WTF Article claims Positive Effects of Bullying Autistics

Post Reply New Topic

Typical Academic rubbish She probably was a school bully herself and is trying to justify herself.
I wanted to wipe that smug smile off her face too.
Bullying just makes things worse for the child who then grows up feeling they are not excepted and have a lot of emotional scars that never heal.

The article may just be a thinly veiled embedded ad for the app she's peddling to parents. If so, she's not just misguided or a misinformed optimist, she's selling snake oil and harming kids in the process.

From her website:

"In 2015, she invented and launched “I Can Have Conversations With You!™” , a life-changing social language therapy system for the iPad to help people with autism make sense of words, gestures, and feelings to have confident conversations while building stronger social relationships. Learn more at http://www.iCanForAutism.com "

"Autism Social Skills and Language Learning Made Easy and Rewarding!

Communication is the most powerful tool to build close relationships. My method teaches kids with autism new ways of thinking to talk and understand successfully. I’ve seen it happen, and there’s nothing better. I Can Have Conversations With You!™ improves the language, thinking, and social communication abilities of kids 6+ with autism who talk and read. With up to 6 hours of learning, my iPad program enhances your child's skills to:

Pre-Lesson Assessment
At the beginning of the program, you analyze your child’s communication profile on an easy-to-do assessment chart.

TESTIMONIALS
My daughter loves this app...totally transformed my daughter's life and gave me renewed hope.
~T. Ye, New Jersey

Thank you Karen for creating this in depth app to help our students that struggle with social communication!
~ Kristin Cummings, speech pathologist

I am so thrilled...this app is systematic and well designed, with great explanations for users to really understand how to have a conversation.
~SmartAppsForKids.com

I was very impressed...this app is jam packed with great features...Pick up your copy in the app store today!
~Kathryn Jenkins, TouchAutism.com

A Treat Better Than Candy!
Sweet Price - $9.99 (limited offer)

For some survivors of bullying, who have not been able to begin the healing journey, just reading an article like that could trigger a serious spiral down into the powerlessness and terror of past trauma and catapult some into self-harm and self-rejection. The more I think about this terrible article and the harm it seeks to do (so that Miss Wonderful Therapist can step in and heal your trauma, for a price and her profit) the more disgusted I am. If she was a trained and registered psychologist (I'll bet money she isn't, though she strives to create that impression perhaps) then a complaint could be made to the national body that monitors professional behaviour and standards of practising psychologists. Here, where I live, if a registered psychologist who was a member of the national professional body wrote drivel like that, they would probably be kicked out. I would not be surprised either if Miss Wonderful Therapist has links - covert or overt - to our old friends (not) in Autism Speaks.

PS For anyone who has been triggered by this, please stop reading this thread immediately, block new notifications of replies to it, and maybe seek support in The Haven if you are unable to calm and soothe yourself within a reasonable time.

https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-app ... u%E2%84%A2

Thanks for the confirmation Edenthiel!

On her blog page, she spruiks up her 'wonder cure' as equally effective and curative for adults too (this implies that autistic adults never progress beyond childhood levels, and that she wants people to believe this myth).

Whoever wrote this has been reading too many inspirational internet memes.

Right, someone trying to burn my eye with a cigarette lighter to see if I would react certainly did "make me aware of the world around me." As did stabbing the back of my neck with scissors and pencils, and punching me in the arms and back every day. I did learn strength when I beat up my classmates for picking on me, and it was very satisfying, if not necessarily what the author had in mind. It didn't do much for dealing with "stranger danger" awareness, when two teenagers kidnapped me when I was six off a playground. Since I wasn't diagnosed in childhood, it didn't do much to promote autism-friendly programs. My third-grade teacher did call my mom up and ask her if I was ret*d.

This woman fills me with rage. It's the same old bull in a shiny new package: "let the kids work it out amongst themselves, it builds character." The real message is that teachers don't want to be bothered with needy kids or deal with behavior problems.

Seems like wisdom to me.

She preaches to turn a bad event into a positive learning experience.

It never fails to amaze me that garbage like this even gets printed while I will probably never get to be a real writer.

The only positive effect of bullying is when it's stopped and justice has been served.

To me, it boils down to, “Stop being a crybaby and a wimp. It should have benefitted you. If the harm outweighed the good, it’s because you’re too weak to deserve a chance to live, so harming you is no loss anyway”.

My guess: she was one of the popular girls (you can tell by her currently fading looks and harsh prom queen stiff smile) and humiliated the unholy hell out of the girls who she felt were weaker (come on, she and her friends were just having fun), experienced eleven seconds of remorse at some point and fixed that bothersome feeling by deciding she had actually done all those ugly nerdy smelly freak girls a favor, like ZOMG.

That's just a guess, though. Maybe none of this is true. Maybe she's just stupid. Not knowing this woman, we can't discount any possibility.

Last edited by NowhereWoman on 15 Oct 2015, 12:22 am, edited 3 times in total.

It's like the proverb: "when life gives you lemons, make lemonaide".

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" is a proverbial phrase used to encourage optimism and a can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_life ... e_lemonade

Last edited by LoveNotHate on 14 Oct 2015, 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This lady, if I dare call her that, obviously never lived in the real world.A lot of these stepsi tried when I was a lot younger, and they always backfired in my face.

Learning about how to deal with people who don't like you is different than bullying. People can mistreat and annoy you, but it's not always malicious, merciless, and persistent like bullying is.

You are a kind and decent person for trying to see this in a positive light and for giving the author the benefit of a doubt.

I perhaps am less kind and when it comes to bullying, my own take is: when life slams lemons at you 24/7, hence turning you into a quivering barely functional and occasionally suicidal mess, find out where the damned lemons are coming from, get help in stopping the cruel monster who keeps throwing them because s/he is society's malfunction, not you, and then drink whatever you damned well please. Without fear of getting pelted with more lemons for doing so.

Perhaps that one's too cumbersome to be a catchy meme though, I'll bet that's why the lemonade one took off instead.

This. "Learning from" and learning "how to deal with" bullying rather than seeing bullying as a problem that should be eliminated, period is (IMO only - I do realize I get a vote of exactly one here) akin to telling someone, "Learn how to deal with your boss touching your thigh every time he leans over you 'to go over reports,' it will build your character. And figure out how to be grateful for this wonderful life's lesson. Be mature enough to realize that every time your boss 'accidentally' runs his finger up your inner thigh, causing you to run to the ladies' room hyperventilating, crying and terrified for not only your self-protection and your job, he's actually doing you a favor, because he's teaching you how to deal with the world. How else would you learn?"

As to the suggestions in the article that bullying can be positive because it builds awareness, take my scenario above and apply it here as well. "Sexual abuse in the workplace is positive because after X amount of people have been damaged by it, more people will know about it." Um...huh?