Preferred Interest

The video opens of a white woman walking through a large room, with photos of brains projected onto a curved wall. Then cuts to a shot of a boy walking down a streetcar, then to a child sitting at a big table playing with blocks. All this time, Kate Noble Weitz, Director & Founder of Common Senses Festival, says the following: 

“It’s very important to embrace preferred interests. Common Senses Festival has created an entire preferred interest track. The whole point of Common Senses is for individuals and their families to come and enjoy their preferred interests in a place where it’s celebrated.”

The Common Senses logo appears on a transparent purple background, with the subtitle Preferred Interests.

The scene changes to a video of a white woman with brown glasses speaking. Her name is Kristie Patten, Ph.D and she is a Professor and Counselor to the President at New York University, and she says the following: “Preferred interests is a term that has been used, instead of restricted and repetitive interests. With autistic individuals has so much joy. This is just as meaningful to this individual as whatever you’re interested in is meaningful to you.” While she speaks, footage shows a boy playing with toy trains.

The boy is identified as Dexter in the next slide, where the text “Dexter’s Interests: Alphabets & Languages” appears. It then cuts to a video of Wendy Andersen, Common Senses Festival’s Common Coalition Manager. She is a white woman with brown hair. She says: “The alphabet has been something from very early on, well before he was even speaking. He was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder when he was six months old. I have a distinct memory of sitting in the hospital, 14, 15 months old, flipping through flashcards and that, like, got us through our days. That’s when we were like, okay, there’s something here that’s clicking.” While she speaks, we see footage of Dexter playing with alphabet blocks and other toys.

We then see Wendy and Dexter together, and Dexter says: “I learn a new language everyday. There are a lot of alphabets and I can’t name all of them.” Wendy asks: “Do remember how many alphabets are in that book?” Dexter responds: “70,” and Wendy repeats: “There are 70. Usually when he figures out a new one, he spends the day and he’ll have it done within a day or two.”

Wendy then explains: “He’s happy, he’s singing, he’s dancing, he’s drawing. All of these things that are so great for him in life, he gets through loving the alphabet.” We then see footage of Dexter smiling while engaging with his alphabet papers.

We then cut to a new section that says “Finley’s Interest:  Neuroscience” on a transparent purple background of Finley near a screen that has images of the brain on it.

We then are introduced to Finley Evans. She is white with long brown hair, and she says: “I want to be a neuroscientist and research the brain. I wonder, like, how does this one thing, like, allow a person to think, feel, be alive? The behind the scenes of like how everything works. It fascinates me.” While they say this, footage of Finley interacting with scans of the brain are shown. 

We then cut to a scene of Anna Evans discussing Finley. Anna is a white woman with blonde hair, who says: “She’s always had this super like, inquisitive mind, asking tons of questions about everything. It helps me understand who she is. It’s really fun to see her have an outlet like that as a preferred activity.”

The next scene is a new section that says “Freddie’s Interests: Thrill Seeking & Elevators” on a transparent purple background of Freddie riding a mountain bike on a mountainous location. 

The next scene is Kate Weitz describing Freddie’s preferred interests, and says “My son Freddie has several preferred interests. He is just a straight up thrill seeker.” There is footage of Freddie skiing down a mountain playing while she says this.

We then see Kate and Freddie together, and Kate asks Freddie “Do you like to ski?” He responds “Yes” and Kate confirms “Yes. You like to ski. Do you like to go slow, or do you like to go fast?”

Freddie responds with an AAC device “I like to go fast! I love to do thrill seeking activities.” We see another video of Freddie skiing down a slope.

Kate explains “ Another really prolific preferred interest for Freddie is elevators. He loves to go up and down. He loves to watch YouTube videos where they’re going into an elevator and hitting a button, and they go to a certain floor. He just finds it fascinating. It’s what he likes, it’s what he loves to do, and so we just kind of roll with it.” While she speaks, we see footage of Freddie riding in an elevator with Kate and with Dexter.

We then cut back to Dr. Kristie Patten again, who says, “With the autistic community, there is a bias we know through society against disability. We’ve pathologized so much of interest and preferred interest, and it really rests on our shoulders to change that narrative. We have to frame this differently. If I frame it in a positive way as a strength based, near affirming way, then I’m going to say, well, this is great! How can we incorporate this? While she speaks, we see footage of Freddie, Dexter, and Finley interacting with their own respective preferred interests.

It cuts back to Kate Weitz, who says “There are many topics that are quite common in the autism world. So every year we’re going to focus on one preferred interest. This first year is elevators. Each enthusiast will get their own passport, so at each stop you will get your stamp from the elevator that you’ve ridden. Each elevator enthusiast is going to have a great time going around and seeing all these elevators.” While she speaks, we see footage of Freddie and Dexter riding around on different types of elevators.

It cuts to Wendy Andersen, who explains: “It’s really taking a preferred interest of so many, and saying, hey, like, let’s come experience this all together.”

“So much of what we see with the disability community is society’s reaction to disability as the most disabling factor. So when you have events like this, it basically teaches the community: listen, people are different. They think different, they like different things – and that’s okay. And we get to showcase that here.” While she speaks, we see footage of Kate and Freddie exploring the exterior and interior of a train car, and of Dexter looking joyful with a digital screen of alphabets.

Wendy Andersen then says: “If you want to see pure joy on someone’s face, embrace their interests.”

The video ends with the Common Senses Festival logo, and the website CommonSensesFestival.com on a transparent purple background of the top of an elevator shaft.