Autism and Classical Myth: What I've learned about autism from The Girl with the Curly Hair

Why classical myth and autism?

Why classical myth and autism?

The idea for this project started to take shape at a meeting in 2008 with a special needs teacher, who mentioned that, in her experience and those of her colleagues, autistic children often enjoy classical myth. I began to wonder why this might be the case, and whether – as a classicist who researches, and loves, classical myth – there was anything I could contribute. I started this blog to report on my progress which was often sporadic until the launch of the Warsaw-based European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood (2016-22) to trace the role of classics in children’s culture.

My key contribution to the project is an exploration of classics in autistic children’s culture, above all by producing myth-themed activities for autistic children. This blog shares my progress, often along Herculean paths, including to a book of lessons for autistic children focusing on the Choice of Hercules between two very different paths in life. The image above, illustrating the homepage of this blog, is one of the drawings by Steve K. Simons, the book's illustrator, of a chimneypiece panel in a neoclassical villa at Roehampton in South West London. The lessons centre on this panel.

Friday 3 May 2019

What I've learned about autism from The Girl with the Curly Hair

In one of my postings last month during World Autism Awareness Week, I mentioned that I had booked onto a day’s training provided by the Curly Hair Project. I said then that I was looking forward to the day because it would explore autism from the perspective of an autistic person. The session took place yesterday – and here are some comments on what I’ve taken from it.

The training centred around a set of slides written by the founder of the project, Alis Rowe, who writes prolifically about her experiences as an autistic person. Her writings are geared towards promoting an understanding of autism, and what it’s like to be autistic. She does this not least so that non-autistic people can come to understand what it might be be like to be autistic, and gain a better understanding of how to communicate with an autistic person.

Much of what Alis said though the slides – and though several short videos – spoke powerfully to me, including to my own childhood experiences. I have come away with lots of ideas and notes. I’ve also come away with several of Alis’s books, which were on sale throughout the day. My collection is pictured above.

The trainer stressed that she is not herself autistic but that she works closely with Alis, and has learnt a lot from Alis. She is the mother of an autistic daughter and, in addition to sharing Alis’s experiences and being Alis’s mouthpiece, she mentioned many of her daughter’s experiences as a child, and now a young adult. Most of the participants were parents of autistic children – and the training was very much focused around what it can be like for a ‘neurotypical’ person to parent an autistic child.

Alis’ materials are copyrighted so perhaps I had better not give any details – though I assume that it will be fine to quote from, and reference, her books as these are in the public domain already. I’m very much looking forward to reading these, one of which, What I have learned about Life, only came out very recently. The title of this book has inspired the title of this current posting.