Hello guys, I have to say sorry first that I am lacking some communication skills with you. I am an English learner, a neurotypical person (I guess the two reasons that organized my expression problems the most) , and I am a designer who currently doing a project for helping improve the eating problems of autism. If you find offensive or uncomfortable with what I am saying, just point it out to me, and I'll change it!!
I notice that many of you are talking about the "stereotypes" of autism. Let me tell you some facts about autism in China. Because from my side, I am doing a project and I want it to be discursive. And most of my audiences are neurotypicals, so I have to consider the stereotypes in their minds and the public acknowledgment level. When you read them, PLEASE don't be angry. They are the facts, and not people intentionally doing that. And there is always a need for people to help alter the wrong impressions. (I hope my project could at least trigger some thinking in the Chinese society context)
The facts are:
1. Autism or autistic, in Chinese, has been a joke. This originated from translation problems. In Chinese, being autistic is totally the same as being isolated. So, people use it for fun, before knowing it was a serious existed condition.
2. In China, people with autism HARDLY say to the public that they are autistic. Because once they tell, they will be thought as "retarded". And the surrounding people are afraid to interact with them.
3. Based on 2., people difficult to accept they are autistic. Even the test or the situations tell them they are, some of them still choose to evade.
4. The medical condition (or intervention institutes) in China is quite bad. I noticed you guys are very precise with what types of autism you are having. But in China, I could say it is impossible to know. There are only a few best best best best hospital owns departments for ASD. But China has 1.4 billion people.
5. Based on 4. I am now giving a reason for what forms the stereotypes in 1. & 2. In China, once the parents find their child or children are autistic, it means they have to run out of all savings to find possible solutions. The majority of reliable approaches come from overseas institutions, and they normally cost a lot. This is from the economic aspect. From the mental aspect, the children don't understand why he/her has to adapt to others' way of life. But their parents know that if they want to survive in China, as least current China, they have to adapt.
6. China is the biggest developing country in this world, but still with so many problems.... I don't think the rest of the developing countries will be better than China.
Then, I will talk about my project.
I found that people with autism have much higher risks to have eating problems, and that forms gastrointestinal problems in their lives. So my project is aiming to help improve eating conditions. And my context is in China. So, I might need a more universal solution, rather than being precise to each specific type. I am still a student, so I cannot do a very very big project
Now, I come up with an idea. It could be described in two parts. Firstly, there will be a virtual dog friend to assist in the acceptance of food. This is inspired by AAT (animal-assisted therapy). I hope dogs could reduce anxieties and could guide people to accept the refused foods. The Second part is, to participate in the cooking process. I found in so many cases, parents do all the things for their children. However, some people talked about when participating in a cooking process, the food is more likely to be accepted (I think I viewed this opinion from some places but I forgot where it comes from... Could you give feedback here?)
Basically, this project is partially fictional, or speculative. The reason to have a virtual dog is, normally the treatment or service dogs cost a lot of money and time in training. But virtual dogs could avoid this problem. And the reason I want to let my users merge into the cooking process is that I am expecting this could improve the acceptance, and in the meantime, it helps improve the controls of their bodies. I mean, motor skills training.
So, this is a description. Could you guys give me some feedback? Appreciate any comment!