The experiences of several families who have struggled to love and care…
Two Worlds - One Planet
 
									- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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The incidence of Asperger syndrome and other forms of autism in the United States appear to be increasing dramatically. This powerful, eye-opening documentary brings the issue out of the shadows, stressing that young people with these developmental disabilities can learn and grow, if their individual needs, styles, and abilities are respected. Two Worlds One Planet takes an upbeat look at students attending Gateway Academy, a private K-12 day school specializing in youth with Asperger Syndrome, high-functioning Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder. The film offers a rare opportunity to enter the world of children with Asperger's and Autism, and to see it through their own eyes and the eyes of their families. Their parents show remarkable and sometimes painful candor in revealing autism's impact on the entire family.
These students perceive the world differently, and they learn differently as well. The school offers them an academic curriculum that is challenging and structured, and nurturing in its approach to fostering growth, responsibility and independence. Students, faculty, and families work collaboratively to help students discover and develop their individual gifts and strengths.
Citation
Main credits
								Levin, Gail (film director)
Reinking, Ann (film producer)
Sweet, O. Robin (film producer)
							
Other credits
Editing, Pascal Akesson; original music: Andrea Perry.
Distributor subjects
Adolescence; Autism; Developmental Disabilities; Disabilities; Disabilities and Parenting; Fanlight Collection; Healthcare; High School Use; Psychology, Psychiatry, Social Work; US and Canadian Broadcast RightsKeywords
WEBVTT
 
 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000
 [music]
 
 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.999
 We\'ve known for a long time that
 there was, uh, something different.
 
 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.999
 There\'s no one pigeonhole you can just say he\'s
 exactly that. He\'s got so many things that\'s
 
 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.999
 working. In the beginning,
 it was, uh, a serious
 
 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:29.999
 developmental delay. Pervasive developmental
 disorder, there\'s a lot of names.
 
 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.999
 He\'s high-functioning autism
 Asperger\'s Syndrome. ADD. Asperger\'s
 
 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.999
 Disorder. Anxiety. We\'re still trying to figure
 that whole issue out. She has Asperger\'s.
 
 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.999
 He\'s developed into very high functioning autism.
 As far as three weeks ago: it\'s Asperger.
 
 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:49.999
 It\'s all under Asp-, under autism.
 He\'s still on the same spectrum.
 
 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.999
 I got my diagnosis around February, um,
 
 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:59.999
 yeah, Fe-, around February, I think
 maybe early March. Around that area.
 
 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.999
 This year? Yes. Is it, do, is it,
 like embarrassing at all to you?
 
 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.999
 No! Absolutely not.
 
 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:18.000
 [music] The autism spectrum is the medical
 
 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.999
 terminology for autism in general.
 High-functioning autism,
 
 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.999
 pervasive development disorder,
 Asperger\'s Syndrome make
 
 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:59.999
 up the higher end of the spectrum.
 Academics
 
 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.999
 isn\'t an issue, but they don\'t
 understand the social norms.
 
 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:13.000
 [music] We autistics don\'t exactly think our-, um, high
 functioning autistics, low functioning, you know, uh,
 
 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.999
 well that really is something that needs to be helped, but high-functioning autistics really
 don\'t think themselves, they know they\'re different, but they don\'t, they don\'t think
 
 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.999
 themselves,
 
 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.999
 uh, less for it, you know, like most people would. In
 fact, I, I acknowledge the fact that I\'m different, I
 
 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.999
 actually like it, you know? I always felt
 different. I like, I like the fact that I\'m
 
 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:39.999
 unique, really, that I\'m not part of
 the mainstream kind of thinking, the
 
 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.999
 norm. I\'ve never wanted to be that.
 But the general opinion on autistic
 
 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.999
 children would be they\'re either
 mentally challenged or retarded.
 
 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:54.999
 No! And that to me is hypocritical.
 They have a different way of thinking.
 
 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.999
 My room is the most dangerous room when there\'s an
 earthquake, but I have the safest room if there\'s
 
 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.999
 a tornado. Is there a bigger chance of a tornado
 or an earthquake here? Um, there\'s really neither
 
 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.999
 one... This is actually, this, uh,
 this is supposed to represent my
 
 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.999
 dog, Sparky. He wasn\'t actually the best
 dog. He used to like bite and growl and
 
 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.999
 whatever. Very bad attitude. And
 uh, a few quail on the wall?
 
 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.999
 Yeah, that\'s actually one of my mom\'s pictures, but it\'s been up
 in this room since my grandma and grandpa have been here, so.
 
 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:29.999
 So, I noticed that you\'ve got your
 mom\'s picture up there... Mm-hmm.
 
 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:34.999
 Sister\'s flag with things she loves. Yeah. Your sister\'s stars,
 a dog that you weren\'t fond of. What in this room really says
 
 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:43.000
 \"Julie?\" Um, just that \"J\" right there that my mom got when I
 was like three. It\'s not that they don\'t care. They just don\'t
 
 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.999
 notice. So they\'re kind of oblivious to that as
 part of their spatial awareness, as part of, they,
 
 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:54.999
 they think more about themselves than other people because
 they don\'t have those basic social skills that a lot of
 
 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.999
 us, um, would take for granted
 that we just know. Idioms, uh,
 
 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.999
 irony, sarcasm. It isn\'t that easy. Like
 
 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:09.999
 metaphors and such, you know? I would fake
 it, kind of like wing it, and, and the
 
 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.999
 fact that I\'d answer what I thought that it
 meant, but then I would look it up on the
 
 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.999
 internet, I\'d find out the definition of
 that metaphor and I basically learned
 
 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.999
 that. Okay. Joke of the Day: come
 on, Peyton. Have you ever seen a
 
 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.999
 man eating a tiger? No...
 Have, have you ever
 
 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.999
 seen a man eating tiger.
 
 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:39.999
 Braden. Um, no, but I\'ve seen
 somebody trying to tag her.
 
 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.999
 Oh! Braden, you are so close!
 Ronnie. Tiger,
 
 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:49.999
 as a fort? No. But still close. All of our
 
 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.999
 students have difficulty with pragmatic
 language. Everything to them is black
 
 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:59.999
 and white. They don\'t understand jokes.
 They don\'t
 
 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.999
 understand idioms. So when you say \"The
 grass is always greener on the other
 
 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.999
 side,\" they look at you and say, \"Where\'s
 the grass and why is it greener?\"
 
 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.999
 Have you ever seen a man eating tiger?
 
 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:23.000
 No, but the, but in the cafe next door I once saw
 a man eating chicken! Do we, do we get that?
 
 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.999
 No. Uh, instead of the tiger, it
 was a chicken. The children on the
 
 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.999
 spectrum have an interest
 in one particular area
 
 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:39.999
 from the time that they\'re little,
 whether it\'s volcanoes or
 
 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.999
 Legos or Pokemon, Digimon, things
 
 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:53.000
 that are typical for typical kids, but our kids obsess
 about it. Nine years. Nine years of golfing. Since
 
 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.999
 I was four. I make, like,
 birdies, pars, sometimes
 
 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.999
 eagles. I want to be a professional
 
 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.999
 golfer... Yeah. Well I
 got these from a show
 
 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.999
 called Digimon, short for Digital Monsters.
 I\'m drawing my
 
 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.999
 own imaginary Digimon. This one:
 he\'s different from the others.
 
 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.999
 That\'s his spirit, the source of his dark
 powers. But that doesn\'t mean he\'s a
 
 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.999
 bad guy. Darkness isn\'t such a bad thing
 unless you choose to make it that way.
 
