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Justin H
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Justin commented on the article |I think the idea would be something along the idea of autistic space as discussed by ANI when they designed their Autreat conferences. I wouldn't assume its for everyone. I agree about the sharing values being important to the choosing of community. However, there's something I kind of like about the idea of sharing a understanding of who you are as well as what my opinions are. I think you'll get the feel of it best if you simply read over the beginning portions of this link: http://www.autreat.com/History_of_ANI.html
However I wouldn't conflate the intentional communities being discussed on this page with the autistic space concept I'm referring you to. Its just the best answer I can give on why disabled individual might want to live together. -
Justin commented on the article |This post reminds me of my own history in particular. When I was in elementary school probably just within a few years of AS being added to the DSM-IV, I was diagnosed by the school psychologist as having a langauge based learning disability and an empathy problem. Nobody ever mentioned the possibility of AS, and it wasn't until I was in college that I was properly diagnosed. Funny how experts sometimes aren't.
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Justin commented on the article |The book "Messenger" by Lois Lowry I think really got across this idea of affirmation. It is full of characters who have various disabilities or problems and portrays how removing those problems from them would inherently damage who they were. A school teacher who loved poetry who has a disability removed no longer had the motivations that made him the scholar he was and he loses his deepest characteristics. Perhaps it would be a good reading suggestion for people who are curious what the affirmation model is about or who perhaps just don't understand it.
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Justin commented on the article |I catch the gist of what your saying with the "very high form of functioning," not trying to make fairy tale out of this or anything. But I'm not certain I would put the word high in what you are saying or at least not very high. I would change it to "excluding people in non communicative states of autism." Its a little more specific and I think there's a lot of people out there that no psychologist is calling high or very high functioning (such as very unable to live independently and subject to frequent anxiety attacks and outbursts) but who still can communicate and learn--from eachother included. Just my two cents.
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Justin commented on the article |
This reminds me of experiences I've had trying to seek advize from teachers of mine. Both were in a religious context, however one of the teachers actually ran a local program to give therapy for autistics for a living. I'd ask them both questions about how to navigate certain relationships that I was struggling with. The one who really didn't know anything about aspergers syndrome would always give answers that boiled down to stop being so asperger's, wheras the person who ran the autism program was always really sympathetic and validating but had no suggestions for me. Not that he couldn't have given advize on other subjects, but there haven't been many books written on the dynamics of AS/NT courtship for therapists to study up on if that makes sense. I only really felt like I got advice that worked for me when I asked other people on the spectrum, and there weren't many around. I heartily agree with everything you've said here.
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Justin commented on the article |I'd add to your list of the causes of bullying it a need for power and social standing that can be maintained through artificial social stratification. That's one thing I noticed growing up. People say ignore bullies and they'll ignore you. But if part of their purpose in bullying you was to demonstrate something about themselves to an audience it doesn't matter if you react or not. They've proved their point to everyone else already-that they don't accept people like you and in not accepting you they are part of a more exclusive social group. That kind of thing can't be stopped by ignoring them.
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Justin commented on the article |I actually was homeschooled from 6th grade up and due to being on the spectrum it was one of the best things that happened in my life. But having to throw together a curriculum on our own and being completely outside of the public system was a real burden. If we could have pulled a online charter school thing like spoken about here we probably would have, and with much less stigma than homeschooling normally bears. People are always ranting about homeschooling either being full of lazy kids, crazy parents, or parents who are simply incompetant to teach. Some of this is true some of the time (my parents for instance were not ready to teach me to write well beyond grammar, that had to wait for college), but just being attatched to a institution takes most of those accusations away. I hope this kind of thing spreads.
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