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Same Scenario, Different Paradigms

6/4/2015

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One of the things about being a neurodiversity advocate that listens to and tries to amplify the voices of Autistic advocates is that I can look at the exact same scenario as someone else and see an entirely different story. Reading one of my textbooks about autism, I ran into this segment.

The book was describing how there had been a difference between a teen on the spectrum's self-ratings of how present they had been in 'body and in mind' during group and the neurotypical adult's rating of the same thing. The teen thought he'd been present, though he was pacing; the adult disagreed. One of his fellow teens spoke up on his behalf saying "He's autistic, of course he's pacing!"

The moral the book took from this is that his statement was a great time to talk to children about what is expected of them by their neurotypical peers. What I read was a teen advocating for his fellow peer for the acceptance of his autistic characteristics; advocating for his right to be himself rather than be forced to blend in with the neurotypical majority. I do understand that both sides have points, but to me the boy's advocacy is something to applaud rather than a time to introduce a lesson about conformity.

-Creigh

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    About Creigh

    I'm a college student who grew up with my Autistic younger sister, Caley. I've got a bachelor's degree in Psychology and I'm currently studying for my Master's in Speech Language Pathology.

    Neither of those, however, have given me an understanding of autism. All of my understanding comes from learning from the many autistic people that I know. As a result, I have a very different outlook on autism than most, and a burning desire to tell the world what I've learned. This blog is one of the many areas in which I attempt to do that.


    *Note, none of these make me a professional, so advice I give is not professional advice.

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    Starting about in March 2014, all of these posts are originally published on Autism Spectrum Explained's Facebook page, and later reposted here for archiving purposes and easy access for ASE readers, including those who don't use Facebook. 

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Disclaimer: The author of this website is a  speech therapist, NOT a psychologist, and frequently writes based on personal experience. As a result, advice given here may not be completely accurate and may not apply to everyone. The author readily admits to having a lot left to learn. In addition, most of this website was written before the author became a speech therapist and is thus not written from a professional perspective. This website should not be used in place of a professional. The author is not responsible for the content of other websites for which links have been provided, nor content from other contributors.
Published: 3/09/2013
Last Updated: 11/14/2017
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