 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.999
 When I go to bed at night, I can\'t
 fall asleep, so I just end up
 
 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.999
 thinking. Thinking about, uh, what
 I\'ve observed throughout the day,
 
 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:44.999
 patterns, number patterns that
 I\'ve seen, those types of things.
 
 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:49.999
 This movie is about showing
 the people, showing the whole
 
 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.999
 world who, who I am?
 
 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:59.999
 And...
 
 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.999
 and like calling me on the phone,
 everybody in the whole wide world
 
 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.999
 calling on me on the phone. To
 
 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.999
 start off this portion of the ceremony, I\'d like
 to invite Tiffany up to introduce her group.
 
 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:23.000
 [sil.] This year in lower school in our
 social skills class we\'ve been working on
 
 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.999
 defining what it means to be a good
 citizen. One of our focuses has been on
 
 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.999
 using common sense. It\'s been a difficult
 concept to wrap our brains around, but we
 
 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.999
 hope that you all enjoy our
 interpretations of common sense.
 
 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:48.000
 [sil.] Well, all of our kids present
 
 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.999
 differently. Each student is unique.
 
 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:59.999
 Pervasive development disorder, high-functioning
 autism, Asperger\'s Syndrome, is the
 
 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.999
 medical profession\'s way of
 putting people into nice,
 
 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.999
 neat little boxes. When I look
 at a child, I don\'t see the
 
 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.999
 disorder. I see the child. Hi.
 
 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.999
 [sil.] I started
 
 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.999
 researching all these other schools. I visited
 one in New Hampshire, in fact. Wherever he
 
 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.999
 was gonna go, we were gonna go. And
 
 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.999
 so, Gateway, sorry, Gateway just opened up,
 
 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.999
 you know? And, uh...
 
 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.999
 we, we got in there and... he\'s really
 
 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:53.000
 excelled... Claire, how was it growing up with your brother
 Nathan? Um,... okay. Claire used to be like Nathan\'s best buddy,
 
 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.999
 and, not that you guys aren\'t best buddies, but it
 used to be really close, right? Yeah. Do you remember
 
 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.999
 that, Nate? Yeah. You know, like if, if Nathan was
 gonna go do something, C-, Claire\'d kind of like
 
 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.999
 do it with him, and helped him and... I couldn\'t, I couldn\'t
 get along with Peter or Paige. Yeah, that was hard.
 
 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.999
 I was, like, the only one who
 got along with him, so I
 
 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.999
 kinda, I played video games with him, which is what
 he did, or, he played with his Bionicles a lot
 
 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:28.000
 and he always liked dinosaurs actually. He played with little plastic dinosaurs and
 hit them together. Now, now the only person I can\'t get, um, and, get along with
 
 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.999
 N-, is in the family is Peter. Hey, Peter, what
 was it like growing up with your brother? Mm...
 
 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.999
 Fun? Kind of. No, some things
 were great, some were horrible.
 
 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:48.000
 Horrible, horrible. Yeah. He broke stuff. Conflict...
 Well I get frustrated when other people are
 
 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.999
 frustrated \'cause when they\'re frustrated
 it\'s annoying. SO it gets me frustrated...
 
 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.999
 S-, nervous breakdowns get me frustrated.
 I don\'t like
 
 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.999
 be-, I don\'t like being
 middle of stuff. Physical
 
 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.999
 violence...
 
 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
 I just don\'t feel comfortable
 talking about stuff like that.
 
 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.999
 He just like hit Peter a lot when Peter
 was a baby so Peter\'s kinda crazy now.
 
 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.999
 Not literally crazy, but it\'s kinda hard for him to
 get over it because that\'s probably be hard to deal
 
 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:29.999
 with. And he was like, r-, he got
 that from like one to like five
 
 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.999
 so it was really hard. Don\'t you like think we\'re doing
 a pretty good job now though... Yeah... everybody?
 
 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.999
 Yeah. Compared to how it used to be? Yeah.
 I think so. You guys have done a
 
 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.999
 great job... He broke a bus
 
 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.999
 window, uh, he broke, uh, he
 threw a rock at some lady\'s,
 
 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.999
 uh, car, and hit her. 280ZX, he grabbed
 her cell phone and broke it in
 
 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.999
 half. Um, he ripped the glasses off the
 principal at the elementary school. He tore,
 
 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.999
 te-, can tear apart, you know, when
 you\'re, he\'s out, he was out of
 
 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
 control. He was, um, enraged. He
 couldn\'t understand, I think, why
 
 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
 life had handed him this, these
 various situations. We\'ve had a
 
 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
 lot of hurt people. How are you?
 Good. What\'s your name?
 
 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.999
 Nathan... I know I am
 
 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:33.000
 different... I have autism... Um, I don\'t
 like, uh, being around a lot of people.
 
 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
 It\'s really noisy and I don\'t,
 um, like any noisy stuff, and,
 
 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
 um, and I react shy to people I\'ve
 never seen. I don\'t, I don\'t think a
 
 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
 lot of things are funny that everybody else
 is. So I don\'t have a lot of emotion for
 
 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
 funny stuff. A kid that came to us,
 
 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
 um, well he\'d have meltdowns, uh, when
 things were feeling difficult for
 
 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
 him. Um, luckily we didn\'t see the violence, but
 what we saw was a shutdown. He\'d close his eyes
 
 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
 and curl up on the floor. Literally
 turning into a little ball in his
 
 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
 chair, or on the ground, or on the beanbag. Close
 his eyes. He would close, soon as he started
 
 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
 closing his eyes you knew that was it. You were
 not going to talk to him, he was not going to
 
 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
 do anything. It was over.
 And he hasn\'t done that.
 
 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.999
 In almost a year. So, have you seen a interview
 before? Have you done an interview before?
 
 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
 N-, no, but I sort of know how one works. They
 like ask you the question and you, like answer it?
 
 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
 Right. So that\'s what... I would, uh, we
 just did, um, at, at school we were doing
 
 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
 work that had to be paper, and had, and,
 I, I s-, said I didn\'t like the feel
 
 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
 of paper so they ca-, so they,
 um, so they, um, thought of some
 
 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
 solution to that. So Alec would say, welcome,
 blank, you know, or can you introduce yourself.
 
 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
 Hi, my name is Alec. What\'s yours? Blank. What do
 you for a living? Save the world from terror and
 
 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
 darkness. So Nathan has changed
 dramatically. Better social skills with
 
 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
 his peers, he\'s able to communicate what he\'s
 feeling, what he needs. I wear green clothes and a
 
 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
 green hat. Of course, it\'s the first time he ever made
 friends and had, um, playdates. Start again. No we don\'t!
 
 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
 Yes, we do! Not really. You missed a word. Dena
 AltAnother thing with Nathan, as with, um, all our
 
 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
 students is they don\'t understand
 relationships, and facial
 
 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
 expressions, and sometimes the difference
 between different emotions. Blank. So we were
 
 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
 teaching about that in our classes, about what does
 happy look like and is it just a little bit happy or
 
 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
 really happy? How do you determine what level
 of happiness or sadness or anger? So one
 
 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.999
 day, one of the other students comes up to class and he\'s
 very excited about an experiment. And he\'s jumping up and
 
 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.999
 down and he\'s got grin, ear-to-ear, and
 Nathan just watched him. And few minutes
 
 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
 later he started crying. And he asked to r-, I\'m gonna
 start crying, he asked to remove himself from the
 
 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.999
 room to the peace room and take a break.
 Well, Nathan was very upset
 
 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
 because he watched Bailey and realized what
 Bailey was exhibiting was extreme happiness.
 
