Jada's Senior Project: Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Literal:
Pinpoint three main parts of the book.

A boy named Jason walked the reader through his everyday life. nothing really special happened; he simply wanted to show the reader what it's like to be autistic. (1)For example, he was very nervous about meeting a girl he had been talking to online to the point that he didn't want to meet her. He feared that she would find his too strange if she saw how he acted, but it was serendipitous that she turned out to be blind. (2)Another example was when he was discussing what he thought was his parent's opinion of him. He felt that his parents liked his little brother better because he was neurotypical. The most frustrating part of his mother's opinion in the beginning of his journey was how she saw Jason's disorder. "Now we know what's going on, Jason," my mother said. "now we know what's wrong. And so we can fix it." Saying things like that to a child only makes him feels worse about himself. (3)Jason's autism could have easily been confused or coupled with Hyperlexia. He was a word smith. For example, he would wake up every morning and a new word would pop in his head such as lexicon, placate, halogen, regurgitate, or confluence.

Interpretive:
In the story, Jason mentions the difference between special, different, and defect a few times. Explain what it means to you.

The difference is simply this: when someone wants to sound like they are speaking about something in a positive light they will say "special" or "different", but when using the word "defect" it is clearly a negative thing. Jason sums it up perfectly: Like is a person is different, that is a good thing. But is they have a defect, that is not.
However, when people say special or different they may be trying to cover up what they're really saying. Jason explains it like this: But at eight years old I had already learned that people will say one thing and mean something else completely. Special. Different.

Applied:
How did reading this enhance your understanding of Autism?

It really got me into the head of an autistic child. I know a lot about ASD, but reading about it and, in a way, living it is very different. I know that these kids have thoughts and emotions and I know that they have an extremely difficult time communicating both; but it never really hit me that they ACTUALLY do have feelings and thoughts. When I learned about everything I knew, it was all just words on a paper; but now having been inside the mind of a child, it's much more real. I can't find the words to truly describe how this book enhanced my understanding, but I can say it honestly did.

Jada's Senior Project