Why gaming is actually GOOD for autistic children - YouTube
Gaming has an extremely negative reputation, but is what people say about it actually right?
We wanted to make a video to explain some of the positives of g...
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These are the slides for a video discussing the public information for Frontiers in Education special issue on PDA. Specifically, the video goes into more depth about certain points in the below text, by drawing upon examples from the PDA literature.
This text is taken from public information about the Frontiers in Education special issue on PDA, link below:
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/40032/pathological-extreme-rational-demand-avoidance-reviewing-and-refining-its-contested-terrain-through
Pathological Demand-Avoidance (PDA) is a proposed mental Disorder which originated in the United Kingdom (UK), with persons identified with PDA exhibiting strong avoidance behaviours in response to “ordinary” demands. Initially proposed as a novel type of Disorder, it was briefly suggested it was a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, before often being argued to be an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the UK. Currently, there is no consensus over what PDA is, or what features are associated with it, partly due to the small number and generally poor-quality studies. With many controversies surrounding PDA, frequently with intense passions invoked for and against its use in clinical practice. Hence, there are four different main schools of thought on how to conceptualise PDA. Primary justification for PDA is that it better describes an individual's actions and thus informs personalised education support packages based on collaborative approaches, which regularly breach adult-centric cultural boundaries.
Since 2010, interest in PDA as an ASD in the UK, has resulted in the notion being a “culture-bound concept” in the UK. In part driven by some clinicians diagnosing PDA as an autism subtype and some researchers investigating PDA as an autism subtype. Independent from both the poor state of PDA research and ongoing-historical debates surrounding PDA. Despite arbiters of clinical practice taking a neutral stance on PDA and equally respecting divergent perspectives. There is a need to consider areas of overlap between divergent views on PDA, the implications of implementing different worldviews on PDA, and to test competing hypotheses.
Research suggests children and young persons with PDA tend to struggle in school-based settings, with high rates of exclusions or placement breakdowns. In the UK autism caregivers often use a PDA diagnosis as a proxy to gain access to good quality support packages for their children, in the broader context of special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms and funding cuts to local authorities. However, similar approaches to PDA are widely available and are commonly utilised with autistic persons independent of PDA. Contextualising PDA in broader SEND debates can inform decisions surrounding PDA in research and practice.
Potential authors' literature review sections should discuss the four main schools of thought on PDA and reference scholarship by those with lived experience (both those who do and do not positively identify with PDA). Furthermore, authors should aim ad defining what schools of thought their axiology is based upon, their specific definition for PDA, their exact PDA behaviour profile and their exact threshold for PDA is. Therefore, for this Research Topic we welcome submissions which span a range of themes including (but not limited to):
- Systematic and scoping reviews, novel conceptualisations of PDA
- Refinement of proposed ontologies, such as an Attachment Disorder
- Contextualising PDA in historical and current notions of disability
- Questioning underlying assumptions and providing alternative explanations
- Ethical merits for different worldviews of PDA
- Personal perspectives on PDA
- How do PDA strategies compare with other approaches used with SEND persons and wider pedagogies.
Monotropism
Pictures from my big autie to congratulate little autie on her diagnosis With appreciation to Dinah Murray for the monotropism theory of autism and Fergus Murray @MxOolong for popularising.
