Autism: give me a chance and I will change everything | Noah Britton | TEDxNewEnglandCollege
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Published 2015-01-27
Noah Britton is a psychology professor, performance artist, singer, guitarist, clothing designer, and autistic person. He is perhaps most famous for co-founding Asperger's Are Us, the first comedy troupe composed entirely of autistic people. He has worked directly with people on the autism spectrum since 2005, as therapeutic mentor, camp counselor, and researcher, and served on the US federal government's Interagency Autism Coordination Committee.
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All Comments (21)
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to explain the ending, it was all set up and he was demonstrating that 1: the best way to protest things is through voicing your opinion 2: he was subjectively showing two sides to his argument and 3: they are in a relationship and he is fucking hilarious and wanted to shock everyone with his absurd humour not weird but the workings of a genius.
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this guy was my professor... he is so sweet and kind... I was always stealing a glance to look at his face... i was too shy to make eye contact... he is amazing
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Nearly smashed my bloody computer when the phone rang. Thanks for the effective diagnosis, Noah.
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you wanna hug or something?` that lack of eye contact and that sentence at the end was too endearing.. you made my aspie heart melt. hahahh.
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Using electric shocks on aspies should be banned! Covering your own ears over irritating noise such as sirens, car alarms and microphone feedbacks is nowhere near bad behaviour. I stand against the use of electric shocks to be used on people who are on the autism spectrum, that's torture.
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This talk is genius. Immersive experiential demonstration of what it feels like to have a hypersensitive nervous system. I feel like crying for how validated I feel too, as a female with a sensitive nervous system, who has felt insane and ashamed and rejected and overwhelmed for years. Thank you for this. I hope to do work as a somatic therapist that will look like this, educating and supporting us all.
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Love. I have newly diagnosed son with Autism. People keep asking me how I feel about that -- I find it touching, but also Autism isn't something to grieve. I tell them that I feel fine about it. He's still smart, sweet, funny, and all the things he was before the diagnosis. I also keep a journal for him -- I have vowed not to let people/therapists try to correct his stim. behaviors. He shouldn't have to conform to society's norms, because he's 100% who he needs to be, and sometimes people on the spectrum need to work things out.
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my teacher showed me this video to show me how my autism worked. i was always ashamed of myself until this video. my teacher was one of his friends. i thought i was the only one that felt like this until i watched this video. thank you Mrs.LaFontain (sorry if i spelt your name wrong)
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I'm autistic and I love him, he's such a sweet and smart guy. This was very relatable
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That ending! XD He jammed their brains! What a hilarious way to show neurotypical people what being autistic can sometimes feel like.
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This is seriously the most straightforward video I have seen about Autism and sensory issues.... Everything else is so jumbled with junk and opinions..... absolutely love Noah
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His Paceing back and forth was stimming. It was his Superpower in action. It made me nervous at first untill I realized he is using it to ntake command of the room. I heard every word.
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His voice is so beautiful
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To input as another with sensory sensitivity, I had a hugely massive emotional and physical response to that alarm clock. I held my ears, shut my eyes hard, chills like if you get touched by a creep, and the emotional response gave a physical response in tears. And this is something most people struggle with when they see me do this. They ask why I cry, I say I am not crying, it's an involuntary response to a stimulus - and then they don't immediately understand the difference. When you cry you are "boiling over" in an overwhelm like fear, sadness, anger, or empathy that needs to come out of you and it can be quite violent to get it out of you. You can feel that your eyes sting, you feel a feeling in your chest that can be sorrowful or overall heavy. Crying you can hold back the tears until you permit it to happen in many cases. This response I had is not the same. It is an instant reaction, no emotion to get out, just a physical reaction I can't feel coming, can't control, and the eyes don't sting. So what I wanted out of this rant is to put out there that stimulus sensitivity causes physical reactions that doesn't always make sense to those that has never experienced it. So what may look like it makes no sense makes perfect sense, it is only someone else's shoes. He explained so much perfectly, like the bright light or static noise. I have been told so many times that I have X ray hearing, X ray eyesight, X ray nose and tastebuds, and jokingly called superhuman. It is exhausting when you live in a world of noise, brightness, colors, smells, and textures. For instance, not too long ago I had to leave a store because the smell of humans made me nauseated. I don't have autism but I do have ADD so if you know a kid with autism, Asperger, ADD, ADHD or OCD and other processing disorders that "acts weird" then remember that they are doing their very best.
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i can definitely relate to the headphones on doorknob example!
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This is the best description of my experiences that I’ve ever heard. The headphones getting caught was spot on. When I was younger if this happened, I would explode. I still struggle because stuff like that instantly makes me yell profanities. It’s like an auto response.
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i truly believe autistic's are just the nocturnal version of humans, and everything you have said just adds to that belief
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I am forgiven and I forgive people who hurt my feelings or for whatever reason are trying to harm me. I really like myself.
