I wrote the following in response to a comment (on another page) that referred to the ability of autistic individuals to become indistinguishable from their peers and to make progress beyond the extremely low expectations that are so often inappropriately assigned to them as recovery from autism. I feel very strongly about this topic and wanted to share what I wrote. I edited my comment very slightly so that it can stand alone here. Being indistinguishable from ones peers is not no longer being autistic. Acting like others and learning to suppress the outward expression of ones neurology does not imply that ones neurology has changed. Indistinguishability can be an extremely harmful goal when prized over working toward self-actualization and pride in and acceptance of who we are. With support and love, there is no limit on what autistic people can do. To that point, there is nothing worse than the bigotry of low expectations. But Id strongly caution against defining progress, skill acquisition and personal growth as recovery from ones neurology when they are in fact progress, skill acquisition and personal growth. For more on this topic ... What My Daughter Is Not Doing, September, 2013 --> adiaryofamom.wordpress/2013/09/09/what-my-daughter-is-not-doing/ {instead of a photo, Im attaching a video of Brooke scripting one of her favorite commercials (for Nabi, a kids tablet competing with the Kindle Fire). She happens to be wearing a sweater that says, HOPE across it. In the video, she is happy, hopeful, and autistic.} *I have no connection to Nabi or Kindle or Amazon or, well, pretty much anything else. Just in case you were wondering.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 19:55:03 +0000
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