Dear Mr. Seinfeld, I was sorry to read about the various difficulties you have in some social communication situations. I was even sorrier to read that you believe that you are on the autism spectrum, and that autism is just an “alternate mindset.” I have a 14-year old son with an autism diagnosis and his alternate mindset includes a vocabulary of about 20 words. On every scale of intellectual ability he has ever taken he has always scored in the last 1%. He cannot tie his shoes, or cross the street safely by himself. He needs 24/7 supervision. His favorite activity is to listen to Thomas the Tank Engine videos bouncing on his trampoline grunting along with the songs. My older healthy son hasn’t had a friend over to our house in about 5 years. But we are fortunate compared to many other families we know. My son is physically healthy and not burdened with the severe gastrointestinal pain, eczema, seizures or autoimmune disorders like other people with autism we know. He doesn’t regularly bash his head into the wall or bite his arm till it bleeds like our neighbor’s son a block down. He is not 18 and still in diapers like another young man in our neighborhood. And my son is still alive. He did not die of a seizure like Jet Travolta, or wander away from home and drown like many other kids with autism. We are lucky. I understand that you may not be aware of this side of autism. It is ugly, unpleasant and doesn’t make for feel-good TV stories. This is the reality of autism for many people that the media doesn’t like to acknowledge. It makes people think that perhaps we have a serious problem here that we aren’t doing a very good job addressing. If you would like to see the full reality of autism. I would like to invite you to meet my son and the children of our friends and neighbors who have a very different level of autism than you do. Perhaps you would be willing to come to my son’s public school in Long Beach and meet his classmates and the wonderful team of professionals who work with my son and his friends. I know you have a television show to run, but when your schedule permits perhaps you could come out here to Long Island --you know the way-- and spend a couple of hours learning about the full spectrum of autism. If you can’t swing that I know people on the Upper Westside who have children with similar challenges as my son who I know would be happy to talk with you. Good luck with your challenges and thank you for your time. Sincerely, John Gilmore
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 01:00:04 +0000
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