Everyone With or Without a Disability Is Unique

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While growing up with my little brothers I learned that my second youngest brother, Kayden, had something called High functioning autism. All I knew was that Kayden has a hard time controlling his emotions and would sometimes switch instantly between moods. One moment Kayden could be laughing while playing with his friends, and then all of a sudden he would start screaming at them because someone accidently steppdsed on his shoes. Kayden also has better grades than the rest of his brothers got when they were at his level in school. He is also better than my brothers and I at any video game, from “Super Mario Brothers” to “Call of Duty”.

Other than mood swings, having really good grades, and being a lot better at video games than the rest of his brothers, I did not fully understand how autism affects Kayden, or what really differentiates him from other people. I wanted to learn more about autism in general, and how it affects my brother.

At first I didn’t know who to interview or where to look, so I started by E-mailing my psychology teacher, Mrs.Weglin. She was very kind in pointing me in the right direction towards our school’s special education department, and recommended that I start with Mrs. Custis.

Mrs. Ashley Custis is a special education teacher at Spearfish High School, who developed a love for adults and children with developmental disabilities, and graduated from Black Hills State University in May of 2013 with a degree in K-12 Special Education. Mrs. Custis has had experience teaching kids with autism before, so she was more than willing to help me with my hunt for information.

I got to take a trip down to the special education room to interview Mrs. Custis. I opened by asking “just what is autism?” Mrs. Cus...

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...t are all variations that contain similar characteristics to classic autism.

I enjoyed my interview with Mrs. Amy Goodman, she was very informative and kind throughout her reply. Mrs. Goodman made clear that “when you meet one person on the spectrum, you meet one person on the spectrum. Everyone with autism is as individual as a snowflake is individual, and no two are the same. Autism is a social disability as well as a way of life”

Over the past few weeks I have learned a lot about autism. Getting to interview people who deal with, and live with autism has given me a better perspective of how it affects an individual. I now have a better understanding about why my brother acts the way he does sometimes. Autism is more than a social disability, but a life style that affects everyone on the spectrum differently. Everyone with or without a disability is unique.

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