What's It Like To Be Autistic?
Monday, September 25 2006
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What's It Like To Be Autistic?
Autism is not a disease with red spots or a runny nose. It is a brain disorder. Autistic people absorb and process information differently than the rest of us. They prefer to live in a well-ordered environment, but the world is filled with chaos, a fact which makes life for autistic people even harder.
Autism diagnoses are on the rise in this country, partly because doctors are beginning to understand more about it. Parents of autistic children often hear they have only a limited window of opportunity to act before their children could be "lost to autism." Dave Spicer (left) didn't learn he was autistic until he was forty-six.Â
Dave's son, Andrew, was tested and diagnosed as autistic. It was during Andrew's testing that Dave found the similarities of his son's condition and his own experiences to be uncannily similar. So he asked for his own test and to his surprise, found that he himself was autistic. [More]
Dick talks with Dave about what it feels like to live with autism.
ETTA BAKER, REMEMBERED
Ninety-three year-old blues guitarist Etta Baker has passed away. Known for her "Piedmont Blues" style of play, she had been lauded by the National Endowment for the Arts. [Picture by David Holt.]
Bob Dylan visited her in Morganton, North Carolina in the 1960's and incorporated her finger picking style into a song he was working on that later became "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright".Â
Etta's song "Carolina Breakdown" is often heard during The Story. It was recorded in Etta's home when she was in her 80s, when a bird flew into the recording session. Tim Duffy of Music Maker Relief Fund recalls recording "Carolina Breakdown" with Etta Baker at the end of today's program.
Learn more about Etta Baker:
Here and Here
Download an mp3
Explore more about the Music Maker Relief Foundation
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