@ekverstania's Threads
#AskingAutistics Post a pic of something you have recently aligned, lined up or stacked.
Tag it your tweet with #LetsLineThingsUp.
Retweet this tweet so that others can join the celebration.
Tag it your tweet with #LetsLineThingsUp.
Retweet this tweet so that others can join the celebration.
PS: If you're NOT autistic and you like lining things up, feel free to post your pics too, and tag them with #LetsLineThingsUp.
Some of you may remember @thingsorganized from a few years ago. So much aaaaah. 😊
Childhood isn't only about preparing for adulthood, you officious ableist fools. And if the child is disabled, even preparing for adulthood should mean preparing to live effectively as a disabled adult, not learning to fake being non-disabled.
If you feel inspired to make a career in the autism industry, why aren't you #AskingAutistics about the many unmet needs? Why enter the fray of abusive therapists all vying to fan and cash in on parents' ableist fears?
Imagine you ran a therapy centre for women, and all your glowing testimonials and endorsements were from husbands, brothers, fathers and sons.
No actual women.
But your therapy is advertised as being 'evidence-based'.
What's wrong with this picture?
No actual women.
But your therapy is advertised as being 'evidence-based'.
What's wrong with this picture?
There is something super-problematic about ABA therapists, who don't understand either autism or apraxia as it manifests in autistics, saying, "Behaviour is communication," and then trying to change that behaviour based on their assumption of what the behaviour is communicating.
Because not only do they often miss what the behaviour is communicating, but there may be many times (especially in those with apraxia) that the behaviour is NOT communication. At all. Even if there is laughter. Or screaming. Even if the behaviour contains words.
Here's something for you to check out if you thought all behaviour is communication.
Because you'd be wrong.
And if this blows your mind, then check out every link in that thread.
Because you'd be wrong.
And if this blows your mind, then check out every link in that thread.
Jeepers, #ActuallyAutistic people, learn to recognise when some other autistic is having a meltdown on Twitter. How's your ability to reason through and resolve things mid-meltdown? Ja, me neither. So give the same consideration to them as you would want for yourself.
If you are convinced that you are right and you need to teach them your truth, know also that this won't be the other person's "most teachable moment"..
Also, think about who YOU have hurt during meltdowns. Some of those people were probably quite decent people, compared to the many jerks you could have chosen to hurt if meltdowns were premeditated.
Here's what I see in the lethargic response from most #ABAICon19 delegates towards the idea of condemning torture...
The ABAI leadership and conferencegoers actually don't care about human rights because they don't care about humans.
There's no point anymore in trying to persuade them to care. All that remains now is to show those who do care that the ABAI is a despicable institution, and that membership and adherence to its code of ethics is merely a pact of honour among thieves.
[THREAD] CW: Graphic descriptions of abuse, images of open sores, children crying.
Evidence of over 50,000 people being abused in Uganda. Adults and young children given bleach to drink. Unpaid independent #actuallyautistic investigator @fionapettit71 is threatened.
Evidence of over 50,000 people being abused in Uganda. Adults and young children given bleach to drink. Unpaid independent #actuallyautistic investigator @fionapettit71 is threatened.
CW: Graphic descriptions of abuse, images of open sores, children crying.
Evidence of over 50,000 people including children abused in Uganda by cult introduced by Westerners.
fionaolearyblog.wordpress.com/2019/05/27/mms…
Evidence of over 50,000 people including children abused in Uganda by cult introduced by Westerners.
fionaolearyblog.wordpress.com/2019/05/27/mms…
CW: Descriptions of abuse, image of child abuse.
Evidence of over 50,000 people including children abused in Uganda by cult introduced by Westerners.
theguardian.com/world/2019/may…
Evidence of over 50,000 people including children abused in Uganda by cult introduced by Westerners.
theguardian.com/world/2019/may…
[THREAD] 4 FOCUS AREAS FOR AUTISTIC ADVOCACY - VIDEOS
In this thread, I will be adding a series of six videos which I made (in a rush), providing an overview of the four main focus areas which I address in workshops, at conferences, in training events, and so on.
They are MY four focus areas for advocacy, which doesn't mean that they are THE priority areas which everyone else should have.
The biggest focus area for #autismawareness should be awareness of the principles embodied in the #CRPD.
Do #nothingaboutuswithoutus.
While you exclude both speaking and non-speaking autists from your decisions, you commit human rights abuses whether you realise it or not.
Do #nothingaboutuswithoutus.
While you exclude both speaking and non-speaking autists from your decisions, you commit human rights abuses whether you realise it or not.
