Below are the items shared on April 23The Mocha Autism Network: Empowering Minority Communities With Autism Support
Autism affects 1 in 68 children, regardless of their skin color or ethnic backgrounds. But, responses to the signs of autism vary, especially in minority communities. Monika Brooks, a California mom with a child on the spectrum, founded the Mocha Autism Network to help change perceptions of autism in her community and surrounding ones. More 7 Tips for Helping the Day Go Smoothly Many families struggle to get everyone to school and work on time. This can be particularly tricky if learning and attention issues make it hard for your child to transition from task to task or keep track of time. The following tips can enhance—and ease—your daily routines. More Addressing Inequities in Care for Latino and African American Children with Autism
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Below are the items shared on April 22 How kicking a trash can became criminal for a 6th grader
Diagnosed as autistic, the sixth-grader was being scolded for misbehavior one day and kicked a trash can at Linkhorne Middle School in Lynchburg, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A police officer assigned to the school witnessed the tantrum, and filed a disorderly conduct charge against the sixth grader in juvenile court. More Teachers Quick to Label Black Students Troublemakers The study showed that teachers tend to view black students more harshly than white students even when their disruptive behavior is exactly the same — possibly triggering a destructive cycle. More Me As a Boy: On Raising an Asian American and Autistic Son Every day we try to figure out the future for Charlie. He is on the moderate-to-severe end of the autism spectrum, minimally verbal (speaking in one to five-word phrases), with numerous cognitive delays—he is unable to read more than a few words and attends a county autism center where he receives vocational training and learns “skills of daily living,” such as washing his face. He can have some extremely severe behaviors of the “textbook autism nightmare without end” sort, including,when extremely agitated, head banging. More Autism Resources for Spanish-Speaking Families When my son Norrin was diagnosed with autism, I was completely lost. The pediatrician who diagnosed him recommended a list of services but offered little hope. I found myself feeling like Alice in Wonderland and I had just fallen down the rabbit hole. Navigating the special education system is complicated. It's been nearly seven years since Norrin's diagnosis and I feel comfortable in searching for resources; I know who to ask and where to look. But like so many parents, in those early years, I spent many hours scrambling, searching and scouring the internet for autism resources. More Below are the items shared on April 21What Reading Self Advocate Blogs Does
There’s plenty of autistic people blogging, mostly adults since it’s mostly adults who blog. Most of the ones I’ve read, most of the autistic adults who are involved in advocacy that I’ve talked to, most of the parents who “get it” say how important it is to listen to autistic adults. Some people might take the “what’s in it for me” approach. I’d prefer that self-determination and the right to be included in conversations that concern your own future be reason enough, but just in case it isn’t, here are some answers of how it really does help parents to read self-advocate blogs and how it really does help kids when their parents “get it,” which is a pretty common result of reading them. More AUTISM AWARENESS AND ADVOCACY CLUB ENCOURAGES NEW MEMBERS TO JOIN A club with a cause. Members of Southern’s Autism Awareness and Advocacy Club said they have plans to educate the campus about the truths behind the disorder while also addressing some stigmas that are associated with the diagnosis. More Below are the items shared on April 20Autism In History
I never set out to write about autism. My interest in the history of psychology and the human sciences directed me towards this subject and compelled me to reflect on the meaning of autism and its changes over time. More Some Doctors Still Dismiss Parents' Concerns About Autism Most children with autism get diagnosed around age 5, when they start school. But signs of the developmental disorder may be seen as early as 1 year old. Yet even if a parent notices problems making eye contact or other early signs of autism, some doctors still dismiss those concerns, a study finds, saying the child will "grow out of it." That can delay diagnosis and a child's access to therapy. More Temple Grandin works to find 'can' in autism The world needs all types of thinkers. Temple Grandin's mind works visually, in a series of photographs. Some people with autism think verbally. Others fall elsewhere along the spectrum. More Thanks so much for participating in Picture Day! Here are some submissionsBelow are the items shared on April 15How to work with someone with autism
