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Post by aln1982 on Nov 27, 2007 17:39:26 GMT -5
^ Agree about Kristy. I didn't find it so much boring as that it made me uncomfortable. I did like the Hobart, boys, though. ;D I enjoyed reading about Ben and Mal meeting for the first time and it was worth reading just for that.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Mar 26, 2008 18:02:01 GMT -5
I think Kristy had pretty good intentions of trying to keep Susan to stay in Stoneybrook, and show her parents she could make friends. One thing I thought was a little hard to believe it could really happen was when that boy(I forgot his name) discovered that Susan was autistic and stood at the side of her house charging kids one dollar to go see her like a sideshow. And it was just like Kristy to demand that the boy return the money and ACTUALLY expect it to happen, just like the time that she asked the cops to chauffeur her and her friends (I forget which book this was in, a mystery I think) somewhere.
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Rie
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 1,998
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Post by Rie on Mar 28, 2008 7:07:43 GMT -5
^ Agree about Kristy. I didn't find it so much boring as that it made me uncomfortable. I did like the Hobart, boys, though. ;D I enjoyed reading about Ben and Mal meeting for the first time and it was worth reading just for that. I liked the Hobart boys in this book too.
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Post by candykane on Mar 28, 2008 9:16:45 GMT -5
One thing about this book that's never seemed quite realistic to me is the bullying of the Hobarts. My school years were spent in a small town that was very...homogenous. Very little diversity. So if a person or family were to come in that were a little different, the kids would more likely be curious about them and want to befriend them, rather than make fun of them. I saw this happen more than once as my school/town slowly gained students that were of different ethnic or racial backgrounds. Just my experience... Also I can't believe that these bratty kids were just swaggering into the Hobarts' backyard to make fun of them. IIRC, the littlest Hobart didn't even want to play outside anymore because of that. Not cool.
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msstock87
Sitting For The Braddocks
Here Comes The Bride!
Created by Rie.
Posts: 3,618
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Post by msstock87 on Mar 28, 2008 18:14:56 GMT -5
I remember reading this book and feeling very sad. I am glad I read this book though because it introduced to me what Autism is. I don't think Kristy had anything but the best intentions in this book, but she went about them in the wrong way.
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 406
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Post by alula on Mar 29, 2008 5:09:15 GMT -5
Part of the reason Kristy's attitude told the Felders bothers me is that there is such a long tradition of attributing autism to uncaring or insufficient mothers. Kristy wouldn't know that, but I seriously doubt Ann didn't, especially in having worked with autistic children at the time she did--or rather, if she didn't, it was because she chose not to know. In a lot of ways, that tradition isn't even entirely eradicated, although in less obvious ways--I know so many parents of autistic children who are constantly being denigrated for being "bad parents" because they can't always keep their children completely calm in public, and because they don't have the money or time to never "inflict" their children on such exotic locales as the grocery store.
And it's not like Jessi spends a big part of "Jessi's Secret Language" arguing it would be better if Matt was discouraged from signing in favor of improving his lip reading--which was a big, although mostly debunked, theory in Deaf pedagogy. And I think people would be a lot less sympathetic if Jessi got the idea she could teach Matt to talk and criticized the Braddocks for sending him to school in Stamford instead of SES, even though it's some ways equivalent.
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Post by wenonah4th on Apr 8, 2008 20:17:48 GMT -5
^The general public has (or did when this was published ) more familiarity with deafness (should that be Deafness?) than with autism/Aspergers. Not excusing anything, but just saying that people could understand more about signing vs. lipreading than the ins and outs of something as mysterious as autism.
Your second paragraph- that dichotomy shows up in the film *Mr. Holland's Opus*; the son doesn't begin to learn to sign until he's six or seven after the original specialist encourages the parents to talk to him and not to sign.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2008 17:47:42 GMT -5
I really liked this book, and that was a good point, gwenfan. I have Nonverbal Learning Disorder on top of hydrocephalus, and I also have some autistic traits, like being able to tell people what day of the week they were either born on, or the day of the week their next birthday is.
I don't know if I'd be classified as Rain Man, but I don't read quite as fast as Kim Peek (the inspiration for the Rain Man character) does.
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Post by wenonah4th on May 7, 2008 18:07:29 GMT -5
If one may ask, Mrsd, what is Nonverbal Learning Disorder?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2008 19:55:49 GMT -5
Look it up, wenonah4th.
Anyway, that's right about not calling people "retarded", because not only did I have to put up with it when I was in school, but I've also had to put up with it from people on FF.Net (and I called them out on it in my recent story, "Kristy's Wonderful Life"). I guess that's why I've grown hypersensitive to being called that as I've gotten older, and wanted to punch anyone who dared utter that word.
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on May 8, 2008 22:17:34 GMT -5
I looked it up, but I didn't really understand how NVLD was different from Asperger's syndrome or a bunch of learning disorders coupled with mild autism. Can someone please give me a simple explanation?
I remember when "retarded" wasn't used as a pejorative. I think that's why I don't get all bent out of shape during this book.
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Post by greer on May 9, 2008 1:43:00 GMT -5
^it seems as if there's a lot of overlap.
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Post by wenonah4th on May 9, 2008 7:46:44 GMT -5
Out of curiosity, do you find it offensive when "retarded" is used as a passive verb in its proper form, as in "The progress on the road construction has been retarded somewhat because of a long spell of rain"? I shouldn't think that was offensive but you rarely hear it either.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2008 10:43:48 GMT -5
In layman's terms, a person with Nonverbal Learning Disorder may be excellent at spelling, but have trouble with reading (to my knowledge, I've never had any trouble with that), or they may excel in one subject and do poorly in another.
Yes, there is some overlap between Nonverbal Learning Disorder and Asperger's syndrome (which is what my husband has, or might have, since he was never formally diagnosed). Those include poor social skills/relationships (which may explain why my husband is comfortable around kids, and people look at him and think "child molestor" when they see him talking to one) and excellent memory. I gave an example of mine. I also have a friend with Asperger's syndrome who's really into Transformers.
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on May 10, 2008 20:46:44 GMT -5
Aspergers is fast becoming the new ADD, especially the self-diagnosed type. It seems like everyone online either has or knows someone with Asperger's syndrome. Not saying you don't. Just pointing out that it just sort of showed up everywhere int he past year or so.
I used to like the book when I was a kid, but I was weird and liked all the serious issue books. I also liked the fashion books, and the dating and the DRAMA, but not the ones that were super focused on sitting.
Kristy is really presumptuous in this book though.
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