If people in the autism industry stopped violating the #CRPD, we would see:
- the end of harmful practices and substances masquerading as therapy and (ABA, Le Packing, MMS etc.)
- autistic people driving the priorities of autism research
- nonspeakers' access to communication
- the end of harmful practices and substances masquerading as therapy and (ABA, Le Packing, MMS etc.)
- autistic people driving the priorities of autism research
- nonspeakers' access to communication
We have to stop excluding nonspeakers' inputs from these conversations.
Making them the excuse for not listening to autistic people who speak, while you pay ZERO attention to THEIR actual words means you respect neither group.
Making them the excuse for not listening to autistic people who speak, while you pay ZERO attention to THEIR actual words means you respect neither group.
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.
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.
Talking about people in their presence hurts, writes non-speaking autist Rami Kripke-Ludwig. jweekly.com/2019/04/03/i-d…
Today's featured non-speaker is Cindi, who writes about the paradoxes of her autism: "This life of mine is hard just because I have autism. The thing is autism makes my life good too. My family wants it cured. I want it channeled for success." cindisblogtwo.weebly.com/blog/poem-and-…
Damon Kirsebom writes about frustration of being autistic and a non-reliable speaker. Do NOT assume that when his mouth repetitively starts chattering away about Thomas the Tank Engine (which happens often) that he is IN ANY WAY obsessed with trains. unitedforcommunicationchoice.org/damon-kirsebom…
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.
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?
OK, so why don't the Floortime and Son-Rise and a whole lot of other people call their method ABA?
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.
What does tokenism look like? The abstract that I submitted to an autism conference was rejected on the ground that they were "able to find another autistic speaker" -- not because the content that I proposed to present was relevant to the decision.
I am able to speak on a number of autism-related topics, but there are some talks which I specifically do NOT do, even when asked:
1. "My personal autism story" (also known as the "Self-Narrating Zoo Exhibit")
2. Witty edutainment about the benefits of 'high-functioning autism'.
1. "My personal autism story" (also known as the "Self-Narrating Zoo Exhibit")
2. Witty edutainment about the benefits of 'high-functioning autism'.
My primary focus areas for advocacy are:
1. Addressing health issues common in autists and their families
2. The communication rights of nonspeaking autists
3. The paradigm needed for change, and the principles of the #CRPD
1. Addressing health issues common in autists and their families
2. The communication rights of nonspeaking autists
3. The paradigm needed for change, and the principles of the #CRPD
I have undertaken to post a piece of writing, or a video or some other artefact every day from a nonspeaking autistic person who uses words or word-linked symbols to communicate.
I feel that this is necessary, because non-speakers are being suppressed around the world, and deserve to have their words amplified.
I will also gradually start working on a blog series to elucidate the reasons why many autistic people do not speak, and to point to what autistic people themselves have said helps them communicate.
It suddenly struck me how amazing viruses actually are. I should get over my thinking that they look ugly and scary, and appreciate how they work. While their effects are genuinely complex, they tempt me to imagine that they themselves are merely complicated.
Perhaps viruses are also scary because they challenge us to contemplate systems that have aims and rules and ethos without an animal will or instinct, without consciousness of "good" or "evil". #systemsthinking
And with our Western science fiction frame of reference, they evoke images of robots, pseudo-lifeforms that inspire fear by their complete lack of passion or compassion. They are so utterly logical, yet they do not actually think. And humans at least want an argument.
@autismage @autistica I'm fine with research into gene editing. But they're not focusing on autistic priorities. If they were, they'd prioritise things like genes associated with painful degenerative connective tissue disorders which affect so many autistics and their families.
They
never
asked.
They
never
asked.
@autismage @autistica Imagine some of that money was used to turn information like THIS into treatment for autistic people whose pain is ignored just because they have a psychiatric diagnosis. Imagine some of that money was used to train doctors in these matters. Just imagine. ehlers-danlos.com/2018-eds-ghent/
@autismage @autistica Imagine they used the money to create awareness campaigns of what we already know on a molecular and cell biology level about sensory overload -- awareness campaigns for DOCTORS.
THREAD: "You may see a family with a member, often female, diagnosed with or suspected to have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Hypermobility Type (EDS-HT), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS)."
"Then in the extended family, you may find autoimmune diseases, i.e. multiple sclerosis, cutting and eating disorders, "possible bipolar disorder," gender fluidity, a highly successful and innovative genius, someone with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or fibromyalgia (FM)..."
"...someone with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and someone else with bouts of psychosis. The children who are more scrutinized in this day and age, may be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD), sensory processing issues plus or minus [autism]."
