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Neuronote #5

For my last neuronote I decided to write about the book The Reason I Jump. I had to read this book for a SPED class in undergrad and decided to re-read portions that I had originally marked as reading it the first time. When I read this book it made me completely change my thought process about how those who have autism experience life. I never once stopped to think how they actually view life and everything around them.

The book is an autobiography written by a 13-year-old boy from Japan about what it is like to live with autism. The way autistic people view the world is very different than the way we may perceive them to view the world. This disconnect between how we view and treat people with autism and how they actually view the world makes living with autism is even more difficult than it already is. The book really made me question who is actually different. I feel like his perspective on life is so much more pure than my own and so much more beautiful. My biggest takeaway was that when it comes to many everyday circumstances Higashida (the author) actually gets it, but he can't act on it. Perhaps I was just ignorant about autism, but I feel that we often assume that people with autism are “out of it” and aren't really following what's going on. And how would we know when we have no outward or physical indication otherwise? But he does understand, he does get it, and he is no different than you or me. He knows what is happening even if he can't take appropriate action. I believe anyone who is pursuing a career in occupational therapy should be required to read this beautiful work of art because that’s exactly what I believe this book is.

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