone is autistic so laying around watching films during the Holidays sounded like a good plan to me.

Through the books, I had to chuckle a couple of times as I read through the books. Remembering my siblings pointing out that I had a habit of looking at someone else or away from them completely when I was talking to them. They made the good point of sneaking out the room while I was talking to them because I didn't want to make eye contact.....good times..... Anyway, I have been looking at the certain problems someone with autism, other than myself, would have and what sort of characteristics that person would have. From the research, I had discovered that 'no two autistic people experience their disability the same way'. The quote got me thinking, if no two people experience autism the same way, mainly because autism is part of the ASD, so I theory...there shouldn't be a stereotype.

If only....

Rain Man (1988) was one of the first films to contain a character with autism, bringing awareness to millions of viewers worldwide. But it also set a stereotype for writers that are too lazy to create a fresh new character. Because of this, the stereotype had made its way into reality....how many times I had been looked as if I was going to break stuff or be trouble....oh childhood.

I thought that I would talk to a couple of my autistic friends and as how people reacted when they tell them that they were autistic. For me, no one would have guessed that I was autistic, mainly due to fact that my pattern of autism had changed slightly, allowing me to become more social but I still notice it. One of my friends were told that they were lying when they had told people that they had autism, told that they were nothing like Rain Man or the boy in the Black Balloon (2008).

This is what section one of my Literature Review. This section explains what autism is and the characteristic that occur within some autistic people. Still need to add some references but it shouldn't be a problem.

Section I: What is Autism?

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability, a condition that affects some children from birth or infancy, mainly affecting how a person socialises or communicates with another person. (Baron-Cohen and Bolton, 1993.) Autism acts in different ways as the pattern within one person is different from another, (Brown, 2010), so the disability is sometimes referred to in the Autistic Spectrum Disorder, ASD for short. Within the spectrum, those with autism will be able to live in different ways, as some will be able to live life without any difficulty while others will have to have specialists with them at all times. (National Autistic Society, N.D) On occasion, it will also be known as Asperser’s Syndrome, which is a form of autism.

There are a number of characteristics that an autistic person has, those that are divided into three groups, Social Communication, Social Interaction and Social Imagination.

Difficulty with Social Communication:

One of the main difficulties for people within the autistic spectrum is the concept of verbal and non-verbal language. This normally affects how a person would translate tone of voice and body language. The National Autistic Society (N.D) explained that if the phase, ‘It’s cool’, was used, while most people will know that they mean something is good, someone with autism would think that the person is saying that its cold, not understanding the content that the words are spoken. Due to this, children with autism would often fail to understand the deception involved in both fiction and real social life; precisely because they are unaware of what people are thinking, or of what people are trying to make others think, this is also known as mind-blindness.

Some people with autism may not gain the ability to speak, or will have trouble speaking. Though there have been some cases that they would prefer to communicate differently to everyone else, e.g. sign language.

Difficulty with Social Interaction:

When it comes to socialising, it’s hard for those with Autism to recognise or understand other people’s emotions and feelings, as well as their own. Baron-Cohen and Bolton (1993) mention that the emotions that are shown by those with autism is surprising and unexpected; they still show basic emotion expression but would mistakenly use the emotion in the wrong place at the wrong time. E.g. A joke at a funeral.

Another difficulty is that on some occasion, those that have been diagnoses with autism will have moments when they would not seek comfort from other people, that person they have a problem with communicating how they feel, it is often that they would face their feelings alone. This reflects on Baron-Cohen and Bolton’s comment on how the ‘picture of aloneness’ is seen within children and young adults with autism.

The unwritten rules within social life are tricky to concept by some autistic children. This may be that someone would stand too close to someone or someone would stand too close to them, they would not understand the subject of conversation and reply in an inappropriate way.

Difficulty with Social Imagination:

This relates to thinking within the other person’s shoes, imagining situations that would not concur within their comfort zones, understanding other people’s behaviour and ideas. This is a difficulty for some children and adults with autism as it’s connected to the person’s routine and habit.

This could mean that they might have trouble with coping with new situations or become the case that it is hard to look into what the future may be like, or even be stuck repeating the same activity over and over again due to routine. This doesn't affect their imagination in general though.

Characterises

Every person has their own character, so does every single person with autism. Whether it will be by their sense of routines within their life, or the feeling of not wanting to be touched or to having amazing skills with numbers, art, memory and so on. (Chilvers 2007) An example of this from a poem called ‘My World called Autism’ by Janet Weedon-Skinner. Within the poem, it mentions about her characteristics to her autism, how she senses are more higher than usual, which is known as sensory sensitivity, as well as how she knows that she experiences life differently because of it.

There have been greatly known autistic people to show their great talents. An example would be Stephen Wiltshire, the infamous autistic artist who managed to draw realistic drawings of cities only by looking at the city for a short period of time. With the intense interest in drawing and his skill in memory, Stephen has founded his own art gallery in London’s Royal Opera Arcade and have received awards, included being named a member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.   

Animation

With the animation itself, I have the basic plot, treatment, the first script done and I'm currently through half way in the modelling stage of the environment, hoping, I can get all of the scene done by the end of the month . The plot of the scene is from a story that I'm currently writing the first draft off, this scene focuses on one of the other of the characters to the main character and affects their friendship.

The key points in the animation are that my two characters, Aiddie and Brian, are on a mission and rest up for the night by making a campfire. Due to previous comments discussed back at their base, Brian asks Aiddie why she didn’t tell him about her autism. Aiddie reveals that she didn’t want to be judged by him like the other members do, showing some vulnerability, tapping her foot in a beat as a form of discomfort on the subject. When Brian questions more on it, saying that she might get killed due for it, Aiddie goes to kick him in the face, magic forced behind it, but just stops, explaining that Autistic or not, she knows what has to be done and that she wasn’t going to let something like her disability stop her. She then grabs his guitar and plays the exact tune he was looking for, making a comment about never playing before she goes to look at the stars, showing determination and a tough side to her.

Here is the first character design for both Brian and Aiddie, some work still need to be done....like the line art for one.