Diagnosed in the 1960s as psychotic at the age of two when autism was known as Childhood Psychosis, Donna has lived 26 years believing she was born mad. Now, Donna meets psychologist and autism expert Dr Marek who reconfirms her diagnosis with the more modern day term of autism and offers to work with her. But when he suggests he can give her training in social skills and handshakes, she is not interested in learning to further bury herself in 'acting normal'. Instead she determines to get from him the non-autistic translations for the array of experiences and concepts she has only ever made sense of in her own special language, kept secret within her own world.
Dr Marek is soon not the only teacher. Navigating the combinations of xenophobia, charity, curiosity and kindness, Donna graduates as a teacher and travels overseas to work with autistic children and other adults like herself. In the process, she finds a way of belonging and 'simply being' among others without selling out who she really is and lays foundations for changing forever the way autism is understood by the wider world.
(Source: author's website)
Writing Disability in Australia:
Type of disability | Autism. |
Type of character | Primary. |
Point of view | First person (autobiography). |