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Tania | AutisticStrategies.Net | #OptimiseAutism
@ekverstania
, 6 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
It's about a month from #Apraxia Awareness Day.

I have a challenge for #ActuallyAutistic people: Raise awareness of apraxia.

Why? Because apraxia is VERY COMMON among autistic people and VERY SELDOM recognised.

The behaviour of apraxic autists is often (mis)treated using ABA.
There are several types of apraxia. Apraxic autistics often call their type of apraxia "the body-mind disconnect" or the "brain-body disconnect".
This type of apraxia is different from just having problems with pronunciation or with accuracy of movement. With autistic apraxia, you may end up doing or saying a COMPLETELY different thing from what you intended.
Ido Kedar suggests the following names for this phenomenon:

Severe Motor Dyspraxia

Mind/Motor Communication Linkage Disorder

Self-Regulatory Motor Control Disorder

Read more:
idoinautismland.com/?p=496
Apraxia is a phenomenon that affects purposeful movement. Some apraxic autistics are sporty and may enjoy running or swimming, yet struggle to execute an instruction that requires a purposeful sequence of movements, like, "Close the cupboard."
Here are the thoughts of four autistic people who have struggles with purposeful movement. They write about ABA, an inappropriate and abusive 'therapy' which they received while nobody recognised their movement difficulty. tania.co.za/non-speaking-a…
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More from @ekverstania see all

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Tania | AutisticStrategies.Net | #OptimiseAutism
@ekverstania
I am formally diagnosed, and I don't feel that self-diagnosed people are appropriating anything of mine. Yes, some people fake disability, but that is pretty rare in my experience, and I know a LOT of disabled people. Ironically, one of the suspected fakers got an official dx.
And just to reiterate: I did not "seek an autism diagnosis". I did not self-diagnose. I had NO IDEA that I was autistic.
Subsequently, through me, many people around the world have become aware of their own autistic traits and the majority of these eventually sought and received a formal diagnosis.
Read 26 tweets
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Tania | AutisticStrategies.Net | #OptimiseAutism
@ekverstania
Oh for goodness' sake. This ABA in 2019, and it is STILL an abnormal human rights violation perpetrated by adults against disabled children. They don't treat non-disabled children like this!
And now for the syrupy people who say, "My ABA isn't like that, we do X differently and we are gently supporting, not trying to change them, etc. etc." -- if you are one of those "good" therapists, why do you call your method ABA, knowing that the term has ALL these connotations?
Like, who are you actually trying to please? "Oh, the government only pays for it if it is called ABA, but actually it's more like play therapy..."

OK, so why don't the Floortime and Son-Rise and a whole lot of other people call their method ABA?
Read 20 tweets
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Tania | AutisticStrategies.Net
@ekverstania
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.
Read 27 tweets

Related threads

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Megan 🚂
@negamlambert
If you've ever heard about autism, you've probably heard of stimming, or "self-stimulatory behaviors". Most people will recognize stimming as hand flapping or rocking back and forth, but stimming includes more than that.

So - what is stimming? And why do we do it? A thread.
Broadly, I think stimming can be defined as sensory-based behaviors that help people to interface between themselves and the physical world. They are often, but not always, repetitive.

Stimming can also be a form of social communication or connection.
Stimming encompasses a lot of behavior. Here are some examples:

Flapping your hands
Rocking back and forth
Walking on your toes
Clicking a pen
Tapping your fingers on a desk
Sifting sand through you hand
Curling strands of hair on your fingers
Spinning in a circle
Pacing
Read 25 tweets
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Sara Gibbs
@Sara_Rose_G
Here are some wonderful traits associated with people on the #ActuallyAutistic spectrum. The usual caveat that everyone is different & these aren’t universal. That’s the first thing - we tend to be very accurate & thorough 😉
#ActuallyAutistic people can have very rich inner worlds & vivid imaginations. Some of us can retreat to incredible, vast places inside our heads. I have many pre-built sets of happy, safe places to go to if I need to get away. The ultimate budget holiday.
Another #ActuallyAutistic trait is kindness. Autistic people tend to really care about others & want to help, even if we’re not always sure how. We also tend to be generous, sometimes overly so & like to share what we have with the people we love.
Read 11 tweets
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Erin Ekins
@QueerlyAutistic
Why some #ActuallyAutistic people are really upset about the whole puppet thing: a thread for everyone involved in @allinarowplay.

Firstly, it's really important to understand that this isn't just people being offended on the internet. This is about serious generational trauma.
You have to look back at how #ActuallyAutistic people have been historically treated. Whether it be the idea of the changeling, the Nazi genocide, or the anti-vaxxers decrying their 'lost' child, we have been treated as less-than-human beings - broken, soulless, and unworthy.
Ivar Lovaas, the 'Father of ABA', explicitly described the autistic children he worked with as not being fully human. He didnt believe we had souls, he didn't believe we were entitled to basic human rights unless we 'earned' them by learning how to be 'not autistic'.
Read 13 tweets
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Sara Gibbs
@Sara_Rose_G
Going to do a little thread on what it’s like to be on the autistic spectrum. Will add to it from time to time, mostly myth debunking, stuff you might not know & how to help / interact with autistic people in your life. #ActuallyAutistic
Did you know that a lot of autistic people have problems processing sensory input? Even leaving the house can be totally overwhelming as we are less tolerant of bright lights, strong smells, loud noises (or multiple noise sources), textures, motion etc. #ActuallyAutistic
If you’re meeting an autistic friend, try to meet somewhere quiet & calm. If you can make the effort to travel closer to us, that helps greatly as long journeys can be really difficult. On top of the sensory issues, we can be very anxious about planning. #ActuallyAutistic
Read 88 tweets
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David H. Clements
@waterprinciple
There's this bizarre assumption about the #ActuallyAutistic that "functioning levels" are:

1. A characteristic of the autism.
2. Fixed. Immutable.
3. Something you can gauge from superficial details on twitter.
4. Prevents commentary.

Buckle in, let's talk about these.
First, to address (1), there is no such thing as "High Functioning Autism" or "Low Functioning Autism." These terms literally come out of the attempts to define us into the groups "almost human" and "not human." They have no place in modern discussions medium.com/@waterprincipl…
None. Zip. Zero. Drop them from your vocabulary.

There's some people running around with legacy diagnosis and that's a separate conversation, but for the purposes of modern discourse:

* There's no such thing as "severely autistic."
* There's no such thing as HFA or LFA.
Read 23 tweets
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Lydia X. Z. Brown
@autistichoya
Autistic people are human beings. We can and must make our own medical choices, especially about procedures as invasive+permanent as sterilization.

#BoycottToSiri
Forcible/involuntary sterilization because you're afraid of someone like me reproducing? Direct and clear example of modern eugenics.

#BoycottToSiri
You can't imagine your son in a sexual situation because he is autistic? You have a serious lack of imagination. Autistic people span the entire sexual and asexual spectrums.

#BoycottToSiri
Read 57 tweets

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