THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM
Autism news and resources: from autistic people, professionals, and parents
Why does the media keep letting parents of autistic kids exploit those kids’ most vulnerable moments? Autistic writer Sarah Kurchak talks to her mom Jane about why such stories aren’t parents’ tales to tell, and why Jane will never write about raising Sarah.
Maxfield Sparrow unstrangemind.com Photo © Benedic Belen | Flickr/Creative Commons [Image: Black-and-white photo of an Asian woman comforting a small crying child who is wearing a tiara, and has their hands over their face.] The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism asked Autistic adults to fill out a survey about death and dying to create a resource for people who need to explain death to Autistic children. The response was tremendous—in less than a week the survey had 50 responses, mostly from Autistic adults. What follows is a summary and analysis of the responses. We hope it is useful to you, your child, your family, your clients, and your students. Please note that some of the responses discuss difficult material, including suicide, and suicidal ideation/threats. Bullet Point Summary Autistic adults were surveyed about death and dying. Most learned about death through observation of people, animals, and plants. Learning about death was…
It’s important to remember that when an autistic person is struggling or having aggression, they are not being “bad” or trying to do something to you personally—even though it can feel like that, especially if they’re screaming at you or making you angry.
When you help me cope with a meltdown and when you help create an environment that helps me avoid meltdowns, you are helping to build a kinder, gentler world that has room for everyone, no matter what kind of nervous system they have.
(Or, A Good Dose of Humility Never Hurts) Kim Wombles www.kwomblescountering.blogspot.com I’ll have been involved in the online autism community for three years this March. I’d say the community has changed, but I’m thinking it’s more that I changed over the years. People still bicker about the same kinds of things (some of the people are the same ones who’ve been at it for years), and the divides seem to be more entrenched than ever before, if you go looking in those places. I try to avoid that, now. Sometimes, when I make the round of blogs, of bloggers posting their deepest feelings, only to be roundly attacked by others, I want to respond, to get into the middle of things. Most of the time, though, now, I don’t. I shrug and move on. I ask myself first what possible good could come out of my investment. It isn’t that…
Carol Greenburg aspieadvocate-ascd.blogspot.com I could have kicked myself for not getting the name of the wonderful New York City police officer who pulled me over the other night. I’m a safe driver for the most part, but Asperger’s sometimes interferes with my perceptions whether I’m standing still or navigating a dark road. It was rainy, I was distracted, and if I can’t even read body language … Well, I was as I so often am, stumped. Even at my best it’s sometimes unclear to me why people honk their horns at me, so when the cop driving behind me started waving his hands I didn’t know if wanted me to get out of his way or whether he was trying to pull me over. Turns out it was the latter. I know this because he used his loudspeaker to announce to all of SoHo that I was to put my car…
Anonymous Special Needs Professional Recently I read a post on The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism blog by a parent named Pia Prenevost. It was called An Open Letter to Special Needs Professionals. The title made me feel a bit guarded at first (as a special needs professional), because my experience with Ye Olde Internets is that “an open letter” usually warns that a negative letter, a warning to the recipient of the “Oh, no, you di’n’t” variety, is coming. But that was incorrect, because in reality the author had written a lovely, heartfelt post about the vulnerability a parent of a child with special needs feels. I encourage you to read it, it’s beautiful. Here’s an excerpt: “I am broken-hearted. And it doesn’t matter if it is the first day or a century later. It doesn’t matter where in the “grief cycle” I might be. It doesn’t matter if…