Red Shirt
Name: Sally

5 Favorite Hobbies:

1. Reading
2. Watching nature documentaries
3. Researching frogs
4. Playing around with sound design on the computer
5. Doodling on her tablet

5 Favorite Things:

1. Frogs (would catch one and keep it as a pet for one day before letting it go)
2. Fast food
3. Animated shorts
4. Sports (Baseball’s her favorite sport)
5. Even with being caught up on new technology, she has a soft spot for tech from the 90’s and early 00’s (2000’s).

5 Strengths:

1. Friendly
2. Interested in all kinds of people, autism or otherwise
3. Detailed oriented
4. Organised
5. Never afraid to ask for assistance; whether it’s for her or for other people

5 Weaknesses:

1. Even with a tablet, she would still be afraid of whether or not she will say the right words
2. She cannot talk (oftentimes would wonder what she would sound like)
3. Difficult to make clear eye contact; May look like she’s not paying attention or not interested but she in most cases, she always is interested
4. Would...

The sound of silence. Why is silence important when it comes to autism? What can we learn from it?

I will teach you why I tend to stay silent since I was very little.

I never really talked much, and I chose not to form much words for a while. One of the biggest reasons why I prefer not to talk at all was because I never wanted to say anything that was not appropriate to say or to embarrass myself and to others around me. No matter what it is! Even if I was asked a question, I would stay silent not knowing how to respond. Took a very long time up to five years until I was given the confidence to speak more frequently. Words are words now, and I feel like I can say anything that comes to mind; especially when given some very hard questions that may be very sensitive even to me.

I still get pretty silent at times. So much so that I have found myself drawn to people my age that are silent too. There was a time when I was at a design and engineering class, and all the time, I would...