The experiences of several families who have struggled to love and care…
Autism: A World Apart
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Autism's cause is unknown. There is no cure, and it strikes each victim differently. In this candid documentary, three families show us what the textbooks and studies cannot: what it's like to live with autism day after day, to love and raise children who may be withdrawn, violent, and unable to make connections with their families.
The parents of six-year-old Jessica spend most of their time and resources trying to teach her simple skills of communication and daily living. Believing the condition has made them stronger, they are still heartbroken by the limitations it places on their daughter's future. After years of aggressive, unpredictable behavior, which strained their relations with each other and with their other children, Chris's parents placed him in a group home. He has since become more independent, and better able to interact with his family. While Greg's family feels it is time for him to live independently, they have not been able to find an appropriate placement.
'An outstanding, sympathetic look at autism and at three coping, caring families.' -Booklist
'A sensitively presented introduction to the complex psychological and emotional issues surrounding family care for the autistic child.' -Video Rating Guide
Citation
Main credits
Cunninghame, Karen (film producer)
Cunninghame, Karen (screenwriter)
Kalmanson, Don (film director)
Kalmanson, Don (editor of moving image work)
Iwata, Kiku Lani (editor of moving image work)
Owen, Sandy (composer)
Other credits
Editors, Kiku Lani Iwata, Don Kalmanson; music, Sandy Owen.
Distributor subjects
Autism; Disabilities; Disabilities and Parenting; Fanlight CollectionKeywords
WEBVTT
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[music] My name is Eileen Amberg.
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[]I\'m 25 years old. I\'ve been
playing piano since I was 11.
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I have autism, but I can get by. Most
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people with autism don\'t get by.
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Their eyes: their eyes are, like, far
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away. The world is upside down. It\'s like,
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autism\'s like, is a real sad song.
It\'s like a classical piece in
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the key of C minor. Sad
thoughts like, \"It\'s raining
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outside, it\'s dark and it\'s
cloudy and it\'s a storm.\"
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Autism is an alone place...
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It\'s like being separate, you know?
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[music] Hello, I\'m Bill
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Christopher. Perhaps you know me as Father
Mulcahey from the television series,
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M.A.S.H. I\'m also the father
of a boy with autism.
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My son, Ned, is 19 now,
and like all autistic
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people, he has grown up in a world apart
from the rest of us. Autistic people
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spend their entire lives in a private
world that we know very little
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about. You might have images of children sitting
alone in a corner, or banging their heads against
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the wall, but autism strikes each
victim differently. Some are able
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to develop special skills like Eileen,
the woman we just met playing the
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piano. About 5,000 children born each
year in the United States will be
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diagnosed with autism by the age of three.
And unfortunately, autism
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can strike any family. It
could strike your family
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because we don\'t know the cause,
and we don\'t know the cure. The
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textbooks describe autism as a, a
disorder of the brain, a group of
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symptoms like tantruming, rocking,
communication problems, an
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inability to relate to people in an normal way.
The list goes on. But there are many things the
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textbooks don\'t describe, cannot
possibly describe, things that in the
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next half hour, that we\'ll show you.
For instance, what it\'s like
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for families to live with autism,
to have a child, or a sister or a
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brother who may never seem
to look at you, but always
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through you, to a world only their eyes
can see. For the most part, autistic
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people don\'t really live on the same
planet the rest of us do inside their
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minds. They find it very difficult to
focus into our world and share our
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world with us. They\'re very locked into
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almost a prison of their own world.
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[music] That\'s, uh... Mm-hmm.
I\'m very fond of that picture.
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Uh huh... Everyone always
commented on what a
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special little baby she was.
And she really could
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focus on the camera then. If someone was taking a picture of
her, she would focus and she would smile. She had, like, an
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inner glow and at that time we really thought
she was gifted. I can remember myself
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saying it\'s, at one point that if this
kid gets messed up someplace along the
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line, we\'ve got nobody to
blame but ourselves...
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But, uh, I mean we had no inkling
that, uh, what was going on.
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And then, of course, nearing two-and-a half, her personality
really began to decompose. Well, she was, She would
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dart around the apartment. She would line things up
in front of the drum as though it was some kind of
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altar. She would, you know, walk on her toes.
She was walking in circles, and since...
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Hand flapping... Hand flapping also, and this coupled
with the fact that she did not have an really
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typical language. No! Jessica today
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was tantrummy. Fairly dramatically.
