I wonder I wonder about a lot of things
how we ever thought the earth was flat
how the universe began what our purpose
is as humans philosophical stuff like
that I also wonder what first contains
your head when you see this word I’m
progeny of most of you in here know what
that is but I wonder what it means to
you maybe you think of the celebrity a
book a movie or maybe something you
actually know or maybe it doesn’t mean
anything
this word I’d like to share a little
about what it means to me but also the
misconceptions and stereotypes that come
with it
the autism spectrum is the name of the
large variety and artistic severity
ranging from high-functioning autism to
low functioning on nonverbal autism
these are known also as a estie’s so
often there are only two extremes to
train to society the math science genius
whose intelligence exceeds that of
Hawking and Einstein or the utterly
dependent retarded mute completely
isolated from the world around them
mostly alone the patron is negative now
before I move on I’d like to share with
you
[Music]
as my first child I had no idea what to
expect for my baby’s development I did
not consider it unusual that you were
not particularly viable and seems to
concentrate intently on observing
everything around you with the same
intense interest you also reacted very
badly thinking to getting your hair or
face wet or being laid down to the bath
and could communicate your assent with
the word doll to the bright suggestion
from Dan 9 you never said no you just
said quiet until we asked the right
question you loathed the noise of a hand
dryer and would always cover your ears
and that you became an older child
you’re extremely chatting with people
you knew consecutively adults but very
quietly series around others as you
started school you could often verbalize
your feelings but these were rarely
emotions you showed in your face as
other children moved away from playing
alongside others you maintained your
toddler style of playing happy in your
own company and pursuing your own
interests and often wanting to start
your own game with others this became a
problem as you got older as you would
say that accidental things like being
bumped in at a ground were deliberate
when you began to show low self-esteem I
was concerned that you were depressed so
after a few failed attempts to buddy up
someone and playdates that I initiated
you were taken to a child psychologist
as she was so young we were talking you
just needed more help socializing when
the problems at school and your obvious
misunderstanding of social rules and
conventions continued we had you seen
privately by another psychologist to
help us address your self-esteem which
then was at rock bottom we tried
everything to help you be kinder on
yourself and to treat others as well as
you’ve always treated and valued at the
children I once asked you if your
friends have worth pound what are you
worth you wanted one penny I knew then
that you needed help
see
offer the fantastically interesting and
talented person you are
I was unsurprised when the psychologist
said that you had a spider syndrome
I bought your book written by a child
with a s explaining how he viewed the
bond you said this is just like me I
knew then you felt relieved as to why
you develop so different and excluded
all your life I did not look at you in
see a list of symptoms or problems but
as a young person learning about the
world with some things proving
exceptionally easy
I don’t believe being on the autism
spectrum is a disability but rather it
enables you to have some exceptional
abilities I can only dream of now at 15
I know that you are often anxious and
tired just trying to fit in and be like
everyone else but I hope you don’t try
too hard to do that because who’d want
to be anything other than your own true
self that’s how my autism is seen by my
mum without her I probably wouldn’t be
standing up here and talking to you on
today you may have heard saying if
you’ve met a person with autism you’ve
met one person with autism and that is
absolutely true because it’s such an
individual thing I can only talk about
it either very generally or personally
what I want to clarify is that this is
not a pity party
I’m not going to wallow in my own sorrow
about terrible things that I’ve happened
at point in my past I also want to
clarify that word though autism is so
individual people on the spectrum do
experience similar if not the same
difficulties in certain areas of life
just like every human being we have our
little quirks habits and things we find
challenging but because they fit the
characteristics of autism they are
classed as a disability invidious
socially unacceptable or funny my way of
coping with distress and anger is
stimming which is repetition of
movements or sounds common with people
with ASDs
I have a couple depending on how
stressed I am but sometimes my
calming methods just aren’t enough
thankfully very rarely in extreme
distress I’d scratch at things or myself
and hit things or myself in extreme
