Supposed “High Functioning” Autism, and Maladaptive Behaviors

November 11, 2016January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Kaelynn Partlow Facebook.com/AutisticAngle I’m an adult with supposed “high functioning” autism. I drive my own car, and for the most part, I have many self help skills. There is nothing obviously different about the way I speak. I also work as a therapist, with young autistic children. Due to the nature of my job, I am required to get a tuberculuosis (TB) test every year. The test involves a needle, and I’ve had a severe phobia of needles for as long as I can remember. To be perfectly honest, I’ve always had a general phobia when it comes to medical procedures, even the painless ones. So, when it came time for my yearly test, my supervisor accompanied me to provide extra support. She and I have been close for several years and she has been there to support me in many other ways, even before my employment. In the waiting…

Disability

Switched On: A Frank Conversation With Author John Elder Robison

March 23, 2016January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

[image: Book cover, with the title, “Switched On: A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening”] The new book Switched On is author John Elder Robison’s deeply personal account of seismic shifts in his emotional, social, and perceptual responses to other people, the world, and his own memories — due to participating in brain research on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and autism. I spoke with Mr. Robison about his hopes in choosing this journey, its costs in terms of his own health and happiness, his autism advocacy, and the risk of frantic parents assuming his story means they need to use TMS on their autistic kids. Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: Are you concerned that people might see Switched On as an argument for “normalization” treatments for autistic people? Even though you are careful to emphasize that “we cannot know the future, or the potential, of anyone,” even though you…

Disability

Puberty Resources: The Girls’ Guide to Growing Up

May 17, 2013January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

We get frequent requests for puberty and sexuality resources and information. While in general, good frank resources are good frank resources — witness the UU Our Whole Lives Lifespan Sexuality Education Curricula — specific guides can be helpful too, such as The Girls’ Guide to Growing Up. This book takes girls through all the aspects of puberty: changing bodies, privacy, menstruation, masturbation, etc. It is also written with even more frankness than most puberty guides; I’ve never seen a photographic guide to understanding when it might be time to change a sanitary pad, for instance. And it reassures girls that while some people have crushes, others don’t (since many autistic people are asexual, this casual reassurance during such a foundational time is important). It also tends to use “person” instead of “boy” when discussing sexual feelings, which reflects reality. The tone overall is very friendly and comforting. It is written…

Disability

I Feel for You

August 1, 2011January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

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…