These tantrums are something. She bit
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her lip. She bit her lip, yeah. And that\'s
a problem that we need to work on with
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Jessica. And now is the time, before
she gets any older and any bigger.
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There is no cure for autism. And I
describe it to parents as like an FM radio
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station that\'s a little bit off when you drive down the
freeway. Sometimes the world is coming in clearly and
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sometimes it\'s not coming in at all. I think
that underneath it all Jessica has a lot of
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skills that she just doesn\'t show.
And it\'s a matter of
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somehow finding a way to sort of
bring Jessica into our world.
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There we go. There we are. There we are.
There we go. Children who are
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echolalic or repeat a lot...
Okay, we\'re almost done.
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Okay. Now hold it. Holda hold.
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Hold it. People often think that they have much
more language than they have, when in point of fact
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all they\'re doing is making noise. When
you can\'t communicate, you\'re very
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frustrated. Quiet down. Frustration leads
to tantrums, leads to a lot of bad
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behaviors, leads to withdrawal...
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That\'s why the inability
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to, to even make your simplest wants known, I think
about this a lot: what would it be like if I couldn\'t
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communicate with somebody else? I
mean, that would be horrible. That\'s
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why we try to get the children to have verbal
language whenever possible. You say it.
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\"I want music.\" Yes. No, what do
you say when you want to hear
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music...? Do you want
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music...? Do you want
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music? Can you say yes? Yes.
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Yes!...Every spare moment seems to be in
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structuring Jessica\'s day
or her evening, so that she
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can be in touch with this world as
opposed to cloistered within her
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own world. Look over here. A butterfly.
Butterfly. Butterfly,
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right. Good! Show me where the butterfly goes.
Let\'s look. Where does the butterfly go?
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Good, Jessica! Good girl! Real fast!
Good girl. Very good!
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And not everything is therapy. Sometimes
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just enjoying her, uh, and just getting
away from any kind of structured therapy
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is something th-, that I need
something that she needs.
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[sil.] ...Put it on the table.
Hold on! Hold
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on! Thank you! Good girl! Thank you.
Lately, we\'ve been getting her to
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help set the table. These little skills might not
look like so much, but for Jessica they\'re a
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great deal. Maybe my mom
and dad could babysit?
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Well, I don\'t know. Maybe we could just go have
some dinner. It\'s just real undeniable that at
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times autism puts a great deal of strain on
our marriage as well. We both work, we come
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home, Jessica might be having a really
difficult evening, she might be tantruming and
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just, invariably, we\'re going to get on
each other\'s nerves. But I think in the
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long run, on-, the overall picture has
been that it\'s really strengthened us as
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people and it\'s strengthened our
relationship. I would say just as, as a
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message to people with normal children that you
should savor every moment and really appreciate
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what you have with your child. We get
glimpses of that with Jessica, fleeting
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glimpses of contact and relationship.
If I had one wish, it
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would be that she would be released
from that prison and be the person
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that I know that she could be.
My hopes are,
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are pretty much what Marilyn\'s
are: to have her enjoy
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childhood the way other children enjoy their childhood,
to be able to play and, uh, uh, the way other
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children play, and be able to talk to me.
Um, to be able to ask me
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questions. To realize the
kinds of dreams that I
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had for her when she was born. To see her
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in uh, a school play, uh, in an eln-,
elementary school the way other
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parents do. To see her through high
school graduation and into college,
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and to watch her become more independent
and develop friendships and, and
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relationships of her own. And to
live a f-, a fully independent life.
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[sil.] I remember when
my son Ned was young. My
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wife Barbara and I also had a lot of
dreams. When some of those dreams
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didn\'t come true, we learned to
dream new dreams, to set new
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goals. And we have seen progress. Despite
the fact that many people with autism are
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mentally retarded, they can learn skills
that will help them become a part of our
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world. Education is one of the few
treatments we have for autism
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until research leads us to a cure.
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The monkeys on the monkey island! Autism
can set children apart if we let it,
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but what we\'re doing in the educational
system we hope, will set them
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less apart. When we go on
outings or trips we try
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to include the non-handicapped peers.
There\'s more flamingos over there!
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So that my children then
have appropriate role
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models, somebody that will guide them and
lead them, maybe point things out to them,
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maybe even correct behavior. They
see someone acting appropriately,
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just without realizing it, they\'re in fact,
imitating their peer. They are then learning
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appropriate behaviors. The non-handicapped
children are not made aware
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on a daily basis that these are
autistic students. What they know is
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that these are students who need extra help,
who have difficulty learning and difficulty
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speaking and difficulty relating.
