"If the kid didn't do what I wanted, could the problem be with what I wanted?"

-- @alfiekohn
Why the predominant paradigm of personal achievement in the US (and the main approach to working with autistic children there) is immoral, unscientific and counterproductive.

(Long educational video. Spend this hour. It may be essential to do so.)

The USA isn't the only culprit, but Alfie Kohn focuses on the US, because they have some uniquely extreme manifestations of the problem.

He even connects it to why anti-maskers are so common and so extreme in their selfish rebelliousness in the US compared to other countries.
Thrrr is insufficient evidence to justify using ABA, the most-recommended (and government-mandated) therapy for autistic children in the US.

The same goes for PBS, the derivative popular in the UK.

Applied Behaviour Analysis and Positive Behaviour Support should not be legal.
PECS (the method, not the pictures cards themselves) is ABA.

PECS is an immoral, counterproductive approach rooted in pseudoscience.

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More from @ekverstania

30 Dec 20
Crumbs, I just saw South Africa's triage policy.

If you're above Frailty Level 6, and if there are more people than resources, they won't let you into ICU.

They'll basically let you die.

Disabled people that I know, and people's parents and children fall into this category.
We feared this.
We lobbied against this.
Read 12 tweets
29 Dec 20
[THREAD] Biohacking with thiamine

I am going to try taking megadoses of thiamine to persuade my mitochondria to cooperate with my desire for productivity.
My vitamin B complex supplements contain 28 mg, which is, like, nothing compared to where I want to go, so today I am adding 200 mg thiamine, and will work my way up to 700 over a few days, then see whether it needs to be more.
Also getting lysine again, so that I can take lysine and citrulline together as well.
Read 9 tweets
27 Dec 20
Question posted this morning on Facebook:

"My daughter is non-verbal and 5. Where do I start introducing an AAC system to her? She has a tablet so we can easily download apps. Please could anyone tell me which app would be suitable for her."

It's the wrong question, but...
It tells us about how inadequate support incl. training must be for parents of children with communication disabilities.
The mother didn't say whether or not the child has an autism diagnosis, because it was an AAC group, not an autism group (although many of the members and admins are autistic).

This is important, because the type of AAC chosen or tried must match the problem.
Read 86 tweets
26 Dec 20
Type "A young military man working in Afghanistan told me that" and let autocomplete do the rest.
"A young military man working in Afghanistan told me that I wasn't dialoguing to the police and the police were telling me about the police clearance thing and they said they would be a good person to play the role of Music in the current script."
QAnon says: wake up, think for yourself, do your own research and don't believe MSM.

So, between the unnamed young military man in Afghanistan and my phone's autocomplete, I seem to have the perfect kit to start QAnoning on the next level.
Read 7 tweets
1 Dec 20
[THREAD] If you're an autistic activist who speaks, and you've recently joined the fight for the communication rights of nonspeaking autistic people, I want you to know that you're going to have opposition, particularly from ABA people. This thread is to help you in that fight.
Your priority shouldn't be policing person-first language and puzzle pieces, or people calling themselves 'autism moms'. Those things can wait. Your focus should be on communication access for their children. You need to SUPPORT them in getting that. They may not know it exists.
I have been in this area of advocacy for several years now, as a speaking autist advocating for nonspeakers' rights, and I am able to share some of my learning with you on what works and what doesn't. You win some, you lose some. Let's learn together.
Read 40 tweets
21 Nov 20
Check your knowledge. Retweet for awareness.

For nonspeaking autistic people, good fine motor skills and coordination are rare.

Expressive facial communication, fancy dance movements -- these things are SUPER difficult for many nonspeakers because of...
The reason why I am doing this poll is because recent representations of a fictional nonspeaking autistic character in some entertainment videos doesn't take the actual problem into account at all.
This can create a huge misunderstanding of autism, because to non-autistic people, the character looks autistic, so the character informs people's picture of autism.
Read 180 tweets

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