Autism & Friendship - See how we make it work!
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Colby and I have been friends since high school. While some would say we’re “on different ends of the spectrum”, we still find ways to make our friendship work!
#autism #autistic #autismawareness #neurodivergent #psychology #kindness #friendship
Does the noise of balloons stretching make me shudder? Yes. Did I watch this twice, just for the wholesome feeling? Absolutely. I wish everyone had a friend to share their interests with!
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Yeah, I kept thinking he had the right idea to wear headphones, LOL
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Watched it on mute, myself. Yay, captions!
It's so amazing that the only two autistic people in existence who can stand that noise found each other and became friends. What are the odds?!
In my experience that noise is basically a magnet to about 50% of autistic kids, it's similar to shouting "free candy!"
The feeling of rubbing a balloon and the noise it makes are sensory lovelyness to some.
I like the creaking, but not the popping, balloons tend to do, if you squeezed just a liiitle too much :) i love making balloon animals, but the occasional popped one makes me doubt my decisions every time.
52%
I need more autistic friends. I had a best friend withlevel 3 ASD when I was in middle school, we went to different schools in highschool and lost contact. Now as an adult it’s very hard to make friends if they aren’t also neurodivergent. At the time we were friends I didn’t know I had autism, just that we were good friends, I felt like I understood her and like she understood me. She typed to talk with me and I learned how to support her typing, and we’d go to the mall together or chill at her house.
i be you freind!!! im 23 and my names ellie. im have Autism too i use aac. weave chat
I’ve seen a few videos with you guys and the way you interact reminds me so much of me and one of my friends from when I was growing up, who has autism. She lived a street away from me and we’d always hang out and do little craft things or sit quietly and read our books together. One thing we enjoyed was making dress up outfits, which is cool because even though I’m now at uni, I see her around when I’m walking to get the bus etc. and she’s now doing a community college fashion design course!
I watched this twice even though I’m terrified the balloons will pop. I’m glad you two are friends and can do stuff like this together.
Doooood! My current special interest is balloon art. It’s so much fun! The squeaky noise does bother me but I'm obsessed enough that I can kind of put up with the discomfort. Also with practice, you can do the twists with less squeaking which also makes it less likely that the balloon will pop. Wearing earplugs helps a lot too.
Have you learned to make other designs? I could info dump for hours if allowed 😂
I sometimes have trouble with the technique, but I love when people info dump about things they love, and I think balloon art is really cool! I have a picture of me at a comic con with someone who's costume is a balloon art TARDIS.
Saying that, what are your favorite things to make or watch people make if you don't do the art yourself?
My daughter is non verbal level 2 autistic so we've never known why she holds her arms in the T-Rex pose and didn't know it was so common with neuro diverse people. Thank you for the laugh, we loved your skits!
I’m so glad your friend has you to take care of him. You remind me of my childhood friend. When we first became friends over 11 years ago, I was level one, but as I developed C-PTSD, I shifted to level two. Meanwhile, she is a neurotypical. Despite me becoming increasingly more disabled and being a few years behind her mentally, she has remained my BFF and even supports my hyperfixations rather than trying to convince me that they’re unhealthy. For example, I have a fictional girlfriend who I center many of my conversations _and_ my entire UA-cam channel around, and despite my friend having a real boyfriend, she takes my relationship seriously. Last December, I gave a promise ring to a plushie of my girlfriend, and my BFF, who had driven all the way from her college in Indiana, was our photographer. I am so grateful for people like her and you.
I'm so happy you have a fictional girlfriend that makes you feel safe and happy. I'm also really happy you have people around you that support you.
I wish you and your loved ones all the best in life. Take care! ☺️
@@AndyTheWatchdog Thank you!
Yayyy I need more friends like both of you! I always felt terrible that other autistic people were segregated from the student population at my school just because they had higher support needs. This warms my heart ❤
You are always so thoughtful thinking of things to do when you are with your friends. Bringing special books for some, learning about the hobbies and obsessions of some others, and "tailored" crafts for others ... you really have a desire to interact with others in the best ways.
I really like the videos that help show the differences and similarities between level 1 and level 3. Please do more. I would also love to see level 2, and maybe even some videos talking more explicitly about the differences/similarities. I have been wondering if it’s just a subjective determination without set parameters like a rubric, for example.