 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
 And he was upset because he\'d never experienced
 that and doesn\'t know what that feels
 
 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
 like. So, of course through dialogue we talked about how
 he has felt pretty happy, he just hasn\'t recognized
 
 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
 what that means. What do you look
 
 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
 like? What\'s your personality like?
 What don\'t people know about you?
 
 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
 [sil.]
 
 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
 I can\'t think of anything.
 
 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
 Um, do you like animals? Yeah, I
 love animals. My favoritest dog was
 
 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
 Diego. My sister cried when he died.
 He, he runs off all the
 
 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
 time and he usually comes back, but this time, um,
 the time he died, he didn\'t come back for three
 
 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
 days. So we went to, um, check out, um,
 we went to try and find him. We found him
 
 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
 near a clubhouse. Uh, two vultures,
 and we found his body, nothing but
 
 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.999
 bones and bugs on him, all over him.
 Were you sad about him?
 
 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:13.000
 Yeah. Did you cry? No. When\'s the last time
 you cried? ...I\'d say about, uh, four years.
 
 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
 Really? All right, this play
 is called \"Use Your Noggin.\"
 
 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
 Hi, I\'m Anthony, your good conscience. I hope
 you know what the right thing is to do. Hi, I\'m
 
 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
 David, your not so good conscience.
 Tell you what to do
 
 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
 Read the diary. Don\'t read the diary.
 Read the diary. All right! I got it!
 
 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
 I want to do what\'s right. I lost my diary.
 Have you seen my
 
 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
 diary? Wow! You found it! Thank you! Where\'d
 you find it? On the ground. Thank you!
 
 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:53.000
 Thank you so much! No problem. I\'m so happy
 to have a friend like you. Oh, the bird
 
 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
 story. So, I would say Payton was
 probably about three and we were
 
 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
 having brunch for Sunday at a
 resort here locally. And he and
 
 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
 I went outside to just pass the time. And
 
 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
 he walked up to a pond. There
 were some birds there, small
 
 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
 sparrows. And he knelt down the way
 little kids can kneel down, and he pet
 
 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
 the bird. Do you remember that happening?
 Yes. What, can you tell me the story?
 
 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
 Yes, well, we were at brunch at the
 Puentes Hotel, one of our favorite
 
 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
 hotels and I\'d gone out
 and I, um, pet a bird.
 
 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
 Like this. Okay. But they\'re very easy to
 
 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
 pet. If, but if only you, but you only
 should use one finger, they\'re small.
 
 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
 And you couldn\'t believe it watching it.
 It wasn\'t afraid of me for the
 
 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
 first parts, then it flew off. You
 know like Mr. Rogers, Fred Rogers
 
 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
 says, a lot of times you look back at times in your
 life and you say, \"Oh, so, so that\'s what it was all
 
 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
 about.\" Hey guy, I\'m gonna give you a tour of my house... Slow
 down. I\'m gonna give you a tour of my house and I\'d like you
 
 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
 guys to film it as we go...
 I want to be a film
 
 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
 director. Why? I don\'t know,
 I think it\'s a cool job.
 
 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
 What kind of knowledge do you think you have to have
 for that? I don\'t know. The same amount you guys
 
 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
 have in film directing?
 
 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
 [sil.] Can we put a little
 wireless mic on you so we can
 
 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
 hear you better? Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, I
 don\'t care. What have you been doing this morning,
 
 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
 Peyton? Oh, waiting for you guys, yelling,
 \"When are they gonna get here?\"...
 
 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
 My house... You\'re gonna take this and
 it\'s gonna go up through your shirt. Okay.
 
 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
 So you, I\'ll hold your DS. Thank you...
 I, guys? Are you ready for
 
 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
 a, are you ready for a tour of the
 house to start? We\'re starting here.
 
 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
 Okay. I\'ll put this, I\'ll put my DS
 in this pocket so I can give the tour
 
 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
 clearly. So I can give the tour
 clearly, this way. This is my
 
 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
 room. Take all the film you want.
 Film this...
 
 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
 Get everything. Okay. That
 should be enough film for
 
 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
 here. This way. Well, hold on, Peyton.
 We\'ve got some questions for ya.
 
 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
 You do? Yeah. What kind of questions do you have?
 Oh, I\'m sure Todd\'s got lots of questions for you.
 
 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
 What kind of questions do you have for
 me, guys? I know. So this is it, huh?
 
 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
 This is your bedroom. Yep. And
 that\'s my TV, HD. That\'s my
 
 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
 computer with my desk. Windows. And, um,
 
 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
 now I want you guys to follow me in the next room.
 All right, come on, guys. This way. Up, up,
 
 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
 up, up, up. Okay. Mark can go first. Okay,
 Mark. Here I come. All right, I want the boom
 
 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
 behind, I want, I want to hug the walls
 and I want the boom behind. Good,
 
 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
 good. Okay. That, now that way y-, now that way
 they\'ll be, that way I\'ll be able to, I\'ll be able to
 
 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
 catch all the sound right now. All right, guys,
 this way. I think they challenges are finding
 
 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
 ways to keep him interested, you know,
 and engaged, because you have to be
 
 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
 creative in your own right, right? And you have
 to think of things differently. And one of
 
 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
 the things that... Which is hard when you\'re exhausted.
 Right! I mean... At the end of the day. Or the
 
 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
 weekend when you want to
 relax and, and all of a
 
 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
 sudden they\'ve come out of this extremely
 structured environment. What are you looking at out
 
 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
 there? What do you see?
 A bird right through
 
 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
 that, I can see it. Is that what has your
 attention right now? Okay. That\'s what
 
 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
 I\'ve idented, see, right there in that plant
 outside the window. I see... The nearest plant.
 
 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
 I see, I see the bird out there, but you know what? Right now we are
 in math, okay? How many different parts are there? You\'re going
 
 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
 to have to count on this one. One,
 two, three, four. Four? Four are
 
 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
 shaded, but how many different
 parts are there? Four...
 
 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
 six? Well you have one whole part.
 There\'s three whole parts. Okay...
 
 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
 This part, this part, this part. So, um,
 one, there is... Uh, uh. Yep. They\'re in
 
 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
 each. That\'s a fraction. You\'re right.
 That\'s the reduced fraction.
 
 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
 Very good. It\'s that quiz in history.
 I keep on getting like
 
 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
 34 in it. And you have to
 get like above an 80 or 80
 
 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
 to pass. A quiz or test. So
 that makes you sad? Ye-,
 
 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
 I\'m angry. I, I can never past
 any, I can never get, I can, I
 
 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
 barely, I, I, I don\'t know, I, it\'s, it\'s too
 hard for usually for me to get past a test or
 
 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
 quiz. Not that much with tests, but
 usually with a quiz. Still think it\'s
 
 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
 that I\'m still kind of
 angry, but, but don\'t
 
 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
 worry. I\'m, I still feel fine. And, um,
 guess what? I\'ve been wanting to be filmed
 
 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
 again... All the four of us can
 film my mother doing what she\'s
 
 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
 normally doing. Oh. Yeah, and, and I\'ll
 be with, I\'ll be working with you, Todd.
 
 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
 You got it? Yeah! I\'ll hold onto it a
 little bit. I feel like a real film crew!
 
 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
 You look like one. That\'s really all
 you need is a camera. Really?...Hey
 
 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
 guys? I feel like a real film crew person! If
 you know what I mean. If you could have that
 
 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
 same enthusiasm for so many
 aspects of your life: enthusiasm
 
 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
 for making this movie... I\'m filming the
 house! The enthusiasm for doing your job.
 
