We know we are different. Before I knew I was in NeuroDivergent, my labels were: Stubborn, “Lazy, Rebellions, Difficult, Stupid, Flake, dumb.” Now, those have been replaced with Autistic and ADHD.
Continue reading Should I tell my child they are NeuroDivergent?
In my last piece, Alternatives to ABA: If not ABA… then WHAT? – ABA for “Problem Behaviors,” I shared how behavior can often indicate unmet needs and why squishing “inconvenient behaviors” also may extinguish communications to you that something is wrong.
In the piece’s opening, I mentioned several common ABA goals listed on Autism Speaks’ website (below), and in its closing, I asked my readers which of the items they wanted me to dive into next.
The first request I saw was to talk more about “helping Autistic People with learning self-care skills,” – so that is the topic I will cover today. Continue reading Alternatives to ABA: If not ABA… then WHAT? – Helping Autistic People With “Self-Care Skills”
These results are not limited to people who’ve experienced formal modification programs (because compliance-based programs permeate our society and many of its systems as a whole).
Continue reading Sounding the Alarm: Battling the ABA Epidemic: ABAers Target ADHD and Kids Who Started School Late During COVID
Unfortunately, sometimes the people you think (hope) will be safe aren’t always safe. It can be tricky to know if someone will accept you or judge you harshly, thinking less of you when you tell them you’re Queer (regardless of what flavor Queer you are).
For those of us who feel safe enough to live “outside of the closet,” coming out is something we will choose to do (or NOT to do) repeatedly our entire lives. Continue reading Coming out: It’s not something we do “just once.” It’s something we will do over and over again our entire lives.
When I see a puzzle piece, I think of ABA as “missing a piece” and “building a person” (because I know the history). To me, it will always be something ugly.
Continue reading The History of the Puzzle Piece (a Controversial Symbol for Autism and Autistic People), ABA, Conversion Therapy, & Autism Speaks
I consider “Conversion Therapy” to be ANY behavioral modification program that uses negative and positive reinforcements to coerce and manipulate someone into emulating behaviors that are forced and unnatural to them to make the person blend in and appear more “socially acceptable” (whether for Queer, NeuroDivergent, or any other type of behavior that is not considered the “social norm”).
Continue reading Behaviorism 101: Identifying Autistic, NeuroDivergent, and Other forms of Conversion “Therapy”
Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Ivar Lovaas conducted experiments using rewards and punishments to shape “desirable” or “normative behaviors” in gender nonconforming and Autistic children.
Continue reading NeuroQueer Timelines: Conversion Therapy, Queer History, and ABA – The Pains of Watching History Repeat Itself
Shame is defined as a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or perceived impropriety. That is one definition talking about how shame is experienced from the inside.
However, I want to talk more about having shame that is put on you from society and people around you; shame that is unjustified, that many NeuroDivergent, LGBTQIA, and other marginalized people may feel, and the impact that shame has on those of us who are in those groups.
Continue reading Shame Kills – Autism, NeuroDivergence, Pride, & Shame