Kaelynn only really uses this Level 3 guy as he's so compliant in her videos, and he helps her make money
@@langserv I am grateful that she can make money doing a positive service to others. The world is a better place with this channel, and without funding, she might not have the time or ability to do it. Also, he is likely good natured when interacting with her because she is respectful of his needs. It’s a good example for others.
@@winterroses2020
I am conflicted, because of the style of presentation she uses
This is so heart warming! I love balloon animals also,they are something that make me happy!!⭐️❤️
i remember when my babysitter tought me how to make balloon animals when i was a kid it was so much fun!
1stttt :33 lol love ur content as an autistic person as well you really show how much of a spectrum it is
I need these little fidget balloon dogs!!
Amazon has
@@HHh-ej4rl
You missed a pronoun, "them", as in "Amazon has them".
I think the ones she has are from five below, based on the colors
She seems so fun. Really would love to do some sort of Art project with her. Cool beans 🫘 with the balloons 🎈
You are such a positive ray of pure joy!
I work with autistic adults. Quite literally made balloon animals w my guys just a few weeks ago, but most of us just made snakes XD
Snakes are cool 😎
This is makes me so happy❤ as a autistic myself it’s really amazing to see people who are so understanding and supportive of me❤ I love your content❤
I love your UA-cam channel and I love that you support special needs kids that is awesome that you support kids with autism you do a great job
I've never made a balloon animal before. It looks easier than I thought it'd be. Cool!
your content always brings me such joy!! keep it up 💕
Dyspraxic crafting merit badges
🔴🤌🟠🤝🟡🙌🟢👏🔵👍🟣👊
I was physically incapable of inflating the balloons using the pump. Colby’s support person had to do it for us before we could begin 😭
@@KaelynnismI've never been able to blow up a balloon, never got that skill! I can play instruments that require breath work, I'm a vocalist but for some reason the skill of blowing stuff up with my lungs never happened lol
I would have no idea how to understand or reply to a lot of the things he said, I’m super impressed by her ability to think quickly about what he’s communicating.
She has autism as well
This is so wholesome, I am in tears.
My cleaning lady's son is autistic, and his heart is larger than those of my very family members.
Nice to see you guys interacting together 😄 .
Wondering if you've read/seen from any of the nonspeaking autistics who have severe autism?
I think you might be really interested in what they have to share about their experiences.
There's a guy called Damon Kirsebom who has a great youtube channel with some excellent videos. "Reframing severe autism" is great if you want a short summary. Damon communicates by typing independently on a keyboard. He got to that stage after years of practice starting off using letter boards and needing a lot of support via prompting to get the necessary motor patterns into muscle memory (including the patterns needed for visually scanning the letter board layout). Because his severe apraxia makes it very difficult to control his body with purpose, without being taught the motor patterns explicitly first (and lots of practice to get them into muscle memory).
I’m wondering if you’ve considered that your friend might have a lot to more to say than he’s able to get out via speech? That it might be more of a speech production issue than a language issue?
From listening to many non-speaking and minimally-speaking autistics who communicate by spelling that is my guess. Many of those people have very similar facial expression, body language, and speech patterns to your friend.
As an aside, they have also often struggled with socially inappropriate “behaviours” which are actually involuntary, like snatching food off strangers’ plates, snatching mobile phones, unrolling the full roll of toilet paper, etc. And they write about feeling extreme embarrassment about these actions. They suffer from very high anxiety, including social anxiety. Trevor Byrd wrote an article for Neuroclastic about the frustration of how, after finally getting a cool haircut that he was happy with, his autistic body shaved his head (involuntarily).
Many also write about how the words that come out of their mouths frequently don’t match what they want to say. For example, Damon has said that he has repetitive phrases from Thomas the Tank Engine, even though he is not the slightest bit interested in Thomas the Tank.
By the way, many of the nonspeakers who spell to communicate are actually minimally speaking, so they can speak a bit but can’t communicate their thoughts or feelings in depth via speech.
Danny Whitty was like this. Until into his mid 30s, he wasn’t able to communicate his inner thoughts and feelings in full to his family and friends. In 2020, he was able to work on spelling communication with his sister as his communication regulation partner. He has videos on youtube on his channel the "Ocean and Us" Podcast which was made in 2020 or 2021. Or his interview with Dr Barry Prizant. He communicates his thoughts by pointing to letters on a letter board with support from his sister, his trusted communication regulation partner. (I think he’s said a while ago he was working on typing, so possibly he can do that too now). Danny can read his spelled text aloud, though he's not able to speak his thoughts spontaneously without using the letter board first.
