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Supporting Autistic People in Health Care, Education, and The Criminal Justice System: An Interview with CRAE’s Laura Crane

Shannon Rosa from Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism and Corina Becker from Autism Women’s Network interviewed Laura Crane from CRAE, the UK-based Centre for Research in Autism and Education about her work in supporting best practices in health care and education for autistic people, and also demonstrating that Autistics, children specifically, can be reliable witnesses during criminal investigations. Laura Crane | Photo: CRAE [image: Smiling white woman with long brown hair.] Shannon Rosa: Why don’t you start by telling us a little bit about the work that you’re doing for CRAE, because it seems like you’re involved in so many things. Laura Crane: My research focuses on two main areas. The first is looking at how we can support autistic children and adults within the criminal and family justice systems. A lot of that work has come from police officers and barristers and other legal professionals assuming that autistic children and…

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Autism and Biowearables: An interview with Matthew Goodwin at IMFAR 2017

Carol Greenburg and Matthew Goodwin at the IMFAR 2017 Press Conference [image: White woman with short platinum hair and glasses posing with a taller white man with a shaved head and goatee.] Northeastern University researcher Matthew Goodwin gave an IMFAR 2017 keynote speech about his work on “Wearable Sensor-Based Physiological and Physical Activity Biomarkers for Use in Laboratory and Naturalistic Environments to Assess Arousal and Repetitive Motor Movements in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism’s Carol Greenburg and Shannon Rosa, and Autism Women’s Network’s Corina Becker, spoke to Goodwin after the IMFAR press conference, about the real-life applications of his work, and how they can benefit autistic people. Carol Greenburg: What constitutes a behavior, insofar as it’s something that needs to be mitigated? A behavior like flapping or other “stims” may mean something different to the person who’s doing the intervention, as opposed to the autistic person themselves.…

The Beginnings of Autistic Speaking Day – Revisited

Today is Autistics Speaking Day. Why? This is why. From our archives. Corina Becker autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com It started sometime mid-October 2010.  I was browsing the internet, following links off of Twitter to new places I hadn’t been, when something caught my eye. A new autism awareness campaign, it advertised itself as a way to raise money for charities around the world and for people to understand autism better. Curious, and ignoring the growing dread in the pit of my stomach, I clicked the link and took a look.  What I found was Communication Shutdown, an event started by a group in Australia that promoted people to refrain from going on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for one day, November 1st. It said that it would help people to understand the communication difficulties that people with autism struggle with, and this will help people to know autism better. Also,…

Getting Through the Holidays!?

We chose the punctuation above for a reason — cautious optimism and the hope that, with the right guidance and attitude, we can make it through the winter holidays, possibly even with some happy memories. So if you, your families, and your friends are hunkering down for the holidays; and if you, like some of us are also a bit … stressed about changes in routine, location, or faces — consider what the wise folks below have to say about navigating this most tumultuous time of the year. And if you have any advice, please leave it in the comments below! Happy Holidays, friends. -The Editors —- Self-advocate Annabelle Listic: …it is especially important, during the holidays, for any autistic person to have:  A way to communicate basic needs, emotions, opinions (a travel dry erase board, sticky notes with simple language on each, a typing program on a phone, tablet,…

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Autistics Speaking Day 2012

And you really need to go to the Autistics Speaking Day website to see all the amazing posts that have already been put up, as and also following the @AutisticsSpeak Twitter stream. TPGA Contributor & Self-Advocate Lydia Wayman, representing. For those who would like history as to why this day matters so, please read ASDay co-founder Corina Becker’s TPGA Post The Beginnings of Autistics Speaking Day. Contribute contribute contribute! Spread the word! Boost the signal! Be as loud as your or your hands can be!

For Autistic Teens Feeling Doomed or Broken

You are not alone. Many teens who receive an autism diagnosis feel broken, and suffer from pain of acceptance — even to the point of suicidal thoughts. And the resources you need are not easy to find. So we asked several adult autistics who were once autistic teens themselves: If you were in this headspace, how would you feel, what would you want people to say to you, what could possibly help? These are their replies. Karla Fisher I was angry the day I received my diagnosis. At first it just made me feel “broken.” People tried to tell me that I was the same person I was before. But those words did not make me feel better. Reaching “acceptance” of my label took me around eighteen months. There is very little written about this process that pertains to autistic people as our emotions do not neatly lineup in the…

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IMFAR 2012: Highlights & Takeaways

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.ThinkingAutismGuide.com TPGA editors at IMFAR 2012 We had a great time at IMFAR; it was important that TPGA be present, given our mission to support evidence-based autism information. I wish more autistic people and people whose lives include autism — personally or professionally — would or could attend. We’ll keep posting summaries and insights for those of you who couldn’t go. Here are my general observations and takeaways. IMFAR 2012 ‘s goal was to present the newest research conducted over last year, with a particular effort to include presenters from outside autism science whose research overlaps with or has implications for autism. This may be why the science often, though not always, seemed a bit softer than 2011. With the result that in some panels, I would just … stop typing after a while, because it was clear the material would not be terribly useful to…

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Surviving the Holidays While Autistic

Photo © skywaykate | Flickr/Creative Commons [image: Photo of a table set up to serve a holiday buffet, lit by candles.] Corina Becker nostereotypeshere.blogspot.com Up here in Canada, we had our Thanksgiving back in October, so we’re all getting ready for Christmas/Hanukkah/other winter holidays.  I’m going to be very honest: I celebrate Christmas, so my default for the holiday season is Christmas.  This doesn’t mean that stuff I say cannot be used for other holidays, it’s just a religious difference, use as need. But I’m kinda using my own experiences for this, so I’m going to resort to my default of Christmas.  Also, I’m mainly addressing parents in this post, but I’m certain that some of these pointers can be used for Autistics of all ages. But yes, the winter holiday season is approaching, and it’s a very busy, hectic and overwhelming time of year, full of all the things…

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Autistics Speaking Day 2011

Liz Ditz www.ThinkingAutismGuide.com The first-ever Autistics Speaking Day was in 2010, and was organized by Corina Lynn Becker, assisted by Kathryn Bjørnstad. The stimulus was a fundraising proposal by an Australian public-relations organization asking neurotypicals to refrain from using social media for one day, which they called “Communication Shutdown”, and which they claimed would “encourage empathy for people with autism who find social communication a challenge. Corina was appalled. As she wrote on her blog, in the post Real Communication Shutdown ….this is supposed to help simulate the communication difficulties that Autistic people face. I’m sorry, but no. Just no. Through October 2010, Corina continued to write and tweet about her opposition to “Communication Shutdown”, and Autistics Speaking Day was born — and went viral, with over a hundred posts from autistics and autistic allies, and uncounted tweets with the hashtag #ASDay. In September 2011, Corina published The Beginnings of…

The Beginnings of Autistic Speaking Day

Corina Becker autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com It started sometime mid-October last year.  I was browsing the internet, following links off of Twitter to new places I hadn’t been, when something caught my eye. A new autism awareness campaign, it advertised itself as a way to raise money for charities around the world and for people to understand autism better. Curious, and ignoring the growing dread in the pit of my stomach, I clicked the link and took a look.  What I found was Communication Shutdown, an event started by a group in Australia that promoted people to refrain from going on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for one day, November 1st. It said that it would help people to understand the communication difficulties that people with autism struggle with, and this will help people to know autism better. Also, for a $5 donation, people would get a charitable app to…