That they just need a little extra.
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Time for good... Good...! M- ... morning!
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Good morning! Autistic
children do learn. It\'s a
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challenge for everybody working with that child to see
how much, in fact, you can teach him. This is my...
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Nose. Nose! This is my... When we use a
system of behavior modification, good
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behaviors are rewarded. As these
students get older, their educational
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program will change to
include tasks that are, in
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fact, important in getting a job.
We have people with
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autism. We need to treat them as normally
as possible. We need to accept them
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as much as possible, and we need to make accommodations
for them as much as possible. We hope that the
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education that we provide for them will enable
them to be sitting next to you in a job.
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A, Y! We don\'t cure. What we
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hope for is that while we educate on a daily
basis, somebody in their lab is working on
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finding a cause, is working on a cure.
Unfortunately, there\'s
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no cure for autism now. Anyone who
promises a cure is just pedalling false
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
hopes. I\'m often asked why we don\'t know more about
autism and why we haven\'t come up with better
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treatments. The reason for that is
that autism is not a high-profile
00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
disease. Our ignorance of autism is gonna
last until people really get behind it with
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research. Up \'til now there\'ve been
very few doctors concentrating or
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specializing on the disease like myself. We
believe there\'s one type where there\'s a
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familial or genetic factor, and another
type where something like a virus
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comes along and zaps the brain of the developing
infant, and then you wind up with the
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same clinical picture, same disease... New research
is coming along. And I\'m sure we\'re gonna lick this
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disease just like we\'ve licked
a whole lot of other diseases
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Throw it back, Sergio! I used to take Ned
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running in this canyon everyday. It\'s just a
few minutes from our house. That was when Ned
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lived at home. He doesn\'t anymore.
When Ned turned 13 he developed
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
aggressive behaviors that became
impossible for us to live with. When
00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
families live with autism day after day,
sometimes out-of-home placement is the
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
best option. [music]
00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
Placement of Chris is not a question
of loving him or not loving
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him. There was too many other parts to the
equation. It was the other children, it was our
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marriage, it was Chris. We had
to make the decision that Chris
00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
had to live someplace else.
00:13:55.000 --> 00:14:03.000
[music] Chris, how many fish are
you going to get me for Christmas?
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Fourteen! No. I don\'t want 14. Um,
00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
four. Even though Chris doesn\'t live
here, I still think of him as my
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:28.000
brother. I love Chris and most of the time we really get along
together. Okay. Chris not living at home seems natural to me
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
because I always grew up with
him living somewhere else.
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
I like living here at Blackhawk and
I feel Blackhawk is my home. It is.
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We knew we couldn\'t go back to
the way it was when he was home.
00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
Um, there was a lot of guilt, too.
That first week
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
back, I looked around me and thought, this
is how normal people live. Because you
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
forget. You forget that normal people... Yep.
Don\'t have to cope with the, the kinds of
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.999
things we were coping with
on a day-to-day basis. Yeah.
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
Chris lives in a residential setting
with five other developmentally disabled
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.999
adults. There\'s a lot of training that
takes place in Chris\' residence. The
00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
staff work with them 24 hours a day. Yeah.
It\'s not always gonna come out
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
perfect even though you try. It\'s a little, it\'s a little raw in the middle. A little raw
in the middle? Okay why don\'t you let it cook for another, uh, couple of minutes, then.
00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
Their goal, I think, is ultimately to try
to get them into the least restrictive
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
environment so they can be as self-sufficient
as they possibly can. How\'re you doing,
00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
Hazel? I\'ve never seen you for a long time.
I would like
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to work at a pet store or fish store,
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and know about fish more, know about
00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
rabbits more. I designed the rabbit hutch
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
and my dad built it and
then I brought it over in
00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
pieces and put it together here. How do you
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
like your new hutch? Fine. How do you like
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
box? Terrible! Placement isn\'t right for
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
everybody. It was the
right solution for us.
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
Chris is happy. Probably for the
first time in his life. Uh,
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
Pat sees, picks him up every Saturday and brings
him home. For example, last night I tried to
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
call him and wanted to pick him up
last night so I wouldn\'t have to do it
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
today and he said, uh, no, he had things
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
to do and he didn\'t want to be home
last night. Hi, guy! How\'re you doin\'?
