Thread by @erikaheidewald

half a million dollars to study how to cyberbully autistic kids out of lining up their toy cars and looking at ceiling fans. how about you see some flexible and functional behaviors when i kick your ass, Brian

I hate this extra bc my family is in the area. they are looking for kids like my little brother & sister and I'm so grateful that when my little brother lined up his Elmos we all just thought it was fucking CUTE and my little sister’s obsessed with X-rays so she gets MORE X-RAYS

my parents saw their six-year-old obsessed with anatomy and wanting to look at x-rays all the time and they didn't think it was weird, they just got her more x-rays to look at and she learned the names of all the bones. it’s that fucking easy. just support your kid’s interests

I can't imagine what kind of horrific person could look at kids doing harmless shit like that and think, I should take an online class to learn how make them stop! How can you possibly hate your child that much

when my little brother was a baby, his main interests were wires & paper. As a toddler he graduated to vacuuming & organizing his Elmos. I got to spend a lot of time with him when he was three and four and he was my best friend on the fucking planet even though I'm 20 years older

I literally cannot imagine looking at him and thinking there was anything wrong with him. I cannot imagine it. I don't know how a parent could love their child and not love their essential nature. That was the hardest time of my life and he was the brightest spot in it

I felt so much love from & for him and getting to know the unique person he was when he was just, in his words, “a four-year-old adult” was fascinating. I just can't imagine looking at that kid doing his adorable weird little hobbies and ever being UPSET? wanting to change him??

My little sister started talking late but she and my brother somehow seemed to communicate telepathically so I guess she didn't need to yet. When she did start talking she quickly jumped to hour-long existential bedtime conversations about the universe

She got a stroller with a baby doll in it as a gift, chucked the doll out, and put a toy airplane in the baby stroller and pushed that around for months. we just thought it was hilarious! She likes planes, not babies. What do you do in that situation? Get her more toy planes!

I don't want to imply any label on my little brother and sister. They're not diagnosed with anything, why would they be? We're not the kind of family that looks at a kid who would rather open and close cabinets than talk and think, they must have a disorder! We must stop this!

But the only difference between my siblings and the kids who will end up in that study, who very well could go to school with them, is my little brother and sister are appreciated exactly the way they are. My dad could not be more proud of my sister’s interests

My stepmom has talked to me about how much she loves my brother’s intense empathy - she recognizes it's rare and loves how sensitive and sweet he is. It's just blowing my mind right now to think about other parents looking at those same things as challenging behaviors to be fixed

the only worry I've heard my parents express about my siblings’ interests are that as they grow up people at school will pressure them to change, that they’ll stop doing the things they love due to outside judgment. That's it. Not a moment of consideration that they SHOULD stop.

My parents aren't perfect & neither are my siblings but none of us were ever under the impression that kids were supposed to be easy. My parents never tried to change who we are as people, that was never a consideration, it’s not on the table. It's sad to realize how rare that is