"I hate autism." To the neurotypical community it seems to be a harmless statement. I hear and see parents say this often. It shakes me to the core. To an autistic and a parent of autistics, its very offensive. I have several reasons for this statement. The belief that I need to change to benefit… Continue reading Saying "I hate autism" is Harmful to Autistic People
After a good friend of mine showed me a photo of the night sky ceiling she is painting for her autistic son and other people were telling me how they turned their rooms into sensory rooms, it triggered a memory. This time it was a good one. I promise. Before I even suspected I might… Continue reading First Time I Ever Saw a Sensory Room
With Halloween coming up, the blue pumpkin project has surfaced online. The blue pumpkin is to make the autistic children stand out so people know that the child may not be able to say "trick or treat." It seems innocent enough but the autistic community as a whole is against this. Blue for autism was… Continue reading The Blue Pumpkin and Why I will Never Get One for my Children
Neurodiversity. We always talk about it but never explored the history of this wonderful phenomenon. It is a neologism that was made popular in the 1990's. Judy Singer, an Australian sociologist, and Harvey Blume, an American journalist for The Atlantic, coined the term. Neurodiversity is the variation in the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention,… Continue reading Autistic History: Neurodiversity
This is one time when I go paragraph by paragraph in an article and I get to praise it. Original verbage in italics and my thoughts in regular text. Finally a politician that gets it. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), a 2020 presidential contender, spoke of the need for educators who understand the nature of… Continue reading Fierce Autie Praises: Buttigieg: Increase in autism diagnoses due to more people coming 'out of the shadows'
Aviva Seigler 