Reading a story sent by a friend I read this paragraph:

"But what draws kids like Owen to these movies is something even more elemental. Walt Disney told his early animators that the characters and the scenes should be so vivid and clear that they could be understood with the sound turned off. Inadvertently, this creates a dream portal for those who struggle with auditory processing, especially, in recent decades, when the films can be rewound and replayed many times."

"The latest research that Cornelia and I came across seems to show that a feature of autism is a lack of traditional habituation, or the way we become used to things. Typically, people sort various inputs, keep or discard them and then store those they keep. Our brains thus become accustomed to the familiar. After the third viewing of a good movie, or a 10th viewing of a real favorite, you’ve had your fill. Many autistic people, though, can watch that favorite a hundred times and seemingly feel the same sensations as the first time. While they are soothed by the repetition, they may also be looking for new details and patterns in each viewing, so-called hypersystemizing, a theory that asserts that the repetitive urge underlies special abilities for some of those on the spectrum."

This story reminds me of how Disney impacts our live.  It hit so many chords.  It inspires and engages me.  Wants me to do more.  Lets me know I am doing enough.  A great read.

This article is adapted from “Life, Animated” by Ron Suskind, to be published April 1 by Kingswell, an imprint of Disney Book Group. Disney exerted no influence over the content of the book. The author acknowledges the rights granted to him for the use of Disney materials.

Ron Suskind is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of four books about presidential power. He is currently the senior fellow at Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.