A "normal" autistic person

Indrani Basu

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As the mother of a 15-year-old boy with Autism, Nano, there have been so many varied responses to my “Nano has autism.” These range from, “Autism, what is that?” (The yet to be aware); to “Autism. Oh! I’ve heard a bit about it.” (The just aware) ; to “Autism!! Really!! And what is Nano’s special skill?” (The super aware, thanks to the Rain Man and its ilk.) And that makes me realize that we still have such a long way to go before we can give to our children a society that can truly understand them for what they are.

There are those who have not even heard of Autism yet amongst those who have heard about it, a large number view it as this glamorous, mythical disability, where every single individual with autism MUST have a savant skill, be superlative at something, be it at math, writing, music, art and so on. This myth exists not only in the general population, but also in parents who have children with autism. The media, the Internet, as well as some professionals in the field continue to perpetuate the myth, that autism and savant skills are almost synonymous. When you try and tell someone that your autistic child does not have any superlative skills, one is met with astonishment and often told that he MUST have one, that it’s just undiscovered as of yet….and that “you must find THAT skill, catch it and then you’ll just see your child blossom!!!!” Implying, that we as parents, either don’t know our children well enough or haven’t bothered to put in the effort to find the genius that is just waiting to see the light of the day! As if that skill is lurking somewhere, and all we need do is to hunt it down, and once it emerges in all its glory, our children will be fine!

However, there is danger in this belief. Because, often as parents, instead of focusing on teaching our children to communicate better, develop more appropriate social and leisure skills, be as independent as possible; we may end up losing precious time, focusing all attention, efforts in the quest of that superlative skill that may continue to be elusive for a long, long time, maybe forever…And this, at times, is just what happens…Sometimes a child might have a skill that is not outstanding in itself, but seems outstanding in the light of the child’s autism. A child may be able to recite long poems from memory, may be able to do complicated math, which is wonderful of course. But that sometimes takes parental focus away from teaching basic skills so that the child may not be able to communicate his basic needs, may not be able to do simple, basic things for himself, like wash his own bottom-for instance.

Coming back to “And, what is Nano’s special skill, his savant skill?”…Well, he doesn’t have one! He is just a normal autistic person. And, I use the word normal with responsibility! Normal is defined as conforming to the usual standard, type or function.

And the standard person with Autism DOES NOT have any savant skills. Just as is in the case with us normal, “normal” people. How many people in the general population are geniuses??? How many Picassos or Mozarts do we know of? For every one Picasso, there are millions of people for whom art began and ended in art class in school; for every Mozart, there are millions of people who are content to vent their musical abilities in the shower.

So why should it be any different for people with Autism? Each one of us has strengths and weaknesses. Some of us may be good at math, others may not be able to even add large sums mentally; some of us may have excellent people skills, others may be comfortable with limited contact with people. We all use our strengths and try to minimize our weaknesses, to function to the best of our abilities. We don’t expect to be geniuses ourselves, we just try to do our very best, given our abilities.

Why should it be any different for our children? Should not, they too, be encouraged to use their individual strengths and minimize their difficulties, to function to the best of their abilities? If they have a special skill, fine. If not, that’s fine, too!

Why can’t our children be just normal people with autism? Why do they HAVE to have a savant skill for them to be special? Is it because, at some level we expect a special skill to absolve our children of their Autism? But, do our children need absolution? Are they not special and unique, just the way they are; NOT by virtue of their autism, or their savant skills, BUT, by virtue of just being human, like all of us!

Courtesy Action for Autism