314pe wrote:
I believe it's unlikely that someone, who is dealing with an autistic child on a daily basis, would find an idea of having another autistic person in the family very appealing.
SOME (though not all, perhaps not even most) autistic adults can relate much better to autistic children than any NT adult possibly could.
In my opinion, autistic adults with this capability (and with sufficient life skills to be able to hold down a job) should be specifically recruited to work in special ed and other services for autistic children. Ideally, in my opinion, services for autistic children should be staffed at about 50% by autistic people and about 50% by NTs, at all levels of their organizational hierarchies, and within the staff of each classroom or other division.
Anyhow, an autistic adult with experience working as a special ed teacher could be an ideal step-parent for an autistic child, it seems to me. Hopefully some single and divorced NT parents of autistic kids would eventually see it that way too, at least once the idea that SOME autistic adults are particularly well-qualified to care for autistic children gets popularized.
_________________
- Autistic in NYC - Resources and new ideas for the autistic adult community in the New York City metro area.
- Autistic peer-led groups (via text-based chat, currently) led or facilitated by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group.