The new guy in the office is loud and aggressive, can’t read social cues, won’t wait his turn in meetings, and talks obsessively about the same things every day. And yet, sometimes, he shares extraordinary insights. More Autistic Adults: Socially Impaired or Socially Different? Many of us almost take it for granted that individuals with autism have fewer and poorer friendships than others. Even worse, this assumption is usually assigned reflexively to the autism itself. This isn’t just true of our culture at large, either; it is true of researchers and professionals. Fortunately, some in the field are starting to challenge existing ideas about social deficits and autism. Authors of a recent paper published in the Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, Brownlow, Bertilsdotter, and O’Dell, drew on a theoretical perspective that casts autism as a neurological difference rather than a deficit. More Peter Thiel: Asperger’s can be a big advantage in Silicon Valley He avoids hiring MBAs, since he says they tend to be “high extrovert/low conviction people,” a combination of traits that “leads towards extremely herd-like thinking and behavior.” Similarly, he says that “people end up behaving more lemming-like” in places like San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, where tons of tech companies are crammed into a .635 square mile area. All that socialization leads to conformity, he argues, preventing people from coming up with original, innovative ideas. More Below are the items shared on April 14IN THE SPOTLIGHT: It’s Not Them That Need to Change by George E Stewart II
My son is different. He’s not what society would consider a normal child, but God created him the way that He saw fit. So that makes him perfect! With that being said, I no longer ask God to change my son. I ask Him to change the hearts and minds of many of those around him. You can’t look at my son and see that he’s different. However, as soon as he opens his mouth, you know instantly that he’s different. You see my son is nonverbal autistic, so instead of talking he sometimes communicates by making noises that many would consider strange. Often times when either my wife or I don’t pick up on what my son is trying to communicate, he gets frustrated and he’s subject to throw a fit. This seems to inconvenience many people and strange looks or comments are soon to follow. More Things To Say To & Ways To Help An Autism Parent... :-) Many of the things that other autism parents commented about don't fall under the "polite but annoying when you hear it all the time" category. Many of the things you posted fall under the "out & out rude / mean / ignorant" category. And to me there is a HUGE difference. More When We Realized Why My Sister Understands My Son With Autism So Well I am the oldest of three sisters. One sister is two years younger than I am, and one is five years younger. I was born a social rule follower, always working towards being an appreciated member of the team. Middle Sis was… different. As a baby, she always wanted to be held by our mom, and would cry and fret if she was set down. Others couldn’t hold her, it had to be Mom. No one could kiss her except Mom. More The following items were posted on April 13Mother/Daughter create dating site for people on the spectrum
Olivia Cantu, 18, and her mother, Kristen Fitzpatrick, 37, started SpectrumSingles.com in January as a dating and social media website for individuals on the spectrum. More “Are You Angry With Me?”: Dating as an Autistic Woman “I have to tell you something about myself, something important,” I said to my boyfriend. We were lying on a bed in a University dorm, a girl and boy who at nineteen were taking our first tentative steps into the world of relationships. More Autistic and Queer: Coming Out on the Spectrum You’ve probably given some thought to where you fall on the sexuality spectrum, but what about the neurological spectrum? There is a small amount of emerging data to suggest that autistic individuals are more likely than the general population to identify as asexual, queer or trans. Yet queer autistics are often excluded from the non-autistic LGBTQ community based on inaccurate stereotypes about their ability to empathize and desire intimacy. More
The following items were shared on April 9On Trying to Crack the Secret Handbook of Social Interaction by MW I recently had the experience of being challenged to understand a variety of back to back virtual and real world social interactions. The interactions had mainly to do with bullying, mobbing, and controlling with a side of failure to communicate in which I was less a target than a witness, but I was in the position of having to respond with the timeliness of the nonautistic world. Suffice it to say, I was overwhelmed. More Journeys to the end of your psyche from AsperGirls There are a lot of things they don’t tell you when you get your Autistic Spectrum Disorder diagnosis. They don’t tell you about the shame and embarrassment at being other and different. And a whole lot of other negative things too. More The Pseudo Logic of "Not Autistic Enough" by Judy Endow Recently, I was told by a parent of a child on the autism spectrum that I am “not significantly enough affected by autism to be able to understand real autism” and therefore should stop speaking out about autism. More Video: Race Women and Autism |
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