Leatherland 2018 phd understanding how autistic
Understanding how autistic pupils experience secondary school: autism criteria, theory and FAMe™ - Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive
Many autistic pupils experience difficulties associated with a mis-match between the explicit features of autism and the physical and psychosocial environment of secondary school, which leave them particularly vulnerable to a range of negative mental health outcomes, and which can create barriers to their academic success (Charman et al., 2011; Morewood, Humphrey and Symes, 2011). This situation is understood to be compounded by a lack of teacher training and understanding of autism in general, and of its specific impact on individual pupil’s learning styles and support needs (Falkmer, Parsons and Granlund, 2012; Reed, Osborne and Waddington, 2012; Hebron and Humphrey, 2014). This project sought to investigate (1) the extent to which existing descriptions of autism were reflected in the general school experiences of a cohort of autistic pupils, and (2) the impact of a new pupil-to-teacher communication system, designed by the author, on the classroom experiences and psychological well-being of these pupils. Situated within the paradigm of pragmatism, a mixed methods approach to this research project was adopted. Twenty-one autistic pupils shared their experiences of school during semi-structured interviews, whilst their teachers’ experiences of teaching them were elicited via online surveys. Thematic analysis, using a specifically designed coding manual, was used to investigate the capacity of the diagnostic criteria descriptors and definitions of autism, and selected cognitive autism theories, to explain both the general school experiences described by autistic pupils, and the specific areas of difficulty they prioritised for additional support and/or teacher practice change. The efficacy of a new register-based pupil-to-teacher communication system (FAMe™), was evaluated using pre- and post-system implementation interviews and pupil self-report scales. The design of this project positioned participating pupils as experts in their own experiences, whilst the FAMe™ System enabled their voices to influence matters that affected them. The methods used, to facilitate engagement with and collect data from autistic pupils, have the potential to be considered a ‘model example’ for carrying out future research in this field. Analysis evidenced the limited capacity of the diagnostic criteria and autism theory to inform understanding of the pupils’ collective experiences. Positive impact of the FAMe™ System on pupils’ classroom experiences and psychological well-being was demonstrated. Teachers reported improved confidence post-FAMe™ in their ability to teach autistic pupils, and to meet their pupils' self-reported classroom and/or learning support needs. Improved educational outcomes were also reported. Findings contribute knowledge to the under-researched area of autistic pupils’ lived experience. The apparent failure of current diagnostic criteria descriptors and definitions of autism to adequately reflect pupils’ experiences led to the development of a new bio-psychosocial definition of autism. This has since been adopted by colleagues teaching students of autism (Beardon, 2017b) and by those engaged in independent autism research. If the demonstrated positive effect of FAMe™ System use, on teacher’s autism-related practice and on pupil educational outcomes, is replicable in other schools, the impact of its continued implementation, for autistic individuals and wider society, could be significant.
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Starting Points for Understanding Autism
Monotropism in Practice
Accessible Bathroom VA SAH
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Eye Contact – Beth Wilson – Artist
On Constructionism, Makerspaces, and Music Education
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How ‘Autism Warrior Parents’ Harm Autistic Kids
Parenting approaches differ, but mostly, everything we consider “good parenting” fulfills two basic needs: It makes children feel safe, and it makes them feel loved. Parents and non-parents alike…
Autism Warrior Parents (AWPs) insist on supporting their autistic kids either by trying to cure them, or by imposing non-autistic-oriented goals on them — rather than by trying to understand how their kids are wired.
Autism Warrior Parents aren’t limited to the typical post-Jenny McCarthy-era diehards who — despite the unequivocal debunking of any link between autism and vaccines — still consider their autistic kids vaccine-damaged rather than, in the words of writer and autistic parent Carol Greenburg, “neurologically outnumbered.” They also include those who fund or promote questionable autism science, and parents who consider their children so impaired that the opinions and personal experiences of autistic activists are irrelevant to them — that, in other words, any autistic adult who can put words on a screen or speak must have fewer support needs than their own autistic children and should therefore be ignored. At the root, Autism Warrior Parents are those who, for whatever reason, refuse to accept their autistic child’s actual reality and needs, and instead put their energies into absolute change or control of that child.
AWP insistence on battling rather than comprehending autism derails both autism conversations and autistic lives. When AWPs focus on the “difficulty” of their children’s behaviors rather than on the reasons for those behaviors (usually sensory or processing triggers common to autistic people of all abilities), they reinforce unhelpful assumptions that autism is a mystery, and a horrible parental burden. The reality is that autistic people, like anyone else with a disability, function best when given appropriate accommodations.AWPs have also turned the internet into an autism information minefield, which is especially frustrating given that online resources are often invaluable for families who lack access to therapists, specialists, and other key resources.
AWP insistence on battling rather than comprehending autism derails both autism conversations and autistic lives.
View of The Rhetoric of Ableism | Disability Studies Quarterly
Section 1400 (c) (1) - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Statute/Regs Main » Statute » Subchapter I (Part A) » 1400 » C » 1 (1) Disability is a natural part of the human experience and in no way diminishes the right of individuals to participate in or contribute to society. Improving educational results for children with disabilities is an essential element of our nationalContinue Reading
Autistic Communities in Public Libraries
The aim of this project is to educate the general English speaking adult public about the existence of the neurodiversity paradigm and autistic communities, and to create a display zone free of pat…
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Myalgic encephalomyelitis: International Consensus Criteria
Abstract. Carruthers BM, van de Sande MI, De Meirleir KL, Klimas NG, Broderick G, Mitchell T, Staines D, Powles ACP, Speight N, Vallings R, Bateman L, Baumgarten-Austrheim B, Bell DS, Carlo-Stella N...