 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
 We\'re, we\'re camera to camera! I mean, think
 how much better the world would be. So it\'s
 
 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
 always the balance of saying, you know,
 um, \"I don\'t ever want to, I don\'t want
 
 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
 him to lose that. Enthusiasm. When you
 go into a doctor\'s office and you know
 
 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
 something\'s wrong, you don\'t know
 what it is, and you sit there and
 
 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
 all of a sudden you hear, \"Well,
 your child\'s autistic.\" Oh,
 
 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
 God. Um, it\'s just, it\'s
 
 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
 overwhelming. Now, for me, even though I\'m
 
 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
 blubbering here it was a relief.
 Because I knew something was wrong.
 
 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
 Knowing, just now having a baby, that
 that would be hard for a parent.
 
 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
 Um, so even though they display all the
 characteristics, they\'re doing well in a school that\'s
 
 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
 focused on that, I think they still want
 that hope that they\'re gonna be okay.
 
 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
 Right. And that they\'re, they\'re gonna be typical and its just
 something going on right now and they\'ll get over it. They\'ll outgrow
 
 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
 it. And they\'ll be fine later.
 And I, and I think that
 
 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
 buying in and accepting the diagnosis?
 Because once you\'re,
 
 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
 you agree to being autistic, there\'s no
 
 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
 cure. You\'re always autistic. And so
 I think that they\'re fearful of the
 
 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
 label following them wherever they go.
 Mm-hm. It\'s gonna follow them into
 
 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
 college, it\'s gonna follow them into the
 workplace, it\'s gonna follow them when they\'re
 
 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
 meeting wives or husbands,
 potential, um, and I think
 
 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
 that that\'s frightening. Mm-hm. It\'s your child.
 You know, you have all these dreams for your
 
 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
 child. You, child\'s gonna have a better
 life than you had, you know... and then you
 
 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
 find that out and that\'s the, it\'s like a
 death sentence, you know what I mean? Then
 
 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
 you\'re thinking about all the things that they\'re not, they\'re
 not gonna get to do all these things that you had, all these
 
 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
 dreams for, you know? I\'ll always a seven!
 No. I think you might get an
 
 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
 eight. Don\'t cry. All right, it\'s
 just a game. Baby you\'re doing great.
 
 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
 No, I\'m not. I can\'t, I\'ll make
 seven, I got sevens in a r-,
 
 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
 three in a row! Ashley, it\'s just a game,
 okay? Come on. But I\'ll never win!
 
 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
 Okay. Ashley! Ashley! Have you ever played
 this before? Have you ever played it before?
 
 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
 I don\'t know! You haven\'t, okay? This is
 your first time. I\'ve played before. Okay?
 
 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
 So it\'s not even fair. And I\'m older...
 She\'s just, she\'s a
 
 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
 perfectionist. And, um, she, um, wants
 to be perfect. And, and she gets very
 
 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
 frustrated when, when she\'s not. You know, she
 thinks that she\'s invincible and that she can do
 
 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
 anything. And when, you know, her body
 is not cooperating with her mind,
 
 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
 um, she, she, you know,
 she cries, she has a
 
 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
 meltdown, she, you know... How many
 people live in your house? Okay...
 
 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
 my dad, my mom, my little sister,
 
 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
 and me. I think she\'s on her
 
 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
 wheelies. Who is that?
 
 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
 Alicia... What\'s she doing? She\'s just
 
 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
 showing her stuff and her pet fish.
 What\'s she like?
 
 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
 My mom said she\'s spoiled. She\'s spoiled?
 And that\'s her trophy, trophies that she
 
 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
 got from cheer. Are you spoiled?
 
 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
 I don\'t know. My grandma
 tells me that my mom spoils
 
 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
 me. A little. You know what really helped me was actually,
 and I don\'t know if this sounds terrible or not, but it was
 
 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
 having the second child.
 Because then I didn\'t,
 
 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
 um, pin all my hopes and dreams on Ash.
 It really helped me to let go and,
 
 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
 realize that, you know, who cares if she has a disability.
 You know, she\'s not gonna be able to do a lot of things,
 
 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
 but you know, um, she, you know...
 
 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
 I don\'t know,
 
 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
 sh- ... Who\'s that? That\'s my mom.
 
 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
 [sil.] What\'s your mom like?
 
 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
 Uh...
 
 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
 I can\'t describe it. Okay. Um,
 what does she like to do?
 
 00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
 [sil.]
 
 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
 I know she likes to shop. What
 
 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:13.000
 exactly does it mean to
 have autism or Aspergers?
 
 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
 I\'m, I kinda don\'t know.
 
 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
 Terry! Terry don\'t!
 
 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
 Let me get over here. Yes, you are. Thank you for noticing.
 I\'d be waiting in the pickup line with all the other
 
 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
 parents at the public school... You now,
 that\'s not very nice. What?...And, um, see
 
 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
 all the kids walking... How\'s that? Huh?...
 Then I\'d see my daughter and she\'d
 
 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
 bounce in and it was, it
 just, she, it would break my
 
 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
 heart. She just stuck out like a sore thumb. I mean, she
 really did. You know, I, there was not hiding that there was
 
 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
 something a little off, you know? And then
 I remember at Gateway, I looked around
 
 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
 and, she would have some characteristics,
 uh, or all the kids would
 
 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
 have, you know, like one of the things, you know, like this kid
 does this like she does, and this kid does this like Ashley does
 
 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
 and she just fit in!...How many was that? Uh, I think it
 was a 10. She didn\'t stand out. She didn\'t stand out at
 
 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
 all. Whew! Ace got two!> Thank you.
 She belonged there. Whew hew!
 
 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
 Who\'s your best friend there? Is it Ashley? Yeah.
 Yeah? What do you guys do, I mean for fun?
 
 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
 Well, she m-, she likes
 to make up songs. I just
 
 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
 wonder if you\'re able to have a conversation
 without bringing... How about the Christmas song?
 
 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
 No, not the Christmas song. This is my favorite
 picture of me when I was little. This is your
 
 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
 favorite picture? Why?
 Because I like me when
 
 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
 I was little... Then here\'s
 me and Ash... I\'m not
 
 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
 good at making friends. Probably this
 picture gets me motivated to get
 
 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
 out of bed so I could like see her when I get
 to school. \'Cause sometimes I don\'t want to
 
 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
 go to school. And what does this mean, this dark
 feeling part? Oh, that\'s when I just get upset
 
 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
 or mad, or suicidal, but
 that\'s not important.
 
 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
 Oh, that\'s not important? Not right now,
 \'cause I don\'t feel that way anymore.
 
 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
 She really has a hard time socially. She
 has one really good friend at school,
 
 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
 Ash, a new girl that came. She
 had a boyfriend for a long time,
 
 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
 until he, I don\'t know what happened,
 but they had a split \'em up. So
 
 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
 she goes through feelings of \"No one at
 school likes me, I wanna leave.\" And then
 
 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
 everything\'s okay and she wants to stay. Do I have
 to bring in a chair? No, just come on in. Just
 
 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
 stand. we\'re just gonna do a little talky talk... No,
 we\'re all just gonna stand... So, we\'re going to
 
 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
 restructure our contact classes, okay?
 
 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
 And, if you wanna give us some feedback, you\'re
 welcome to. Basically you\'re having the exact
 
 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
 same classes you have everyday, it\'s just you
 get to change which ones you start with.
 
 00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
 Adam teaches math and history. And Bennet
 
 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
 teaches science and language arts.
 
 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
 Which is your favorite subject? I think
 science. What do you like about science?
 
 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
 Well we get to try out experiments.
 Who exactly wanted to change this
 
 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
 really? And I know that change
 sometimes can be scary. Change can be
 
 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
 different. But sometimes
 change can be really good.
 
