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How Feminism Changed Autism Parents

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beneficii
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10 Feb 2014, 5:40 pm

Parents apply feminism to raising their Autistic daughter, respecting her autonomy and her body:

http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/02/fem ... m-parents/


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ASPartOfMe
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10 Feb 2014, 7:40 pm

That particular feminist is a wonderful parent


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10 Feb 2014, 7:48 pm

This should be a must-read for all parents of autistic children, not just the feminists. Please, everyone, share the link on Facebook, etc.



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11 Feb 2014, 5:00 pm

*cheers*

Quote:
We also completely reject any autism therapies that rely on total behavioral compliance.


*MEGACHEERS*


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MegaBass
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11 Feb 2014, 5:22 pm

I like this and the thoughtfulness. However.

Quote:
Her sarcasm filter is developing differently. That means heavily filtering her media intake (super-snarky cartoons: out), being incredibly careful about our own language, and starting to think really critically about ableist macro- and micro-aggressions.


They need her to get used to the language. They need to adapt to her first for mutual understanding sure, but they need to teach her to be able to understand sarcasm and the language that most people use. Or she will be even more outcast when older. It can be taught.



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11 Feb 2014, 5:55 pm

MegaBass wrote:
I like this and the thoughtfulness. However.

Quote:
Her sarcasm filter is developing differently. That means heavily filtering her media intake (super-snarky cartoons: out), being incredibly careful about our own language, and starting to think really critically about ableist macro- and micro-aggressions.


They need her to get used to the language. They need to adapt to her first for mutual understanding sure, but they need to teach her to be able to understand sarcasm and the language that most people use. Or she will be even more outcast when older. It can be taught.


I didn't read that as "we won't let her see any of that" so much as "we'll control her access, so that she can learn it at a controllable speed, as well as learn it in ways that aren't ableist, because much sarcasm these days are ableist."

Control for the purpose of building up a foundation, rather than throwing her into somewhere that she's not learning it in the same ways or at the same speed as everyone else.



MegaBass
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12 Feb 2014, 8:43 am

That isn't what they said though.

I would understand it if they were introducing her to first walking out and about on her own and they limited the places she went to, as an example. But, watching childrens cartoons isn't going to be bad for her mental or physical health, so I don't think filtering out cartoons for her is a good idea. I think she should be exposed to them and although they may confuse her, the more she is exposed to and the sooner, the faster she will learn. Even if it takes a long time. It would be even better if they were there to watch the cartoons with her and explain what's going on. It sounds though like they want to tiptoe around her in that regard which I think isn't beneficial.



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13 Feb 2014, 11:38 pm

In general, I agree, a great article. I ran into it a bit ago (I think Thinking Person's Guide to Autism posted it?) and shared it with feminist friends. Warm fuzzies all around.

MegaBass, that was the only bit of the article I was uncertain about, but I really don't think there's enough information there to really know for sure either way what they meant...


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