Autism Course - Online training
Join Kieran Rose, The Autistic Advocate, for his autism course, which is pre-recorded and delivered online for your convenience.
Open Society
Trans and Autistic: Navigating several social transitions
Social transitioning looks different for different people, some people change their pronouns, their name, what they wear, how they talk and carry themselves. For me, social transition was made more complicated by my late realisation of being Autistic.
Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Children and Adolescents With ASD
This survey study uses data from the Mental Health and Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire to examine the age at onset of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among children and adolescents aged 8 to 17 years who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Pluralistic: Conspiratorialism and the epistemological crisis (25 Mar 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
12 Paulo Freire Quotes About Education
Paulo Freire's writings are full of rich and poignant quotes about education, civics, and history. Here are a few of my favorites.
Scrolling is... - Trauma Geek - Trauma and Neurodiversity Education | Facebook
Scrolling is dissociative. Reading is connective. (and audio-books count as reading!)
By scrolling, I mean reading text...
In states with laws targeting LGBTQ issues, school hate crimes quadrupled
School hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people have sharply risen in recent years, climbing fastest in states that have passed laws restricting LGBTQ student rights and education, a Washington Post analysis of FBI data finds.
The SAGE Handbook of Critical Pedagogies
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ACT OF READING on JSTOR
Paulo Freire, Loretta Slover, THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ACT OF READING, The Journal of Education, Vol. 165, No. 1, LITERACY AND IDEOLOGY (WINTER 1983), pp. 5-11
The statistically flawed evidence that social media is causing the teen mental health crisis
Jonathan Haidt's integrity and transparency are admirable, but the studies he's relying on aren't strong enough to support his conclusions.
Rightful Live Investigates Behavioural Analysis and Support
Rightful Lives is launching an investigation in to methods of behavioural treatment, Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) fo...
Ethical Concerns with Applied Behavior Analysis for Autism Spectrum "Disorder" - PubMed
This paper has both theoretical and practical ambitions. The theoretical ambitions are to explore what would constitute both effective and ethical treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, the practical ambition is perhaps more important: we argue that a dominant form of Applied Behavior …
we argue that a dominant form of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), which is widely taken to be far-and-away the best "treatment" for ASD, manifests systematic violations of the fundamental tenets of bioethics. Moreover, the supposed benefits of the treatment not only fail to mitigate these violations, but often exacerbate them. Warnings of the perils of ABA are not original to us-autism advocates have been ringing this bell for some years. However, their pleas have been largely unheeded, and ABA continues to be offered to and quite frequently pushed upon parents as the appropriate treatment for autistic children. Our contribution is to argue that, from a bioethical perspective, autism advocates are fully justified in their concerns-the rights of autistic children and their parents are being regularly infringed upon. Specifically, we will argue that employing ABA violates the principles of justice and nonmaleficence and, most critically, infringes on the autonomy of children and (when pushed aggressively) of parents as well.
The problem with behaviorism
There are better ways to work with behaviorally challenging children The “solution” recommended for schools and school systems where there are issues with student disruption and out of control behaviors is consistently “positive behavior intervention and supports.” In this document I will provide the history of positive behavior intervention and supports, the approach chosen by
The evidence of long-term effectiveness is not available. On the contrary, after 22 years, our country’s schools continue to struggle with restraints, seclusion, suspensions and expulsions. In some cases, these statistics are increasing, even in schools where PBIS is in place. (The PBIS.org website cites the effectiveness of the PBIS framework and lists many references. However, a look at the references reveals that most are not recent, are limited in scope, and do not reflect research about long term outcomes of implementation of PBIS).
Behaviorism is harmful for vulnerable children, including those with developmental delays, neurodivergence (ADHD, Autism, etc.), mental health concerns (anxiety, depression, etc.).
The answer to misbehavior is teaching a replacement behavior or adjusting the environment, instructions and tasks. This brings up two important points. First, there is no mention here about the importance of relationship. It is through relationships that children find safety, and through safety, children are able to calm, co-regulate (and learn to self-regulate) and be available for learning those instructions.
The research from the 1990’s and ongoing continues to affirm the key importance of relationships for children to feel safe and learn.
The relationship with a caring, trusted adult is primary. It must come first.
The second concern about teaching replacement behaviors goes back to the lack of distinction between willful behaviors and stress behaviors. Teaching replacement behaviors is not possible for stress responses since they are automatic responses that occur beneath the level of conscious thought.
