Rory Patton springingtiger.wordpress.com Most sick benefit seekers ‘are fit enough to work,” the London Evening Standard recently reported, in a very short summary of the report by The Department for Work and Pensions. The article quotes the Work and Pensions Minister Steve Webb as saying that many people are “able to work with the right help,” and that, “Those who cannot work will always receive our unconditional support but for those who can work it’s right they get the help they need to get into employment.” The implication of the article seems to be that people are claiming benefits dishonestly. The Work and Pensions Select Committee expressed concern at the way claimants are portrayed by the media as “work shy.” The report of the select committee also raises concerns that the new procedures have not been adequately explained to claimants leaving some disabled people concerned that the goal is merely…
Month: August 2011
Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.Squidalicious.com www.ThinkingAutismGuide.com I want to tell you a secret about Autism Awareness. I’m telling you because you have a stake in the autism community; whether you touch one or many lives, you can change them, you are powerful. And, like me, you care. You want to make a difference — for yourself, for your child, for someone you love, for someone who depends on you. And you can make a difference, you will, if you keep this cornerstone of Autism Awareness in mind at all times. Ready? Here it is: Behavior is communication. That’s it. That’s all. That’s everything. If you put your mental backbone into behavioral awareness, into trying to understand why a person with autism, or a person associated with autism, behaves the way they do — if you can make yourself truly aware of that person’s needs — then that is when the…
Jennifer Byde Myers www.jennyalice.com In our family, we make medical decisions using science, facts, and data, and we believe in keeping our children healthy, so we vaccinate. I have never thought that vaccines caused my son to be autistic. Except for that one time. Lucy was a perfect baby; not that she never cried, or blew out a diaper, but she held her perfect little round head up, and rolled over on time, and she just looked. so. perfect. When she was four months old I took her for her routine vaccinations. She was in the 90th percentile for height, the 75th for weight…right on track, and the nurse gave her 3 shots: HIB, Pneumococcal Prevnar 7, and inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) She got little round bandages stuck to her little chubby leg. She scrunched up her face to cry and I nursed her a bit, and tucked her back…
Carol Greenburg aspieadvocate-ascd.blogspot.com I feel sorry for those who think autistics have no ability to empathize. In my case at least, Asperger’s left me too vulnerable to the emotions of others. When I was a little girl, I smiled until my face hurt. I was nowhere near as delighted as the constant smile seemed to indicate, but I was not miserable either. The unrelenting smile was, I now believe, the product of rigid autistic thinking, which had led me to a false conclusion that like everything else in my world, there was a correct and incorrect path. Blocks must be stacked in a certain formation, every imaginable question had right and wrong answers. By that admittedly skewed, reasoning, the same principal must have applied to emotion. There was one correct emotion: happiness, which was always expressed with a smile. Other emotions existed, that was irrefutable. Whatever other explanation could there…