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Colin Meloy and Positive Autism Parent Role Modeling

The autism parenting community could use more role models like singer, musician, and writer Colin Meloy. We spoke with him earlier this month about the awesomeness of his son Hank, why it’s so damaging when parents publicly promote negative messages about autism and autistic people, and why autism parents should put their energies into better autism accommodations and resources instead of “fighting” autism. Colin and Hank TPGA: Did you have autism in your life prior to becoming an autism parent? Meloy: No. There wasn’t any, or very little —  not in my immediate family. So my son Hank’s diagnosis was blindsiding to a certain degree. But I had also never known autism to be necessarily negative. When I recall my B.A. (Before Autism) era, I hung around with artists and musicians in the Pacific Northwest, fellow introverts and weirdos, and there were certain artistic temperaments that were often socially awkward,…

What Reading Self-Advocate Blogs Does

Alyssa yesthattoo.blogspot.com Trigger Warning: Mentions of abuse, tragedy/burden talk There are plenty of autistic people blogging, mostly adults since it’s mostly adults who blog. Most of the blogs 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. You can have hope. Too many of the resources you will find about autism paint a…

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April 2013 Is Autism Acceptance Month on TPGA

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 autistic experiences, happiness, and rights — and we’d like you to participate if you’re willing and available. Here’s what to do: Please send us a post or captioned picture that represents the message or story you’d like thousands of people to see and/or hear for Autism Acceptance Month. It doesn’t have to be an original submission (we understand that everybody wants something from our community members during April), but you do need to own the copyright. Submissions can be emailed to thinkingautism at gmail dot com. That’s it. We’ll publish a new essay, story, or…

Autism Shock Therapy Practiced In US Is Torture, Says UN Official

Emily Willingham www.emilywillinghamphd.com www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham   Trigger warning: discussion of Judge Rotenberg Center, aversives, mistreatment of autistics Some practices used as “therapy” for autism in the United States amount to torture, a U.N. representative says. The U.N.’s Juan Mendez is the organization’s special rapporteur on torture, and in his report examining torture worldwide, he’s called out the only facility in the United States that uses “skin shocks” to ‘treat’ people with severe mental illness or developmental disabilities, including autism. That facility is the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC), formerly the Behavioral Research Institute. While it once was located in California and then moved to Rhode Island, the facility is now sited in Massachusetts. Mendez expresses concern in his report (p. 84) that if Massachusetts becomes too hot to hold the JRC, the center might simply relocate again, and he urges action at the federal level to end the use of such aversives…

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An Interview with IACC Member Dr. Matt Carey

As some folks in the autism communities seem to misunderstand the purpose and mission of the IACC — the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, we asked recent IACC appointee Matt Carey to talk about why he joined the IACC, what the IACC does, and what he hopes to accomplish as a member.  From the IACC member bios: Dr. Matt Carey joined the IACC as a public member in 2012. Dr. Carey is the father of a young child with multiple disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder, and is a frequent contributor to the Left Brain/Right Brain blog and other autism blogs. His writing focuses on reviewing current autism research in an understandable way for the public and he is deeply committed to communicating the importance of getting the science right for autism.  TPGA: What is your elevator pitch, in terms of telling people what the IACC is and what it does? Dr.…

An Apology: Racism And Autism

Brenda Rothman mamabegood.blogspot.com It is not very long ago that I wrote a racist essay.  While that statement settles in, let me quickly say: I am not a racist. I know racism still exists and must be fought against every day. I know black people still experience economic and social restraints that restrict their access and opportunity, compared to white people. I know people of color are marginalized by society in both trivial and critical ways through personal contact, society, and through the media. I know all these things, and yet, I have also written unintentionally racist statements. One of those statements was in a public blog post, published on my own blog, on Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, on Denene Millner’s My Brown Baby, and on Parenting.com. It doesn’t get much more public than that. In case you missed it, I’ll summarize it. I wrote that my autistic child…

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Vaccine Safety: A Conversation With Dr. Paul Offit

We occasionally feature posts about vaccines on this site and our Facebook page, to debunk declining but Internet-fanned beliefs about vaccines being linked to autism. Though our 2011 interview with vaccine and infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Offit addresses most questions people have about autism and vaccines, we sometimes get queries outside that interview’s scope. So I was grateful for the opportunity to have another conversation with Dr. Offit when he spoke at the Children’s Hospital and Research Center of Oakland earlier this month, and ask him some of your questions. Matt Carey from Left Brain/Right Brain joined the conversation as well. -SR TPGA: Autism rates have not declined since 2001 event though thimerosal was eliminated from most vaccines in the US by then. In some cases, those who believe in an autism-vaccine link have just shifted the goalposts to injection of foreign substances into the body and other theories.…

Gym Hell

Katharine Kroeber Wiley www.meowspawprints.co Imagine a girl sitting in the corner of the gym during PE, her hands over her ears, maybe rocking or making a keening noise: she’s trying to tune out the intolerable chaos of running bodies, echoing noises, glaring lights. She gets blamed for disturbing the other children, and her parents get an angry phone call. Physical exercise is a great thing. It can help autistic kids organize their thoughts, attend to their work, reduce stress. Particularly for autistic kids who are good athletes, these activities can boost confidence and serve as a social ice-breakers. Some manage gym classes without any accommodations, some need a few adaptations, some thrive with specific Adaptive Sports Programs. But many parents, or budding autistic self-advocates, are unaware of the wide range of options they can request, get turned down flat, and don’t know how to fight back. So far too many…

The Yin and Yang of Privilege and Empowerment

Leah Kelley 30daysofautism.wordpress.com I have been reflecting on privilege … and perhaps entertaining the loss of it as we work to find our place and way to support others in the autism community. I have been raised with privilege (not riches and extravagance — see the link at the end of this post to learn more about this). Although I am in my late forties and have occasionally felt the sting and squeeze of sexism, or the judgment of others in dealing with low mood and depression, I have not suffered abuse, nor have I been silenced because of my neurology, or my ethnic background, or… That sense of privilege has a shadow, and the shadow is the assumption that I have the right to speak up — to say my piece — to be heard. And I am coming to realize that this attitude may actually silence or dilute…

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My Anxiety Is Not Disordered

Cynthia Kim musingsofanaspie.com I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about anxiety recently. When I was diagnosed with Asperger’s, I was also diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder. Here’s how I feel about that: Social Anxiety? Yes. Disorder? Not so much. Disorder implies that my social anxiety is irrational. Is it? Consider this: “Anxiety at appropriate levels is important for adaptive functioning. There are many environmental hazards that must be avoided and these are often learned through the process of anxiety induction. The resultant anxiety response is learned through the association of certain stimuli with unpleasant consequences.” (from “Autism and the Physiology of Stress and Anxiety,” Romanczyk and Gillis) Anxiety, like fear, protects us from danger. It raises our guard and makes us wary. In this way, it’s healthy. Without it, we might be less motivated to get an education, to work, to care for our loved ones and ourselves. What…