The documents on PBIS.org imply that all behavior is willful. There is no acknowledgement in the PBIS.org literature that behaviors can be stress responses (fight-flight-freeze responses). This is a profound omission that does great harm to children whose brains and bodies have highly sensitive neuroception of danger. To be punished for a stress response is harmful and traumatic.
There is no mention of dysregulation which is a major issue with trauma, ADHD, and other conditions. It is an underlying feature of disruptive behavior. Children must learn how to regulate their emotions and their bodies, something that is first learned through co-regulation with a trusted adult.
First of all, the training of all school staff must be updated so that everyone who comes in contact with students understands brain development, fight-flight-freeze behaviors, is able to recognize signs of stress by noticing students’ facial expressions and body language and by talking with students; and knows how to respond in a situation where a student begins to escalate or is escalated, so that the student is supported rather than further escalated.
There is no question that behavior is a form of communication. It does serve a function. However, the range of possible functions is much wider than simply trying to get out of something or trying to get something. This reduction of the function to a simple either/or option negates all the other equally possible explanations, including nonvolitional behavior and behaviors that were beyond the child’s skill level, trauma flashbacks, and more.
There are several problems with this approach. It does not include the child’s perspective. It does not consider that many factors that are unseen, including sensitivity to light, sound, movement; or internal pain; or trauma flashbacks, worry about a grandparent who had a stroke last night, fear because he doesn’t know how to do the assignment he was just given, or a myriad of other potential factors not visible to the evaluators.
The FBA and indeed the entire positive behavior intervention and supports framework focuses on behavior, not on root causes. Without addressing root causes, true growth cannot be expected.
The last concern is the use of rewards and consequences to achieve the desired goals. This is a top—down, power over, authoritarian approach that is not in alignment with the rest of the goals of the educational system that is designed to teach children to think and learn. The PBIS system expects students to comply. When they do, they are rewarded. When they do not, they are punished. (They may be taught first, though not necessarily in a way that they are able to learn), but they will be punished if they do not or are not able to comply.
Armstrong also suggests that policies such as ranking schools encourages schools to exclude children with disabilities who will negatively impact their school’s performance.
Specifically, the repeated assertion that students use their behavior to get something or to get out of something, along with the lack of information about autonomic reactions (stress responses) is incorrect and results in children being misunderstood and punished for behaviors that are not within their volitional control.
Another major concern is the heavy reliance on rewards and punishment. Though the name, Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports, sounds nice, the children with or without IEPs who need support to help with their behavioral struggles are not getting those supports, and instead are being blamed for their behavior. Children are being punished (and shamed) through dojos and color charts, and by being left out of class celebrations and school activities, by being secluded and restrained, by being moved to more restrictive schools, or by being suspended, expelled, or referred to juvenile justice. Some are being handcuffed at school by police.
Based on countless reports from families on social media groups, newspaper reports, government accounts and personal accounts, many of the disciplinary actions directed toward students with disabilities are for behaviors that are flight-fight-freeze behaviors. Teachers, paraprofessionals, school resource officers, and other school personnel do not recognize the difference between willful and involuntary stress responses – and it is HURTING our children. And the leaders of the national technical assistance center are contributing to this.
The focus on surface behavior, without seeming to understand or be concerned about the complexity, or even the simple dichotomy of volitional versus autonomic (stress response) and the use of outdated, compliance based, animal based behaviorism (which has no record of long term benefits) continues to fail our country’s students.
Rewilding social care
“Nature has the power to heal itself and to heal us, if we let it. That’s what rewilding is all about; restoring ecosystems to the point where nature can take care of itself, and restoring our rela…
Normalisation%20agenda
Normalisation%20agenda.pdf
The normalisation agenda and the psycho-emotional disablement of autistic people - Kent Academic Repository
This paper critically analyses the use of normative social scientific principles in the treatment of autistic people and utilises the concept of psycho-emotional disablement (Reeve, 2002, 2004), to suggest that such a dominant normalising agenda has led to the silencing of the autistic voice in knowledge production and community awareness. Reflecting upon the researchers own insider situated knowledge, and findings from a number of pilot studies conducted in the course of a doctoral research programme, this paper examines the insider/outsider positionality of parent and self advocates within the autistic community, before challenging the legacy of Lovaas and recent attempts in Britain to modify such techniques. The paper finishes with a reflection upon how such measures have led to the further disablement of autistic people and their subjective lifeworld. This paper also includes a contribution from Lyte, who is an individual who I have met recently in the course of my studies. As an emerging voice regarding neurodiversity, Lyte puts their own point of view to some of the issues that have arisen in the course of my research and are highlighted by this paper.