anger I kick things such as brick walls
or sometimes people sometimes my body
just a complete opposite I just feel so
overstimulated it shuts down on me
completely so I’m literally frozen
unable to move or speak while my brain
works overtime trying to get rid of the
sensory input it may not even be noise
someone consider loud or noise at all
but to me it’s excruciating all the
while I’m trying to find it
trying to regain control of my brain and
body and I have been in situations when
people have pointed and laughed at me
because these more extreme coping
mechanisms were apparently amusing at
school some children called me creepy
and they didn’t want to be friends with
me so they believed me to try and make
me go away but I kept coming up to them
because I thought they were my friends I
didn’t understand what they were doing
was bullying a point in my life I didn’t
really understand how to socialize and
apparently that was also something to
make fun of because the only children
that I played with at lunchtime with
children 2 3 4 years younger than me or
more often than not sitting on a bench
alone waiting for my friends to come and
play with me but they never did until I
was 10 years old I didn’t have any
friends at school that were my own age
everyone has difficulties but because
I’m on the autism spectrum
mine are perceived as weird because on
the outside I look normal bullying is a
problem and too often incidents are
overlooked for those in the spectrum
mainly because people think that times
have changed and we are so much more
accepting with people with disabilities
and we absolutely are but in 2013 a
national study conducted in Baltimore
USA showed that 63% of children with ASD
had been bullied at some point in their
lives
these children were also three times
more likely to be bullied in their
siblings who were not on the spectrum
this is what Frank was me it frightens
me because children with an ASD who have
not been bullied are in a minority it
friends me but those children like
myself
I’ve been bullying feelings that we
cannot control and unfortunately as I
said earlier I am NOT in that minority
and I can honestly tell you that the
things that happened to me and the
things that were said to me I think that
will probably never leave me now I knew
from the moment I understood I was
autistic and what that meant that sum
total would not accept me I had already
learned the hard way but never in my
life would I even contemplated the
possibility that even figures of
authority could also act in the same way
thinking that we were just little brats
that need to be firmly dealt with but we
have to move on remember the two
extremes this is the first
misunderstanding about autism as already
discussed there are numerous degrees of
severity in fact the reason it is now
known as the spectrum is because of all
the subtle variations think of a
spectrum of light at first we see
something very simple but I’m looking
closer we realize how complex and subtle
each variation is my specific variation
of ASD is called Asperger’s syndrome
which was identified by hand Asperger in
the 1940s it is sometimes called
high-functioning autism or colloquially
wrong planet syndrome personally I
prefer a high-functioning it sounds like
Shylock the second misconception
although a little outdated is that only
boys could have autism in case you were
wondering I’m not a boy
the reason behind this I believe is that
the ratio of waters and diagnosis of
boys to girls is four to one put it this
way over a hundred people diagnosed with
autism 80 of them will be male and only
20 female however pony outward a
professor in neuroscience and author of
the book Asperger’s syndrome
states that he believes it’s actually
50/50 but the girls are much more clever
they were able to camouflage a mimic
social behaviors to hide their confusion
he also states that he believes that
there are a lot of women with
undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome due to
misdiagnosis of other problems such as
depression anxiety and selective mutism
sadly treatment without understanding
the cause is often ineffective the third
misconception I would like to discuss is
the theory that vaccines cause autism
personally I find one quite funny I
don’t know maybe I shouldn’t but it’s
funny because of the sheer stupidity of
this theory a couple of years ago I
talked to someone who actually believed
in this correlation I was dumbstruck
because the person I was talking to was
a friend so I wondered how they could
think something like this you think that
a part of me a part of my personality
was effectively a mistake but to know
why this is a fallacy you need to know
what a vaccine actually is a vaccine is
a measured amount of a dead or weakened
pathogen of the disease you are being
immunized against it is administered to
help to train your white blood cells to
fight off the live microbes should you
ever come into contact with them
therefore protecting you from a nasty
disease such as measles mumps or polio
