About the whole "she's high functioning and doesn't understand that my kid isn't toilet trained" bit

[conuly]

Well, kinda about that!

Aside from the truly hysterical irony of the whole thread, it reminded me of a conversation I had with my mom the same day I posted that CNN article about euthanasia. You know, the one which involved infants with, in one case, "severe spina bifida".

Me: What I don't get is the spina bifida thing. Isn't spina bifida, like, nonfatal?
Mommy: Yes, but the thing is...
Me: *eager anticipation*
Mommy: Well, it's a lack of proper development, so for instance a lot of them are incontinent...
Me: Um, yeah?
Mommy: ...and so they're in diapers their whole lives...
Me: *thinking about that autistics.org article* Yeah, and?
Mommy: ...and they walk strangely....
Me: ...
Me: You've got to be kidding me.

I'm still not sure if she meant that seriously or was just paraphrasing the ideas of people who worry about their poor crippled children, but I was *very* freaked out.

Comments

[latenightparty.livejournal.com]

Don't many autistics walk strangely too?

[conuly]

So I'm told.

[deathchibi.livejournal.com]

I walk strangely. Sometimes I'll be doing something and my arm just sort of stays there for awhile until I go, 'Hey, my arm... is out there.'. Or I just lose feeling in the limb altogether and go 'Oh, I have that, don't I?'. But um, I'm fairly sure I'm still the standard NT. It's the oddest thing, my dad thinks I stumble a lot. Though, I've never met an autistic person in person, so I can't say.

[celticess.livejournal.com]

I do but though I'm clumsy and all that I don't think it's my autism that messes up my walking. I happen to have spinal microdisc which is a rare thing apprently. I also have nerve damage from being hit by a car to my left leg and also damage to my right leg from another accident. I have also damage to my left arm from yet another accident.(yes I'm accident prone) I also have myotonia and periodic paralisis which are related to muscular distrophy apprently(I didn't realize that til I looked up some info to explain to another what I had one time). Then add in I've got S curve scoliosis and multiple arthropathies... and disk disease... and I'm light sensitive.

So when I walk I tend to look down. This isn't just an eye contact thing it's also problems with UV light and light in general. I may shuffle a bit or limp. But I blame my "gait" as they call it on all my other health stuff. If other autistics walk odd I don't know. I have noticed some seem to be stiff posture wise but I'm not like that myself. I also noticed some like me tend to look down vs up. Maybe they have a light thing too. Other than that I really don't know unless it's the motor clumsyness. *shrug*