11 April 2007

"It's an odd life, but a good one"

Parents of the Autistic Weigh Lifelong Care Options on this morning's Morning Edition on NPR discusses many of the things that I've discussed here before: the need for estate planning and trusts, thoughts on how your adult child will live, potential interactions with law enforcement.

What struck me the most about the story, though, was how autism was portrayed and - more importantly - how the parents in the story have responded to life with autism. The quote I used for the title of this post - "It's an odd life, but a good one" - pretty much sums it up.

Finally, a story about autism in the national media that doesn't focus on the doom-and-gloom, woe-is-me (I?), "my child is gone" view of autism that is so prevalent in the media today. Could this be the start of a new trend?

Let's hope so.

3 comments:

Maddy said...

Since I am the world's no.1 NPR fan [well maybe] it was certainly more than a wake up call for me.

Cheers

A Behavior Analyst said...

Let's hope the new trend continues.

Along with it, let's hope the media also continues to stay away from the hype of the feel good stories that promote ineffective treatments.

Best,

Andrew Houvouras

Ian Parker said...

Gulp! While the story is not doom-and-gloom, it does raise some important issues, as you mention. We're still anticipating Kindergarten in September. While we've taken care of the 'who will step in tomorrow' issue, reading this was a bit of a wake-up call about how much more there is to consider.