Autism: The Musical
Submitted by: MomaTrue.com
Just the title Autism: The Musical made me curious. I worry about autism. I think about it when choosing which vaccines to give my son. I have listened to my friends as they search for possible treatments, therapies, and interventions for dealing with autism, when they hope for cures and research schools.
When I was a high school teacher and then director of a Sylvan Learning Center, I worked with kids who had autism spectrum disorders. In all of my thinking about or dealing with autism, I never would have imagined autistic kids in a musical. But the Literary Mama review made me want to check the movie out for myself. I loved it.
Any interaction between the kids and Elaine Hall, the director of the musical, made me choke up. She spoke with such respect and love for those kids that she reached through barriers even their parents and counselors couldn’t pass. The documentary by Tricia Regan follows the director and five of the children in the production and includes interviews with the kids and their families plus rehearsal and production footage.
My husband’s comment after the movie is that he’s never been so anxious in his life. Watching Autism: The Musical is simultaneously nerve-wracking and informative. The experiences of people seeking a diagnosis for kids they knew were having difficulties, sharing the challenges they faced as couples, parents, and people in addition to really letting these kids reveal themselves gives a much deeper understanding of autism than most statistics.
The numbers the documentary opens with are plenty scary though. “In 1980, Autism was a relatively rare disorder, diagnosed in 1 out of every 10,000 children in the United States. It now impacts every 1 in 150 children.” I used to teach 150 kids a day. Though it made for a tiring day, I realize 150 is not that many. The more we understand about autism, the more we may be able to do to prevent it. Watching this documentary is a great step on the road to understanding.
How educated are you about autism?
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It is clear that the writer is a statistics geek. I enjoy how he writes and organizes facts.
Each of us has a proper understanding of the info provided to the
public, so that I really liked the article and anticipated
you to supply us with additional things like this one.
I soaked up everythig there was to know abotu Autism once my nephew was diagnosed. I had heard of Autism before the diagnosis but, to the best of my knowledge, had never met anyone with it. The stserotypical kid rocking in the corner was all I really knew.
This movie is great because it accuratly shows that the stereotype autistic kid in the corner is quite wrong. It shows that, while these children may need to be pushed a bit more than others, they are quite capable of doing things, such as a musical.
I love that it shows the whole family and how they deal with autism. So often we are shown just the autistic and never the family and the toll that raising an autistic takes on a family. I also like the fact that they show the parents as truly being involved with their child’s life. This is aways a great thing to show especially for those who are watching who may be in denial or have doubts about raising an autistic. It can be done it just takes time and patience.
@zretrareo27@xanga – Perhaps you should watch the movie then come back and give your thoughts later.
@zretrareo27@xanga – it’s not exploiting at all; i watched it with my mom and it’s really adorable.
Someone is going to be mad at me for saying this. I saw the cover of this movie in a store, and the only thing me and my S.O. could do was laugh hysterically. We thought it was a joke. We then began to read the back of it, and it really seemed very tragic in that someone was exploiting children with autism.
I HAVE NOT seen the movie, so I’m not saying it is/was actually like this. I just wanted to give my first impression on it, and how I found it disturbing.