The “Help! This autistic kid is aggressive!” Flow Chart

by Patricia

Yay – resources!!

Morning,

When I’m contacted for advice concerning an aggressive kid, these are my questions and suggestions. People often assume I am anti-medication, or that because I hate ABA, I am completely against all behavioral strategies. I am not. Yet I do believe they are last resort options . This picture is cruddy so – here is a Link to non picture version (uncertain as to how accessible this site is)

Don’t tell me these options cannot be made available, all you’ll get is the unimpressed Scully look.

Reader “Ekie” makes an excellent point in the comments: “I love this, but I would just add one more box: is the person in pain from something? Before you do psychiatric medications, get a full medical work-up, examine teeth for cavities, x-ray for constipation, etc.”

It’s important to make sure pain/illness isn’t causing added stress/disorientation that can lead to anger/aggression.

I’m going to edit this to add the suggestion, as…

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Rape Culture – Cover Your Eyes

by Patricia

Not autism related – but a difficult, yet important read.

While you were sleeping

Rape culture is when I was six, and my brother punched my two front teeth out. Instead of reprimanding him, my mother said “Stefanie, what did you do to provoke him?” When my only defense was my mother whispering in my ear, “Honey, ignore him. Don’t rile him up. He just wants a reaction.” As if it was my sole purpose, the reason six-year-old me existed, was to not rile up my brother. It’s starts when we’re six, and ends when we grow up assuming the natural state of a man is a predator, and I must walk on eggshells, as to not “rile him up.” Right, mom?

Rape culture is when through casual dinner conversation, my father says that women who get raped are asking for it. He says, “I see them on the streets of New York City, with their short skirts and heavy makeup. Asking for it.”…

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28May2015

Why Are There So Many More Disabled People Now?

by Patricia

petroleuses

A common refrain that is often espoused these days by the able-bodied is, “Why are there so many more disabled children today than when I was growing up?” To many, the seeming “epidemic” levels of disabilities such as autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, and so on is frighteningly high. Looking to answers such as an abundance of pesticides, vaccines, ultrasounds, “chemicals” and other culprits is increasingly common as people search for an answer. When someone says it is due to better diagnosis or a broadening of diagnostic criteria, people like prominent ableist Jenny McCarthy respond:

“All you have to do is find a schoolteacher or principal and ask them that question. They would say they’ve never seen so much ADHD, autism, OCD as in the past. I think we’re over diagnosing it by maybe 1%. Now you look around and there are five shadows — kids with disabilities — in every class.”

I have…

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24May2015

Why I Left ABA

by Patricia

Very, very important.

Socially Anxious Advocate

Trigger Warning: ABA, ableism, institutionalized child abuse

[Image Description: A bright red door with a brass knob and a faded mail slit. To its left, there is a long, dark windowpane with some decoration and smudges. The door itself has chips in its paint and markings on it, despite the bright color. It is closed, possibly locked.]

When I first became an ABA Therapist, I was thrilled. I was actually going to use my psych degree, get paid more than minimum wage, and above all, make a positive difference in Autistic children’s lives. Or at least, that’s what I thought.

Now I look back, and the year I spent working in ABA is my single greatest regret.

When I left, it wasn’t a decision I made overnight. It was a long, difficult process, full of denial and confusion. I don’t enjoy talking about it because I did so many wrong things that…

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15May2015

Autistic Academic on Acceptance, Love, and Self-Care: #AutismPositivity2015

by Patricia

Self-care – so important — plus, functioning labels don’t mean crap.
Thank you for sharing so much of yourself!

Autistic Academic

Yesterday, I gave the first academic conference presentation of my career: a paper on narratives of cognitive/developmental difference vs “monstrous”/changeling difference in late antiquity and the Middle Ages.* You can check out the livetweeting from it here.

Overall, the talk went well and seemed to be very well-received. The Q&A session immediately following was very productive, from my point of view, and I had several people thank and/or congratulate me over the course of the day – not just people who knew it was my first talk and were offering support, but also people I’d never met before who were responding to the content.

And, as has become my norm in any setting where I’m talking about autism, I told them I was autistic.

I always wonder what people think when I disclose in an academic setting. No doubt some of them think I’m either “surprisingly articulate for an autistic”…

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15May2015