Ok, so I am not the only person frustrated at autism discourse in the media (hell, I was in hiding for all of Autism Freakout Month). So, I propose a game/remedy.
From now on, every time I read something about autism, I am going to replace the word “autism” with “a cat”.
“With proper support, children with a cat can lead meaningful, productive lives”.
See? Isn’t that better? Everyone should play this game *nods*
My favorite useless autism stimulation thing is the one where it says, “This is how the world looks to a child with autism” and it’s ALL BLURRY. More like this is how the world looks to a child who needs glasses. I have a very good memory and know I didn’t see the world as BLURRY when I was a child!
This is where your money “for autism” goes.
ironically it tends to even be the exact opposite !
Omg okay, so I just started following this autism support group on FB so I could spy on their posts, and someone posted some “advice” to parents of autistic children telling them not to allow their kids to get attached to objects because they`ll freak out when they lose them. Her husband is an…
This is disturbing. Seriously. Wonder if that dr would extend the same “advice” to NT kids who don’t handle losing /their/ favorite objects? I’m thinking probably not. Jerk—the dr.
Omg okay, so I just started following this autism support group on FB so I could spy on their posts, and someone posted some “advice” to parents of autistic children telling them not to allow their kids to get attached to objects because they`ll freak out when they lose them. Her husband is an aspie, apparently, and was freaking out over losing his special pencil. And then when I said it was horrible advice, this doctor came on and fussed at me, telling me that it was right. Here, you can look for yourself. I can`t get this across properly.
First post-“Moms of young spectrum folks don’t let your kids get attached to things.. ;)”
I came in and said it was horrible advice, because hell, now autistic people aren`t allowed to be attached to things? Because we`re totally incapable of having coping skills, right???
What this person replied to me with-“Actually it is VERY good advice. Allowing a child to believe that any toy or item will ALWAYS be there sets that child up for a WORLD of hurt when it goes missing….and they always go missing!!! You may disagree, but it is by NO MEANS, horrible advice. THANKS!! Dr. A”
To me it came off as really condescending, but hey, I`m not a super good judge on this sort of thing. Am I wrong to be offended by the “advice” itself, and also by having a neurotypical doctor rolling in and telling me that it was actually the right thing to do? I would think I would know a little better, considering I am autistic and actually have some perspective on the subject of being attached to items.
Also, I love your blog a lot. Thanks for making it.
This “advice” pisses me off so much. It’s human nature to get attached to things. I bet the people telling others not to let their children get attached have a favorite chair, or a favorite mug, or something.
It’s especially horrifying that they don’t want to let CHILDREN get attached because that’s how kids (both autistic and otherwise) find comfort/security in our chaotic world. Yeah, it’s temporary because things do get lost, but everything is temporary.
Exhibit 2,742-B in the case of normal childhood behavior being stigmatized/pathologized in autistic children.
Parents that want to control the attachments of their children is a way to further infantile them in the future. “It’s only for your own good that you can’t have connections to things that I don’t approve of or deem healthy”.
Stop trying to “read into” what autistic people say or type.
We are, generally speaking, very literal people by nature. Do not assume there is some secret emotional intent or thought process behind our words, because chances are you will be wrong. Try asking us instead, and taking our words at face value.
Oh look, ableism.
I saw people mentioning this sort of thing earlier and went to look for myself and take some screencaps.
Can’t do the caption, this feels like a punch in the stomach…
I verified, this is true, this exist…
THEY HATE US AND WANT TO EXTERMINATE US…..
Why is Aspergers separately classified? Or is it?
Asperger’s was added to the DSM-IV (1994) and will be leaving in the DSM-V (2013).
Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner defined autism at around the same time, both observing children. They lived in different countries and never knew of each other. Because Asperger was working in Nazi Germany, he had to emphasize the strengths of the kids he worked with. Had he not presented them as geniuses, they would have been killed.
Asperger’s stayed an obscure bit of Germany history until its description near-identical to autism was noticed. It was added to the DSM-IV as basically Autism, Verbal Edition.
Edit: Oh, by the way, most of Kanner’s clients were also verbal. The emphasis on nonverbal children was a result of the psychiatric culture at the time in countries like the United States.
There aren’t several forms of autism. Rett syndrome is a thing, but people with Rett syndrome also present differently from each other. There are several autistic individuals, not several forms of autism where if you have some symptom, you MUST or MUST NOT have some other symptom.
idk man i think there are varying degrees of autism
There are varying degrees of impairments.
They are not necessarily even. They are never equal.
There are not different FORMS of autism itself beyond every individual being an individual. There are people more like each other in presentation than like other autistic people, but those “forms” are basically personality traits mixed with factors associated with autism if not necessarily (but sometimes) part of autism itself.
On the cute new trend of parents suddenly coming down with the autism when they’re called on bullying autistic adults.
And they are always the self proclaimed “extremely high functioning” sort.
and they never disclose if it’s not the very moment they get called out on ableism. and it’s always a silencing tactic and never an actual coming out.
Yupppp true.
(Ohai I know someone in the comments from Facebook! :)
Hehe. Total shit storm happening in a private fb group. But no surprise there.
*innocentface*
I wasn’t intending on that at all.
I want to metaphorically slap Stuart Duncan.
But I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.
Oh me too.
You know he namedropped me? He got ONE THING right and he was saying “well K agrees with me!” for like a billion years. No, K agrees with ONE THING YOU SAID. K doesn’t fully agree with anyone but K, and that’s not even a guarantee.
He is such a…Humperdink.
Something that can happen to autistic people, especially females and those raised as female, is a determination to learn social skills fluently that is translated into learning a combination of politeness/manners/protocol/passivity/etc fluently. The people who go this route become like the people who don’t speak your language as a first language but speak it “better” than you do, albeit not the way most folks actually speak it. You can tell something is different.
And in regards to autistic people who do this thinking “social skills” means “getting people to like me or at least not hurt me”, there is this idea en masse that they’re just fake altogether. This is supposedly proven by the dents in the armor, so to speak. And that’s not what it is, not that autistic people are incapable of manipulation (despite the belief they aren’t), but that’s not what this is usually or automatically. Social skills aren’t being nice. Social skills aren’t being polite. Being nice and being polite are not synonymous, either.
If someone isn’t a native speaker of your language, they’re not going to rip off their head to reveal words falling out of a corpse. If someone is autistic and learning your meta language this way is their form of coping, they’re not a Stepford Wife. And you won’t necessarily realize they’re autistic at all, so just be nice to people.
