You heard from my mother a couple of days ago, and my father, yesterday, about what it was like having a very low functioning, autistic and nonverbal son, plus two other children. I described a bit of what it was like growing up in that environment (Disguise, The Doctor, Vacation, Patience). What happens years later? […]
Yesterday, Mom was my guest blogger. She said it was ok to post her e-mail to me in response to my post about memory and my childhood. She said how important it was for my younger brother and me to process the experience of growing up with our autistic, nonverbal and low-functioning brother, Michael. Dad […]
As I said in yesterday’s post, I am so happy that my mother follows my blog. She is new to WordPress and would have written a comment on yesterday’s post had she found the ‘comment’ button. I’m glad that she didn’t, because I want to present her commentary as a post in itself. Those who […]
Is accurate memory important? It seems important to me, probably for reasons related to circumstances of my childhood. I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s with a severely impaired older brother. He is autistic, very low functioning and has never spoken. I’ve written several posts dedicated to memory itself (Memory, Seeds of Memory, I […]
Yesterday, my post was about Willowbrook, the large mental institution on Staten Island, New York, where my older brother was for about 15 years. Michael is autistic, very low functioning and has never spoken. Willowbrook was broken up by court order and the six thousand or so residents were relocated. This took many years to […]
I was very patient and tried to show Mike things. No matter how methodical I was, no matter how correctly I followed the rules of teaching, he would not learn. There he was, in front of me. I would try to look into his eyes, but he was never still and would always shake his […]
No trouble from me I never wanted to be any trouble. That holdover from my childhood is with me today. The presence of my older brother was confounding enough for my parents. Mike was low-functioning, autistic and non-verbal. It must have been a great shock for them. Even as a child I didn’t want to […]
Michael did not acknowledge my presence except as something between him and the food on my plate. But Mom said that he would occasionally try to hit me with a hammer, so he must have know I was there. Years after my childhood I had a nice chat with Dad about my growing up years. […]
For those of you who just happen to come across my blog, welcome. I am interested in autism because it has directly affected my family. My older brother is autistic, nonverbal and low functioning. I am trying to look at autism from all directions. During the past couple of days I am looking at Autism […]
My parents and I returned to my brother Mike‘s group home many times after that first visit. On one notable occasion, I brought my violin. I thought that perhaps if he heard the same sounds that he used to hear at home, maybe something would click. I didn’t think that he would wake up and […]