 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
 I see a glum look. Or, what do
 you, what do you feel, Ashley?
 
 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
 I don\'t like it. You don\'t like it?
 That\'s okay. We\'ll get used to it.
 
 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
 Well, thanks Will. Sorry.
 Um, what don\'t you like
 
 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
 particularly? I just don\'t like it at all. Is it
 just the change? Is it you don\'t want to start
 
 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
 with Language? No. I just, I
 like it the way it is now.
 
 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
 Okay. You\'re just more comfortable?
 Yeah. Okay.
 
 00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
 Do you think this is something that could
 maybe grow on you and become positive? No.
 
 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
 No? You don\'t think that\'s possible?
 No. Okay.
 
 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
 Awhile back in school you got really upset
 when they changed the schedule. Yeah. I
 
 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
 don\'t like big changes like that.
 
 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
 Ashley, why don\'t you come with me real quick. No! \'Cause I want
 to talk to, we\'re gonna go talk with Miss Dena \'cause... No!...
 
 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
 I just don\'t wanna do it. Mm-hm.
 Wouldn\'t it be better if you
 
 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
 could, we could understand it together?
 Doesn\'t matter. I still wouldn\'t like it.
 
 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
 We have peace rooms. It\'s a
 place to find peace. And,
 
 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
 um, We have... so the first thing that I do if a
 kid melts down is make sure they, we can, I can
 
 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
 get them to that space... Okay, what else is going
 on in that group that\'s that\'s troubling you today?
 
 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
 I just don\'t like it. But I also know that with anybody, if
 they\'re going through a hard moment, um, whether they\'re
 
 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
 melting down because they\'re frustrated or they\'re angry, they\'re
 whatever, having someone talk in their face right away is
 
 00:30:55.000 --> 00:31:03.000
 not gonna help. So the first thing that I always do
 is give them space... I liked it the way it was.
 
 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
 Did you get over that change? Yeah.
 
 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
 I run away sometimes \'cause I get really
 
 00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
 ticked off at my parents... It just got a
 TV and little chairs... But I don\'t do that
 
 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
 anymore. I\'ve found other ways...
 
 00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
 Agh! It\'s cold in here! Ashley can\'t
 deal with stress very well, so
 
 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
 she would run away. If she
 didn\'t like when we said
 
 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
 no to her she\'d actually run away.
 And so we had to
 
 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
 figure out someplace where she could
 go that was safe and not run out the
 
 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
 front door. It\'s like a
 peace room to me and my
 
 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
 sister, a room where I can
 get away from my anger.
 
 00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
 \'Cause sometimes I get really mad.
 
 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
 And the way to, something that helps
 with your anger is to build a tiny room?
 
 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
 Yeah. I think socially she\'ll
 probably find people like her.
 
 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
 And there\'s my mom. She\'s a nice person...
 Um, she\'ll find a
 
 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
 niche. She\'s, wants to be an actress now.
 Hi, Mom! Happy
 
 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
 Mother\'s Day! And a singer.
 Romeo, Romeo, art
 
 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
 thou Romeo? But soft, what
 light through yonder breaks
 
 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
 wind? It is the East and Juliet is the sun.
 Her voice, so
 
 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
 sweet that birds would
 sing and know it is not
 
 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
 night. And stuff like that. Wow! You pulled
 that up pretty quickly. That\'s impressive.
 
 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:53.000
 Yeah. I, I don\'t remember the part about
 breaking wind. That was on Hannah Montana. Oh!
 
 00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
 Okay. I just add stuff like that in.
 
 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
 How many of you guys have been expelled
 from schools? Oh, I\'ve so been
 
 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
 suspended! Yeah. Bailey?
 It\'s fun to mention, though.
 
 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
 Well, I got, I wasn\'t expelled at schools.
 
 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
 I, I, I, I really got
 expelled from a, a lot
 
 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
 of summer camps. Okay. You
 can\'t ask why By like, like
 
 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
 five times. I got expelled by five schools.
 That\'s okay. And Braden? I got
 
 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
 suspended once. Nathan?
 
 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
 Huh? Are you listening? Were
 you listening before? Yeah,
 
 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
 I\'ll tell you, yeah. Okay, so
 were you suspended or expelled?
 
 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
 Expelled. I was expelled before.
 Once. Jacob?
 
 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
 Expelled. It\'s okay, Jacob. Peyton?
 
 00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
 S-, Suspended. Alec? Detention.
 
 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
 It\'s not worse, it\'s not that
 worser than getting expelled. Yeah.
 
 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
 Do you resent... What\'s resent? It means
 
 00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
 like, you hold it against people, does it make you upset
 when people say that you have Asperger\'s Syndrome and you\'re
 
 00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
 like this? It just makes me feel,
 
 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
 \"fffff,\" like that. I don\'t believe that.
 Just makes
 
 00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
 me feel like, you\'re
 entitled to your opinion,
 
 00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
 because I personally d-, believe
 that we\'re just like everyone
 
 00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
 else. No matter what people
 say, I still think that.
 
 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
 Though I do have problems understanding.
 That\'s one thing. So I don\'t quite
 
 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
 understand. Okay. Mm. You know,
 
 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
 uh, if we can back up a little bit, Charles,
 when he was in public school, we had a
 
 00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
 hard time with him. His frustration, we didn\'t know what
 it was. We didn\'t, and, uh, uh, he wasn\'t on a whole lotta
 
 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
 medication for anything at the time for anything, and so,
 hadn\'t been totally diagnosed, so he w-, he was very,
 
 00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
 uh, irritable, uh, combative,
 not only at home, but at
 
 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
 school. He didn\'t know how to play with kids. That includes
 celery with peanut butter. I love celery with peanut butter! You
 
 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
 can\'t get rid of that! Or cauliflower...
 His social skills were so
 
 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
 low. I mean, it was just tremendously low, it was,
 I mean, say things inappropriate, not know what\'s
 
 00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
 facial expressions, and, I mean, he\'s always
 wanted friends, but he just didn\'t know how to
 
 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
 make \'em or maintain \'em or didn\'t really know when people
 even liked him. Charles, if you can finish that part
 
 00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
 right there. We were out here one, one night
 playing soccer and, uh... Oh, that\'s right!
 
 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
 He, about halfway through he, he started off in, in the
 bushes, you know, and looking for bugs and everything
 
 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
 and, \"Hey! This is a so-and-so bug!\" and so I had
 to him a-, come over, or bring the bugs over.\"
 
 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
 Yeah. And, uh, tell all the other kids
 about \'em. So. He\'s got, yeah, definitely
 
 00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
 leadership abilities there, you know? Well, I
 like, I love bugs, a whole lot. I don\'t know
 
 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
 why, I just do. I think it\'s
 like all of the colors they
 
 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
 have and spots... Took a picture
 of a spider we caught... And
 
 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
 shapes. My main intentions for when I grow
 up is to become an entomologist and get a
 
 00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
 TV show. What do you think you\'d name it?
 Bug Files.
 
 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
 That\'s it! Bug Files! Then show pictures,
 
 00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
 flashes of me talking. With no audio.
 Just a little bit of comedy
 
 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
 and a lot of education.
 Who would the show be
 
 00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
 aimed at? The insects, exactly.
 
 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
 You\'d be making a show for insects?
 Well, exa-, well it\'ll be for people.
 
 00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
 Would there be a set or would
 you just be out in the wild?
 
