Listen to autistic ABA survivors!
Autistic adults who have been in ABA therapy as children remember traumatic events from ABA, do not believe that they should be made to behave like their peers, and believe ABA Is an unethical intervention.
Source: tinyurl.com/AutisticABAexperiences
Smart phones don't make kids autistic. They DO enable both kids and adults to find information about their neurodivergence, and connect with other people who share their experiences. And that's good, actually. @yourewrongabout.bsky.social on phones and moral panic:
tinyurl.com/PhonesAreGoodActually
If you get an icky feeling from the way most news stories and research talk about autistic people, you're not wrong.
Friends don't let friends use or spread harmful autism information. See our resources page for better options:
thinkingautismguide.com/resources#AutismAcceptance#Neurodiversity
Please, please, please learn how to have your autistic child's back. We can help.
Thank you, Beth Greene Perera. Original tweet:
twitter.com/Old_Snowflak...
What problems are there with how behavior support services happen now? What changes could make behavior support services better? How can people with I/DD prepare for times when we might not be able to control our behavior?
Please read/share ASAN's new report:
autisticadvocacy.org/2024/05/beyo...
“It’s not uncommon to find an irrational fear of disability among nondisabled individuals. That unease, which we refer to as disability anxiety, stems from a lack of understanding of what disability means.” John Marble et al., in #Neurodiversity for Dummies.
Sensory Desensitization should not be a thing. Thing is, Neurotypicals often don't realize that sensory sensitivities can HURT. “Most of the time, it's not just distressing—it's excruciatingly painful. An adult is hurting you, over & over, until you stop reacting." So says @juststimming.bsky.social.
Neurodiversity simply means all brains are valid. “Our brains aren’t problems to be fixed, nor are our different ways of thinking somehow “superpowers” to be praised. They’re differences, that’s all. They simply are what they are.” By John Marble et al:
www.wiley.com/en-us/Neurod...#neurodiversity
Neurodivergent people, well, “We just use our brains differently. Or, said another way, our brains require stimuli and structures that neurotypical spaces tend to pathologize.” Khadijah Queen in Disability Intimacy, edited by @sfdirewolf.bsky.social:
disabilityvisibilityproject.com/book/disabil...
Recently an older woman told me and my autistic son how rude people used to be to her and her son. I told her the problem was rude jerks, not her son living his life. She said she knows this now but it sucked at the time. So, in case anyone else needs to hear it, the problem is usually OTHER PEOPLE.
Autistic people deserve to healthy, safe, flourishing lives. And to make that happen, families, professionals, and researchers need to listen to autistic people about what good autistic lives look like. Kudos to Melanie Heyworth & Liz Pellicano for their excellent work on this topic.
rdcu.be/dI72v
Why autism is a spectrum: "While most of us can easily tell the difference between yellow & orange, we probably can't agree on exactly where yellow ends & orange begins because there is no single point at which 1 becomes the other.” Roy Richard Grinker, Nobody's Normal.
wwnorton.com/books/978039...
ABA Advocates tell parents and educators that ABA therapy is evidence-based. Except that "evidence" is lacking, and also riddled with conflicts of interest—if you really look at the record and research like Anne Borden King does.
childrensrights.substack.com/p/part-5-of-...#BetterWaysThanABA
If you're not autistic—or if you aren't the only autistic person in a home—it's not always obvious how to make a home feel safe. We talked with seven autistics about how to make homes feel like places of safety, comfort, and ease. At TPGA.
thinkingautismguide.com/2024/05/what...#neurodiversity
“Those of us who can communicate our experiences watch nonspeaking autistic people experience the same sensory challenges, & we understand in ways non-autistic people simply never will, no matter how close their relationship.” By @autisticdoctor.bsky.social:
www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/wea...
“Autistic people may express empathy and emotions in ways unfamiliar to others, but this doesn’t mean they don’t feel them.”
Did you get your copy of John Marble et al’s #Neurodiversity For Dummies yet?
www.wiley.com/en-us/Neurod...
It's Mother's Day in the United States. However this day hits you—with joy, with pain, with a complicated knot of feelings—know that we see you, and that you are not alone.
Based on the original post at: www.squidalicious.com/2019/05/dear...
"Realization: Asking for help is hard NOT just due to internalized shame about needing help, but because it can invite unsolicited advice & demands for me to justify why I need to do a thing (or do a thing in a certain way) in the first place." -Anne Corwin @feliscorvus.bsky.social#neurodiversity
"When other people take choices away from autistic people, it can make us believe we are useless and destroy our confidence. It can even lead to us putting ourselves in dangerous situations, just to prove ourselves." Luce Greenwood, at TPGA.
"I was like a poster boy for what pros call the Double Empathy Problem. My family, friends, teachers wanted to help. But they didn’t understand what I needed. I wanted to help them… & vice versa." Johnny Profane on life before a late autism diagnosis at TPGA:
thinkingautismguide.com/2024/03/the-...
"If parents get their information about parenting autistic kids from the autistic community, they will find people who think that their kids are awesome, and deserve to be happy, and want their parents to feel the same way." At TPGA.
tinyurl.com/ProfoundAutism#neurodiversity#ProfoundAutism
If you are autistic or otherwise neurodivergent, you might feel bad about not being able to take on supposedly "easy" tasks or quests.
But, thing is, "That doesn’t mean you’re failing to do an easy thing. It means that for you, the task is hard.”
From Real Social Skills. #neurodiversity#autism
Sarah Kurchak @fodderfigure.bsky.social on "genius musicians":
"A lot of them require significant support from other people and don’t actually live that independently. We just don’t consider it support when it comes from managers, staff, friends, lovers, groupies." At TPGA.
#neurodiversity
"It is a fiction that there are these 3 neat categories into which we [autistic people] can be placed. Apparently, these will apply to everything we are & do, are caused solely by “autism,” and stay the same for life. Really?" @annmemmott.bsky.social on Levels of Autism:
tinyurl.com/AnnMemmottTPGA
It’s April. We feel perfectly entitled in taking a train day to belatedly honor the birthday of longtime TPGA contributor Max Sparrow @unstrange.bsky.social.
[image: white adult bearded man wearing a baseball cap, seen from behind, riding a visibly steaming steam train.]
A reminder about love, compassion, and empathy within and without our community, from Mel Baggs (R.I.P.). The full contemplation is long but rewarding:
withasmoothroundstone.tumblr.com/post/1630619...
An example of Autism Acceptance is when the autistic character Cassandra's sister says to her, "Honestly, if the world was built for your wiring, it would be a much better place. There’d be a lot less overhead lighting, for starters.” From Cassandra in Reverse by autistic author Holly Smale.
It’s Transgender Day of Visibility! To our trans community members: We see you, we love you, and we happily welcome you into our houses and to be with our families. (And if you are going stealth, you still get respect and love.) #TDOV2024#neurodiversity via University of British Columbia Instagram
