Heilker and Yergeau

Heilker and Yergeau:

Summary: In Heilker and Yergeau's essay Autism and Rhetoric they list examples of how autism is more in the media today to bring awareness such as, Parenthood, a tv show on NBC its story line is about a family with an autistic child. The essay continues to say how autism is still on of he greatest mysteries of medicine. Heilker and Yergeau tell their perspectives of autism in a story form. Heilker having a son that is autistic and Yergeau being autistic herself. They both share views of how autism is a rhetoric.

Synthesis: I think this can first connect to Devitt. Devitt explores the use genre in a discourse community, a person with autism would use different genres than "neurotypicals" to learn the same thing. This is what helps form the community of individuals with autism. This connects to Gee because gee says that discourses can over lap. An autistic student brings their disability into other discourses they find them selfs in. Maybe they are really good at art, or music, they can use the genres they learn in the discourse community, in their art or music. Heilker and Yergeau can relate to swales but not because they are similar. Doctors and specialist while they are experts on the topic of autism they do not share the same thoughts as the people with autism.

Response	Quotation
I think it is really sad that she had to feel less than everyone else. People with autism can be just as talented and intelligent as people with out autism. and they may even excel at thing people without autism cant.	"For instance, I grew up understanding autism (that is, my way of being in the world through language, through invention, structure, and style) as distinctly"less than"."
this is just one example of how a child/ person with autism can be bright and see things that others may not see.	"The second of these is Eli's remarkable ability to find points of intersection between divergent data sets"
it is important that people with out autism are open to learn about it, how to interact with people who are autistic. the best way to learn the about it is to listen.	"Ratcliffe writes: "rhetorical listening signifies a stance of openness that a person may choose to assume in cross-cultural exchanges"
I had never thought of how the puzzle piece of Autism speaks could be so miss leading and judgmental.	" Puzzle pieces hold a special place in my heart. that is, i hate them. They symbolize so much of what is wrong with popular autism discourse - representing autistic people as puzzling, mysterious  less than human entities who are "short a few cognitive pieces, who are utterly self contained, disconnected and need to fit in. :
I remember in school, there were classes for the "lower"vs "high functioning" autistic children. They are all children who deserve the best education, and are all talented in their own ways.	"By virtue of achieving this normalized concept of success, i'm categorized as "high functioning" autistic.
What is normal?  are you normal, am I normal is the kid you sit next to that may have autism normal.	"As Corder concludes, "there is no normality" we search for inventive structural stylistic contextual sets that will give, amid some pain, some peace of understanding or fruitful work or whatever one can find to live with"

Thoughts:  I thought this was an interesting essay. I liked that it was Heilker and Yergeau own voices throughout, and that they used their own stories to make their points.  I could connect with the reading because my mom works as a special education aid in an elementary school. I love going into school with her and talking to the kids because they always have such interesting stories and things to say. And they enjoy being listened to.  When this essay talked about labeling students I could relate to hearing about the different labels of students within the school.