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Be aware that when autism professionals talk about "focusing on their strengths", it may mean something different from what autistic people mean by this. Some professionals view the areas in which you don't look so autistic as your "strengths".
So, while you view your ability to self-regulate by stimming preemptively as a STRENGTH, some professionals will see that as a WEAKNESS.
It's becoming fashionable for autism professionals to claim that they have autistic endorsement, when all they've done is to get a rubber stamp for what they're doing from one or two naïve and misinformed autistic people.
Unless we are using words to mean the same thing, and unless we share the same values around those things, we may not in fact be agreeing at all.
Misunderstandings and disagreements happen every minute because people have not yet gained consensus on what they mean by the term 'autism'.
Autism is an umbrella term for a cluster of neurodevelopmental endophenotypes. So, autistic people are not necessarily autism experts, even if they understand themselves pretty well.
Non-autistic people definitely don't become autism experts either unless they get input from a variety of autistic people with different manifestations of autism.
"I have worked with these children for 30 years and they have taught me so much."
"Oh, like what?"
"Well, for one thing, patience."
This is a typical cameo conversation with someone who knows very little about autistic people. I could write an essay about why I say so.
"Oh, like what?"
"Well, for one thing, patience."
This is a typical cameo conversation with someone who knows very little about autistic people. I could write an essay about why I say so.
When you are in a position of power, your ability to learn from someone is VASTLY reduced. So you are at a massive disadvantage compared to that person's power-peers.
Here's a thread describing the mindset of people who will have difficulty in learning about autism. Unless they dismantle their ableism, the 'learning' will be categorised into the wrong mind-files. The conclusions and the actions taken will all be wrong.
Here a mother of an autistic child writes about the ignorance of the experts, and what professionals can do to remedy their own insight deficits. emmashopebook.com/2013/10/25/to-…
And guess what! Here's a book with a rather alluring title written by... autistic people! autonomous-press.myshopify.com/products/the-r…
As someone interested in the biology of autism, I come across many non-autists who know a lot about the inside of autistic bodies, and who believe that they care deeply for the minds housed by those bodies. But in conversation and in their writing, many of thse people are scary.
Many of these people think they see the person first, but their actions show they don't. They won't listen to the person. They don't let the person use the mode of communication that works best for them. They see only wrong genes, wrong behaviour, a wrong desire for acceptance.
A disabled person, and yes, a person disabled because of a neurodevelopmental anomaly, or even someone disabled by ILLNESS is a person first; and that means that you need to listen and respect that person, even as they are transformed by the condition you regard as so odious.
Sometimes our strengths come from this very thing you regard as a disorder, a thing that you believe was not meant to happen. It's the age-old story of heroes and superheroes. It's the reason why so many autistic people find comfort in the X-Men.
Having a greater degree of disorder and disablity doesn't mean that your strengths will all lie OUTSIDE your condition. They may STILL lie within your disabled self. They just need support and enablement.
Some of my biggest surprises in this respect have come from the words of Mr. Silent Treasure, a South African autistic teenager with high support needs who had no means of communication until the age of 14. Some of his first freely-communicated words were, "Autism is my talent."
When asked a year later what era he would choose if given the opportunity to travel in a time-machine, she said that he would go to a time "when autistics rule the world".
I asked him last year what message he had for doctors, psychologists and others who have decision-making power over people like him. Bear in mind that he has sezures, violent outbursts and requires a lot of support.
He knew very well that I intended to communicate his reply at a seminar about autistic health. I explained that in detail. In other words, he had every opportunity to consider his various deficits and to pick the ones he wished to prioritise for research and treatment.
And he began to cry.
Slowly, painstakingly, with much sobbing, he spelled out the words:
"They must not treat me like a small child."
"They must not treat me like a small child."
That was the only message he had for these people that day.
When I quietly wrote it on the flipchart, another non-speaking teenager who was in the audience at the seminar burst into ecstatic shouting.
Want to learn from non-speaking autistics what they consider to be their strengths and weaknesses? One does not speak for all. Here's a thread to get you started. I'll give you a year or two to find your way around this rabbithole. Or maybe a lifetime.
Want to know how to gaslight autistic people's support needs? Just focus on what YOU think their strengths are, and put all the problems down to low self-esteem.
