Author Archives

Nikki Jeanette

Nikki is the creator of the webcomic “AuTalkz”. She has Asperger’s Syndrome and found relief from panic attacks by doodling. Nikki wanted to make a comic which went back to the “bare basics” of past comics: ones l like Calvin & Hobbes which could teach lessons and procure laughter without the use of bad language and-or graphic violence….she called this comic strip “AuTalkz“. “The idea was for the opinions and comedy to come from the viewpoint of someone with ASD. I decided to branch out and do something I’ve always wanted to do: Help people understand autism. My hope is that my comic can help promote understanding, particularly teachers who have students on the spectrum, parents who have children on the spectrum, and even kids and workers who have classmates and co-workers on the spectrum”. We would agree and are proud to feature Nikki and her fabulous work, AuTalkz, on aspergers101.com

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AuTalkz: The Big Picture

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By Nikki J

“I’m an adult with Asperger’s Syndrome/ASD…and I have a lot to say! It’s both a blessing and a curse; and I don’t mind finding humor in it while teaching folks who aren’t autistic about it, and allowing others who have it to feel they aren’t alone.”

AuTalkz

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Societal Pressures and the Mask of Fitting In

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This comic actually touches upon two things (though, I hadn’t intended to do that). My main point is the “mask” we put up, and then I realized that it also lightly touches upon taking things/expressions literally.

On the shorter note, people on the spectrum have difficulties distinguishing between normal tones and sarcasm. There’s also trouble understanding expressions (like “two birds with one stone”), allegories, and metaphors. When I first heard the expression “apple of my eye”, I pictured someone’s eyes reflecting apples, for example.

When I had to read stories in high school on allegory and symbolism, it all went over my head. “Watership Down” is one of my favorite novels, but I still don’t pick up on the symbolism which is apparently in the novel. I’ll explain all that in further detail when I do a comic which actually delves more into the subject. The main subject I was trying to explain with this comic is autism vs society.

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Stimming and Visible Self-Calming Behaviors with Autism

AuTalkz with Nikki J.

Stimming is one of the “stereotypical” autistic behaviors. Many people think of people with autism as folks who constantly flap their hand or rock back and forth. Those behaviors are called “stimming”, which is a motion that interacts with the senses to help calm an autistic person down (self calming) if they feel overwhelmed by the environment.

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Stimming is harmless, and isn’t just hand flapping or rocking. It can manifest in many different ways, but again, is all harmless.

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AuTalkz: Mainstream

Though it can be inspirational to hear that a celebrity has Asperger’s, it tends to be more annoying than anything else. Especially in the cases where someone admits it and was diagnosed long ago, but hasn’t come out and said it until now.

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There are a lot of breakthroughs being made in autism research, and psychologists are starting to understand it more and more. I feel it’s become “mainstream”, even.  The diagnosis rate is going up, and people are either getting diagnosed as adults or coming out and saying they’ve had it all their lives.

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AuTalkz: Wandering

Wandering is perhaps the least understood behavior of autism, and the most dangerous to the person with autism. Before I worked on this issue, I thought back to any instance where I wandered off, and what caused me to do so.

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I came up with the three listed in the second panel:  Boredom (or lack of stimulation), Interests, and (over) Stimulation.

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AuTalkz: Emotions

An amusing moment I recall is when I was home from school once in high school, and had the TV on as stimulation in the background.  It was running an episode of “Blue’s Clues”, and they were covering emotions.  I actually got one of them wrong on the section of matching up body language with an emotion.

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However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t comprehend or understand emotions, or what other people are going through.  In fact, I tend to use some of my experiences to help other people if they’re having a rough time.  I enjoy helping people…that’s one of the biggest reasons I started to make AuTalkz, in fact!

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AuTalkz – “Mainstream”

Though it can be inspirational to hear that a celebrity has Asperger’s, it tends to be more annoying than anything else, especially in the cases where someone admits it and was diagnosed long ago, but hasn’t come out and said it until now.

010_Mainstream

There are a lot of breakthroughs being made in autism research, and psychologists are starting to understand it more and more.  I feel it’s become “mainstream”, even.  The diagnosis rate is going up, and people are either getting diagnosed as adults or coming out and saying they’ve had it all their lives.

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“Autistic”? – Don’t Insult Me!

by : Nikki Jeanette/creator of “AuTalkz” 

For the longest time, the word “retard” was used as a horrible insult.  In fact, that’s partially the reason why the DSM changed it to “Intellectual Disability”.
Hang on, I’m going somewhere with this.
So, the place I saw this word thrown around the most as an insult was the gaming community (as that’s pretty much my social life, and not many people actually call someone a “retard” in person…cause, you know, safety of that computer screen).

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“AuTalkz” by Nikki Jeanette

At the time when I first began to play MMOs (which was shortly before WoW came out), it wasn’t used often.  As WoW and other games grew, I noticed that the word “retard” was used more and more often as an insult.
It completely blew up to the point where practically everyone was using it, and moderators (in MMOs or social chatrooms) just didn’t care or did nothing.

These days, I’ve been seeing something new used in place of “retard”.  It’s, you’ve guessed it, “autistic”.