The Boy Who Could Fly (PG, 1986)

Title: The Boy Who Could Fly Year 1986 Summary: The movie is about a teenage boy named Eric. He is considered social awkward and while the movie did not state that he had a diagnosis of autism he displayed certain characteristic of autism. Some of the characteristics displayed by Eric are social withdrawal, poor communication and repetitive behaviors. The author of the film appears to be under the impression that autism occurs to a child when they experience a severely traumatic experience. In the case of Eric, his ‘autism’ began at the age of 5 when his parents died in a plane crash. The accident caused him to develop an obsession with flying. Generally speaking a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder would have begun to display characteristics of autism by the age of 3. The author of the film also seems to be under the impression that Eric can ‘snap out of it’ and will be able to be like everyone else with the help of Milly (his next-door neighbor). ASD Behaviors: Communication: He shows limited verbal and non-verbal communication with a lack of true two-way conversational skills, he fails to understand the emotions gestures. Eric displays receptive language but with little expressive language skills. Throughout the movie Eric did not speak, he showed an interest in his next-door neighbor Milly and nonverbally communicated with her. However, the communication that occurred between them generally had to do Eric’s interest/fixation on flying. He showed her how to make a paper airplane and said her name once in the movie. He non-verbally expressed his interest and sometimes he would express his feeling by either smiling, or looking sad but this rarely occurred and one would have to read his expressions or interpret his responses. At one point in the movie Eric was taken to a hospital, he was meant to be institutionalized because his uncle was unfit to care for him. Eric did not seem to mind being in the hospital until Milly visited him and was denied seeing him. Because he was unable to request or verbally communicate with others he expressed his frustration by having an outburst. However, no one understood why he suddenly became aggressive and difficult. This is often the case for children who have difficulty expressing their needs or wants. Social & Emotional: Eric is socially withdrawn from his peers and family (uncle). He displays little interest in the people around him. A scene in the film shows Eric in the classroom, in the scene he is not even facing the front of the room, he is in his own world isolated from everyone else. He does not appear to be bothered or even aware of the lack of social interactions. Everyone in school seems to treat him as if he were just odd or as if he did not exist. The only person to interact with him and show an interest in him is Milly and a teacher. The only person Eric shows any interest in is Milly, however he has a hard time finding a way to approach and be social with her. Instead of introducing himself to her, he would engage in odd/socially inappropriate behavior such as staring at her from his bedroom window and following her. He began to mimic her actions while in school. Repetitive Behavior: Eric engages in repetitive/fixated behavior on the subject of flying. He habitually sits on the edge of his bedroom window, with his arms stretched out pretending to fly. He would also pretend to fly while standing on the top of his roof completely unaware of the danger he was putting himself in. He is also somewhat fixated on Milly. Teaching Strategies: Eric’s teacher has Milly work with him, she believe all he needs is additional support and a friend. In order to reach Eric and to hopefully get him to talk Milly takes on the role of a one-to-one, she works with Eric during school hours and at home. Milly acts as a sort of tutor; she keeps journals to monitor his progress. She works with him for about an hour during class and works with him during gym. She practices turn taking during gym. She shows him facial expressions and has him mimic them. She attempts to include him in all of her activities. She has lunch with him and treats him as if her were like anyone else. To work on his communication skills she reads books and watches movies with him that of interest to him, they are all about flying. She tries to tap into his interest and relate to him. Film Rating: I enjoyed the film and was able to see some characteristics of a child with autism. However, the idea that a child with autism will suddenly ‘snap-out of it’ or is some sort of magical being is pretty inaccurate and gives parents false hope, while some children will improve or adopt certain skills this does not mean that autism will disappear. The message that the child needs someone to work with them in order for there to be improvement is however accurate. If a person did not have knowledge of autism and the characteristics one would just think Eric is just strange and awkward.