And not only do we need to figure out what that is and correct it, we need to work with this part of our population and find a place for them. All these kids have something to offer, but they’re not going to be able to get up and go to work each day, ride the subway, pay their bills, they’re going to need some level of assistance … Can we afford that? Can a society provide that? I don’t know.
There is new legislation that [Senator Hillary] Clinton introduced recently called “Expanding the Promise” for individuals with autism, a well-written piece of legislation … I would really like, if this film rolls out and has a theatrical life, to somehow use it to push forward legislation and get people behind this. Because it looks at what the needs of the kids are now, and makes that available to everyone whether you live in Kalamazoo or Los Angeles … It’s a very comprehensive bill … As someone who’s been pondering these issues for more than two years, I couldn’t have written it better …
Q: Did you ever consider interviewing experts?
A: Yes. When we started making this film, we were going to use experts. But then I felt I didn’t want to date this film. I didn’t want to spend too much time on one theory that in two years might evaporate …
Q: What did you learn about autism that you didn’t know before making the film?
A: I learned that we’re all a little autistic. It’s made me so much more compassionate with myself and others … and much more understanding of the ways our senses are interpreted and interact with our cognitive abilities. It’s so different from person to person.
I realized I have this immense sensitivity to lighting. Florescent lights, overhead lights, I can’t stand. I will come into a room and change all the lights and I won’t be comfortable until I do … I just figured everyone else did. And so it made me irritated with others, and it made others irritated with me: “Why is she making such a big deal of this?” And also understanding the kids … why aren’t they [autistic kids] paying attention to me right now? Well, because the sounds may be over stimulating to them. That is, autistic kids’ neurological systems can be so compromised that they just cannot bare the stimulation of too much noise. When you’re with autistic kids, you can’t oversee these things, because they’re [the kids] not close enough to normal. They’re so constrained that they literally can’t function with certain noises …
For example: If they heard that noise [referring to the loud hiss of the cappuccino machine in the café where we’re sitting] they might scream and run out of the room … we might inside feel like doing that, but we don’t … [But for some autistic children], it would feel like someone was sticking a needle into their ears—and there’s nothing we can do to dissuade them.
If you want to communicate with an autistic child, it’s got to be on their terms—because their terms are so specific and they can only deal with you if certain things are right for them … it’s a lesson in compassion and humility.
Q: Do mothers take a bigger role in raising autistic children than fathers?
A: I think what often happens (and every family operates differently) is a reversion to more traditional roles because a child needs such hands-on attention, because somebody needs to learn everything there is about this disorder and every kind of treatment there is (because there’s no set treatment) … so one parent has to become obsessed with that child and the other parent has to go out and make money to keep this going. From my sample group, it broke down along sex lines … That said, this is an incredibly dedicated group of fathers, too, who love their children and who do everything they can.