Dr Nick Walker • Expanding the Creative Potentials of Human Neurodiversity • ITAKOM Conference 2023
Dr. Nick Walker's virtual presentation on "Expanding the Creative Potentials of Human Neurodiversity," delivered on March 13, 2023 to the ITAKOM (It Takes All Kinds of Minds) conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.
More of Dr. Walker's work can be found at https://neuroqueer.com and in her book NEUROQUEER HERESIES.
In addition to her work on neurodiversity, queer theory, neuroqueering, creativity, and transformative embodiment practices, Dr. Walker writes speculative fiction, including the Weird Luck webcomic at https://weirdluck.net.
Smart Environments for Diverse Cognitive Styles: the Case of Autism
How Language Bias Instills Gender Stereotypes in Girls As Young as 5
What we say — and don’t say — to kids can have lasting impacts on their lives
Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’ Almost Everywhere
The pandemic changed families’ lives and the culture of education: “Our relationship with school became optional.”
People say they're leaving religion due to anti-LGBTQ teachings and sexual abuse
People in the U.S. are switching religions and leaving religion altogether in large numbers. A new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute shows a high level of "religious churning."
People in the U.S. are leaving and switching faith traditions in large numbers.
"Religion's negative teaching about LGBTQ people are driving younger Americans to leave church," Deckman says. "We found that about 60% of Americans who are under the age of 30 who have left religion say they left because of their religious traditions teaching, which is a much higher rate than for older Americans."
OPINION: Disabled people need not apply
It’s time to ban discriminatory clauses in job postings
HTML: A good basis for accessibility - Learn web development | MDN
You should now be well-versed in writing accessible HTML for most occasions. Our WAI-ARIA basics article will help to fill gaps in this knowledge, but this article has taken care of the basics. Next up we'll explore CSS and JavaScript, and how accessibility is affected by their good or bad use.
5 web features I find annoying as a blind person - Scope for Business
Holly, a blind screenreader user, explains the main accessibility barriers she faces every day. Bad heading structure, alt-text, links, forms
A message to web developers, from a screen reader user - Scope for business
The accessibility of a website is always the first thing I notice. It’s hard not to, as I rely on a screen reader to do everything online.
Autistic adults tend to be more generous towards strangers, study finds
New research has found autistic adults are more generous to strangers than non-autistic individuals. This increased generosity, evident in a money division task, suggests autism may involve a more consistent application of fairness norms.
A study in Germany found that autistic adults tend to be more generous towards strangers compared to people without this disorder. In a task where they had to divide money between individuals, they were more prone to split the money equally regardless of how close they felt to the person they were sharing the money with.
This behavior is known as social discounting. Although personality traits such as altruism and empathy can lead to greater generosity towards strangers, social discounting remains prevalent even among highly empathetic and altruistic individuals.
Individuals with autism tended to be more generous towards people they did not see as close to them.
Individuals without autism were also more affected by framing. In a situation where the decision could result in a gain for the other person, individuals without autism were much more likely to not give the other anything (i.e., were less inclined to forgo money) compared to autistic individuals. These individuals were more likely to forgo money if not doing that would create a loss for the other person. This difference in forgone money in the two situations was present in autistic participants as well, but it was very slight.
“We show that compared to a neurotypical group, autistic adults were more generous to other people, which was driven by a greater generosity to more socially distant others. We propose that this increased generosity to strangers is driven by autistic adults implementing fairness norms more consistently and differences in sensitivity to social information,” the study authors concluded.
Easter Repost: Face it, Some of Jesus's Teachings are Harmful
Exposing the Dark Side of the Gospels
Flourishing
“The goal of a reimagined system of care and support is to enable all humans to flourish. Care can sometimes be reduced to tasks, focusing on our physical needs of eating, drinking and going to the…
Our current ‘care system’ is a safety net, not a springboard, where we define our purpose in terms of ‘keeping people safe’, not supporting people to flourish, and where too often our practice focuses on keeping people alive, not ensuring that people thrive.
Emily Katy: 'Finding out I was autistic saved my life'
Emily Katy, who is a mental health nurse, wants other autistic girls to know they are not alone.