YouTubed! - 's Life & Times (in over 70 video clips)

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Thursday, February 28, 2008

<http://therunman.blogspot.com/2008/02/alex-youtubed-alexs-life-times-in-over.ht\

ml>

YouTubed! - 's Life & Times (in over 70 video clips)

I've mentioned before that this blog's regular readers come mostly

from 2 different communities - the running community and the

autism/autistic community. Some in the running community have known

since 2004 and know him pretty well, seeing him on a weekly

basis, if not more often. Some in the autism community, though

they've never met in person, have known of him since my online

presence started about 14 years ago, when he was 6 years old. A few

other readers here have known his whole life.

Recently we've been able to do something I've been wanting to do,

thanks to the acquisition of some technology, namely a DVD recorder

and (finally!!) high speed Internet. My eldest son's technical

advice, as always, was invaluable as well. I spent the last few weeks

copying old VHS tapes onto DVD and, in the process, reliving my

children's early childhood. I had a box of " home movies " I had wanted

to copy as well as a box of " & Autism " videos that contained

footage of at home and at school as well as autism related TV

shows & movies. It sure brought back memories!!

So, after a couple of weeks of copying, I turned to taking some of

the more classic clips and converting them to upload to

<http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=thejypsy>YouTube (those under 10

minutes) and <http://vimeo.com/user375996/videos/>Vimeo (those over

10 minutes). These clips cover 's life from when he was

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM5YujihTxQ>1

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJFKszDcHDE>year

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJFKszDcHDE>old up to his

<

School graduation

(and join the more recent videos that were there from his

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9u0myAeirg>Tip-<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\

3HHXNtsT_ik>to-<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChcRvFENWGs>Tip

Run). There is video from

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daSxz2rCjD4>home, from

<

and from the

community (like a birthday party

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykFvFTzohPs>at the bowling alley and

another <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSGbsZRlunc>at Mcs).

There is a video made for CBC on

<

in PEI schools

that features 's class when he was in grade 8 and the 3 " special

needs " kids in that class. There are a number of videos that

illustrate his early<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA1OvYM44A8>

literacy <

and love

for <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4FV_Cu_i1Q>word

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3NPnL5KdU8>books. Others show his

early <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Zi2NTffec>typing, both

<

and with

various amounts of <http://vimeo.com/716859>assistance, both in the

<http://vimeo.com/733689>classroom and at home

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTBmP90EtcQ>doing homework. There are

videos that I think many parents of autistic kids will recognize

their own child's behaviour in -

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_KhxRJCmnk>toe walking,

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFhsZXMJW0>spinning,

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCnx72ca4fs>covering his ears,

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS1W8KMZjMk>not responding to his

name, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbByIpWheA0>echolalia,

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbByIpWheA0>rewinding the VCR over &

over...There are <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mywhYmIsZmI>4

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwulwYzyZ1w>school

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVuNTwLruJ0>Christmas

<

and highlights

from <

Great Island

Kids contest gala when he got his " Against The Odds " runner up award

as well as highlights from his

<

School graduation;

his receiving his diploma and awards for highest marks in a couple of

courses and an Application prize in another. There is one showing

<http://vimeo.com/713678>how he learned to talk when he was 6 - a

reenactment of the actual event about 2 weeks after it happened (It's

on YouTube in <

<

).

I do have a couple of favourites; one is of

<

totally in his

element, watching The RoadRunner show when he was 6 (is it any wonder

he grew up to be a

<http://www.peiroadrunners.ca/PEIROADRUNNERHOME.html>RoadRunner?!).

The other is from Christmas day when was 5 and although his

spoken vocabulary at the time was only 3 words ( " no " , " oh-no " and

" bye " ) he decided, on a couple of occasions, to go out and

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qin7FxU32pc> Christmas Carols

on our doorstep.

Currently there are <http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=thejypsy>67

videos on YouTube, from a few seconds to about 10 minutes long and

<http://vimeo.com/user375996/videos/>5 longer ones on Vimeo. Likely

there will be more. They do not tell the whole story, there's a lot

that's not there. For instance I have remarkably few temper tantrums

on video and little if any SIB - these are not the kinds of things I

would have wanted to record for posterity, it's not the case that

they didn't happen (but if you watch them all you will see a tantrum

or two and you'll hear plenty of screaming). It is my hope that these

videos will help illustrate a few things about the realities of

autism. Things like -

* Autism is not a static condition: autism at 2 looks a lot

different than autism at 7 and at 13 and at 18.

* A child with a 3 word spoken vocabulary at 6 can know an awful

lot more than he is able to tell you.

* Communication is far more than speech

* Given a chance, the same chance his peers are given, with

accommodations to his needs, an autistic child can grow and learn and succeed.

* Inclusion *can* work and work well.

* An austistic who did not receive ABA or IBI (or any other

intensive or behaviour based intervention) can graduate, (with

honours, prizes), and with great self esteem, from high school.

* Acceptance, and assuming competence, can take an autistic child

a very long way.

* " Acceptance " does not mean " doing nothing "

* etc.

enjoy....

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