GO COUGS!!
Day 71
Squeezing: Kelt's coping mechanismAutism mostly affects behaviors that are associated with communication and social interaction. These social impairments create a unique perspective that make it difficult for people with autism to relate to others. This phenomenon violates the Theory of Mind, which creates a mutual understanding between conversational partners that the speaker and listener differ in their thoughts and perspectives. This creates the misunderstanding that communication partners perceive the situation in the same way, which can be frustrating when one cannot express his/her thoughts or understand the perspective of others. These social differences force people with autism to create coping mechanisms to protect themselves from the social obligations of our society that over-stimulate their senses and processing mechanisms. These coping mechanisms vary with each individual, but common behaviors include: small rituals, an attachment to objects, perseveration, jumping, pacing, hitting, pinching, making lists, and/or "acting out" movie or tv lines.
Day 65
This year Kelt decided to take aquaculture. He took physical science and biology as a freshman and sophomore, but this year he wanted something more hands-on. Today he went to the fish hatchery with his class and caught six salmon. He also learned about fish eggs and how to remove the eggs from the salmon. He had to go into the cold water, but still had a good time.
Day 62
Ross Dickinson, Valley Farms, 1934, Smithsonian American Art MuseumToday Kelt and I went to the Whatcom Museum with his high school art class to view an exhibit about paintings from 1934. These paintings were apart of FDR's New Deal plan to support artists, create new jobs, and show how the country was improving during the Great Depression. Of all the paintings, this one was Kelt's favorite. He even interrupted the tour guide at one point to show that the hills looked like croissants (he had many comments). After the tour he sat down and patiently drew for over 20 minutes. He constantly surprises me.
Day 61
For my WSU senior art show, I did a
project about Kelton's creativity and uniqueness:
project about Kelton's creativity and uniqueness:
This show examined conformity through the repetition of Einstein, who is considered the ideal autist. Even though uniqueness is valued, people are expected to conform to a certain extent while our society focuses on people’s disabilities instead of emphasizing their abilities and possible contributions. Kelton only accepts one-of-a-kind key chains and duplicates are put into a discard bag in the garage. Of course this is only a metaphor, but if society worked in the same way, conformity would be discouraged and the unique perspective and characteristics of people with autism would be valued instead of discarded into the inferior category of our society. According to Einstein, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” Everyone has a piece of Einstein in their creative self; it just takes time and encouragement to find it.
Day 59
Kelt's 17th birthday party after playing the Cheetos and shaving cream toss.
His best friends since elementary school. Couldn't ask for a better group of guys.
Day 58
A couple of weeks ago Kelt was inducted into the high school honor society for maintaining a 3.5
GPA. First homecoming king, then cross country districts, and now honor society... this is his year!
GPA. First homecoming king, then cross country districts, and now honor society... this is his year!
Day 56
Saturday, November 14, 2010
This keychain is from the Pokemon box, which is in the same box as The Simpsons and Body Parts. Kelt has 34 other boxes with a variety of categories.
This keychain is from the Pokemon box, which is in the same box as The Simpsons and Body Parts. Kelt has 34 other boxes with a variety of categories.
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