Dealing with autistic adults and adolescents can sometimes be difficult. I know many of us can be quick to take offense, even where none was intended – which is rather curious when you think about it, because autistic children tend to start out being socially naïve. At some point, these naïve children can become nervous, reactive adults. Why is that? It seems kind of like a transformation from one extreme to the opposite extreme. Well, the problem with naïveté is…
Over the last few months, I’ve written a lot of posts sharing my thoughts on inclusion and mainstreaming. In those posts, I’ve spent a lot of time complaining about the way things are done today (especially in North America), but I’ve spent relatively little time describing the urgent changes I think we need. Probably the most complete description of my thoughts so far is found in this post, where I explain how I disagree with both of the major views…
What term should we use to describe autism? To be clear, I’m perfectly happy to just say “autism” and “autistic”. I’m all for identity-first language. However, I also recognize that some people will want to keep a technical, fancy term around – and if we’re going to have a technical term, we should at least try to make it a good one. The current convention is, of course, “Autism Spectrum Disorder.” This language of “disorder” is extremely unhelpful. Autistic people…
On this blog, I’ve spent a lot of time criticizing the idea that everyone should be forced to attend mainstream schools, regardless of whether they want to or not. In doing so, I’ve sometimes suggested that I am opposed to “inclusion” itself, but that’s not exactly correct. Previously, I’ve never really unpacked the difference between the concepts of mainstreaming or integration and the concept of inclusion, even though there is a very important distinction between them. I want to clarify…
Many autistic people have spoken or written about the benefits of autistic community. For example, Jim Sinclair has some eloquent thoughts on the subject. I firmly agree that these communities have much to offer us. I’ve facilitated two communities for autistic college students at two different universities, and I’ve also been part of some other autistic groups, and had generally positive experiences in them. We live in a neurotypical world: a world in which autism is habitually treated as pathology,…
A while ago, I described my view of what the neurodiversity paradigm means. In that post, my ideas owe some very clear debts not only to others who have thought about the concept of neurodiversity, but also to the thinkers who developed the social model of disability. Indeed, in Judy Singer’s new introduction to the original thesis (1998/2016) which she used to propose the idea of neurodiversity, she credits the social model with providing the “framework” of the thesis. However,…
Since the 1960s, numerous social psychology studies have shown that people in echo chambers become more extreme in their shared views. This finding is important enough that it has a name: the group polarization effect. This can be positive or negative, depending on the group: when people who aren’t racist get together with other non-racists, everybody gets even less racist, but when people who are a bit racist get together with other racists, they become more racist (Myers & Bishop,…
How do we learn social skills? Practice. Let’s think about what is involved in a social interaction. You have to make countless, split-second decisions. You have to formulate and deliver conversational responses instantly. While you do this decision-making, you have to pay constant attention to your body’s position, your facial expressions, and you are expected to make eye contact with the other person. You have to attend to their expressions and nonverbal cues. You have to think about their intentions…
I have some serious doubts about the mainstream schools. I worry about bullying in the mainstream schools, social isolation in the mainstream schools, social skills in the mainstream schools, mental health in the mainstream schools, and sensory distress in the mainstream schools, among other things. Because of all of these problems with the mainstream, I think we need alternative options. But I will admit to some worries about specialized schools as well. They do have some of their own problems,…
Why do we allow mockery of autistic and neurodivergent people? If you look at our media today, it seems to accept the idea that awkwardness and difference can be a source of amusement. We’re routinely invited to laugh at neurodivergence and mock it. We’re invited to laugh at the class nerd, or the crazy professor, or some other stereotyped neurodivergent character. We’re even taught that awkward kids will get bullied: such bullying is often presented as entirely natural and predictable. …