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
Fine. He lives close enough, only
about ten minutes away from here.
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
So did you go anywhere special this week,
you know like on a field trip with Brandy?
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
Huh? Uh, Wednesday, we, um, went
to a field trip. We try to keep
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
Chris involved in the family. I like my
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
mom because she, she\'s a nice
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
lady, my mom\'s a nice lady. Go up higher! I
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
like my father. He, he talks to me, he
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
teases me. Okay. Wait. I\'ll wait.
I can\'t move with you standing on
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
it. You\'re too heavy. It\'ll
break and I will kill myself.
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
No, you won\'t. Just break a
few bones, maybe. A piranha.
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
A piranha? Big, spooky.
I was 13 when Chris was
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
placed, and at the very beginning I felt
that it was my fault. But my mother
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
assured me that I needed to be away from him.
Just as much as he needed to be away from
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
us and in a learning environment.
When Chris was really young he could
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
be really terrible. He had a thing
about kicking doors and walls
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
in. And every door in our house...
Has a hole in it. Had a hole in it.
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
And he would be up at four, five
o\'clock in the morning jumping around.
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
There was a knock on the front door. We
thought Chris was in his room playing
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
or sleeping. And opened the front
door and there he was stark naked.
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
He would take books out of the shelves and,
and smear feces, and that, all my books.
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
It was very difficult to find sitters. I
don\'t think we\'d ever had a vacation.
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
No. Couldn\'t. From, hi-, from him.
He had to go. If he
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
hadn\'t, I don\'t think it would\'ve lasted. We would\'ve
ended up divorced and there would\'ve been a lot more
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
problems with the other kids. He
was getting really violent with my
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
mom. And he was actually
pushing her and shoving
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
her up against it, and I just, I guess
all the… the things that had eaten at
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
me from when he was younger, really young,
it just all came out and I r-, just remember
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
grabbing him, lifting him off, up off the
ground and throwing him up in a corner.
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
So I think in placing Chris was
really saying we loved him,
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
but we also loved our other children too.
Uh, that week, probably,
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
I can\'t, it was like, was like losing a
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:28.000
child...
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
And somehow I had failed...
Yet he was, he was,
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
he was still alive, it was, I, I
think was worse than a death.
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:48.000
[music] Walk like an Egyptian...?
Seven years
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
later, I know it was the best decision
we could\'ve made. He can actually hold a
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
conversation with me or with anybody. And
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
I love him now. I loved him then,
but it\'s just, it\'s so much
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
easier. Chris today is probably a better brother
to Lori than I am. And, I mean, they\'re
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
almost friends. She never saw the
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
tantrums, the fighting, so she, she never had that
vision of him. That makes it a lot easier for
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
her to deal with him.
Autism really isn\'t a big
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
case for me. You wanna get two fish?
Yeah. Little dinky, uh... Four!
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
Okay, I\'ll get you five fish.
Chris not living here
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
doesn\'t mean we don\'t love him a lot.
Because we do, he just
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:48.000
moved away. And they grow so big! No,
they don\'t. I think one of the most
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
difficult things about autism is that it
rarely gets better. No matter how hard we
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
try. When we deal with autistic behaviors
day after day, year after year,
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
autism can be exhausting. Solutions are
not obvious. And all families must
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
deal with the problems of
autism in their own way.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:18.000
[music] Greg will change from one bizarre
behavior to another. He may chew his knuckles
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
raw. Then he may use whole bottles of hand
lotion and finger paint on the mirrors.
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
It\'s a weird type of thing and all I can
say is we just don\'t live a normal life.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:38.000
[music] Good morning. Good morning.
Want to go to school?
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
School. Let\'s get dressed.
Shall we go to school? School.
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
Good morning. Okay. Let\'s get your
sweater....stand up... The challenge of
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
autism is doing all the things you do for a
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
toddler that you\'re still
doing for a 23 year-old.
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
When Greg was about six, a social worker
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
asked us, \"Well, you know,
Greg\'s gonna be older
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
soon. Where are you going
to put him?\" And that
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
was very traumatic. And what I did
was I walked out of counseling
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
and never went back. Pull it up.
We weren\'t emotionally
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
ready to let him go. Good job!
Put your other sock on.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
You gonna go on the bus?
You gonna take the bus...
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
Bus... to, to? School. School! Alright!
We have to make your lunch.
