Because we consider April Autism Acceptance Month, Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism will feature “Slice of Life” conversations with Autistics of all ages — kids through adults — for each of the month’s remaining 29 days. We will profile a different autistic person every day, answering the same set of questions — in a similar spirit to (although for copyright purposes otherwise unlike) the Proust questionnaire capping each issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Why? We’d like to help our non-autistic readers get to know autistics as people who have interesting, complicated lives, and who are as diverse and varied as any other random population united by a label. We are the people in each others’ neighborhoods, and the more we know about each other, the more visible we and our children are, the more common Autism Acceptance will be. That is our hope. We’d also like to encourage you to…
Tag: acceptance
Sunday Stillwell Adventures in Extreme Parenthood This week hundreds of thousands will stand up and ask our family, friends, and coworkers to Spread The Word To End The Word. This means I am asking you to stop using the words “retard” and “retarded” because when you do, even if you’re joking, even if you don’t mean it as a slur, even if you’re talking about yourself what you are doing is disrespecting people with intellectual disabilities… people like my sons, Sam and Noah. Would you call my sons retards? Would you say that the ways they stim or perseverate on things is retarded? Of course you wouldn’t, but I have heard it said to them by kids on the playground who think the way Sam jumps up and down and flaps his hands looks strange, or because Noah likes to make loud screeching noises and run in circles. So I…
Jo Ashline joashline.com themomblog.ocregister.com/author/jashline I took the long way, but I think I’ve finally arrived First, I wrote I Told Autism to SUCK IT. Yeah. I Said It. Then it was My Point Still Stands: Autism Can Take a Flying Leap. Then From Proud Mom to Bigot. Then Us vs. Them. Finally though, I think I get it. I think. Maybe it’s because I’m just a few short days away from my period … I don’t freaking know but in any case I’m over here bawling my eyes out because one week later I think I finally get it. I’m passionate. I’m truthful. I write truthfully with passion. And I wrote something that others found offensive and I came back and said…”Who gives a damn? This is MY SPACE, SO F$%% off.” Except. The universe doesn’t just belong to me. It belongs to everyone. And what I put out…
Jack Gallagher www.jackgallagher.info I have been a professional comedian for 30 years. My resume includes appearances on the Tonight Show, Cheers, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, an ABC sitcom and appearances as an opening act for such diverse performers as Tony Bennett and Warren Zevon. However, my most important role is that of a father to an autistic child. In addition to the aforementioned credits, I have also written four one-man plays. The latest is entitled “A Different Kind Of Cool” and chronicles the relationship I have with my son Liam. While I have been lucky enough to have all of my plays receive positive reviews, ADKOC has garnered the most attention of anything I’ve written or performed. I’ve heard from people all across the country as well as Australia, Sweden, and Finland. To say it has hit a nerve with people who has seen or heard of it is…
Chris R. autismspoke.blogspot.com I can see it very clearly. I’m pushing a shopping cart through a store. In the cart rides Matthew, my four year old son with autism. He’s making the sounds he makes… Sometimes when he’s happy, the sounds he makes are loud. You might say they are screams, but happy screams. When he is happy and loud, we do what we can to keep him somewhere below an F-16 on full afterburner. It’s not that I’m worried he’ll ruin ten seconds of someone’s shopping trip … it’s that I worry what I’ll do if someone says anything cross, or gives me a look that can’t be taken in any other way. You see, I’m always in full-blown autism dad alert mode … just waiting for some parent with “perfect” kids to trip on the wire and have the autism awareness grenade that is me explode and rip…
Kerry Magro KerryMagro.com Kerry was recently featured in a story that ran in the Orlando Sentinel and the L.A. Times which shared his transition to college life and the skills he gained there as he became a self-advocate. He has since graduated from Seton Hall. -The Editors Hello, my name is Kerry Magro and I have autism. I just recently learned about The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism from a truly outstanding individual, Laura Shumaker, who is a remarkable advocate for those of us who are on the spectrum. Once I looked at the website, and read some of the essays, I knew I was hooked. Regardless of what I took from the essays, I wanted to help in any way I possibly could. This gave me the idea of posting one of my own personal works about coming out about being on the spectrum. Below you will find…
Sarah Seymour www.allkidshavespecialneeds.net Two Facebook friends who I am blessed to know (and who happen to be on the autism spectrum) made the following comments: “[Simon] Baron-Cohen says autistics are ‘mind (socially) blind” … but… who is blind?… according to Temple Grandin, neurotypicals are “sensory blind”… seems we are all pretty blind… but at least many of us autists are making great efforts to see outside ourselves… how many of you neuro…typicals can claim to match our efforts????” “I agree. 🙂 See more in the article Q&A: Temple Grandin on Autism & Language on NPR. Autistic people can be isolated, Temple Grandin says, not only because they have difficulty making a connection with so-called “normal” people, but because normal people find it difficult to put themselves in an autistic person’s shoes and see the world from their perspective.” I thought the differences they pointed out were so interesting. Having a…
Kim Dull modernparentonline.com/never-a-dull-moment I realize that 99.999% of the people I talk to regarding my son’s special needs and diagnoses have good intentions–they just have no clue what to say or how to react. They’re trying to help, but unfortunately some of the most common responses are the most irksome. I want to acknowledge that quite often I am just as clueless about how to respond when someone shares news, like a new diagnosis, even though we’ve been through it ourselves. Everyone is different and reacts differently; that’s what makes it so hard. What works for ME may not work for the next person. And this is not intended to make you feel like you need to walk on eggshells when you get this news. Quite the opposite: it’s intended to make you feel comfortable in NOT knowing what to say. So here’s a quick how-to guide for navigating the…
Autism activist Dana Commandatore of RethinkingAutism.com is the mother of an autistic boy. She hopes for a better quality of life for autistic people and their families. Dana says, “Through acceptance and understanding we can make progress.” We agree, which is why we asked to interview her about her site, and the provocative and much-needed autism videos she creates. From the RethinkingAutism.com home page: All too often in the world of autism, celebrity and sex appeal are used to promote pseudo-science and personal agendas. RethinkingAutism.com wants to change minds, change the current media conversation and help give autistic people a more prominent voice in the conversation. Up to this point, certain celebrities and some parents of autistic children have dominated the media with their miracle cures and unsubstantiated theories on causation. This exploits autistic people, their family members and the public. Please join us. Share the videos, read the blog…
T.C. www.ihavethings.blogspot.com I vacillate on the autism thing, and how it applies to N. I use it around the school, because it is a strap, a grabbing-on point, a way for people to understand my son and–very much more to the point–to justify putting forth time, effort, and especially money to help him. I use it because doctors and therapists have used it to describe him. I use it because it’s the primary disability listed on his IEP. But there are so many ways in which he doesn’t seem, to me, to fit on the spectrum part of the spectrum. I describe him, often, as the triangular peg who not only doesn’t fit in the round hole, but doesn’t look all that much like the square peg, either. And yet. And yet, professionals of all stripes see him on a regular basis, and talk to me about him with concern…