I’m late. Again. I can’t put on the polo Mom just washed. She used fabric softener. The shirt has miniature bumps, like sandpaper dragged across my shoulders, and the color; that washed-out navy, presses against my throat. I sit in my room, staring at it, hoping to come to a truce with my school clothes. […]
What I want the most is for the world to see A- the way (I think) he sees himself. As an amazing human being. Maybe this is my contribution to why not “profound autism.” It’s not about the term itself. It’s about the reason people want it, and what that would mean for my son. […]
I wish we framed autism around the impact on adaptive skills and activities, instead of framing it around behaviors. I have a lot of reasons for this. One is that “behavior support needs” tends to invite behavior management strategies that are based on external/observable behavior, and focus on the quality of life of the people […]
In This Article The Either/Or Trap The AND Reframe Reframes Are Essential for ADHD Brains All or Nothing Thinking with ADHD: Next Steps A few years ago, as my daughter was in the middle of a crisis, I completely lost it. I was scared, reactive, and couldn’t tell where my fear ended and hers began. […]
We still encounter quite a few people who think, “Ah yes, autistic people lack empathy.” This misunderstanding may happen because of some research and diagnoses based around old tests. Typically, such tests tend to ask particular questions to find out whether someone is or is not empathetic. But, do they measure what they think they […]
In another life, author Laura Richmond might have been a medieval vowess—but in this one she is a writer, parent, and autism and mental health advocate. She writes for The Daily Tism, and her book is All My Worldly Joy. We talked with Laura about being misunderstood for much of her life before her adult […]
Kaligirwa is a noted autistic autism scholar and advocate. They recently had their advocacy and motives challenged after they asked an autism diagnosis and resources company, Embrace Autism, whether it was behaving unethically in coaching people on how to take an online autism screening test. We wanted to know more, and so we talked with […]
My colleagues and I recently did something scary. For the past few years, we built the Neurodiversity Pathways program at Goodwill of Silicon Valley. I worked as a consultant, and my colleagues Ranga Jayaraman (the father of an autistic adult son), and Khushboo Chabria (an ADHD woman) served as full-time employees. Together, we taught career […]
Just like red and blue overlap, intersect, and interact in a tie-dye t-shirt to make unique color combinations, Autistic and ADHD traits combine to create AuDHD. It has been possible to diagnose both autism and ADHD together in the same person since 2013 (under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition). However, […]
It’s hard to believe we have been covering INSAR, the annual meeting of the International Society for Autism Research, for fifteen years. The autism research landscape, being expansive and varied, both has and has… not evolved during that stretch to focus on the needs of existing autistic people, and their families. (It should be noted […]
Autistic author, journalist, lawyer, and professor Katie Rose Guest Pryal is an invaluable autism parenting and neurodivergent self-advocacy resource, with several books plus a column at Psychology Today. We talked with Pryal about her recent and very excellent book on parenting neurodivergent kids, Your Kid Belongs Here. Shannon Des Roches Rosa: I really want people […]
This Teacher Appreciation Week, I’ve been thinking about my mom, who taught special education in Seattle Public Schools, and all our amazing teachers. I’m proud Washington is ranked the third best state in the nation for teachers. To all our teachers — than Facebook
