Between Spectrums

Knowledge Is Power

When I was five years old I once took an IQ test. When I was done I got a low score of 57. My mother thought that the people who did the testing either wrong or didn't do the test correctly. The guy who took the test knew that I was smarter than that. I just had a tough time understanding. But two years later I retook the test and I go a better IQ score. It showed that my intelligence spiked. It defiantly showed that I was not stupid but with work I am smart and I now can understand things that I come across. Now I'm no genius I'm just a guy that had to prove that I am smart. 

Now having intelligence is important but from what I can tell, we use most of it on certain topics that interest us. So when you see that an autistic can show you where a well known city is or tell you who the 25th president is or who won an Grammy for what song in what year but can't figure what the answer is to a math problem, It doesn't mean that they're not smart it just means that they put their focus and memory on things that interest them. They are smart and if they can remember some trivia, they can remember subjects in school. Sometimes autistic children have a hard time understanding things that they come in contact with. So it's truly amazing that we have teachers who do help those who are autistic and have a tough time learning. They take there time to help them in subjects that they lack and they encourage their autistic students to go through their interest and see what they would like to do as a career. 

Temple Grandin is autistic and she turned her interest in life stock and made it into a career that she is proud of, Susan Boyle is aspergers yet gain the courage to take her interest to Britain's Got Talent and become a fantastic singer, and Pulitzer Price winning critic Tim Page acknowledges his aspergers in his writing. Because some have autism we shouldn't expect failure from them, on the contrary we should help them when they struggle with some subjects and encourage them to study hard and look for things that interest them. Because interest and school can lead to a career that they can exhale in.   

If you have any questions about autism, Please feel free to comment below or in the Facebook page. 

Thank you for your time

Tay Gallagher

Between Spectrums

The World Can Be Like The Infanta

Hey Readers

I apologize for not posting yesterday. It was pretty busy yesterday. Finishing assignments, Registering   for the class I was able to register. Hope this makes it up.

So this week in the reading class, we read the short story called "The Birthday of The Infanta" by Oscar Wilde. In the story it talks about how the Infanta was celebrating her birthday with her friends. She enjoyed the entertainment, but what was most amusing to her was a little dwarf that does a little dance for her and her friends. After the dance the Infanta throw a white rose to the dwarf as a gesture of a good show, while the dwarf misunderstood and took as a sign that the Infanta likes him. So after the Infanta and her friends return to the palace, the dwarf follows her. The dwarf had a pretty happy life. Despite the trees and plants hating him and birds liking him he didn't seem to have a care in the world. But while he was looking for the Infanta he comes across a mirror. At first he thought it was a hideous monster that copied his every move. But to his horror he discovers that it was himself. And it was then that he realized that the Infanta and her friends were laughing at him because of his size and ugliness and it broke his heart to the point where he died. The Infanta saw him and wanted him to dance again so she and her friends can laugh at him again. But he didn't move. It was then that a adviser went to the body and finds that the poor dwarf died. After he told the Infanta that he died of a broken heart she was disgusted and told her friends that in order to play with her one must not have a heart.

You think the Infanta would have remorse for unintentionally killing the dwarf that she would have a change of heart. But it didn't. Sometimes the world can be cruel like that, Some people choose to bully those with autism because they're easy targets that can get angry easily. Bullying is never good because it hurts people. Even if one is just joking, some people with autism can take it seriously and it can be damaging to their confidence and self-esteem. I myself had been an easy target for teasing but I chose to act and not be acted upon. I choose not to let people tease me because the things they say are not true and therefore shouldn't bother me. I can tell the difference between friendly teasing and unfriendly teasing I sometimes do some friendly teasing but bullying is never a good thing. Sometimes like the dwarf, those with autism don't realize till later that mean people laugh at them and tease them a lot. And it can lead to depression. It is important that we talk to them if they ever are depress or sad it's important that we try to talk to them and find out what's wrong. It also applies to other people. May we treat those with autism with respect and show that the words that cruel people say to them are not true. And we should let them that if they do the bullying that it's not a good thing.

If you have any questions about autism please comment below or post them on the Facebook page.

Thank you for your time

Tay Gallagher

Between Spectrums

Finding Your Talent and Let It Grow

Susan Boyle, Dan Aykroyd, Daryl Hannah, James Durbin, Temple Grandin, Tim Burton, Mozart, Albert Einstein, and Adam Young from Owl City. What do they all have in common? They all are a part of the spectrum and have incredible talents which they always have or developed it. There are others of the spectrum that are talented as well. Art, music, sport statistics, technology, in any field you can find one who is autistic, Aspergers, or ADHD and find that they have amazing talent. Even Microsoft saw the talent in autistic people that they have and started to hire them in their company.

