Autism Is Not An Excuse To Do Nothing

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I think they already do do that. My son was tested and they found he is visual. He was having problems in school and instead of being labeled as a trouble maker, the teacher referred him to the school district to have him tested. Now he gets a teacher in the classroom every week with him to work with him.

I have never met anyone who learns how to do some hands-on thing by only watching someone else do it and being able to do it at a high level themselves from watching instead of doing it themselves. I think the most common way of learning a hands-on skill is to try to do it yourself.

On a largely unrelated note, here is something to not be able to stop watching:

I think it's a very good piece. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere if I didn't try very hard and push through a lot. That said, there was a time when I was in my twenties when I really needed to take a break.

I had just been through a harrowing physical illness, uncertain housing situation with a brief but distressing period of homelessness and the usual difficulties in creating and maintaining social connections. I couldn't cope and needed to take stock and recharge.

One of the worst feelings I can remember was the day I was called in to see a somewhat distant relative and when I got there discovered that she wanted to see me in order to tell me how wrong I was in all my choices, how unacceptable my conduct was, and how the family had been discussing me and it was time for me to get my act together and get back to school or get a job.

If I had been pushed to hard in those days, I really think I might not be here today. I can't help but wonder how many people with a late diagnosis who went through life not knowing they were autistic needed fallow time like that?

It is still austerity-decade, medication is profitable, therapy maybe too? but decent schooling ?

I got in the '70's introduced in some subscene; the addicts, the most severe/problematique addicts revealed to be young adults who were treated in childhood with amphetamines, which was in '50-'60 a current perscription to problematic child-behaviour. (we see a repetition of the same mistake occurring again with adhd perscription)
I know many of them ended up suiciding or overdosing.

The odd thing is I agree with most of the things that woman says in her blog - but I still feel like I want to slap her. Or maybe slap the rump of the high horse she's put herself on.
Sorry, but I don't see autistics sitting around doing nothing any more than their neurotypical counterparts. I see young people struggling to survive in very difficult circumstances.
But maybe that's just the area where I live. You know, the one with the nation's highest unemployment and with a poverty rate 50% above the national average.

Adorable! I too am transfixed. His little ears are so cute.

I just see it as an arrogant rant.

Also, notice how the educated, employed, supported (the lucky)...end up belittling those who haven't achieved as much as they have? Even if they've only just recently become employed through support, or received support in education, or Hell, didn't need support in the first place.

How often do I see this? All those smug people looking down on us unworthys? The classic, "I did it, and if you can't you're a lazy bas***d".

Somehow I feel they're taking out their insecurities on anyone who resembles something they dislike about themselves. Projection, in other words.

Yes. In fact just the other day I was reading a discussion about how people struggle to lives on the low wages at McDonald's and other fast food places. And I saw quite a few arrogant, self-righteous people preaching about how they became successful and how anyone else should be able to do it the same way they did.

In my own experience though, what I've noticed more of is when people don't even seem to realize how wide the gap is between what they have, and what other people (don't) have. They don't belittle, because they are just totally oblivious.

Huh. You are so confident.

I read it and felt bad about myself for the times when I couldn't deal with life and might have been looked down on like the girl she disrespects. I wanted to defend the need to be safe and recover the onslaught of life, the way I had to, but I didn't think of it in the terms you do. I wish I could.

I also think about btbnnyr talking about how she is grateful for the way her parents pushed her. And the reality that I was often sort of pushed into the deepend and left to sink or swim by my parents. I wish that those years had been easier, but I sort of think life is harsh and you have to do the best you can. Crap, I can't get a coherent thought out of this.

You express yourself very well and I appreciate your perspective on this.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I see it. What I got out of this is "If you're not out working some job or in school, you're lazy and worthless!"

Ugh. I can disagree with this whole thing on a number of levels. For example, I'll quote part of it here:

"By doing so, they may not suffer various stresses – but they never experience the highlights of life either. They miss out on the joy and satisfaction of pouring yourself into an interesting course of study, and the absorbing and worthwhile career that can follow it. They never know the fulfilment of finally graduating after years of hard work, the honest praise of bosses and co-workers for a job well done, or the delights (and the challenges) of having relationships, children, community involvement, etc, etc."

Again someone makes alot of assumptions, and seems to have this idea that everyone else has, or SHOULD have, exactly the same views as her. She also seems to think that everyone actually GETS those things she mentions. An "interesting course of study" for instance. I did this. Went through college. An associates degree in computer science. Was it an interesting course of study? NO. It was BRAIN MELTING. 95% of it had nothing to do with anything conceivably useful. Hell, one of the classes was the basics of just using the internet! I mean, good grief! This was at a high-end "business" college (or that's what they call themselves). I went there to learn software development for a potential career in game design. I got NOTHING out of this. Most of the classes were about stuff I already knew, except that the teachers there wanted me to pointlessly structure something I already knew into some damn stupid arbitrary form that inevitably took a billionty years longer than my own way. I learned nothing from those. And the others were like the internet course: Bloody useless. Interesting course of study? Ugh.