however in February 1998 Andrew
Wakefield a British gastroenterologist
came along and he published a paper that
described eight children his first
symptoms of autism appeared within one
month after receiving an MMR or measles
mumps and rubella vaccine all of these
children had gastrointestinal symptoms
from these observations Wakefield
believed that the MMR vaccine caused
intestinal inflammation that eventually
led to information of the brain where
and affective development okay about 1%
of the world’s population have an ASD
countless research has debunked Wayne
field theory particularly due to the
fact that his paper was based on a
fraudulent study for example one CDC
study in 2013 looked at the amount of
antigens from vaccines during the first
two years of life the results showed
that the Year number of antigens were
the same between children with autism
and those who did not have it one
specific ingredient that has been looked
into is the result which is a mercury
based that is used to prevent
contamination of motor as well as the
vaccines now I know what you’re thinking
mercury poisonous it’s using the making
of the man has had the reason why is a
big you know crazy
however since 2003 there have been
countless studies now have shown no link
between thermos or containing vaccines
and ASD as well as no link between the
MMR vaccine and ASD s so therefore I
believe that we can safely conclude that
vaccines do not cause autism sadly
though many parents still refuse to
vaccinate their children and when I
listen to people such as Jenny McCarthy
talk about how vaccines caused her son’s
autism and how she’s healed him doing
all this different stuff and she’s
encouraging other parents who do the
same I can’t help but feel a little bit
indignant she says and I quote she’s
doing what she’s doing for the kids my
question is this how she actually ask
them what they want I do not want to be
healed for my autism I don’t need to be
here for my autism because it’s not a
disease I do not have a problem with the
way I am it is the people who want to
cure us that make us feel like we should
the fourth and final misconception I
would like to discuss is the theory that
people with the same diagnosis somehow
all exactly the same
I believe this is down to the patron of
autism in the media such as the stories
you hear about on the news it also
happens in movies such as Rain Man in
where one of the protagonists Raymond
played by Dustin Hoffman is an autistic
savant and he behaves true to all of the
orders of stereotypes such as not
answering to his name right away being
rude and ignoring people being a master
skinny teen you get the idea the same is
also true for the character of Nathan
played in the play by ADA Butterfield in
the 2014 movie X plus y Nathan is also a
maths genius in reality studies estimate
that only 10% of those in the spectrum
are savants however it is also estimated
that less than 1% of non-autistic people
us at once which is where I believe this
misconception stems from even without
statistical evidence it is common sense
that every single person on the planet
is unique despite many having similar
traits in school we are taught to always
to quote the brilliant Oscar Wilde be
yourself because everybody else has
taken which is one of my top speak
favorite quotes of all time I am all for
being myself and embracing my little
quirks and getting help to face my
challenges but there is one question
always on my mind when someone says
whether it be in real life or on the
Internet
but do you have us purchase so that
means you’re amazing at maths and
science why why do I have to be like
that for those who know me know I’m
categorically no matters or science whiz
I love English and I want to be an actor
someday and I have other talents talents
that people have told me that they want
to have I can tell you any notes on any
instrument without any point of
reference I can write you an essay in
one night and get an a star I can tell
you exactly when my parents silver
Mitsubishi Outlander was parked in
Gatwick Airport for two weeks five years
ago when we went on a family holiday to
Florida my point is I do not have to
have a specific set of talents to be
autistic I can only be me and
having Asperger’s just happens to be a
part of me so I suppose my final message
that everyone is this never fit any
stereotype never allow yourself to be
checked box top pigeonhole door to view
others in that way I wonder what would
happen if we were all brave enough to be
an original document and not just a
photocopy of everyone else
after all originals are always the best
quality I wonder how society would
change if we felt free being ourselves
and accepting ourselves as individuals I
believe that this would conquer all
stereotypes which would eradicate the
misconceptions drawn from them we might
even come to the realization that the
stereotypes are often if not always
wrong and as for people with autism well
we might not be so different after all
[Applause]
[Music]