 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
 Um, I would bring around a net with
 
 00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
 me and wear a hat and I would go
 
 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
 driving around in a vehicle filled
 with jars like crazy. With holes
 
 00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
 in \'em, of course... Have you
 ever seen a stink bug? They
 
 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
 are like that except their much thinner and
 longer and they\'re black and they have a
 
 00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
 little red lining going around them.
 And they have black eyes and a
 
 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
 long piercing mouth part for sucking blood.
 And then they have lo-,
 
 00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
 black, red linings go around the top of
 their abdomen. And little wings, clear
 
 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
 wings on the top of them. I don\'t know if you\'ve
 ever saw the show Andy Griffin. I\'m sure you
 
 00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
 have. I always hoped to have a son, you know
 you\'re gonna be Andy, and he\'s gonna be Opie.
 
 00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
 Well, I used to watch that show so much
 growing up that um, Charles\', we named
 
 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
 Charles\' middle name is Andrew after
 Andy Taylor. And, uh, but you
 
 00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
 know what? Our relationship didn\'t
 turn out quite that easy. You know,
 
 00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
 uh, it just has not turned out that way.
 Charles is, when he\'d come home, he\'d
 
 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
 be very disrespectful to me. And
 me being an easy going person,
 
 00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
 uh, sometimes I think has not
 been good for him. Because,
 
 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:18.000
 what ha-, what I\'ve found not just with him, but some other
 children, they need structure. The idea is to make it as
 
 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
 easy as possible for them.
 
 00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
 [sil.] Oh! Yes? A foot.
 
 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
 Huh? It\'s a, it looks like a foot!
 Just... Exactly. Okay.
 
 00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
 What kind of a foot? Oh!
 What Athlete\'s foot?
 
 00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
 No! Ankle? No. Come on! I gave you clues!
 Broken foot?
 
 00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:53.000
 I gave you clues! Heel? Then what the heck is it? Achilles heel. Nope. No. No,
 you\'re way off. Sometimes, when you\'re trying to get information across to someone,
 
 00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
 all right, and they\'re not getting it,
 you get exactly what happened. You get
 
 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
 frustrated. Sometimes, you may
 have to repeat the message. That
 
 00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
 means start over. But if that\'s
 the only words you have is
 
 00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
 that, slow down, repeat it again.
 All right?
 
 00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
 Sometimes, that\'s what we have to do when we communicate
 to people is step back. \'Cause it\'s not about
 
 00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
 us. It\'s not about our frustration.
 We have all those people in front of
 
 00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
 us, okay, who need to get the message. So we
 have to figure out how are we gonna reach
 
 00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
 them. Okay? All right. Uh, Nikolai?
 Give me a good one... Other
 
 00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:43.000
 than that. You\'re getting that one
 
 00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
 Can I use multiple colors? You can erase the
 foot. Can I, I\'m gonna use multiple colors.
 
 00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
 Permission? Remember it\'s not about you. It\'s
 about the audience. Is that gonna help convey the
 
 00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
 message? Or is it for your own gratification?
 What\'s gratification? For my own, um, personal use?
 
 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
 But that\'s not why we\'re here, right? Turn around, look at
 those people. For my own pleasure, you mean? No? No, you\'re
 
 00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:07.999
 not here for you. You\'re here for them.
 Hey, he (inaudible)
 
 00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:09.999
 Okay. So it has to be for them.
 Well I have to get my message
 
 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
 across, yeah? If it\'ll help get your
 message across, yes. Okay, fine.
 
 00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
 [sil.]
 
 00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
 Remember to stay to the right.
 
 00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:33.000
 [sil.] Ooh! Robert was
 the first one with his
 
 00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
 hand up. Burger! Close. Bun! Not burger.
 You only get one... Pen! Shh!
 
 00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
 One try. Charlie was the
 second one with his hand up.
 
 00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
 Um, spaceship.
 
 00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
 [sil.] Oh! What? Scott. Cheese. Close. Hm?
 
 00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
 Oh! Raise the hands. Alex? Cheese burger.
 Cheese burger.
 
 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
 Good. All right. I founded the
 school because, uh, when we
 
 00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
 moved to California, I have a
 15 year-old son with Asperger\'s
 
 00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
 Syndrome and I could not find
 an appropriate educational
 
 00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:23.000
 environment that could handle his
 academics and social needs. Okay, let\'s
 
 00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
 say I can\'t tell that you have Asperger\'s
 
 00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
 Syndrome. I can\'t tell. Right.
 I don\'t know you that
 
 00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
 well. I\'m just a guy with a camera. You
 seem to be able to understand sarcasm and
 
 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
 humor. You seem to understand emotion. You
 have a highly developed vocabulary, but
 
 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
 you don\'t seem to have difficulty using language.
 You don\'t seem to have difficulties with
 
 00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
 executive functioning, what they call planning, and
 organizing, and integration of thinking, and you don\'t
 
 00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
 seem to have trouble understanding
 cause and effect. So...
 
 00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
 I understand what I do and what happens
 from it. And I still do it. So
 
 00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
 do you believe this diagnosis that
 you have Asperger\'s Syndrome?
 
 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:18.000
 I have to. I\'m not the one with the PhD. Well how would you prove it
 to me, then? By my actions. If you were to observe me on an everyday
 
 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
 basis for one week, even just an
 hour a day, you\'d probably be
 
 00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
 able to diagnose just the little
 things that you see. Add all that up.
 
 00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
 Okay. Tell me what the little things are.
 Every now and then I might get into an
 
 00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
 argument with my parents and then just storm
 out of the room because I don\'t want to
 
 00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
 have to, uh, let\'s see, explain myself.
 
 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
 I do that do. I don\'t have Asperger\'s.
 Try something else. Dang. I sometimes
 
 00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
 am, no that wouldn\'t work. Everyone\'s
 been that before. Politically
 
 00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
 incorrect. Yeah. I say I know
 about things that I don\'t
 
 00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
 know about. I do that too. Uh-uh.
 
 00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
 Dang! Do you feel like going
 to the school that you go to
 
 00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
 helps you... Yeah... mask those things?
 
 00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
 Is that a good thing or a bad
 thing first of all? You tell me.
 
 00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
 If I can appear that I don\'t
 have that, or if I can
 
 00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
 function in a normal society
 without it, yeah. If I can make
 
 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
 friends on, uh, in, out in
 public, communicate, keep a
 
 00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
 conversation, yeah. But
 
 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
 yeah, I\'d prefer to be a musician than
 I would, you know, to be some kind of
 
 00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
 computer genius or something.
 Have you ever played in a band?
 
 00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
 Um, yes, I have. A couple of my
 friends can play instruments,
 
 00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
 so yeah, we kind of got together
 and just fooled around a bit.
 
 00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
 A dysfunctional family that you
 choose to be in. You know, that\'s the
 
 00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
 definition of \'band\' for me. I
 would call my ADD \"Another Damned
 
 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
 Disappointment.\"
 
 00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
 [music] And what kind of
 stuff are you writing? Oh,
 
 00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
 just, you just put in sounds and you know, it\'s
 like what you do when you\'re a DJ, you know,
 
 00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
 you just do the beats, cross-fading,
 that kind of stuff. He is a b-,
 
 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
 he\'s brilliant on computers. Why do
 you keep hacking into the school\'s
 
 00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
 computer system? Just to see what I\'m capable of.
 Dena AltWe have to change our administrative password
 
 00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
 often because he breaks the code every
 time. How he does it, I don\'t know. Our IT
 
 00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
 person who\'s also brilliant, can\'t figure out how he\'s
 figuring it out, and of course Nikolai won\'t tell you. He
 
 00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
 says, \"If I tell you, you\'ll know and then I can\'t do
 it anymore. Have you hacked into anywhere else besides
 
 00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
 school? Yeah. Couple websites. Didn\'t do anything.
 I just wanted to see how good their, you
 
 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
 know, thing was set up. How
 do you know how to do that?
 
