CREDITS: http://www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com/famous-people-with-autism.html
Below is a list of famous people with autism, some with unspecified forms, high-functioning, autistic savants and severe autism.
Famous people with unspecified forms of autism
The following people have been diagnosed as being somewhere on the autistic spectrum but the specific classification is unknown.
Daryl Hannah, an American actress best known for her roles in Splash, Blade Runner and Kill Bill was diagnosed as a child as being 'borderline autistic'
Christopher Knowles, American poet
Matthew Laborteaux, actor on Little House on the Prairie
Katherine McCarron, autistic child allegedly murdered at the age of three by her mother, Karen McCarron.
Jason McElwain, high school basketball player
Michael Moon, adopted son of author Elizabeth Moon
Jasmine O'Neill, author of Through the Eyes of Aliens
Sue Rubin, subject of documentary Autism Is a World. Sue Rubin has no oral speech but does communicate with facilitated communication.
Birger Sellin, author from Germany,
Robert Gagno, actor from Vancouver,
Famous people with Asperger syndrome
Dan Aykroyd, comedian and actor: Aykroyd stated he has Asperger's, but some feel he was joking.
Richard Borcherds, mathematician specializing in group theory and Lie algebras
William Cottrell, student who was sentenced to eight years in jail for fire-bombing SUV dealerships
Craig Nicholls, frontman of the band The Vines
Gary Numan, British singer and songwriter
Dawn Prince-Hughes, PhD, primate anthropologist, ethologist, and author of Songs for the Gorilla Nation
Judy Singer, Australian disability rights activist
Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economics
Satoshi Tajiri, creator of Pokémon
Daniel Tammet, British autistic savant, believed to have Asperger Syndrome
Liane Holliday Willey, author of Pretending to be Normal, Asperger Syndrome in the Family; Asperger syndrome advocate; education professor; and adult diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at age 35
People with high-functioning autism
Michelle Dawson, autism researcher and autism rights activist who has made ethical challenges to Applied Behavior Analysis
Temple Grandin, a designer of humane food animal handling systems.
Hikari Oe, Japanese composer
Bhumi Jensen, Thai prince, grandson of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand; killed by drowning in the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
Dylan Scott Pierce, wildlife illustrator
Jim Sinclair, autism rights activist
Donna Williams, Australian author of Nobody Nowhere and Somebody Somewhere; after testing for deafness in late childhood, and being labelled 'disturbed', Donna was formally diagnosed as autistic in her 20s
Stephen Wiltshire, British architectural artist
Axel Brauns, German author of the autobiographical bestseller Buntschatten und Fledermäuse and filmmaker
Famous autistic savants
Alonzo Clemons, American clay sculptor
Tony DeBlois, blind American musician
Leslie Lemke, blind American musician
Jonathan Lerman, American artist
Thristan Mendoza, Filipino marimba prodigy
Jerry Newport is an author, savant, and has Asperger's. His wife, Mary Newport, is also a savant on the autistic spectrum
Derek Paravicini, blind British musician
James Henry Pullen, gifted British carpenter
Matt Savage, U.S. autistic jazz prodigy
Henriett Seth-F., Hungarian autistic savant, poet, writer and artist
People with severe autism
Tito Mukhopadhyay, author, poet and philosopher
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Parents Of Grown Offspring With Autism More Likely To Split Up
Parents Of Grown Offspring With Autism More Likely To Split Up
The parents of grown children with autism are more likely to divorce than couples with typically developing children, according to new data from a large longitudinal study of families of adolescents and adults with autism.
The study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Family Psychology by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Waisman Center, paints a new picture of the prospects of long-term marital success for parents raising a child with autism.
The study is the first to track marital history of parents of adult children with autism. It reveals that, in contrast to previous assumptions, parents do not have a greater risk of divorce when their son or daughter with autism is young. However, as the child with autism grows into adolescence and adulthood, parents are more likely to divorce than are parents of typically developing children. Although findings reveal diminished prospects for a lasting marriage for parents raising a child with autism, the majority of marriages in this study survived.
The study compared the marital fates of 391 couples - the parents of adolescent and adult children with autism - to a sample drawn from another large longitudinal study, the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS). The goal of the study was to document the rate and timing of divorce of parents of children with autism, explains Sigan Hartley, a UW-Madison assistant professor of human development and family studies and lead author of the report.
The study revealed that the divorce rate for parents of children with autism mirrors the divorce rate of the parents of children without disabilities until the child reaches 8 years of age. After that, the divorce rate goes down for parents of children without disabilities but remains high for parents of children with autism.
"There seems to be a prolonged vulnerability for divorce in parents of children with autism," says Hartley. "Typically, if couples can survive the early child-rearing years, parenting demands decrease and there is often less strain on the marriage. However, parents of children with autism often continue to live with and experience high parenting demands into their child's adulthood, and thus marital strain may remain high in these later years."
Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder or ASD, has symptoms that vary considerably in severity between individuals, but core characteristics of the disorder include difficulty establishing and maintaining social relationships, delayed communication skills, and repetitive motions such as rocking back and forth and hand flapping. Children with autism frequently require high levels of care and continue to live with parents as adults.
"There is a lifelong profile of challenging behaviors and symptoms associated with autism," Hartley notes. "Few developmental disabilities appear to be more taxing on parents and there is a great need for support services for families when the child is an adolescent and adult. Providing support for couples to help them work on their marriages is an obvious step. If we can get information and support to these families, we hope to be able to support lasting marriages."
The new study compares data from two large longitudinal studies, the Adolescents and Adults with Autism Study, directed by Marsha Mailick Seltzer, a UW-Madison professor of social work and director of the Waisman Center, and MIDUS, directed by UW-Madison psychology professor Carol Ryff. Both studies are funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
The parents of grown children with autism are more likely to divorce than couples with typically developing children, according to new data from a large longitudinal study of families of adolescents and adults with autism.
The study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Family Psychology by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Waisman Center, paints a new picture of the prospects of long-term marital success for parents raising a child with autism.
The study is the first to track marital history of parents of adult children with autism. It reveals that, in contrast to previous assumptions, parents do not have a greater risk of divorce when their son or daughter with autism is young. However, as the child with autism grows into adolescence and adulthood, parents are more likely to divorce than are parents of typically developing children. Although findings reveal diminished prospects for a lasting marriage for parents raising a child with autism, the majority of marriages in this study survived.
The study compared the marital fates of 391 couples - the parents of adolescent and adult children with autism - to a sample drawn from another large longitudinal study, the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS). The goal of the study was to document the rate and timing of divorce of parents of children with autism, explains Sigan Hartley, a UW-Madison assistant professor of human development and family studies and lead author of the report.
The study revealed that the divorce rate for parents of children with autism mirrors the divorce rate of the parents of children without disabilities until the child reaches 8 years of age. After that, the divorce rate goes down for parents of children without disabilities but remains high for parents of children with autism.
"There seems to be a prolonged vulnerability for divorce in parents of children with autism," says Hartley. "Typically, if couples can survive the early child-rearing years, parenting demands decrease and there is often less strain on the marriage. However, parents of children with autism often continue to live with and experience high parenting demands into their child's adulthood, and thus marital strain may remain high in these later years."
Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder or ASD, has symptoms that vary considerably in severity between individuals, but core characteristics of the disorder include difficulty establishing and maintaining social relationships, delayed communication skills, and repetitive motions such as rocking back and forth and hand flapping. Children with autism frequently require high levels of care and continue to live with parents as adults.
"There is a lifelong profile of challenging behaviors and symptoms associated with autism," Hartley notes. "Few developmental disabilities appear to be more taxing on parents and there is a great need for support services for families when the child is an adolescent and adult. Providing support for couples to help them work on their marriages is an obvious step. If we can get information and support to these families, we hope to be able to support lasting marriages."
The new study compares data from two large longitudinal studies, the Adolescents and Adults with Autism Study, directed by Marsha Mailick Seltzer, a UW-Madison professor of social work and director of the Waisman Center, and MIDUS, directed by UW-Madison psychology professor Carol Ryff. Both studies are funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
understanding death
Death is no laughing matter. It is only but normal for us to feel sad and cry when someone we know and love passes away.
My uncle died yesterday. Mom was out, and we couldn't find a way to tell her. We wanted her to know not when she's outside, but surrounded by us. I was the one who uttered the words that I knew would make her cry. I had nothing else to say. I cannot tell her to stop crying. I cannot say that everything will be alright. I cannot say that her brother's death was for the better. Selfish as I am, death is not something I can look and shrug at. I cannot think of anything positive about losing someone you care about.
All the time that Mom was crying, I was looking at Dale playing with my iPhone. He glanced back and forth at us. I knew he was a little confused. He does not like death, either. He cannot stand TV shows that shows cruelty, pain, and loss. He cries, shouts, hands on his ears, and runs to another room.
He then came to me and said "It's annoying. Make her stop. Why is she crying? He's just her brother!"
I had to hide my shock. My head was spinning with this new revelation.
Could it be that my son cannot feel remorse or sadness over this? Or did he just say that because he did not want his grandmother to feel this amount of pain?
During dinner, Mom told him about my uncle. Dale told her "Uh... let's stop. You might cry again."
This morning I asked him if he feels sad that my uncle died. He said "Uh... I really don't know him that well."
Then I asked, if ever I die, will he cry? He said "Of course, I will cry. But remember, Mama is still here." Meaning, he will still have someone else with him.
I asked him, what if we lose his brother or sister. He said "Um... I don't know. Sometimes, they are good to me, and sometimes they are not."
Death is plain and simple to Dale. There are no whos or whys. I do not know if it is good or bad. I do not know if I should be glad that he seems to be oblivious.
All I know is that I wish I'm still there for him when he suddenly understands death like the rest of us.
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