BE WARNED! If you watch this
DVD you will have to LISTEN. You will have to
THINK. You may even reach for a dictionary. But
you will be amply REWARDED for your effort. Larry Arnold is
autistic. He is also an artist, a film maker, a
musician, a photographer and a poet. All these
talents are displayed in this DVD in which he
invites us to revisit autism, not in terms of
diagnostic categories, but as a mix of
perspectives that may sometimes clash.
Parents
and professionals have long been aware of this
conflict. Larry has done us all a service in
dissecting the sources of conflict and offering
us his own take on autism "from the inside."
He suggests that we should listen to each other (and
to him!) and view the world from each other's
perspective before we make categorical statements
about autism. I do not agree with everything
Larry has to say. I do not expect you to, either.
But I hope that, like me, you will feel
encouraged to question your own perspective
before agreeing with Larry that, "Whichever
way you look at it, it is still autism."
Mike
Stanton, author of "Learning to Live With
High Functioning Autism" (JKP 2000) and
parent of an adult son with Asperger Syndrome.
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