VIDEO: Recently The Y.A.L.E. School was honored to welcome back John Elder Robison for another special guest appearance at the Cherry Hill campus. This time he brought along his son Jack Robison, Jack’s girlfriend Kirsten Lindsmith and their friend Alex Plank, founder of WrongPlanet.net and Autism Talk TV. Together, the four autism advocates conducted a panel discussion for our high school students about friendships, relationships and dating for people on the autism spectrum. All of the panelists are on the autism spectrum themselves, so their unique perspective on these issues was valuable for our teen and young adult students.
Before the panel, we had our students write their questions for the panelists on index cards. John read the questions, and then each panelist answered, each from his or her own perspective. Below is a video of the highlights from the event.
One Comment
Thank you for this work. Caveat: I’m a self-diagnosed Asperger candidate.
My way of being involved with people I call touch and go. I can see strangers on the street or out in public and have a 2-5 min conversation with them, no problem. I can be happy and outgoing and focused. I can do this because I know I’ll never see them again.
As for interpersonal relationships, I am very limited. I have no friendships that have lasted beyond the time we were together and those were limited to the couple of people that could put up with my personality.
I am very good at recognizing negatige reactions to me and have altered my behavior as much as I could. This seems to work alright for work relationships, but doesn’t go over too well with my husband.
I’m lucky because I happen to be considered fairly attractive; luck of the draw, I guess. So, getting into a relationship isn’t difficult, with the execption that I don’t find too many men compatible. My problem is retaining the relationship.
Thank you again for your work in this area. One of these days I’ll get health insurance and will be able to seek help with my disease. Until then, I’m relying on people like you to keep me in touch…!