While checking out the latest review of a documentary at Sundance for “Autism Every Day” I found a shorter version of it online at Autism Speaks.
http://www.autismspeaks.org/video/index.php
I don’t know how to link directly to the film, so you’ll have to scroll down for it and select your bandwidth, but it looks like there’s a lot of really informative and interesting videos online here anyway that might serve as a good resource for the community.
A bit about “Autism Every Day” it opens up on, what the filmmaker described as a parent’s version of the opening to Saving Private Ryan, meant to shock the system for those seeing it… and it does seem like the audience they’re trying to appeal to here is one of the layman (or layparent) as it is, who doesn’t know what it’s like for a parent of an autistic child. I did find it a bit shocking and was wondering “Oh no, another version that makes it look to the novice that all kids with autism can’t speak or scream all the time or fit into a stereotype”… but if you give it time, I think you can find that it’s really about teaching tolerance for all of our kids and for us parents. I would’ve liked them to include more high functioning kids up front to show that’s challenging too… but the message is still good and I realize, it’s hard to do that in a few minutes.
The part where the parents all make their plea for parents of “typical” kids to be more understanding of what a day in the life of a parent of a child on the spectrum is like, and to not judge if you see a child screaming or crying particularly hit home to me and if nothing else, I hope that that message of tolerance, and of teaching your children tolerance is seen/heard and applied by as many people as possible. This indeed could make the world a better place… so for that, I say watch it and email others about it. We all could really use some of this peace love and understanding.
1 Comment
April 3, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I was very dissappointed they never mentioned the vaccine connection. I think perhaps we should just attach a needle on top of the Washington monument, etch the names Wyeth, Merck, and Glaxo-Smith Kline into the side of it and demand Americans fall down and worship before it. I want to know how many more vaccines will be mandated before they say “enough is enough.” They answer is infinite because they will never be rich enough. Mercury caused my son’s autism — no ifs, ands, or buts.