 00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
 I\'m not actually positive on how I know. I
 
 00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
 just, follow instructions that people put in
 forums on how to do these kind of things.
 
 00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
 Did you find out how to do this from the internet? Yeah.
 From people who already know how. I don\'t know how you
 
 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
 learn from, you know, nothing, but yeah.
 He breaks the code so he can
 
 00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
 download cool stuff from the internet. The
 stuff he even finds and gets a hold of on the
 
 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
 internet, just amaze all of us,
 how\'d you find that? He\'s, he\'s
 
 00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
 brilliant when it comes to computers so what we\'re
 really working on with him is keeping things
 
 00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
 on a positive. Like using
 his talents for good. Um,
 
 00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
 my fear for Nikolai is if we don\'t keep steering
 him to the good that he will go to the dark
 
 00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
 side because it is interesting. It\'s a challenge. For him
 it\'s the challenge of can I crack the code, can I, can I
 
 00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
 open this, can I get into this? And so my
 fear is that he\'ll get into places that will
 
 00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
 bring him much danger, or consequences.
 Have you discovered
 
 00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
 anything on your own that you can do
 that you didn\'t know you could do?
 
 00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
 Um, like what?
 
 00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
 Nikolai doesn\'t, doesn\'t see authority.
 He thinks that he is an
 
 00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
 adult, and expects other
 people to treat him as such.
 
 00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
 Even at five years old. I prefer to hang
 out with people outside of my school.
 
 00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
 Just because that way I can get
 a real handle on, you know, the
 
 00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
 outside world for once. People
 who are older than me, such as
 
 00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds who actually
 have something in common with
 
 00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
 me. That\'s the only reason I hang out with them. \'Cause
 it actually gives me a handle on what I actually should
 
 00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
 be doing. I feel like I can
 socialize with them better
 
 00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
 than people my own age. Complying
 was a problem. It was either his
 
 00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
 way or no way. And so,
 so, we could see pretty
 
 00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
 quickly that he was having issues. List
 some bad things and I\'ll say yes or
 
 00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
 no, I don\'t likes, and then, or, if you come
 close to it, I\'ll tell you what it was.
 
 00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
 Okay... Beating somebody up.
 
 00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
 Yes... Um... Calling somebody names.
 
 00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
 Yes. Taking things from other people
 that weren\'t yours. Yes. I\'m not
 
 00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
 proud of that. I\'m just saying,
 \'cause it\'s going on a roll here.
 
 00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
 Uh, said something to somebody that
 you felt bad about later. Oh, my
 
 00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
 God, yes. As long as he
 stays in, stays in the
 
 00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
 light. That\'s a huge danger with Nikolai. What
 is s huge danger with Nikolai? Um, going to the
 
 00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
 dark side. Anything else? No, man.
 You can go back. Oh,
 
 00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
 great. I need to finish my math.
 I\'m behind.
 
 00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
 Yeah. But it\'s okay, man. Yeah, I\'ve got Do whatever you
 want. If it doesn\'t fit with the tone of the movie, we
 
 00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
 don\'t know what the tone of the movie is. Okey doke.
 I\'m just, you, I\'m just to spout random stuff,
 
 00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
 right? Well... \'Cause I also have ADD so
 I\'d c-, you be making a documentary for
 
 00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
 ADD also. Extreme case of ADD, actually.
 I notice that a lot more than my autism.
 
 00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
 Really? Yeah, especially
 academically, I mean, I can\'t
 
 00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
 help but just flash out and start thinking.
 I just don\'t even realize
 
 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
 it. I always miss something in conversation.
 That\'s how I think. I think in
 
 00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
 concepts. Like, I don\'t think in words or
 pictures, like most people. I think in those pure
 
 00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
 concepts. So that\'s why I get, I get
 the, when I go into a speech, I
 
 00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
 have a, I think I have what I want to
 say prepared, but I have the concept
 
 00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
 prepared and not the words so it stutters, it
 just stutters out. ADD I would love to get rid
 
 00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
 of, okay? That\'s one thing I,
 well, uh, well there\'s some
 
 00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
 things ADD seems to provide me, I mean, uh, I see
 random things and random stuff in br-, and some
 
 00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
 inspiration, but overall, ADD is more, I,
 I\'d rather not have my ADD. That\'s the
 
 00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
 problem. My high, high-functioning autism, I
 still don\'t get people why people are like, \"A
 
 00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
 cure for autism!\" Like,
 that\'s the source of my
 
 00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
 genius! The way I think, the different
 way of thinking, you know? It\'s not
 
 00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
 any problem. I see the world in a very,
 
 00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
 very different light. Almost
 more inward thinker, you
 
 00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
 know? And that, therefore,
 I have somewhat a hard
 
 00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
 time with... with, uh, society, you
 
 00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
 know? Uh, because I think well, I,
 
 00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
 I don\'t see what\'s wrong with this, so why should
 anyone else see, of course you know that\'s a really
 
 00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
 stupid way of thinking, but, well I\'m
 not sure about stupid, but, just really
 
 00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
 stupid to say, \"Okay, well I don\'t see what\'s wrong with it,
 why does anybody else see it\'s wrong with it. Like, of course,
 
 00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
 that\'s, that\'s not how society works!
 I think that\'s all, you know?
 
 00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
 That\'s what I fear. I fear other people.
 The judgment, you know, making the right
 
 00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
 calls. You know, the impulsivity. You know,
 you tell him not to do it. It\'s almost
 
 00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
 worse to tell him not to do it. Because he may
 very well do it, and then it\'s, it\'s like an
 
 00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
 impulse. He can\'t, you know, \"Okay, I can\'t do it!
 I can\'t do it! I can\'t do it.\" And then it just
 
 00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
 comes out, keeps coming out, keeps coming out. It\'s like a
 red flag in front of a bull. Mm-hm. It\'s just, \"Oh, I can\'t
 
 00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
 do this, but, you know, I need to do this.
 
 00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
 And, and that, that, that\'s what frightens
 me. You know, like, you know, arguing with a
 
 00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
 policeman if he gets pulled over, that kind
 of thing. You know. There\'s very little
 
 00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
 forgiveness, you know, in certain areas of
 life. There\'s not a lot of margin of grace.
 
 00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
 Yeah... Yes, I\'m a little
 
 00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
 collection of all sorts of problems:
 scoliosis, Marfan\'s Syndrome...
 
 00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
 En garde. High functioning autism,
 ADD, um, let\'s see if I can think of
 
 00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
 another one. One of the amazing things to
 
 00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
 watch Chris is he will
 wake up most mornings his
 
 00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
 back hurts him, he\'ll often have a
 headache... Five all. You know, he
 
 00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
 can\'t walk more than several
 blocks without needing to
 
 00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
 stop, and yet he never complains.
 He\'s happy, he goes through his
 
 00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
 day. But as his parents, to
 watch him dealing with these
 
 00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
 issues, that I would be
 miserable dealing with. Oh!
 
 00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
 Did I get you? It\'s incredible. Yeah. To see what
 he puts up with on a day-to-day basis. And he\'s
 
 00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
 aware of it. He knows everything that\'s happening to
 him. Let\'s just see if anything happens. Okay. And yet
 
 00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
 he deals with it with a sense of
 humor and with, with, uh, a joy of
 
 00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
 living. Hm. Uh, that I wish I had.
 