Oh, and then there's the "absorbing and worthwhile career". UGH. I had originally been disappointed that the stupid degree seemed damn near useless for getting employment. But then I found out what that particular industry was REALLY like. Let's just say.... it's not a pretty picture. 100-hour work weeks, anyone? Specifically, 100 hours of staring into a computer screen covered in code (gibberish to most). Yeah, thanks, but no. Felt like I'd dodged one hell of a bullet.

After that though, everything changed, and I didnt need the stupid degree anymore. And I didnt need a JOB, either. Which is good: I've had tons of different jobs in the past. Tons of them. Done things like basic cashiering, delivery driving, running a check sorter at a bank (a huge machine that found new and creative ways to break down or spray checks into the air every 10 minutes or so), or even a bizarro stint at a vet that involved, among other strange duties, alphabetizing bags of cat poop. I wish I was making that up. And most of those jobs... I was just BAD at. I wasnt too bad at dealing with the stupid sorter, and I did okay when I worked at the toy store... but those were 2 jobs out of like, 30, and even those had alot of bad points. The others were just miserable. I got nothing positive out of any of that. No satisfaction or "challenge" or any of that (how is something a "challenge" when it's absolutely freaking mindless?). And for non-work stuff.... uuugh. I sure as bloody hell dont want to have kids, and also dont want a relationship either. And "community involvement"? I dont even know what that MEANS, but it probably means dealing with way too many people, which, well... I think plenty here can understand when I say I'd rather prefer not to do that.

Fast forward to now. Havent had a job in... er... some number of years. 8, maybe? I dont even know anymore. Doesnt matter though, as I also dont NEED to work. I dont need the money for anything, so I dont have a job... simple as that. Yet because I'm not off being screamed at by some angry boss while experiencing soul-crushing drudgery for 8 hours a day, I must be pretty darn pathetic! I get that often, usually from people that dont even really know me (so how can they judge? Yet they do, of course) and sometimes from people that DO know me. They just go along with what basic society tells them, and cant see things from anyone else's point of view.

Drives me up the wall every time I hear about it. And just.... uuugh. I always wanna just smack people that do that. Not that it'll stop them from doing it, of course.

Well the blogger did say some so obviously she didn't mean all. The negative do stand out more so it may seem like lot of us sit around and do nothing and play the "oh poor me" card. But those autistics may be in the minority.Temple Grandin has said something similar about it too and what she has noticed with the younger population who have been diagnosed with it as children and she has written how she finds it scary if she grew up in todays time as a child because she thinks she wouldn't be doing what she is doing now and wouldn't have as good of social skills to succeed. I don't really agree there because just because of what technology we have today such as computer and video games, doesn't mean that she will grow up to live in her mother's basement because she could still have the mother to not let her be autistic and just make her go out of her comfort zone and socialize and still teach her some social skills and communication, not all moms hold their kids back. I am 38 years younger than her and no way was I raised these other aspie kids are raised as she describes but I do agree with what else she says.

How can the Multiple Intelligences be implemented in the classroom?
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic27/campbell/

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I think the author is missing some context from her opinions, or maybe her opinions are misdirected.
She had to achieve normal expectations and is lucky that her health is not worse because of that climate. Parents of a child with ASD now have to make adaptations/accommodations, and this is the new normal environment.
Childhood and the habits formed there in, is the responsibility of the main care givers, I think her observations would have more validity if the issues she has noted were linked with and directed towards the agencies that provide parental education/support information.

One problem with the article is that the author seems to be mostly writing from a distant eggsperience of reading a book that describes some people who in her opinion are not having full lives. This means that she doesn't know these people or their full stories. She doesn't describe people she knows personally who are similar to the people in the book. There are not even details about the people in the book, just the needlepoint thing without the context of the rest of the person's life. She seems to be basing her opinions and suggestions on persons or types of people that she has made up in her mind based on reading the book.

But does anyone really spend 'all' of their time on one activity in the general sense? I could see someone with autism getting very caught up in a special interest to the point it interferes with other activities....but its difficult for me to picture someone who spends all of their time doing the exact same thing and nothing else whatsoever, so just curious where the author sees these people.....I mean I have seen more severely disabled people that really can't do much aside from sit there and observe, and make sounds but then they still have feelings you can see if people who care for them are interacting with them they'll be somewhat expressive of mood like seem joyful about the interaction and for all I know they do have other activities.

The term 'totally nuts' is an ad hominem slur now? though admittedly I forget what hominem is.

I think you could be confusing attitude with emotional turmoil...if someone does feel their disability makes them useless and they shouldn't even try, I can't help but feeling then there could be some depression going on and maybe they need some help with that. Objectively for instance I know I am not entirely useless and there are things I can do and even people who enjoy my company...but I know if my depression starts getting to me I can very well feel useless and like it would be better to just give up on life, that doesn't mean I generally make no effort but I certainly do get in the place mentally where it doesn't feel worth it and might very well be lazy, till I can manage to pull myself out of that some.

And I have never liked the idea of assuming what someones entire life consists of based on internet posts unless they explicitly state something. I mean if someone says they feel worthless and don't see a point in trying...I can't even take that to mean they never do anything and use their disability as an excuse for that as it would be reading into what they said which can turn rather inaccurate and put the person on the defense which doesn't usually help.