New Book Warning.
This is out in the next few days. Another book claiming that autism is a mistaken behaviour and by normalising and modifying the child, you get rid of The Nasty Autizmz and make them into the child they want.
Ignoring every bit of modern research, of course.

Here's the parent's wishlist for what they want the services to deliver. I'll paraphrase it as
"See this autistic child? Make it into one that does this for me, so I feel better and have to do zero work in understanding a different and valid social communication system."
Meantime, in the real world, countless thousands of autistic people explain what sort of pain, distress, and relationship-smashing results from being forced to live inauthentically, to please others.
But let's ignore all of those, because Mom Wants Her Perfect Child At Any Cost.
Here's another snippet of the weird and irrelevant stuff upon which the author builds their argument. The false belief that there's a Real Person behind autism (!). And that diagnostic professionals haven't a clue how to tell a shy child from a psychotic child or an autistic one
Autism isn't shyness.
Autism isn't being psychotic.
Being autistic is a different social communication system, every bit as effective as the nonautistic methods.
https://t.co/Q0MGgBnmVr
A different sensory system. A different degree of focus.
For many, a need for routine/
The mistake is to look at our very different way of socialising with others and think, "Oh no, my child is broken - they have no emotions - they will never care about others - this is terrible - fix it!"
In fact, the exact opposite is more true. Deep caring for others is common
So many parents waste their autistic child's childhood, and every penny they have, chasing ways to 'fix' their child.

And books like this take yet more money off them.

It annoys me greatly. (Can you tell...?)
What happens when we've forced normal socialisation onto our autistic children, e.g. eye contact.
Do they go on to lead fabulous lives?
Well...generally no. This is a poll. Vast majority said no, it didn't lead to a better quality of a life for them.
So, who is it for?/
But it's worse.
We have excellent research showing camouflaging our autism is a factor in greater rates of suicide.
https://t.co/LJGUlMpr0s This by the team led by Sarah Cassidy for example.
Parents are being lured into this alleged nirvana, and risking their child's life.
Because we usually get someone alleging that we Just Don't Care About Those With High Support Needs, yes, we do.
Making them suicidal, and forcing an inauthentic mask to please the parent, isn't going to improve their life, is it, eh?

Start learning things that actually help.
The author is edging towards their own personal 'aha!' moment here, because they're right - we do need to look for strengths. But their mistake is to assume that our strengths look like nonautistic strengths. That autism is nothing but deficit.
It's just 1940s nonsense.
What helps:
Enabling us to be our authentic selves.
Learning about autism from autistic people.
Realising their own behaviour influences how we respond, and altering their own approaches.
Watching this 2 min video of sensory hell, with the sound turned up: https://t.co/5W71N6hmwU
And when you've watched that, consider how that child was ever going to look like they were calm and caring, in that deafening terrifying stench?
Get autistic people involved in assessing environments.
Be allies, not erasers.
Listen and learn.
Thank you for reading.
PS - the author is a fan of this approach https://t.co/AZCC1A6OSX DIR-floortime. It assumes autistic children don't want to interact with the outside world, so by overloading them with play requests all day, you 'help them grow'.
Well, no. You teach masking.

More from Culture

Best books I read in 2020

1. Atomic Habits by @JamesClear

“If you show up at the gym 5 days in a row—even for 2 minutes—you're casting votes for your new identity. You’re not worried about getting in shape. Youre focused on becoming the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts”


Good Reasons for Bad Feelings

https://t.co/KZDqte19nG

2. “social anxiety is overwhelmingly common. Natural selection shaped us to care enormously what other people think..We constantly monitor how much others value us..Low self-esteem is a signal to try harder to please others”


The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

https://t.co/uZT4kdhzvZ

“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents...Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without a believe in a devil.”


Grandstanding

https://t.co/4Of58AZUj8

"if politics becomes a morality pageant, then the contestants have an incentive to keep problems intact...politics becomes a forum to show off moral qualities...people will be dedicated to activism for its own sake, as a vehicle to preen"


Warriors and Worriers by Joyce Benenson

https://t.co/yLC4eGHEd4

“Across diverse cultures, a man who lives in the house with another man’s children is about 60 times more likely than the biological father to kill those children.”
.@bellingcat's attempt in their new book, published by
@BloomsburyBooks, to coverup the @OPCW #Douma controversy, promote US and UK gov. war narratives, and whitewash fraudulent conduct within the OPCW, is an exercise in deception through omission @marydejevsky @freddiesayers


1) 2000 words are devoted to the OPCW controversy regarding the alleged chemical weapon attack in #Douma, Syria in 2018 but critical material is omitted from the book. Reading it, one would never know the following:

2) That the controversy started when the original interim report, drafted and agreed by Douma inspection team members, was secretly modified by an unknown OPCW person who had manipulated the findings to suggest an attack had occurred. https://t.co/QtAAyH9WyX… @RobertF40396660


3) This act of attempted deception was only derailed because an inspector discovered the secret changes. The manipulations were reported by @ClarkeMicah
and can be readily observed in documents now available https://t.co/2BUNlD8ZUv….

4) .@bellingcat's book also makes no mention of the @couragefoundation panel, attended by the @opcw's first Director General, Jose Bustani, at which an OPCW official detailed key procedural irregularities and scientific flaws with the Final Douma Report:
मुंबईतील प्रसिद्ध किताबखाना ला लागलेली आग आपल्या सर्वांच्या मनाला चटका लावणारी होती. त्या आगीत सुमारे 95 लाख किमतीच्या 45,000 पुस्तकांचं नुकसान झालं. एकूण नुकसान दोन कोटींच्या घरात गेलं. तरीही किताबखाना पुन्हा सुरू करण्याचं स्वप्न आहे समीर आणि अमृता सोमैया यांचं.
#Thread

त्यांनीच दहा वर्षांपूर्वी मुंबईत ही सुंदर स्पेस तयार केली.त्यांच्या जगप्रवासात विविध पुस्तकांनी त्यांना वेड लावलं.अशी एक कम्युनिटी स्पेस मुंबईतही करायची,या ध्येयाने त्यांनी किताबखानाची निर्मिती केली.अमृताचे वडील प्रसिद्ध आर्किटेक्ट जगदीश मिस्त्री यांनी किताबखाना डिझाईन केला होता.

लाईव इवेंट्स, पुस्तक वाचन, काला घोडा फेस्ट्वलचे कार्यक्रम, उत्तमोत्तम पुस्तकं, लहान मुलांसाठीचा पुस्तकांचा स्वतंत्र विभाग ही किताबखानाची सर्व खासियत कायम राहणार आहे.
सध्या तिथे रिस्टोरेशनचं काम सुरू आहे. समीर आणि अमृता यांची मी घेतलेली मुलाखत आणि बातमी शेअर करत आहे.

दोन मार्चला किताबखाना वाचकांसाठी पुन्हा सुरू करायचा समीर आणि अमृता सोमैया यांचा प्रयत्न आहे. किताबखाना कॅफे आता इनहाऊस चालवला जाईल. @JairajSinghR @KitabKhanaBooks @UpadhyayaP12

Mumbai's iconic @KitabKhanaBooks is getting ready to reopen after gutted in fire and hit by the #Lockdown
My story via @timesofindia
Read what Samir and Amrita Somaiya have to say, who created this beautiful community space in #SoBo #Mumbai #Bookstore

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