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Mitzi Waltz
School of Education, United Kingdom
Recent Activity
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Mitzi commented on the petition |The understanding and skills needed to manage challenging behaviours (not "autistic behaviours," which are an innate part of being autistic) are readily available, and there is no excuse for using techniques such as this. They are the opposite of "therapeutic"; indeed, they are ineffective and can cause long-term harm to vulnerable children.
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Mitzi signed the petition |
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Mitzi commented on the article |Reminds me of the "Black"-theme restaurants that were ever so popular when I was a child in the 1960s and even on into the 1970s. Places like Coon's Chicken Inn (Portland Oregon--some people think it was made up for the film "Ghost World" but it was a real place), the Sambo's chain, and so on.
There's a reason we don't see these anymore. I have a feeling that the Taco John's chain doesn't use a Mexican sleeping under a sombrero as their symbol anymore either.
I'm totally OK with people who experience mental health or neurological difficulties making light of things themselves (for instance, I loved The Cramps, who had plenty of lyrics and imagery that could have been insulting coming from people who weren't well known to be "mentally interesting" themselves). But this is really just taking the p*ss, as we say over here in England...
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Mitzi commented on the article |We train autism specialist teachers for Greece, Cyprus and Malta every year at the University of Birmingham, where I teach and research autism. They definitely back up what these moms told you--few services, and what there is tends to go to urban people with big mouths and bigger wallets. Most children and young people with ASD who can't hang on in mainstream are in generic special schools.
BTW, I've just sent back a graduate who hopes to open up a hippotherapy centre, and I have two current students who want to get a drama therapy project for teens up and running. Former students in Malta are doing really good work as well. In time, things will change, if parents organise and push. That's what it took in the US and the UK (and still takes--my son is 18 now, time to start getting involved in adult issues... just when I would like a break, to be honest!)
There is not much of a social safety net in Greece for anyone with a disability, it's assumed that family (read: female family members) will manage the "burden." And there is still some significant stigma around intellectual disability and autism. -
Mitzi commented on the article |Could you bear the risk of one in five children dying before the age of 5 from preventable disease? Because those were the odds--as late as the 1920s. Thanks to vaccines and modern medicine, the pain and grief of losing a child in infancy, often more than one child in that era of large families, sometimes all of one's children when an epidemic swept through town, is something we have been spared. I for one would not wish those days back...
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Mitzi commented on the article |And of course you can add that the use of communication strategies other than verbal speech is too much bother, and that we don't know how to do this yet anyway (never mind that non-verbal communication strategies have been used for donkey's years to ensure that people with other developmental disabilites, sensory impairments, and cerebral palsy are offered meaningful participation in decisions about their lives.)
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Mitzi signed the petition | -
Mitzi commented on the article |
based on the link, I think he means that unless you buy his psychological services, your child will not develop. How amazing that for centuries children have developed without them!
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Mitzi commented on the article |When my son was expelled from kindergarten, he was placed in a private "therapeutic day program" paid for the the city. They used holds and seclusion on a daily basis, for any noncompliance. At times he was being "held" 10, 20 or more times per day, often prone, and spent many hours locked in a padded room. We fought even harder to get him out than we had fought to get him in (which of course we had done because we had been told it was a program with expertise--what we weren't told was they were still under the influence of Bettelheim...and did not really "believe in" autism as a disability).
I still believe the 18 months my son spent in this place harmed him.
I learned recently that it has stopped serving the "neglected and abused" population (which was then its real bread and butter) to become a so-called center of excellence in autism. I hope that's a step forward. They will have had a complete change of staff in the 12 years since he was there, in any case... -
Mitzi commented on the article |pD: There are many varieties of AAC, and not all are high-tech. You may have already been round this block, but PECS (Picture Exchang Communication System) is also a form of AAC--it involves labeling items with pictures, with the word written below, and then using cards with the same pictures to communicate very simple concepts. For example, if the child wants a cookie, he gives you his card withe cookie on it. You say, "Joe, you want me to get you a cookie", and get him the cookie. It's not a full language --which is something full-featured AAC devices can give someone--but it's a start to understanding the concepts underlying symbolic communication, and the point of communication.
It was very helpful to my son when he only had a few sounds/words and struggled to communicate anything bigger than "no" or "milk." We learned about it through his preschool and implemented it at home also, and he had a huge reduction in frustration and tantrums, plus a modest increase in actual word use before too long. Something started to make sense to him (and very importantly, we were able to understand him.)
There are also some very simple electronic devices out there that are worth looking at. You could start ith something as simple as "yes" and "no"--crucial communications for anyone!
Good luck, it does get better (mine is 18 now).
