[THREAD] Dear Small Autistic Child

We autistic adults know that most people don't understand you, and they don't know how best to support you as you learn.

We've been there.

We're going to try to rescue you from some of the things that are distorting reality around you. Many teachers present the world in oversimplified ways. They know that what they are teaching you doesn't match up with how the world really works, but they don't know how to explain that to themselves, so they don't know how to explain it to you.

Diesmal möchte ich versuchen, zu erklären wie die Behandlung der sensorischen Überstimulation bei Autisten vorgeht.

Mein Deutsch ist nicht fantastisch, und ich bin ein Bisschen nervös, aber ich möchte probieren!

twitter.com/i/spaces/1vOGw… Hier geht es darum, was in unseren Zellen passiert und was wir tun können das zu verbessern. Hier geht es eigentlich nicht nur um Autisten, aber weil es so oft bei Autisten problematisch ist, spreche ich in diesem (dieser?) Kontext darüber.

I have paradoxical processes running all the time. Like, celebrating people's academic achievements in spite of having huge disdain for Western academic systemic presumptuousness; or being happy for someone's joy about being pregnant whilst being extremely antinatalist.

https://twitter.com/nickslayling/status/1519094538781954049

I've never ever congratulated anyone on having a baby, though, and I don't think I ever will, because it would feel like sin to do so. I will gladly take part in the stork party (baby shower in Americanese) or supply gifts after the birth, but without any expression of sentiment.

A certain autism service organisation I've dealt with for 12+ years tends to have staff and leadership churn, causing them to lose all their institutional knowledge.

This has lately resulted in me dealing with a nice, new, freshly gratuated appointee, who knows very little. So every few staff-churn cycles, it seems that they go, "Oh dear, we've been doing mainly children, we'd better chat to some adults to find out what services they need."

I was called a Communist by the headmaster's wife because I said we should have a student representative council at the school to represent children, to prevent things like the food strike the children had because of the bad lunches.

https://twitter.com/LeafLee6/status/1516879787649810432

This was in 1982, when they were selecting prefects for the next year. I was too naïve to realise that it was about prefect selection.

Five years and I still can't get my godchild's father to stop posting pics of her with his Facebook set to Public. She can't use AAC effectively enough to consent. His son has complained about being constantly photographed and plastered on social media too. So he fiiiiinally stopped doing this to his son (I took the son's side in this, but I don't know if the son even knows I did). But it's like, because his daughter can't speak, consent becomes irrelevant to him or something.

Listening to @CapeTalk (Pippa Hudson) and they have an actual regular Shipwreck Special programme (also available as a podcast on their Web site)! 🤩⚓ They are about to interview someone from the Bredasdorp Shipwreck Museum (never knew there was such a place)!

[THREAD] If an enormous number of people end up traumatised by therapists who are doing their work by the book, within the ethical framework of their profession, then maybe there is something fundamentally wrong with that type of therapy. There are many ABA therapists who, upon hearing of the trauma of ABA survivors, will tell you that "my ABA is not like that" and "you'll always have a few bad apples".

[THREAD]

I just had an epiphany. Look.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1514897000319361025?t=QmqmrVK2yav2vh6LMBx_6A&s=19

[THREAD] I need a name for
1. an event, and
2. a working group. Background: For several years now, I've been collaborating individually with parents of (mostly nonspeaking) autistic children in Southern Africa who have started their own small nonprofit organisations. One of these patents recently received an autism diagnosis herself.

'Trauma-informed' is like 'awareness'. Doesn't mean they're not gonna harm you again (and again and again). Like this.

https://twitter.com/LisaTMSA/status/1514493786050732034?t=RsPrf9qaNStKG8LA_NyaSg&s=19

Today's mail from @dailymaverick If you scroll to the bottom of the mail, you get this text (extract):

"It is gone.

One of the biggest nations on the planet has lost access to the truth, to information that will allow them to know what is happening, what their autocratic ruler is doing."

cont'd

[THREAD] Principles, values, rules, (dis)obedience and (non)conformance Children have a natural sense of justice.

[THREAD] The movement to #BanABA in South Africa is gaining ground. We're now getting through to some of the right people in legislature. One of the things we need (both locally and internationally) is to help people currently involved in selling, promoting, delivering and buying ABA services to make plans to move out before such bans come into effect.

Join me as I share 12 years of experience of building friendships (and losing some!) through groups with other autistic people, both online and in person.

The time is shown for your local timezone.

twitter.com/i/spaces/1nAJE… You will learn about different types of friendship groups and get tips for making them work well.

It's not 'growing pains'. There's no such thing.

It's PAEDIATRIC PAIN and it is NOT a normal part of growing up. It hurts because something is wrong.

You should have been believed. You should have had support.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1499702419881615372

Many people who have responded to this thread had symptoms of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome since childhood.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is thought of as a rare disease, but it's not really that rare. It's just rarely diagnosed, and you can see why: they think you're faking or imagining.

Your child may have chronic pain and not tell you because they thought everyone feels like that, and they just have to push through. Your child may have chronic fatigue and they told you they were tired several times when you had things for them to do, but you said, "You can't be tired already, the day has just started."

I have a question...

Background: A year or so ago a person diagnosed with BPD told me what it was like, and I was shocked and filled with compassion at the immensity of the experience.

Not everyone understands why people who have been through ABA call it torture if they haven't been shocked like at the Judge Rotenberg Center.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1479022134462717953

If you can't understand how being 26 years old and spending 25 years deprived of communication whilst treated as someone who is intellectually disabled and unmotivated is torturous, then maybe you need to learn a bit more about empathy first.

[THREAD] ABA AND BEHAVIOURISM

As we move to #BanABA, it's becoming clear that we need to educate ourselves and each other about what ABA actually is and what practitioners believe, otherwise people (even autistic people) may be confused about why it's abusive. This morning one of my autistic friends told me that he attends an autism centre where people are very nice to him, and where they do PBS (a form of ABA) on the nonspeaking residents. They don't do PBS on him, he says.

IDEAS ON AUTISTIC ADVOCACY FOR 2022 AND BEYOND T[THREAD] Religious history provides a number of useful metaphors for what I want to say. These metaphors do not require you to accept the religion, they're more like hooks or mnemonic aids, so I'll be using them outside of their original context.