"Refrigerator Mother"

The term "Refrigerator Mother" came into being during the 1950's and was a reference to mother's with autistic or schizophrenic children. Mothers, during that time period, were solely blamed for their child's atypical behavior as professionals believed then that a "frigid" mother could cause a child's autism. As you could clearly imagine, these mothers suffered from blame, guilt, and self-doubt until the 80's and 90's when autism was more well known and researched. During that time frame families were urged to institute their children since there would be no hope for a normal child in their lifetime.

In 1943 autism was discovered by a man named William Kanner (Kanner's Syndrome was named after him which is low spectrum autism) when he began to notice lack of social and emotional connections between children with autism and their parents. He thus blamed this lack of warmth on the parents label the child's problem as a part of their doing. The mother's were especially saddled with the blame of not responding with warmth and understanding since at that time period father's were not supposed to "step down" to a child's level to indulge in "frivolous play". Kanner himself wrote this about his findings concerning autistic children, "the beginning to parental coldness, obsessiveness, and a mechanical type of attention to material needs only.... They were left neatly in refrigerators which did not defrost." He also commented, in an interview, that parents of autistic children as "just happening to defrost enough to produce a child." By writing this information, Mr. Kanner had done the parents of autistic children, and the children themselves, a great disservice. However, medical technology and "know-how" of that time period did not help him to create another explanation either.

With today's great medical advances and technology we have discovered that Autism has basis in genetics, but no one really knows what gene or the make up due to the complexity of the genes themselves. Some scientists speculate that there may be one gene mutation that causes major effects, or mini mutated genes coinciding with normal genes that cause autism. Mutations can affect development as early as 8 weeks prenatal, but do NOT exclude effects the environment may have or other outside causes (such as vaccines, or other metals). Psychiatrists, theorists, and parents do know now that maternal warmth, praise, and relationship quality do effect the autistic child's growth, however it does not in any way cause the disorder of autism. Parents are strongly encouraged to work with their children to make new breakthroughs everyday, and more progress.

Temple Grandin (The Movie)

Yesterday I was very emotionally moved when I saw the movie "Temple Grandin" as a Special on HBO. The movie was spot on and in great correlation with the book she had written. I do hope this movie comes out on DVD so that I may buy it, and educate people later on with it.

The movie would be a great educational tool, I believe, for parents if the educator (which we will say is myself) had the oppertunity to be with the parent and explain things as the movie progressed. There are certain things in the movie which may seem odd unless explained. I will list some examples:

* When Temple's Aunt is speaking to her before bedtime she says, "Get enough sleep because we wake with the rooster around here." Temple immediately had the picture of her aunt and uncle sitting on the roof of their farmhouse crowing along with the rooster. There are several other connotations such as this in the movie as well.

* In the same room as previously stated, in a conversation between the Aunt and Tample, Temple asks how she could be able to recognize her room. Her Aunt takes a piece of paper and with a sharpie writes "Temple's Room" and hangs it on her door. During the process of writing on the paper the sound of the sharpie is very loud, even to the movie listener. For a split second I thought to myself "Jeez mom turn the tv down!" However, the sound was meant to be "annoying and loud" because that is the sensory problem most autistics have. Sounds can be excessively loud and can be painful and overwhelming as well. Temple had the same sensory issue with hugging (which is common among autistics) and she would only eat Jello and Yogurt because of the sensation in her mouth AND the fact that there was never anything crunchy in yogurt or Jello to make a painful sound in her ear when she ate.

*While in the truck with her aunt, Temple is referring to a show she had seen on television that she thought was particularly interesting, especially a sequence when a man with a rifle says, "Would you like me to open the gate?". Temple recited that phrase over and over again, exhausting it. Autistic children and adults tend to repeat phrases they find audibly appealing. The man Temple was referring to had an accent and the sound of his voice along with the rhythm was especially pleasing to her ears.

There are many more scenes in this movie that were interesting and I shall write about each one in length in later blogs! Thank you for reading, and consider this an introduction!