Louis Theroux... Anyone watching? Extreme Love - Autism

[mrspink27]

Think it may go one of two ways... watching with interest... anyone else?

much of who

I thought the high st corridor was inspired too

Just finished watching this. I know very little about autism, apart from the brother of a friend who insists I am either Chas or Dave.
The parents - and by extension all those on here who have children on the AS deserve so much support IMO.

silverfrog I guess we all do the best for our children with or without autism I do admire those parents now and when i read something about an autistic child i will think of mum and dad too

I really thought this was an inspiring and thought-provoking documentary. I laughed and I cried.

I was glad that it showed the challenges of dealing with children at the lower-functioning end of the spectrum. I get that higher functioning kids provide telly-friendly moments of humour (which they did here, magnificently), and are more intriguing to the general population, but I found it very moving when the mother of the child having a meltdown refused Louis' offer to turn the camera off. She wanted people to see the reality.

That is far closer to my experience than the charmingly off-beat young adult reading Louis' Wikipedia page back to him. At the same time, I do recognise that there are particular challenges to kids functioning at that level (and their parents): I know that depression can be an issue because of the disconnect between wanting to fit in, and not quite being able to. In that sense, I'm grateful that my dd2 doesn't give a shit because her understanding is so low in comparison.

Without trying to say one thing is easier than the other, because it's comparing apples and oranges, despite the spectrum, I was glad that Louis showed the difficulty of dealing with ever-growing children with no language who express all their hormonal angst through physically lashing out. He didn't touch on stuff like toileting issues, or not sleeping much. Not much, anyway.

It is hard. And love is all that gets you through.

I just watched in catch up. I thought it was a brilliant programme and really enjoyed it. I love Louis' stuff.

Wonder why he felt the need to ask every parent, if they could take away the autism, would they?

What's wrong with him asking this? Some parents said yes and some said no so it was obviously worth asking.

I just watched it today. I know a little bit about autism, not much, but I was amazed at Brian's mother taking LT along to collect him and then leaving him to look after him, and amazed how well Brian coped too.

I thought LT's questions weren't structured enough for the autistic children and tbh, he came across as intrusive and even rude at times, such as when he tried to make Nicky talk about his novel when Nicky still wanted to talk about his dictionaries. Rude may be a bit strong, perhaps he could have shown more empathy. I loved the way Nicky found out all about him!

I am also not sure if taking Marcello to the hairdresser was the best thing for him, as he seemed so stressed by the experience. I would have thought a mobile hairdresser would have been a better option, but maybe the parents feel he has to get used to those situations, no matter what, and obviously, they know him best.

I thought both the parents and the school staff were very quick to restrain Joey (the 13 year old) and it was upsetting to watch, but I think it was right that the mother wanted it filmed, so we can see the reality of the situation.

All in all, a good programme.

perhaps the restraining scenes were edited and it took longer to restrain than shown I think L T can come across and a bit rude but i think thats his technique , I spoke to somebody who hates the school and thought they were training the children to be envelope stuffers , but i think that was just a few of the children and i thought it was more to do with using the rituals they did anyway