how we ever thought the earth was flat
how the universe began what our purpose
is as humans philosophical stuff like
that I also wonder what first contains
your head when you see this word I’m
progeny of most of you in here know what
that is but I wonder what it means to
you maybe you think of the celebrity a
book a movie or maybe something you
actually know or maybe it doesn’t mean
anything
this word I’d like to share a little
about what it means to me but also the
misconceptions and stereotypes that come
with it
the autism spectrum is the name of the
large variety and artistic severity
ranging from high-functioning autism to
low functioning on nonverbal autism
these are known also as a estie’s so
often there are only two extremes to
train to society the math science genius
whose intelligence exceeds that of
Hawking and Einstein or the utterly
dependent retarded mute completely
isolated from the world around them
mostly alone the patron is negative now
before I move on I’d like to share with
you
[Music]
as my first child I had no idea what to
expect for my baby’s development I did
not consider it unusual that you were
not particularly viable and seems to
concentrate intently on observing
everything around you with the same
intense interest you also reacted very
badly thinking to getting your hair or
face wet or being laid down to the bath
and could communicate your assent with
the word doll to the bright suggestion
from Dan 9 you never said no you just
said quiet until we asked the right
question you loathed the noise of a hand
dryer and would always cover your ears
and that you became an older child
you’re extremely chatting with people
you knew consecutively adults but very
quietly series around others as you
started school you could often verbalize
your feelings but these were rarely
emotions you showed in your face as
other children moved away from playing
alongside others you maintained your
toddler style of playing happy in your
own company and pursuing your own
interests and often wanting to start
your own game with others this became a
problem as you got older as you would
say that accidental things like being
bumped in at a ground were deliberate
when you began to show low self-esteem I
was concerned that you were depressed so
after a few failed attempts to buddy up
someone and playdates that I initiated
you were taken to a child psychologist
as she was so young we were talking you
just needed more help socializing when
the problems at school and your obvious
misunderstanding of social rules and
conventions continued we had you seen
privately by another psychologist to
help us address your self-esteem which
then was at rock bottom we tried
everything to help you be kinder on
yourself and to treat others as well as
you’ve always treated and valued at the
children I once asked you if your
friends have worth pound what are you
worth you wanted one penny I knew then
that you needed help
see
offer the fantastically interesting and
talented person you are
I was unsurprised when the psychologist
said that you had a spider syndrome
I bought your book written by a child
with a s explaining how he viewed the
bond you said this is just like me I
knew then you felt relieved as to why
you develop so different and excluded
all your life I did not look at you in
see a list of symptoms or problems but
as a young person learning about the
world with some things proving
exceptionally easy
I don’t believe being on the autism
spectrum is a disability but rather it
enables you to have some exceptional
abilities I can only dream of now at 15
I know that you are often anxious and
tired just trying to fit in and be like
everyone else but I hope you don’t try
too hard to do that because who’d want
to be anything other than your own true
self that’s how my autism is seen by my
mum without her I probably wouldn’t be
standing up here and talking to you on
today you may have heard saying if
you’ve met a person with autism you’ve
met one person with autism and that is
absolutely true because it’s such an
individual thing I can only talk about
it either very generally or personally
what I want to clarify is that this is
not a pity party
I’m not going to wallow in my own sorrow
about terrible things that I’ve happened
at point in my past I also want to
clarify that word though autism is so
individual people on the spectrum do
experience similar if not the same
difficulties in certain areas of life
just like every human being we have our
little quirks habits and things we find
challenging but because they fit the
characteristics of autism they are
classed as a disability invidious
socially unacceptable or funny my way of
coping with distress and anger is
stimming which is repetition of
movements or sounds common with people
with ASDs
I have a couple depending on how
stressed I am but sometimes my
calming methods just aren’t enough
thankfully very rarely in extreme
distress I’d scratch at things or myself
and hit things or myself in extreme
anger I kick things such as brick walls
