minnesota safe and sound and autism conference

Before moving on to describe the second Saturday session, I need to mention a few other things about law enforcement and autism mentioned by Dennis and Carolyn. In Dennis' video we were exposed to the way that persons with autism often misunderstand or don't understand what they are asked. A person was asked if he wanted to waive his (Miranda) rights. Instead of asking what his rights were or saying yes or no, the person waved (not waived) his right hand (not his rights). One person, when asked if she wanted to waive her rights, initially waved her left hand and then, correcting herself, waved her right hand. This was a sobering reminder that people on the spectrum often don't understand or misunderstand what is said to them.

Another helpful one-sentence description of autism from the perspective of law enforcement professionals is a "high-risk, low-frequency contact." That is, you may not run into it frequently, but when you do, you had better be prepared for a siuation that is different than you ever experienced. Why learn about it, then, when there is so much else to learn about (such as drugs and their effect on the body)? Carolyn helpfully used an analogy from firearms. She said that she received training in use of her firearm every quarter but that she has only discharged it once in 22 years on the force.

The session concluded with a list of a number of issues presented by persons with autism to law enforcement professionals. I will give the list here, even though some have been previously mentioned. Repetition is not only characteristic of the life of a person with autism--a lot of it is good for the rest of us!

1. May not respond to "stop" or other commands.
2. May invade the personal space of others.
3. Shows extreme reaction to change in personal routine.
4. Has a tendency to give false confessions.
5. Has sexual issues--may be less inhibited on sexual issues because s/he hasn't picked up "social cues" about sex.

Second Session: Saturday, 10:30-12:00

Summaries of each subsequent session will now be briefer. In this segment we had the privilege of hearing two people who are themselves on the autism spectrum, Stephen Shore and Ruth Elaine Hane. Ruth explained how she perceived herself as "lost in her world" as a child. She would love water, love the stimulation of wind on her face as she rode a bike, love to climb things. But she knew she was easily overloaded with sensations and would become out of control quite easily. She didn't understand society's rules about showing emotions and therefore lived as she was lost in her own behavior. The virtue of this being her condition and learing to deal with it is that she is now an enormously calming influence on people. Ruth speaks in a sort of monotone, with soft voice, simple words, and a slow and repetitive speaking style. Rather than being "dull," however, she uses her manner of speaking as a way of calming others down. She realizes that ASD people often get into most trouble because they cannot become calm; her profoundly simple methods were instructive to me not only in how to deal with ASD people but as a way of life in dealing with all.

I have already spoken about Stephen Shore. He spoke next and gave an impressive presentation about life for a person on the autistic spectrum. Diagnosed early in life (in the mid-1960s) as autistic, Stephen has learned "social rules" and perservered in his study so that now he is completing a doctorate in special education at Boston University. He shared with us some practical realities of being a person on the autism spectrum. He spoke of difficulty of going through TSA procedures at airports; of dealing with flourescent lights; of too much sound "in the background." But he also brought smiles to our faces when he spoke of how he loved turbulence in planes and became excited when the pilot said, "You have to return to your seats because of turbulence." He mentioned that the profile of suicide bombers which now circulates in the American security community--people who pace in their location, talk to themselves, make jerky bodily movements--is strikingly similar to the profile of an autistic person. In general, a person on the autism spectrum doesn't "fit in," but wishes that he could.

Stephen introduced us to an absolutely hilarious website called the "Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical," a spoof, of course, on "normalcy" from the perspective of those on the autistic spectrum. Indeed, "our" disorder is given a number (as are all those in the DSM) of 666.00, the number of the beast in the Book of Revelation. He also had us perform one exercise which I think is of great use to understand autism/Asperger's and language deficiency. He told a line to the first person in the room ("I came to the conference in Minneapolis") and the person then had to add a line to it so that we would be constructing a story as we went around the room. No problem. Actually, this is fun to do. Then, he said, "Ok, I will begin the same exercise but the only rule now is that when you add a sentence to the preceding you can't use the letter 'n' in it." People gamely tried to add sentences. But two reactions followed. First, people started speaking very slowly and in very short sentences. Second, when someone made a mistake, the others of us pounced on the person as if s/he was committing a mortal sin. After that exercise I think we were all slightly more aware of the communication difficulties faced by persons with autism/Asperger's.

Finally, Stephen elaborated more on the issue of the "deficit" model assumed in the DSM-IV definition. Rather than looking at people on the spectrum as having "restrictive interests," why not reframe this to say that they have "special interests" or "passions" in an area? As both Ruth and Stephen emphasized to us, much of what we neurotypicals do is driven by our perspective on the world. We are enriched by trying to see the world from the angle of a person along the autism spectrum.

Lunch Speaker: Robert Perske

Because space would fail me to speak of all the interesting things said by Bob Perske over lunch, I decided to write two essays on him. They are here: (http://www.drbilllong.com/CurrentEventsVIII/Perske.html). Hope you enjoy them.

The next essay describes the rest of Saturday.

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