autism in the news...

While on the internet last night, the above story caught my eye on Yahoo. The website that has posted the videos showing autism's 'red flags' is that of the organization I chose to 'represent' in my campaign project. The videos on their site shows two clips -- one of each child asked to do/play with identical toys, one child was 'normal' while the other had been diagnosed with autism. The video on Yahoo's site interviewed various medical professionals who were worried that these videos would cause panic in parents.

This is the same issue I had with the text I initially wrote for my campaign. The problem is, the warning signs could in fact be autism, or it could be that your child is just a bit slower than the next, or it could even be some other illness.

My initial idea included photos of kids looking sad (I know, I know, no sad children!) and there were headlines like 'No big grins from Travis yet? Is he just not ready to smile or is it autism?' Obviously, my intent was never to make parents paranoid that their kid might have autism, but my small group suggested I take a different approach to the assignment all together. I put it aside a few days and I took into considerations the suggestions from my group and I opted for a 'happy children' approach, with parents looking back on when they first noticed something was wrong with their children, and the proactive steps they took to get to the bottom of the problem. I definitely think this works a lot better.