Thought you might find it interesting to check out these people.
There are many others like Damon and Danny. Gregory Tino, Ido Kedar, Philip Reyes, Emma Zurcher-Long, Tim Chan, Tito Mukhopadhyay, Ben Breaux, DJ Savarese, to name just a handful.
Colby has access to all forms of communication. He resists his AAC device and is unable to maintain meaningful/cohesive conversations via typing.
All research shows that facilitated communication is largely inauthentic and is influenced to varying degrees by the “helper”. I have serious reservations about the reemergence of the spell to communicate. That said, I’m curious about it too, and I do in fact consume content related to it. I’ve just never seen it be remotely effective or even interesting to the language-challenged folks I’ve worked with in my 10 years of clinical experience.
I believe that IF the whole spell to communicate thing is valid for anyone, those instances are highly unusual. They are the exception, not the rule. But like I said, I’m still curious about it and I’d love to be wrong
@@Kaelynnism Hi Kaelynn, Thanks a lot for your reply :)
Have you looked into any of Hari Srinivasan's writing by any chance? He's a minimally speaking autistic guy. He was in special ed until 8th grade and is now a neuroscience PhD student. I don't mean to imply that I think all nonspeakers are super smart like Hari. But he has some very interesting writings on his blog "Uniquely Hari" and he describes experiences that are consistent with how most nonspeaking autistics describe their experiences. His article "O body, where art thou?" is really interesting. He talks about having challenges with body mapping, meaning he often can't feel where his body is in space. Movement helps (e.g. if he can't feel where his hand is, he can gain awareness by moving the hand), as does looking at the body part.
Here's a Hari quote from a different article: "My body can feel like driving a car with a loose steering wheel; you turn the wheel one way, but are never sure which way the car will really go."
Many of the nonspeakers who now communicate via AAC with high level of independence* say they had had access to AAC devices in the past but couldn't actually use them effectively. Typing on a keyboard (even 1 finger) can be a very challenging motor task if you can't reliably feel where your limbs are in space. They say they needed help to get the motor patterns into muscle memory. Given a device without that help, they can easily get stuck in motor loops hitting items they don't mean to press. If the device is one with a large array of unpredictable/changing images, that can be extra challenging because of extreme difficulties with eye tracking.
The people who've discussed issues of not having been able to use AAC devices initially, (before being introduced to low-tech letter boards with support) include those who are now highly independent, able to type independently on stationary keyboards, after years of practice developing fluency.
*By high level of independence in this context I mean people who can communicate on a keyboard that's placed on a flat surface (even if they still need help to set up the device, a trusted person nearby to help with regulation or prompting for if the person has trouble initiating a new "simple" action like putting on their glasses);
people who still need the larger layout of a letter board (tying on a keyboard may still be too big a fine motor task) but they can read texts that they've spelled out loud. This is a very common situation for autistics who have some oral speech but aren't able to communicate expressively via speech without AAC;
or someone like Tito Mukhopadhyay who's able to write independently with a pencil (after years of practice working on the skill).
I wouldn't advocate for the use of FC unless the person clearly requests physical touch. That said, there are people who've gone on to become highly independent in their communication using FC. They still might need some help, like with turning on their device, making sure the environmental conditions are right, prompting to put on their glasses, etc.
Most of the FC research didn't take into account severe neurological challenges that many autistics face like severe apraxia, initiation challenges, disinhibition challenges, issues with proprioception, severe nervous system dysregualtion, etc. so I don't think the interpretations can be taken at face value.
I don't think there's any way to know yet who can benefit from something like spelling to communicate without trying it because severe apraxia and associated neurological conditions can look very much like language challenges.
The severe sensory-motor issues, initiation challenges and other neurological challenges in severe autism is definitely an area that needs a lot more research, I think.
By the way, did you know that in spelling to communicate (and I believe also RPM) they don't only help with communication? They also help people to work on everyday skills they want to be able to perform to gain more independence. (e.g. putting on a sweater, pouring cereal, washing their hands, etc.) They help break down the physical steps and work on gaining the motor patterns to perform those tasks and getting them integrated into muscle memory.
We may not see eye to eye in this area but I think we both agree that more focus needs to go to the people who are more impacted by their autism.