or sometimes people sometimes my body
just a complete opposite I just feel so
overstimulated it shuts down on me
completely so I’m literally frozen
unable to move or speak while my brain
works overtime trying to get rid of the
sensory input it may not even be noise
someone consider loud or noise at all
but to me it’s excruciating all the
while I’m trying to find it
trying to regain control of my brain and
body and I have been in situations when
people have pointed and laughed at me
because these more extreme coping
mechanisms were apparently amusing at
school some children called me creepy
and they didn’t want to be friends with
me so they believed me to try and make
me go away but I kept coming up to them
because I thought they were my friends I
didn’t understand what they were doing
was bullying a point in my life I didn’t
really understand how to socialize and
apparently that was also something to
make fun of because the only children
that I played with at lunchtime with
children 2 3 4 years younger than me or
more often than not sitting on a bench
alone waiting for my friends to come and
play with me but they never did until I
was 10 years old I didn’t have any
friends at school that were my own age
everyone has difficulties but because
I’m on the autism spectrum
mine are perceived as weird because on
the outside I look normal bullying is a
problem and too often incidents are
overlooked for those in the spectrum
mainly because people think that times
have changed and we are so much more
accepting with people with disabilities
and we absolutely are but in 2013 a
national study conducted in Baltimore
USA showed that 63% of children with ASD
had been bullied at some point in their
lives
these children were also three times
more likely to be bullied in their
siblings who were not on the spectrum
this is what Frank was me it frightens
me because children with an ASD who have
not been bullied are in a minority it
friends me but those children like
myself
I’ve been bullying feelings that we
cannot control and unfortunately as I
said earlier I am NOT in that minority
and I can honestly tell you that the
things that happened to me and the
things that were said to me I think that
will probably never leave me now I knew
from the moment I understood I was
autistic and what that meant that sum
total would not accept me I had already
learned the hard way but never in my
life would I even contemplated the
possibility that even figures of
authority could also act in the same way
thinking that we were just little brats
that need to be firmly dealt with but we
have to move on remember the two
extremes this is the first
misunderstanding about autism as already
discussed there are numerous degrees of
severity in fact the reason it is now
known as the spectrum is because of all
the subtle variations think of a
spectrum of light at first we see
something very simple but I’m looking
closer we realize how complex and subtle
each variation is my specific variation
of ASD is called Asperger’s syndrome
which was identified by hand Asperger in
the 1940s it is sometimes called
high-functioning autism or colloquially
wrong planet syndrome personally I
prefer a high-functioning it sounds like
Shylock the second misconception
although a little outdated is that only
boys could have autism in case you were
wondering I’m not a boy
the reason behind this I believe is that
the ratio of waters and diagnosis of
boys to girls is four to one put it this
way over a hundred people diagnosed with
autism 80 of them will be male and only
20 female however pony outward a
professor in neuroscience and author of
the book Asperger’s syndrome
states that he believes it’s actually
50/50 but the girls are much more clever
they were able to camouflage a mimic
social behaviors to hide their confusion
he also states that he believes that
there are a lot of women with
undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome due to
misdiagnosis of other problems such as
depression anxiety and selective mutism
sadly treatment without understanding
the cause is often ineffective the third
misconception I would like to discuss is
the theory that vaccines cause autism
personally I find one quite funny I
don’t know maybe I shouldn’t but it’s
funny because of the sheer stupidity of
this theory a couple of years ago I
talked to someone who actually believed
in this correlation I was dumbstruck
because the person I was talking to was
a friend so I wondered how they could
think something like this you think that
a part of me a part of my personality
was effectively a mistake but to know
why this is a fallacy you need to know
what a vaccine actually is a vaccine is
a measured amount of a dead or weakened
pathogen of the disease you are being
immunized against it is administered to
help to train your white blood cells to
fight off the live microbes should you
ever come into contact with them
therefore protecting you from a nasty
disease such as measles mumps or polio
however in February 1998 Andrew
