Autistic stimming is functional, and can be soothing and natural. Although sometimes the function of stimming is to to indicate distress—which means the distress needs to be investigated, NOT that the stim needs to be eliminated.
If I'm ever murdered, don't invite the asshole who killed me to my funeral. I will haunt the fuck out of you if you do.
"The solution to the problems in autism research is not just to 'science harder.' To the contrary. Autism researchers and professionals would do well to make peace with that fact that autistic people can’t be slotted into a taxonomic flow chart as if we’re a sub-species of the human race."
"Publicly blasting parents whose unvaccinated children got sick or died will never change people’s reluctance to vaccinate. At @voices4vaccines.bsky.social, our years of work with formerly hesitant families have shown us that empathy works."
www.ms.now/opinion/vacc...
By creating this new I-ACC autism committee, Alison Singer and her " #profoundAutism" campaigners can finally, openly exclude autistic advocacy and rights from research priorities. They can focus on cures and treatments. This is not what autistic people want or need. The I-ACC is a bad project. 4/4
Alison Singer & her " #ProfoundAutism" campaigners were really mad about the increased autistic IACC representation in 2022, because they wanted more "profound autism" parents. Even though other IACC parents/siblings *did* have high-support autistic loved ones.
www.ncsautism.org/blog//select... 3/
Yet even the IACC—compromised as it is—has three autistics on board. Yes, they are associated with anti-vaxxers &/or promote cures, but at least there are 3 autistic reps. Singer's I-ACC has exactly one autistic person. One. This is NOT representation. This is NOT "nothing about us without us." 2/
About this new "I-ACC" panel Alison Singer has put together to counter RFK's pseudoscience garbage vortex IACC:
This is NOT good news for autistic people, because Singer loathes (and never stops trying to smear) autistic advocates. You should always be very skeptical of her autism projects. 1/
Senior author of classic theory of mind & autism paper (Frith) minimizes autistic ppl's sensory issues. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...
Yet hypersensitivity is in original (Sukhareva, Asperger, Kanner), autistics' accounts. Interaction happens *btwn* ppl. More in sensory-1st paper:
tinyurl.com/3dvbahy8
Watercolor image of red and black fidget spinners, on a white background.
Our spectacular new TPGA FB banner is a watercolor by artist @scrappapertiger.bsky.social. TY Sonny!
We thought AI-generated art was fun a few years ago, and used it for many of our graphics. Reader, we were so misled. We are now replacing those graphics with art from real artists & photographers.
1. This morning, Texas AG Ken Paxton just released a chilling new declaration:
Mental health therapists, counselors, and psychologists must cease affirming trans youth - using their name and pronouns - or potentially face child abuse charges and loss of licensure.
Its a horrifying escalation.
Field of magenta wildflower stalks under oak trees.
It is paintbrush season. I love paintbrush season.
(This is a timeline cleanse.)
[image: Field of magenta wildflower stalks under oak trees.]
Field of magenta wildflower stalks under oak trees.
It is paintbrush season. I love paintbrush season.
(This is a timeline cleanse.)
[image: Field of magenta wildflower stalks under oak trees.]
"Sensory sensitivities were also cited as a major factor contributing to anxiety, as well as impacting various facets of the participants lives, including their ability to interact with others." #autism #anxiety #neurodiversity
FB trolls, you will be blocked and your comments deleted. Too few hours in the day.
1. The New York Times, unsurprisingly, has released yet another hit piece on transgender people.
This time, it comes from Jesse Singal.
I fact check it in my latest piece.
End your NYT subscription, and put it towards people doing good work on the issue.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Miss our Claude and our Steve so much. :(
I leave you with messages from autistic non-speakers about their own wishes & desires, from the short film Listen by @communicationfirst.bsky.social. I recommend you share it as a worthier option, if and when people ask for your opinion on #TheTelepathyTapes.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7dc...
19/19
“It may be an older page, but those warnings are still necessary,” said Zoe Gross, a director at @autisticadvocacy.org, a nonprofit policy org run by & for autistic people. “Ppl are still being preyed on by these alternative treatments like chelation & chlorine dioxide. Those can both kill people.”
FDA removed warnings against fake, abusive, and dangerous autism treatments like MMS (industrial strength bleach) and chelation.
Kennedy's anti-vaccine friends made a lot of money selling this to autism families.
www.propublica.org/article/rfk-... @megomatz.bsky.social @propublica.org
West Virginia has done well on child immunization - avoiding measles while its neighbors have outbreaks - thanks to its strong school immunization mandate.
Now, anti-vaccine efforts are putting the law - and WV's children's health - at risk. www.economist.com/united-state...
I leave you with messages from autistic non-speakers about their own wishes & desires, from the short film Listen by @communicationfirst.bsky.social. I recommend you share it as a worthier option, if and when people ask for your opinion on #TheTelepathyTapes.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7dc...
19/19
…but the many AAC users who have worked and still work so hard to be able to communicate with the rest of us fellow humans in ways that we all can understand. Non-speaking AAC users have enough barriers to contend with, without self-styled do-gooders getting in their way. #TheTelepathyTapes #AAC 18/
I will allow—as the research I've cited has allowed—that influence is possible during supported communication. Of course it is. But too many people are using that possibility to deny supported AAC without exception. And that is hurting not only the people who need AAC and aren't getting it… 17/
Such "advocates" are often part of an anti- #neurodiversity parent faction that unceasingly claims all supported AAC methods are fake, and which is therefore ironically complicit in turning parents and caregivers away from methods that might help their non-speaking loved ones live better lives. 16/
A special side eye to the supposedly pro-communication ghouls who claim to "protect" non-speakers while actually working against their interests—like the uncharitable troll who bought the website Facilitated Communication dot org (not linking, do not recommend) & turned it into an anti-FC nexus. 15/
The same article continues that, "FC research should be reconsidered and reconducted using current best practice autism research approaches, including coproduction and a presumption of autistic communication competence, to assess its validity as a potential AAC method for autistic individuals." 14/
Contemporary research indicates that, "Alongside lived experience testimonies, robust and peer-reviewed research exists to challenge a categorical anti-FC position, although, strikingly, the presence of such research has rarely been acknowledged by those who adhere to an anti-FC stance." 13/
This means that those critics who continue to categorically deny supported communication's legitimacy are doing so from a position of defiance, rather than of evidence. Not a great look for supposed experts or advocates. 12/
