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OMum22
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Esther
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bolthead0070
Gingerheaddad
Alicia
Written by Julia
August 23, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Posted in ableism, advocacy, appearances, autism, communication, culture wars, disability, language, personal, prejudice, writing
« Please, Please Believe Me
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I loved this post.
Alicia
August 23, 2011 at 8:15 pm
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Thank you.
Chris Harmon
August 24, 2011 at 12:47 am
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Thanks for an excellent post. Your voice is strong and clear, and the PFLAG idea is a great one I hadn’t thought of.
Question: Do you go to TASH? I’m setting up an asynchronous forum there on the politics of autism this year and I would love to have your input. EJG
Ibby Anderson-Grace
August 24, 2011 at 1:00 am
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I don’t think there’s a TASH-anything local to me, I would love to be involved though. How can I help?
Julia
August 24, 2011 at 1:04 am
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I couldn’t ‘ agree more with what you’ve written. And, BTW, I am the NT mom of a 9 yr old girl who happens to have high-functioning Asperger’s / be autistic – whatever… She is smart and funny and sweet and infuriating and imaginative and passionate and anxious and PERFECT s only she can be. And as independent as, well, what 9 yr old is EXPECTED to be independent??? She is who and what she is and we love her completely as is, and don’t see her as any more flawed than her NT sister – we are all humans and all humans are flawed in some way… and wouldn’t the world be a dull awful place if we were all perfect and the same??!?
I hope never to teach her “quiet hands” or anything similar, though ( and feel free to vehemently disagree and correct me if this is out-of-line ) I hope to give her the life-tools to choose it or something like it at any point for herself if SHE finds it either helpful or necessary in order to accomplish whatever it is she is trying to do at any point in time. AND to choose to be loud in in someone’s face… and to know and value the difference.
I imagine given a few more years maturity and life experience she might write almost the exact same thing. Though I hope she won’t have the NEED. Not that I hope she won’t want or need to express herself… it’s that I hope she will have had the experiences of acceptance of her WHOLE self by enough people for this type of entry to be unnecessary.
Thank you, from the depths of my soul, for the reminders to be mindful of not only what we say but how we say it… of how we as parents and as PEOPLE experience our children’s experiences and how that may fundamentally differ from theirs. Autism or not. And that we need to listen better – and think about more. And that speaking on someone’s behalf does NOT mean speaking FOR them. And to think more about how we give children – or anyone, really, the tools to express themselves, and how we value what they opt to express and in what ways…
nelpsandcsmom
August 24, 2011 at 10:50 am
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Thanks for this. It’s Jesus.
Landon Bryce
August 24, 2011 at 3:14 pm
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My oldest daughter is aspie and when I asked her a while back about autistic vs. living with autism, she said it needs to be autistic. After all, it’s not living with a cat.
Gingerheaddad
August 24, 2011 at 3:51 pm
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Julia, I really loved this. I’m a NT parent of 5 year-old twin boys who are both autistic. I saw some of what you said quoted on Corina Becker’s blog last night and then found the entire thing today via Landon’s blog. Would you mind me reblogging it? Let me know. Thanks again.
OMum22
August 24, 2011 at 4:15 pm
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Share away! Thank you.
Julia
August 24, 2011 at 4:29 pm