And I do love watching your videos. I enjoy your quirkiness :) I also liked seeing how you interacted with your friend Colby and that you don't talk down to him. :)
This guy seems pretty cool
I want this to come out as respectfully as possible, but could you talk a little more about friendships between differing levels of autism. How does the balance work? Do you ever feel like you’re taking “care” of the other person? Or that the friendships can be one sided? I hope this makes sense, and that I’m conveying from a genuine sense of curiosity and not judgement or disrespect ❤️ I love watching your videos, it’s helping me learn so much
I was afraid the balloon would explode good vibe vidéo :))
there should be a bigger push to get people with high functioning autism into social work
I love this! A great interaction and friendship. Learning something new. Balloon dogs & other shapes were really popular when I was a kid, but I've never had the opportunity to make one.
baloon dogs are pretty simple to make. I've memorized how to make them by watching them be made repeatedly.
That was so cool to watch. My autistic son can’t stand the sound of balloons, even with headphones on, he is terrified that a balloon might burst. It was one more thing I couldn’t do with him that I dreamed of when I was pregnant. ❤️ from 🇳🇱
I have a balloon dog tattoo!! I also can make them irl and have the stretchy ones!!!
New subscriber.
So far all I know is that you're beautiful.
And you seem to be a ball of energy.
This is so wholesome, but bitter sweet for me. Im an adult with level two autism, but because of my history as of being married (and divorced ), having a kid, and masking so well, people don’t believe I even have autism. It makes it hard to make friends and be successful long term, with autism burnout. Sharing that to say you are the kind of friend we all need! And you are a wonderful person! 🫂
were u diagnosed late as a level 2? I was and it's been interesting
@@teetrea2688 yep, I was 27. Diagnosed the same year as i was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and my kid was 4, so its been a wild ride 😅
I love this!!!
God, you're such a living angel... Literally a friend and a teacher with the patience of a saint!
I really felt this was genuine I really hope this was real life ❤
i would make balloon dogs with you guys any day of the week, are you also into other types of balloon animals because oh boy what a world of possibilities. origami would also be similar and fun
I wanna make mini balloon dogs, those little ones are cool
This activity is just right 🎉
Awww! this so sweet Kaelynn!💖
I've always wanted to learn how to make balloon animals but I have a really big fear of balloons because they can pop unexpectedly at any point
Anyhow, I love your balloon dogs!!
now i wanna make balloon dogs with friends too that looks so fun
The sound and texture of those... heheheheh even at a distance :D
I was recently diagnosed with autism and I behave just like you in every way! Where’s a good place to start the career that you have?
I love the balloon animals i do not love the sound! However hyenas are actually more closely related to cats than dogs. Animals are great.
I learned to make Ballon animals back in 6th grade because I saw a balloon artist and I too became obsessed. Still can make a few things, but I am not super great at it. I think it's quite fun, but the noise of balloon on balloon gets to me and I can't do it for long.
I would love a friend to do this with. Im waiting on some batteriesfir a camera to take pics up off the sandias. Bit the craft things I would like a friend. Im usually w my daughter. She is kinda funny,😮 she's the kind that's too happy and will scare off poopies. 😂
I had anxiety thinking about the balloon popping.
Now i want to make a balloon dog!!
Makes sense.
Fabulous!
i'm questioning whether or not i'm autistic (probably not) but I LOVE BALLOON DOGS! i totally get this
If you didn’t bottle everything up, then you wouldn’t be so broken!
I love my balloon dog fidget toy too!
Where did you get the fidget balloon dog?
aaah where did you find the balloon dog fidgets?
I found mine at Below Five.
Awesome!
Believe it or not it's probably more accurate to say aardwolves and hyenas are types of cats.
I've got a very tame sensory profile, but balloon animals spoke my anxiety because of all the squeaking and the risk of popping. 😱
**doofenschmirtz voice**
BAAAALLLLOOOOONEEEYYY
Squeaky balloons and risk of popping? 0/10.
Friendship with a person who absolutely gets you, AND it goes both ways? 11/10.
Love balloons, hate them popping near me. lol
Could you please explain the "levels" in a video?
The first steop involves not attacking the autist with military equipment.
Aardwolves are a type of hyena, and Hyena's are not related to dogs!!
lol glad someone else said it!
I am autistic
Cute
I always ask: is it narcissism or autism?
I don’t!
Kaitlyn not cute.. this is not funny!!! Where is your brother?
She's cute