Category: Autism
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Changelog: Autistic Play at Forest School
We updated our Play glossary page with selections from “Autistic Play at Forest School : pretend play characteristics seen otherwise” and “About “Functional Play” | Just Stimming…“. …monotropism can be very effective in enabling forest school practitioners to comprehend the rationales behind autistic play behaviours so as to appreciate and validate autistic play culture, and…
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The Monotropism Questionnaire Is Going Viral
The recently published “Monotropism Questionnaire” has gone viral on TikTok. Header art: “Flow” by Betsy Selvam is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 Our Monotropism pages at stimpunks.org are getting a corresponding spike in traffic. Likewise monotropism.org. Below, we gather context and helpful links to monotropism’s viral moment, including an important caveat from the questionnaire’s authors: the questionnaire should…
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This Is My Space: Collaborative Niche Construction in Psychologically Safe Space
This is my space. It allows me to have control over one small part of a traumatic and offensive world. AuDHD and me: My nesting habits – Emergent Divergence I love that quote from David Gray-Hammond at Emergent Divergence. It nicely distills our Cavendish Space and collaborative niche construction advocacy. I added the quote to…
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Lone Wolfing: The Joys of Autistic Solitude
Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement. Alice Koller It is commonly held that autistic people are lonelier than non-autistic people. This is believed to be…
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Autistic Culture and the Advent of Decentralised Communities
Autistic culture is important for a number of reasons. It allows people to be a part of something in a world that has consistently alienated them. It creates spaces where we can embrace the machinations of our mind unencumbered by the normative standards of “typical” society. Autistic Culture has given rise to a community that,…
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Stimpunks Guide to the NeurodiVerse Issue #2: Healthcare Access
This issue gathers recent research on healthcare access for autistic people. These studies confirm autistic common knowledge about our healthcare accessibility struggles and how to ameliorate them.
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How to Be an Ally During Autism Acceptance Month
Autism acceptance, awareness month (April) is here. We updated our piece on “Navigating Autism Acceptance Month and Autism Myths”. We explain how to be a better ally during this month that many autistic people feel we have to hide away to avoid the painful misinformation. We are autistic parents, adults, and young people. April is…
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Letter to the Boston Globe on “The Mismeasure of Misha: My son broke free from the most common therapy for autism. Why is it used on so many kids like him?”
Where, I wondered, did ABA’s scientific principles come from? “Skinner,” Larry replied. “B.F. Skinner? The Harvard psychologist who trained pigeons to play Ping-Pong?” “Yes.” The mismeasure of Misha: My son broke free from the most common therapy for autism. Why is it used on so many kids like him? CW: ABA, behaviorism, ableism, quiet hands…
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A Fade to Extinction for Ethically Questionable Approaches That Disregard Neurodiversity
What do we want? “…a fade to extinction for ethically questionable approaches that disregard neurodiversity.” Neurodivergent Dr on Twitter As autistic physicians, we agree with the position of Dawson et al1: the neurodiversity movement regards autistic individuals to be both neurodivergent (diverging from the neurotypical majority) and disabled by environments not designed for autistic flourishing.1…
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“Autism research is in crisis”: A Mixed Method Study of Researcher’s Constructions of Autistic People and Autism Research
…autistic people disrupt research agendas. @DrMBotha This new research investigates ableist framing and language in autism research, of which there is an abundance. While not all autism research is ableism, autism researchers can be ableist, including by talking about autistic people in sub-human terms (dehumanization), treating autistic people like objects (objectification), and making othering statements…
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Key Principles When Supporting Autistic People
The community at Spectrum Gaming released “Key Principles when supporting autistic people” at Barriers to Education. We believe in REAL coproduction, so have worked with our community to create ‘Our Key Principles When Supporting Autistic Young People’. We think they are really important, so have made them available for anyone to use/ read/ share. @Spectrum0Gaming…
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Driven to Meltdown, Castigated for Melting
I feel the weight of this quote from Pete Wharmby’s new book, “What I Want to Talk About How Autistic Special Interests Shape a Life“. The tendency to force a meltdown upon an autistic person, and then to castigate them for acting in such a childish and ungrateful way, is a rhythm that most autistic…