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
My way of thinking, if we\'d
have given in to early age
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
placement, I would\'ve been giving up. I
thought that, th-, I-, possibly he could be
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
helped and I wanted to be able to help him.
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
[sil.] If Greg was, say,
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
handicapped, he, he had a crippled leg, you
could se-, pinpoint certain things. You
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:23.000
know, you could teach him to w-, to be able to walk. Greg?
But there\'s, u-, it\'s hard to, when somebody asks me
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
what do they accomplish at school and it\'s
hard to really come out and pinpoint things.
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
Everything he does is, is,
ver-, is a very hard task.
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
Okay: Greg. What do you drink water from?
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
Sh. What is this? Water. Tater.
Cricket. C-, c-.
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
Cup. Cup. What do you drink water from?
Cup. A cup! Can drink something. Good.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
Lisa. At the end of the
day, Greg is dropped off
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
and I never know when he comes in
the house if he\'s gonna come in
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
calm or if he\'s gonna come
in throwing a tantrum.
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
Living with autism is completely
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
unusual. You can\'t get
a, a babysitter for a
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
22 or 23 year-old boy. We\'re stuck
in the house a lot. What else?
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
Vegetables? Vegebles. You\'re kidding?
Really?
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
You\'re gonna eat this? We\'ll see if he eats it. You want
dressing? It\'s been really hard living with a brother who has
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
autism. I almost resent
him, but yet never to the
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
point of where I would actually hate
him or despise him because no matter
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
what, he\'s still my brother.
But a lot of times,
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
when I had things going on at
school, or things that I would have
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
like my parents to come, they could\'ve,
they couldn\'t have, because one of them had
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
to stay and watch with Greg or both
had be home. Just a little. Oh!
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
Too much. Well, at first, you know,
when I was little I really didn\'t
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
understand. I mean, \'cause I\'d see him and he\'d do these weird
things, you know, with his hands and stuff, and sit there and
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
wiggle himself and stuff like that. And I started, like, looking
at him and like, strange things. And then when I got about,
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
like six years old, um, my parents started
telling me with it, and I still didn\'t
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
understand \'til I was like nine or ten.
Throw the ball. There you go!
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
Autism is very isolating, but yet he
has his needs. He likes people to
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
hug him and to show affection, to, to
care for him. He\'s just like anybody
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
else when it comes down to that aspect of it.
Now I have to wash it. What do you want?
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
Shampoo. I am giving you a shampoo.
What? Shampoo. Okay.
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
I guess that the, the answer to ha-, living with
autism is to have a strong person in the family,
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
somebody that\'s kind and patient and can handle
it. And that \'s my wife. You know. Without her, I
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
couldn\'t have made it.
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
Dry. Okay. Get your deodorant. Destination.
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
Destinations. \'Cause I
even resent him at times.
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
You know. She doesn\'t, but I do. Certain times
that I do. I\'ve resented the fact that he\'s not
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
normal. And, uh, I don\'t
want to say it, but I do.
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
Everybody in the family
tells me, well you can\'t be
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
mean to him. \'Cause I
take care of him. Mm-hm.
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
Well, I would hope eventually
that Greg would be placed into a
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
home to give my parents some free time
and to allow them to en-, to enjoy life.
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
We\'re gettin\' to the point that we
wish that this time, this year, that
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
he does make it to one of the homes so that he
can stay there in one of the places. \'Cause
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
we\'re just gettin\' to the point that we
can\'t handle it now. We\'ve been looking for
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
placement for about, approximately five years. And we\'ve
been looking and hoping for placement, but nothing
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
appropriate has come up.
After 23 years, we know
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
placement\'s gonna be best for everybody
in the family. Got that one. Next
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
one. We love Greg very
much, but it\'s time for
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
Greg to get on with his life, as
well as for us to get on with ours.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:28.000
[music] Autism
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
occurs worldwide in people of
all races, ethnic origins, and
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
social backgrounds. It happened
in my family. It could happen in
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
yours. At least 350,000
people in the United
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
States suffer from autism. We\'ve
just met a few of them: Jessica,
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
Chris, and Greg locked in a
prison of their own. And right
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
now, their sentence is for life.
But there is hope. Our
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
hope for autism lies in research.
Until we find a cure for
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
autism, these people will
remain in a world apart.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:15.000
[music]
Distributor: The Fanlight Collection
Length: 29 minutes
Date: 1988
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Grade: College/Adult/Professional
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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