Story Inspiration: Researching Autism
So I did some research on autism.
'Autism? What? The last time I looked, this was a filmmaker's blog! Why is there a blog about autism on here?'
I will tell you why.
Since I watched the heartfelt film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) in which the young autist Oskar is personally challenged by his father’s death during 9/11, seeking for the solution to his father's last riddle, I was interested in the life of autistic people and of how autists perceive the world, and whether they are sensitive to or capable of things we usually don’t acknowledge or perceive.
For this, I decided to do some research on autism, its effects on the perception of the world, the behavioural patterns of autists. I looked into various sources, the (auto)biographical ones being the most important and interesting, because they witnessed of individual experience and impressions which helped me in understanding how autists see and understand the world.
And while I am well aware that the answers are not applicable to all and every autist and that there are many different expressions of autism out there, the information I gathered has come from personal as well as scholarly sources in order to get a diverse impression.
So what is autism?
Autism Spectrum Disorder (also called ASD) is a highly variable, developmental disorder with many individual forms, subtypes, and degrees of severity. As far as my research went, the origin of ASD has not yet been clearly identified and there are many theories out there that attempt to find an answer. So far, it is currently considered a combined result of genetic and environmental factors affecting the neural and cognitive levels. There is currently no known cure but individual cases of children who recovered have been reported.
With autistic patients, nerve cells and synapses tend to connect and organise differently, resulting in too many connections and thus, sensory overload. The overall pattern of brain activity is significantly different between ASD patients and their respective control groups. (1) The amygdala, which is the part of the brain that evaluates emotional or potentially dangerous situations, is, according to relatively new studies, underactive with autism patients when attempting to decode facial expressions or emotions (2)
and autists seem to use different areas of their brain for movements, which might also explain the extraordinary abilities pertaining to detail. (3)
Furthermore, areas dealing with visual information are highly developed, while other areas are less active which leaves less capacity for decision-making and planning
condition varies in severity. (4)
Symptoms usually become visible in the first three years of life. Autism may entail restrictive and repetitive or even compulsive behaviour like stacking of objects. Usually, autistic children seem to lack intuition to understand others, portray diminished responsiveness and delayed onset of speaking.
Some patients may be extremely sensitive to touch and, in extreme cases, even struggle with the touch of clothing (5) or the textures of different foods. (6) But also bright lights and certain pitches, volumes or noises in general can lead to excruciating pain for autists, up to the point that they may even lose control over bodily functions. (7)
Spoken language or language per se is often interpreted literally: Puns, metaphors and any other figures of speech may often not be understood adequately. (8) This most likely also entails a struggle to follow conversations properly, not knowing when to respond or when to wait and they are often unable to catch sarcasm or irony. (9) However, they are or may be still aware that they are missing out on information, which is naturally frustrating. (10) Also, autists may not be able to converse with you due to too much background noise. (11)
Sometimes, affected children don’t speak on their own but rather respond in lines that they learned by heart (echolalia). This inhibition to speak so far results in an estimated third to a half of the people affected to not be able to develop enough communication skills to cover their basic daily needs in life.
In addition, autistic children may not be able to respond to their name, may have reduced interest in other people and may not be able to imitate them, which also leads to being unable to put themselves in the place of others. (12)
Also, autistic patients may have problems participating in imaginary plays, may have problems standing change and may show a highly restricted interest that is 'abnormal in focus, intensity or even theme'.
Sometimes, those on the autism spectrum may furthermore be less drawn to look at faces or avoid them entirely, may have trouble interpreting them and thus miss facial cues to understand how others feel, whereas they tend to be highly reactive to other visual cues, regardless of content. (13)
On the middle to severe end of the spectrum, autists may have problems filtering out or focussing on single impressions. (14) They may even see fluorescent light flickering and smell odours that are either far away or quite faint. (15)
When autistic people are overwhelmed by their surroundings, they may seek possible outlets like seeking calm and quiet places, working creatively (16) or even tend to self-harm. (17) They may perceive the world as a fearful, scary place, avoid eye contact (unless taught so) and pull away from physical contact even though they want to connect. (18) This means, that children on the autism spectrum will most likely need to learn how to successfully interact with the world. (19)
What I found particularly interesting was the description of an autistic mother, herself having an autistic child. This personal account gave a vivid example of how movements, actions, sounds and images jumble together as a mess of foreign codes, unable to be read easily and thus costing a lot of energy. This would, as the mother stated, also lead to neglect of other processes like emotions, thoughts, and language. (20)
Regarding the fact that the most basic brain processes need this much of energy, it is no wonder that autistic people seek reclusion, can easily slip into meltdowns and that they, in turn, need rigid routines and schedules to cope with the requirements of daily life.
My research definitely helped me to better understand how I could possibly display the struggles of an severely autistic child as truthfully as possible without falling into clichés or demeaning depictions.
What I found really interesting was the sensitivity to sensory impressions, especially in the realm of sound, which I will definitely insert within my script. I find the idea challenging to shoot a student short film that does not only show the plot objectively, but rather subjectively. This is why I also found it extremely interesting to learn that autists may see light flickering, which I will also consider to enter into my script.
As you might have guessed from my moodboard, I would love to produce a piece of science fiction that does give an impression of what it would be like to walk a mile within an autistic adolescent's shoe. I think that science fiction as a genre with its endless possibilities and thought experiments holds enough potential to touch upon the topic of autism spectrum disorder in a thoughtful and meaningful way.
However, if you think that I am lacking important pieces of information misunderstood crucial aspects of the autism spectrum disorder, or if you are simply interested in the topic, feel free to comment and add your two pennies to the discussion. I am always willing to learn your perspective!
References:
Daldry, S. (2011) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close [viewed on DVD] New York: Paramount Pictures
(1) Jha, A. (2010) Children with autism have distinctive patterns of brain activity [online] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/nov/15/children-autism-patterns-brain-activity [Accessed on 18 December 2017]
(2) University of Cambridge (n.d.) The autistic brain [online] http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/research/cameos/AutisticBrain.php [Accessed on 18 December 2017]
(3-4, 16) Hughes, J. (2011) Autistic Brains ’organised differently’ say scientists [online] http://www.bbc.com/news/health-12937009 [Accessed on 18 December 2017]
(5, 7, 11) Sicile-Kira, C. (2011) Why do children and adults with autism act the way they do? [online] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-autism-advocate/201106/why-do-children-and-adults-autism-act-the-way-they-do [Accessed on 18 December 2017]
(6) American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (n.d.) Autism (Autism Spectrum Disorder) [online] https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/Autism/ [Accessed on 18 December 2017]
(8, 10, 15) Notbohm, E. (2012) Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew [online] https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/tool-kits/100-day-kit/ten-things-every-child-autism-wishes-you-knew [Accessed on 18 December 2017]
(9, 14) Myers, M. (2016) When I Tried to See the World The Way My Son With Autism Sees It [online] https://themighty.com/2016/04/understanding-how-my-son-with-autism-sees-the-world/ [Accessed on 18 December 2017]
(12, 17) Autism Speaks (n.d.) What are the symptoms of autism? [online] https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/symptoms [Accessed on 18 December 2017]
(13) Zolfagharifad, E. (2015) How people with autism see the world: Gaze of those with the condition bypasses faces to see details such as colour and contrast [online] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3286740/How-people-autism-world-Gaze-condition-bypasses-faces-details-colour-contrast.html [Accessed on 18 December 2017]
(18-20) N.N. (2016) Understanding How Children With Autism See The world. [online] http://www.firstdiscoverers.co.uk/understanding-children-autism-see-world/ [Accessed on 18 December 2017]