One of our autistic community members, who was frustrated with being treated dismissively by non-autistic people, asked us this question via email. Another of our autistic community members answered the question, with both thoughtfulness and strategic advice. The two then gave us permission to post their exchange. We hope readers who are not autistic will […]
This month we’re asking our autistic community members What Do You Want? What Do You Need? We’ll be featuring their answers all April long, right here. Please read, listen, and share. Today we’re having a conversation with autistic advocate Star Ford. Star is the program manager of Ócate Cliffs, a planned mountain retreat for groups
We’ve updated our comment policy. Short version: Please keep comments on topic, and please do so without making conflicts of opinion personal. We want TPGA and TPGA Facebook to be forums in which people feel comfortable discussing and debating autism topics. We do our best to moderate threads and encourage respectful disagreement. However, as we
Beth Ryan www.loveexplosions.net So, as an administrator of Parenting Autistic Children with Love and Acceptance, I’ve seen a lot of questions from parents asking, “Where were you when Kelli Stapleton needed help with her daughter, Issy?” And, “Did you donate to Issy’s treatment?” These questions are asked of Autistic activists and parents of Autistic children
Ariane Zurcher emmashopebook.com I was alerted to an article written by Dr. Michael Oberschneider entitled Ask Dr. Mike: Expecting and Anxious About Autism. In the piece he writes, “Some of the happiest parents I know (both personally and professionally) have children on the Autistic Spectrum.” In the comments section people weighed in with their thoughts. Many parents
Melody Latimer asparenting.com At some point, everyone will have to deal with loss and grief. Whether it’s the loss of a pet, relative, or friend, it can affect us in ways we never expected. I recently suffered a loss that was unexpected and quite possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever had to endure in my
This April will once again be Autism Acceptance Month on Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, in the spirit of Paula Durbin-Westby’s Autism Acceptance Day and Month initiative at autismacceptanceday.blogspot.com, and ASAN’s Autism Acceptance Month project. We want to help make April matter, in terms of helping spread the word and further acceptance and understanding of
Robert Moran blog.robertmoran.org Today I went to my first meetup for autistic people. It was both eye opening and interesting, I honestly had never spent much time with other autistic people. In fact I have never met any other autistic people in real life before. All of my friends and coworkers are neurotypical. So it
Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.squidalicious.com What I want people to know—and why I write—about parenting my autistic son Photo © Jonathan Mandel [image: A white mother with orange hair holds a toddler on her hip while standing with a young child, as a third child emerges, smiling, from a school bus.] When I realized
Brenda Rothman mamabegood.blogspot.com I had a lovely conversation with another mom of an autistic child, face to face, sipping coffee, while we talked about hot-button issues in the autism community. Without losing respect or good will for each other. Maybe it was the coffee. It was good coffee. We debated “cure:” why some parents want