Talent is a tricky thing to find. You can either be born with it or find an interest and develop it into a talent. Growing up I thought about one career then change it to another. Some of the careers were unrealistic. It wasn't till August 2007 that I finally found talent and develop it. Growing up I always had adventures in mind, usually from stories that I read or seen, decided to take the latest adventure that came to mind an create a story from it. Then I chose to make it a nine book series, Then came up with other book idea's and started on one of them. Then it escalated to a TV show, Then to a movie script about autism and finding your talent. Still working on them but hey what can you do? 

Some people try to figure out what makes them unique and how can they find it. They do figure it out when they reach to their teens. I found my talent around sixteen. When your loved one with autism does find a talent you can encourage him or her to develop it and who knows it can turn to a fantastic career. If he or she hasn't found a talent yet you can help them by asking them to go through their interests, find what they're good at, and see if they want to make that interest a career. If they found something they're good at you can help them develop it to a talent. Even autistic people have interests you just need to let them tell you what they are, even if it's a simple thing. Talent is hard to come by these days but that can change when you allow those of the spectrum to show their talents and skills to the world.

If you have any questions about autism please comment here or at the Facebook page.

Thank you for your time

Tay Gallagher

Between Spectrums

The Desire and Motivation to be Independent

Hello Readers

First of all I like to apologize on how my first post come out. I was hoping for a better outcome. But hey you learn from you mistakes and do better the next time. Let me ask you this question. Those of you who are autistic, do you ever want to do things by yourself like live at your own place, have a well paid job, or go to places you like to visit? Parents do you want your child be happy and live independently but you worry that he or she may need benefits to live on because of them lacking some skills. That was a concern for John D'Eri. His Andrew has autism and he was worried that he may not have much of a future. He didn't want Andrew to "fly off the cliff" to services and support. What he wanted for his son was to have a life that included a job and friends like him. So when John drove through a car wash and see what the attendants were doing, he gets an idea "ding!". As we know autistic people have an incredible eye to detail and focus on the task they been given. So John decided to start a car wash with a crew of people in the spectrum, Which included Andrew, and thus Rising Tide Car Wash was born. It now has 43 employees, 35 are autistic. The business is doing great but the key thing is that Andrew and the other employees in the spectrum can now have a job to go to where they are valued and feel like everyone else. It's really awesome that a father didn't give up on finding future for his son. He wanted to give Andrew a way to live and be happy and he has done so.

Way to go Mr. D'Eri and Andrew. Keep up with the good work and the inspiration you give 

Now as for me. I'm currently living in St. George, Utah and live with roommates as I go to college. I don't have a car yet so I get around by walking. It may sound tiring but at least I'm choosing to be independent and go to places I want to go to. I do have a desire to drive it's just I lack the motivation to do so. And it's not the matter of incapability but of fear of hurting someone that hinders the motivation to get a license. So being 23 years old I want get a license so I can go to further more places and give others a ride, like how they give me rides. Also having a car does help when you want to take a date some where. I'm planning to get a license to drive when I'm done with school for a semester. You guys can hold me accountable to that if you want.

A desire to be independent is in each of us and we want to do things we want to do. But some of us lack the motivation to do so. Some autistic people really do want to do things independently but some can be severely autistic or some not so severe but lack motivation. We just need to do our part in making some of their desires a reality. Those of you who want to give someone you know with autism a better future. If he or she is severely autistic you can help by maybe finding a job that is simple and easy to do. Like a job at the market or maybe organize a few files in your office. You be surprised on how focused they can be. Those with not so severe you can motivate them to find a job by helping them look through some help wanted ads on the newspaper or the internet and see what interests them most. Then either they or you can call to set up a interview for the job. And then hopefully they got the job. Now if they're going to college and they want to live in an apartment instead of home you can find a cheap apartment and help him or her sign up. That I like to thank my parents for. As for driving, those who are not so severely autistic you can help them get over their fear of driving by helping them with backing up, parallel park, and using the turn signals. There are other things we can do to help those of the spectrum to be more independent. They have the desire we just need to help them gain the motivation.

If you want to learn more about Andrew and the Rising Tide crew just go to twentytwowords.com/this-dad-started-a-company-to-employ-his-son-his-business-model-hire-autistic-people/

And if you want to ask questions about autism or the blog please comment here or on the Facebook page.

Thank you for time
Tay Gallagher