Wakefield a British gastroenterologist
came along and he published a paper that
described eight children his first
symptoms of autism appeared within one
month after receiving an MMR or measles
mumps and rubella vaccine all of these
children had gastrointestinal symptoms
from these observations Wakefield
believed that the MMR vaccine caused
intestinal inflammation that eventually
led to information of the brain where
and affective development okay about 1%
of the world’s population have an ASD
countless research has debunked Wayne
field theory particularly due to the
fact that his paper was based on a
fraudulent study for example one CDC
study in 2013 looked at the amount of
antigens from vaccines during the first
two years of life the results showed
that the Year number of antigens were
the same between children with autism
and those who did not have it one
specific ingredient that has been looked
into is the result which is a mercury
based that is used to prevent
contamination of motor as well as the
vaccines now I know what you’re thinking
mercury poisonous it’s using the making
of the man has had the reason why is a
big you know crazy
however since 2003 there have been
countless studies now have shown no link
between thermos or containing vaccines
and ASD as well as no link between the
MMR vaccine and ASD s so therefore I
believe that we can safely conclude that
vaccines do not cause autism sadly
though many parents still refuse to
vaccinate their children and when I
listen to people such as Jenny McCarthy
talk about how vaccines caused her son’s
autism and how she’s healed him doing
all this different stuff and she’s
encouraging other parents who do the
same I can’t help but feel a little bit
indignant she says and I quote she’s
doing what she’s doing for the kids my
question is this how she actually ask
them what they want I do not want to be
healed for my autism I don’t need to be
here for my autism because it’s not a
disease I do not have a problem with the
way I am it is the people who want to
cure us that make us feel like we should
the fourth and final misconception I
would like to discuss is the theory that
people with the same diagnosis somehow
all exactly the same
I believe this is down to the patron of
autism in the media such as the stories
you hear about on the news it also
happens in movies such as Rain Man in
where one of the protagonists Raymond
played by Dustin Hoffman is an autistic
savant and he behaves true to all of the
orders of stereotypes such as not
answering to his name right away being
rude and ignoring people being a master
skinny teen you get the idea the same is
also true for the character of Nathan
played in the play by ADA Butterfield in
the 2014 movie X plus y Nathan is also a
maths genius in reality studies estimate
that only 10% of those in the spectrum
are savants however it is also estimated
that less than 1% of non-autistic people
us at once which is where I believe this
misconception stems from even without
statistical evidence it is common sense
that every single person on the planet
is unique despite many having similar
traits in school we are taught to always
to quote the brilliant Oscar Wilde be
yourself because everybody else has
taken which is one of my top speak
favorite quotes of all time I am all for
being myself and embracing my little
quirks and getting help to face my
challenges but there is one question
always on my mind when someone says
whether it be in real life or on the
Internet
but do you have us purchase so that
means you’re amazing at maths and
science why why do I have to be like
that for those who know me know I’m
categorically no matters or science whiz
I love English and I want to be an actor
someday and I have other talents talents
that people have told me that they want
to have I can tell you any notes on any
instrument without any point of
reference I can write you an essay in
one night and get an a star I can tell
you exactly when my parents silver
Mitsubishi Outlander was parked in
Gatwick Airport for two weeks five years
ago when we went on a family holiday to
Florida my point is I do not have to
have a specific set of talents to be
autistic I can only be me and
having Asperger’s just happens to be a
part of me so I suppose my final message
that everyone is this never fit any
stereotype never allow yourself to be
checked box top pigeonhole door to view
others in that way I wonder what would
happen if we were all brave enough to be
an original document and not just a
photocopy of everyone else
after all originals are always the best
quality I wonder how society would
change if we felt free being ourselves
and accepting ourselves as individuals I
believe that this would conquer all
stereotypes which would eradicate the
misconceptions drawn from them we might
even come to the realization that the
stereotypes are often if not always
wrong and as for people with autism well
we might not be so different after all
[Applause]
[Music]
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