Posts

A wooden puppet, controlled by strings, resting on a surface.
Self-Determination, Control, and Mental Health

Self-Determination, Control, and Mental Health

Comments 1 comment

I seem to have a bit of a self-determination theme running through this blog now.  I’ve written about self-determination a fair bit, and most particularly in the context of childhood, because I feel like children in general have relatively little freedom to exercise control over their lives and those with disabilities even less. Today, I thought I might take our discussion of the importance of self-determination in another direction – mental health (which I suppose is another thing I do…

Read More Read More

An Air Canada twin-engine jet aircraft flying in front of a cloudy background.
A Tale of Discrimination

A Tale of Discrimination

Comments 4 comments

This is a bit of a departure from what I usually do with this blog, but I was contacted recently by an autistic person who was forbidden from pursuing an interest in aviation because of an autism diagnosis. I find this to be an outrageous case of discrimination. Now, obviously not everyone is going to be suited to flying planes. I certainly don’t think it would be my cup of tea. But a blanket ban on anyone from a particular…

Read More Read More

A still image from a controversial advertisement produced by Apple in 2016 that depicts the RPM method. The RPM client, Dillon Barmache, maintains a website at https://typing4change.com/.
More Thoughts on RPM and FC

More Thoughts on RPM and FC

Comments 18 comments

I’ve decided to write this in order to essentially revisit a topic that I last addressed in a post a couple of years ago.  This post, regarding the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM), has (based on number of views) apparently received a lot of traffic compared to other posts on this blog, no doubt because of the vital importance of protecting people’s right to communicate. Being profoundly aware of the importance of the right to communicate, as well as fully cognizant…

Read More Read More

Word cloud featuring terms such as evidence-based, outcomes, improve, practice, change, support, etc.
The Shortcomings of Evidence-Based Practice

The Shortcomings of Evidence-Based Practice

Comments 2 comments

I’m finding myself increasingly annoyed by the emphasis on evidence-based practice in the autism world. This is not because I don’t see the value in responsible intervention practices that are consistent with research and theory.  There are still far too many people who are taken in by alternative pseudoscience, quack treatments, and faith healing in a vain attempt to “cure” autism.  Even if we leave aside the important ethical question of whether a “cure” for autism itself is truly desirable,…

Read More Read More

Photograph depicting serried rows of empty desks and chairs in a school classroom.
Self-Determination in Childhood

Self-Determination in Childhood

Comments 0 Comment

One of the most interesting discussions I’ve ever had in the autism world was at a conference I was involved in organizing back when I was an undergraduate student.  We had organized some panels on different stages of autistic people’s experiences in life and we found that numerous people had particularly negative thoughts about their childhoods.  In particular, they were talking about how relieved they were to be out of school.  To provide a little background, this was not necessarily…

Read More Read More

A black-and-white photograph depicting children in a row of beds, one of which is enclosed by a mesh cage. A woman in a nurse's uniform stands facing away from the beds.
A ward in the Am Spiegelgrund clinic in Vienna. Hundreds of children were murdered there in the Nazi era, while others were subjected to severe abuse. Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance.
Autism and Asperger’s in the Nazi Era

Autism and Asperger’s in the Nazi Era

Comments 2 comments

In the last couple of years, the autism world has witnessed a very intense debate regarding the historical origins of the neurotype we study.  Traditionally, Hans Asperger – one of the first people if not the first to use the term autism in its modern diagnostic sense, and the man after whom “Asperger syndrome” was named – was thought to be an essentially benevolent figure within the murderous Nazi state, which had embarked on a policy aimed at slaughtering disabled…

Read More Read More

The head of a microscope is positioned above a sample.
Should autism research be like using a microscope to study cells, where the cells don't get any say in how the research goes, or should autistic people and other stakeholders be represented in the research community in a way that allows them to shape research?
Representation of Autistic People in Research

Representation of Autistic People in Research

Comments 0 Comment

Autistic people aren’t yet well-represented among autism researchers. I’ve been trying to keep track of my fellow autistic autism researchers and, worldwide, I’m currently aware of about four dozen of us, or thereabouts, spread out widely across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, although from social media groups I think there may be somewhat more. Still, many of us are students, which means that our control over our research is limited. I’m only aware of a tiny handful of research…

Read More Read More

Issues with Diagnostic Assessments

Issues with Diagnostic Assessments

Comments 0 Comment

I think it’s fair to say that there are a lot of problems with the way that we currently do diagnostic assessments for autism and other divergent neurotypes.  This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the issues, but I thought I would make an effort to identify some of the ones that I think are most important. One important problem is that our diagnostic systems are inaccessible.  Parents are likely to notice some evidence of atypical neurodevelopment…

Read More Read More

Man wearing a hoodie covering face with both hands while sitting on couch
Burnout and Expectations

Burnout and Expectations

Comments 15 comments

Today, the vast majority of researchers, clinicians, and professionals in the autism world don’t know about autistic burnout.  Autistic burnout is an idea that comes from autistic adults, and given how little contact there is between autistic adults and the community of researchers supposedly dedicated to learning more about autism, most researchers will never have had a chance to learn about it.  Indeed, as far as I’m aware, the only people investigating autistic burnout from a research perspective are Dora…

Read More Read More

Pathology and Motivation to Access Supports

Pathology and Motivation to Access Supports

Comments 0 Comment

In previous posts, I’ve criticized the “pathology paradigm” of autism.  I believe that there are a number of problems with this paradigm, but I always find myself returning to one that I find especially glaring: when we describe autism as pathology, when we use the language of deficit and disorder, we’re very openly suggesting to autistic people – a marginalized population with high vulnerability to mental health challenges – that there is something fundamentally wrong with them.  Autistic people are…

Read More Read More