BEING AUTI || Appreciation
The Comic Life
REPRESENTATION MATTERS
BEING AUTI || Prolonging Response
People with autism sometimes have a hard time paying attention, when someone calls out their name especially; this is because once they’re highly focused on something interesting, it’s hard to draw their attention back.
Timmy doesn’t respond very well to yelling, and anyone who knows an autistic person needs to learn to be patient. It doesn’t hurt to call their name once again in a calm manner, they’ll listen eventually!
CUTIE
What a sneaky man-
S U F F E R I N G
BEING AUTI || Literacy
Many people with the autistic mindset find it hard to get the meaning behind wordplays and puns, because they’re very literal with pretty much anything. I suppose sometimes when their creativity/imagination is extremely complex and vast, sometimes it’s hard to understand simple metaphors or slangs.
Jared would teach his brother anything that has to do with metaphors, but especially his passionate for telling puns. Not everyone likes it when a joke has to be explained for someone to it, but for Timmy, when Jared explains the pun, the funnier it is. plus he’s a fast learner. Jared is super proud ❤
LANGUAGE.
For someone who grows up in Hong Kong and can’t speak Chinese, and as a filipino who can’t speak tagalog.. It’s interesting to hear people’s ‘astonishment’ on how amazing I am at English; well the truth is I still struggle with it; I mean my vocabulary is not as vast as many people, but suddenly I’m really good at english speaking just cause I’m a minority well okay then.
If people don’t say “your English is good!” and ask “Why?”…I mean it’s not impossible for anyone to be raised watching varieties of english TV shows, and movies and be self-taught from there. And apparently if you’re a filipino speaking English in the country, it’s an insult! Even if you’re comfortable enough to speak english, many pilipinos prefer not to, cause if they do, it shows they’re “not proud enough” being filipino.
There were even incidents where mom and I just casually talked while these chinese residents give us indirect judgemental stares; and my mom doesn’t speak the language, but she can actually understand it, so she would whisper to me “those ladies are snooting at us for speaking english; look they’re even trying to speak english right now!”
Good lord, it’s NOT a contest and since when is it people’s business what language you speak; respect mine and I’ll respect yours jeez.
BEING AUTI || Eye Contact
Autistic people’s tend to shift their eyes elsewhere when communicating with others, especially when the mind tends to wander; it’s hard for them to look at you directly in the eye, and even though they know how to, it lasts for brief seconds. People would consider this as ‘rude’ unfortunately, and it’s highly important to understand and be patient with anyone autistic.
Back when they were dating, Richard gives that comfort to Tim by facing away from each other so that they don’t have to make eye contact; Richie always knew how to reassure his boyfriend, and Kleinman is astonished by that affection.. and very upfront with how he feels too XD
I’m not just an artist.
It seems some people only like me for drawing, and want to be my friend just I might draw them something. I appreciate more when people enjoy my work and also want to get to know me, and laugh about crazy things just like any other person.