 00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
 Everyone\'s favorite, uh, Insomniaville,
 you know, all the, all the stuff we
 
 00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
 didn\'t bring up yet. Chris is just
 very interesting to me, so thinking
 
 00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
 of it as, uh, technical or medical? I don\'t
 know much about Chris. He has a great sense
 
 00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
 of humor. The Tangle of Death. You know,
 I\'ve never got how a tangle happens, you
 
 00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
 know? Uh, I know by logic, you leave a whole bunch
 of wires around, you, you know it\'s gonna get
 
 00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
 tangled, but how does the
 wires, when, when you drop
 
 00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
 \'em down there, they\'re not tangled when you drop \'em down. Now how
 do the wires magically seem to go into each other in such intricate
 
 00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
 patterns to get tangled? I mean,
 it just doesn\'t make sense. And,
 
 00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
 uh, cool. It\'s not. I mean, soon as you
 
 00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
 put these things on, the hour you need, as soon as you put these
 things on you\'re not cool anymore, you know? I mean, it\'s
 
 00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
 not even the fact that it says cool. It\'s the u-, this thing,
 these things are the ultimate irony. I mean, I don\'t, do
 
 00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
 I, that says \"cool,\" and yet I\'m not
 cool anymore, you know? You see?
 
 00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
 Uh, um, whole lot of trophies I got simply for
 participating, so don\'t think of anything,
 
 00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
 of anything special there. I sucked. They gave me a
 trophy just for being there. You know, the whole
 
 00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
 equality thing. The autistic thing, e-,
 
 00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
 equality! You know? That\'s, that\'s what\'s always gotten me about
 special ed schools, you know? Like everyone has to be equal. There\'s
 
 00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
 no competition allowed. It\'s like, I want
 to be competitive. I want to see, it\'s
 
 00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
 like if I lose, okay, fine. I lose,
 but if I win, yay. I, I like being
 
 00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
 competitive, you know? We have challenged him more this year
 than I think he\'s been challenged in a long time. And what we
 
 00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
 challenge him on is his own personal
 philosophies and his own thought
 
 00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
 processes. Um, he thinks
 if he reads it, it\'s
 
 00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
 fact. Period. I like escaping
 into my little world in my
 
 00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
 mind, creating new worlds,
 and video games. I\'m a major
 
 00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
 gamer. Major league video gamer, okay?
 Just, that\'s the central
 
 00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
 part of my life. You know? It\'s
 not a hobby, people! What I do? I
 
 00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
 read. Yes, I\'m capable of reading. It, it\'s
 amazing, yes it\'s an amazing concept, but
 
 00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
 most video gamers are actually very
 well educated and usually read a lot.
 
 00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
 Yes, it\'s quite common.
 He obsesses in fantasy,
 
 00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
 and, and, uh, sort of science
 fiction, physics gone science
 
 00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
 fiction, you know, and, uh, um,
 um, storytelling. He, he loves
 
 00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
 it. He just, he just loves it.
 There\'s so many cool things in
 
 00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
 video games, so, I, I, I can\'t
 count them, but, discovering a
 
 00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
 cool new game, you know? And
 of course, beating the game...
 
 00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
 Seeing the credits roll like
 you finished a movie, you
 
 00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
 know? It\'s quite, quite a a rel-, um, quite a great
 experience, you know? Most space, space battles
 
 00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
 anywhere when you see \'em are like, in space, are two
 dimensional, you\'re in groups that are, like, going
 
 00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
 straight at each other like this. They might be up and down,
 or something like that, but they\'re still in the like,
 
 00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
 one dimension, like a flat plate.
 You know, like you expect seeing
 
 00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
 airships in the air, like, you maybe going
 like this, but always going back a certain
 
 00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
 direction, but really, space battle would be more like this, you
 know? A space battle where you could go in any direction, not
 
 00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
 just going down, you know, or straight.
 But like, have the guy coming
 
 00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
 up, underneath, all, every direction.
 And truly 3-D. I can just go
 
 00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
 like, \"phs!\" He\'s, he\'s got the most
 vivid imagination of anybody I have ever
 
 00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
 met. Uh, he loves science
 fiction and he writes for
 
 00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
 a, a website, that, you know, highlights
 science fiction written by its
 
 00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
 members. You know, and he\'s written
 several chapters for them. You
 
 00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
 know, and it\'s somewhat brilliant stuff.
 
 00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
 Isaac Asimov was wrong, uh. He\'s
 expected that robots be around
 
 00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
 already, walking around, creating,
 uh, philosophical issues by right
 
 00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
 now. According to him, they, we should already have robots
 roam-, running around, but we don\'t. We\'ve got some
 
 00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
 toys. You\'re, they\'re paying couple million
 dollars to make a robot that walks up
 
 00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
 stairs. Seriously. That\'s how
 complicated motor functions are. Yeah,
 
 00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
 and also trying to make a robot see is much
 harder than you think. You can\'t just throw on
 
 00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
 spider legs or human legs or anything like that. People think
 it\'s much more easier, so easy. People think that some
 
 00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
 genius kid is in their basement right
 now creating a robotic army, um, of,
 
 00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
 of a hobby! Uh, it just
 doesn\'t work like that.
 
 00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
 [sil.] Testing one, two,
 
 00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
 three. Testing.
 
 00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
 [music] Unbelievable. I got
 some good film. You really
 
 00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
 did. I mean, you\'re a really good
 photographer. I do make a good filmmaker,
 
 00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
 don\'t I? You really do.
 
 00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
 [sil.] Eric, what kind of distance
 you got on this shot right here?
 
 00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
 199. What club are you using?
 
 00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
 Three-wood. And I, usu-, usually call
 
 00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
 it Cleveland. You usually call
 what Cleveland? This club.
 
 00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
 Cleveland. Why? Because,
 \'cause, that\'s what,
 
 00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:43.000
 that\'s what, that\'s what it says right
 here. Three or four weeks ago, you said,
 
 00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
 \"Dad, I want to do karate again.\" I
 was like, \"Okay, anything except for
 
 00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
 video games, I\'m into it!\"
 So you did that, right?
 
 00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
 Yep. I don\'t think I\'ve seen that one.
 There you
 
 00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
 go. So that\'s the, that\'s that... When he was born,
 it was, you know, he\'s gonna play soccer, or
 
 00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
 lacrosse, or football, or basketball. And he\'s gonna go to
 school, and he\'s gonna get all A\'s and B\'s and gonna go
 
 00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
 off to college and gonna marry some woman and
 have this great family, and, all of a sudden, you
 
 00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
 know, it\'s like, ph! Who cares about
 any of that stuff. I want him to
 
 00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
 eat, go to school period, right? Not hurt
 
 00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
 somebody and stay out of jail.
 Good. Okay, here we go. One,
 
 00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:34.999
 sha! Two, sha! Three, sha! Four, sha!
 Five, sha! Six, sha! Seven,
 
 00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:39.999
 sha! Eight, sha! Nine, sha! I think he\'ll do fine.
 I don\'t know if he\'ll go to college, but he might.
 
 00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:44.999
 I think he could. Um, I think it\'ll
 be up to him. For however long this
 
 00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:49.999
 earth is still going to be here,
 I\'m on it for, to probably do
 
 00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:54.999
 something with my life. Hopefully, you
 change the world in some positive way.
 
 00:58:55.000 --> 00:58:59.999
 I know my purpose in life. But
 you won\'t tell me what it is.
 
 00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.999
 At least not right now. Why not?
 
 00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:09.999
 [sil.] Because I think
 
 00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:18.000
 I\'ll have a very big, um, impact upon the world. [0059:15]And you don\'t want me to know about
 that ahead of time. [0059:20]It would ruin the surprise. Highly functioning autistics shall rule!
 
 00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:30.000
 [music]
 
	 
		 
		