Planet Autism, 1/14/08.

Coping through comics: Manga sheds light on autism

Tom Baker / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

“People with autism, even if they have high intelligence, have difficulty explaining their feelings about the situation they are in to other people,” manga artist Keiko Tobe said. “They have communication problems.”

Tobe’s most successful manga work, Hikari to Tomoni (With the Light) follows the life of an autistic boy and his parents. In an interview with The Daily Yomiuri at her Adachi Ward, Tokyo, studio, Tobe said some readers affected by the condition have told her in tears that she was describing their feelings and problems on their behalf.

Basically, autistic people do not process stimuli, most notably verbal stimuli, in the same way other people do. Even for autistic people who have normal or high intelligence, verbal communication can be difficult.

“Autistic people understand intangible things in images,” Tobe said. For example, they may visualize a mental picture of delicious food more easily than they can use the word “delicious.”

In Hikari to Tomoni, two young parents learn this lesson as they come to grips with the fact that their son Hikaru is autistic. As an infant and young boy, Hikaru is easily startled and upset, but is otherwise unresponsive, especially when his parents speak.

After an initial period of confusion and dismay, they begin teaching him concepts and even words by repeatedly showing him objects and pictures.

Tobe said she was inspired to write about autism several years ago when one of her two sons, who is now in middle school, had a day-care center classmate who was autistic.

Tobe was asked to edit a photo album of the children at the day-care center. To write about them, she asked each one what they wanted to be when they grew up. The autistic boy’s mother answered on his behalf, saying he wanted to grow up to be “a cheerful working adult.”

The phrase so impressed Tobe that she decided to write a manga about autism. Knowing almost nothing about autism at first, she had to do a lot of research, which included talking to the parents of other autistic children…

The rest is here.  My son loves manga: I think I’ll check this out.