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Meet Owen

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Many parents bond and communicate with their children in special ways.  For the parents’ of an autistic child, finding any way to communicate with one’s child is an ongoing challenge.  In the case of Owen Suskind who was diagnosed with regressive autism at age 3, Disney movies provided the link to his internal world.  Using various classic Disney characters as “sidekicks”, Owen developed a way to express himself in a language drawn from the films.  The story articulates the “affinity behavior” demonstrated by Owen and many others diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders.  Owen even formed a group at his college who have learned to communicate through Disney movies in a similar fashion.  Moreover, once you gloss over the seemingly mandatory (albeit paradoxical) politically correct Disney bashing, the story remains uplifting to any person familiar with autism.

Image Credit: A 12-year-old Owen at Walt Disney World. Credit From the Suskind family

Read the entire article at the New York Times

Kristen E. Strubberg is the Editor-in-Chief for TGNR. Kristen founded TGNR in 2013 - seeking to create a high quality platform for original, eclectic and substantive positive news journalism by attracting expert contributors in many varying subjects. Kristen also works as a clinical medical researcher in Cardiology, with an original background in Neuroscience. Her passion for science has translated to her science-fiction specialization, with her highly adept published insights into the best of sci-fi’s popular culture. Kristen has served as TGNR’s Editor-in-Chief since 2013.

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