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Economic Justice Is Disability Justice
The relevance of disability in the understanding of deprivation in the world is often underestimated... —Amartya Sen Disability can be both a cause and a
The ADA, signed into law in 1990 and most recently amended in 2008, prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and mandates that people with disabilities have “equal opportunity” to participate in American life. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the predecessor to the ADA, bars any entity receiving federal funding from discriminating on the basis of disability.13 The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA),14 enacted originally in 1975 and most recently reauthorized in 2004, requires that children with disabilities be provided a “free appropriate public education,” mandating access to an equitable educational experience; IDEA also provides significant funding for early intervention programs for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families.
More recently, the 2014 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)15 expanded access for people with disabilities to education and training programs, programs for transition-age youth and young adults transitioning to adulthood, vocational rehabilitation, and more. This reauthorization also refocused funding on youth, providing new requirements for coordination and a focus on competitive integrated employment opportunities.
The ADA makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate against disabled individuals in regard to “job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training.”34 Additionally, the ADA requires that employers provide reasonable accommodations35 that make it possible for disabled workers to succeed at work, so long as they do not negate the essential functions of the job or require an undue financial hardship to the employer. Careful research indicates that those workers with disabilities most likely to benefit from the ADA’s protections—such as workers who face barriers that do not preclude full time and/or traditional work—did see employment gains after the passage of the ADA.36
Nevertheless, employment discrimination against disabled workers in the United States remains pervasive in nearly all employment settings.
In 1990, the ADA, which today remains the cornerstone of disability civil rights law in the United States, established four goals for disabled Americans: equal opportunity, independent living, full participation, and economic self-sufficiency. Despite three decades of progress, economic security has been the most difficult of the ADA’s goals for the United States to realize and remains out of reach for an unconscionable share of America’s disability community.
Living with a disability—or having a household member with a disability—often comes with significant additional out-of-pocket costs not covered by health insurance. For example, expenses such as adaptive equipment to make one’s home and/or vehicle accessible, personal attendant care or direct service provider, home modifications, assistive technology for communication, food for medically directed diets, and special clothing and shoes can add substantially to an individual or family’s budget and put economic stability even further out of reach. What’s more, disabled people are substantially more likely to face unexpected medical expenses that further exacerbate economic insecurity.
Households with a disabled adult need an average of 28 percent more income—an extra $17,690 per year for a typical U.S. household—in order to achieve the same standard of living as a comparable household without a disabled member.
A growing body of research has begun to demonstrate the magnitude of these additional disability-related costs. Drawing on four nationally representative surveys, researchers from Stony Brook University, the University of Tennessee, the National Disability Institute, and the Oxford Institute of Population Aging estimate that households with a disabled adult need an average of 28 percent more income—an extra $17,690 per year for a typical U.S. household—in order to achieve the same standard of living as a comparable household without a disabled member.57 That research further suggests that America’s Official Poverty Measure and Supplemental Poverty Measure both significantly underestimate poverty and hardship among the disability community. Accounting for additional disability-related costs, the share of U.S. households with a disabled adult officially counted as poor in the United States would be ten percentage points higher than captured by official Census statistics—and 2.2 million more disabled people in the United States would be considered officially poor.58
How long covid could change the way we think about disability
The coronavirus pandemic has created a mass-disabling event that experts liken to HIV, polio or World War II, with millions suffering the long-term effects of infection with the coronavirus.
Want to Improve Your Relationship? Start Paying More Attention to Bids
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Neurodiversity and Digital Accessibility
Introducing a Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT)
Dramatic changes to the transparency, rigor, reproducibility and replicability of research practices have occurred in the last decade. Despite considerable progress towards the adoption of open science practices by researchers in many disciplines, developing pedagogy to train students in open and reproducible scholarship has received much less attention. Engaging students with the multiple dimensions of open scholarship is crucial to embedding sustainable change: it enables the future generation of researchers to practice open scholarship themselves, fosters lasting engagement with research, and allows them to better understand findings in light of epistemic uncertainty. Teaching students about open scholarship also helps it become a public good, thereby reducing knowledge inequities in academia and beyond. We address the lack of an infrastructure for open scholarship education by introducing the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT). FORRT is a community-driven infrastructure for educators that advances research transparency, reproducibility, rigor, and ethics through pedagogical reform. FORRT encompasses multiple initiatives and tools to provide educators with guidance and resources to easily embed open and reproducible practices into research training. In addition to fostering a wider ecosystem for resource-sharing and discussion, FORRT has developed a wide range of initiatives, including a seven-part roadmap to the open scholarship literature, a curated database of open scholarship materials and pedagogies for customizable adoption by teachers, and a self-assessment tool to help educators evaluate the integration of open scholarship tenets in their own teaching and mentoring. FORRT actively works towards principled teaching and mentoring, an underappreciated dimension of the scientific endeavour.