During his New Year’s Day seminar, author Dan Pink shared five trends that he is following in 2010. In the science category, the trend he is keeping an eye on is dysfunction is high function. During the discussion he referenced the Atlantic Monthly article The Science of Success, which considers the possible “up-side” of genetic [...]
Also tagged acceptance, Asperger's Syndrome, autism, Life, Mastery, passionI found this bit of wisdom in the book Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. Though geared at self improvement, this quote struck a chord with me as a parent: The trick is not to work obsessively on the skills and talents you lack, but to focus and cultivate your strengths so that your weaknesses matter [...]
Also tagged acceptance, Asperger's Syndrome, autism, Life, parentingSeth Godin doesn’t write about autism, and yet much of what he writes and says comes across as if it were written just for the parents of an autistic child. Today’s article – Accepting limits – from his blog is a perfect example (emphasis is mine): Isn’t it absurd to focus so much energy on [...]
Also tagged acceptance, Asperger's Syndrome, autism, Life, parentingYou’re 22 years old, fresh out of school. It’s your first day as a teacher, and you learn that one of your students is a 6 year old autistic boy. You are given a stack of reports and files that tell you, in detail, how “bad” this little boy is and how hard it is [...]
Also tagged Asperger's Syndrome, autism, Books, Education, learning, parentingWhat does it mean to be normal? What does it mean to be different? These are big questions in any discussion about autism and autism awareness. I like what Kristin has to say on the matter (the emphasis is hers): “Normal” is such a complicated word. We each grow up with our own entrenched ideas [...]
Also tagged Asperger's Syndrome, autism, DIfferent, LifeI started blogging about autism, and being the parent of an autistic son, 5 years ago. My main goal was to help myself make sense of it all, to understand my own feelings about my son’s autism. Here is some of what I’ve figured out. I hope it helps. Parenting is a challenge, no matter [...]
Also tagged Asperger's Syndrome, autism, parentingMost autism interventions focus on making the child “more normal” or “less autistic”, and this is where many of the problems come in. (I’m sure parents who try to make their “geeky” kids more athletic or their “jocks” more academic run into basically the same problem.) Earlier this year I read (and reviewed) Dan Pink’s [...]
Also tagged autism, Life, parentingEvery year when April – otherwise known as Autism Awareness Month – rolls around, I ask myself, “Awareness? Awareness of what exactly?” Most times I forget my own advice and try to find a “one-size-fits-all” answer to the question. (My advice: there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all for anything.) Some times I just bail [...]
Also tagged acceptance, Asperger's Syndrome, autism, Life, parentingSeveral years ago, I wrote a two part article on my thoughts about whether autism should remain in the DSM. Here’s what I came up with: For now, we need to keep autism in the DSM, because it serves as the way for autism parents to help their children get the services they need to [...]
Also tagged acceptance, Asperger's Syndrome, autism, DSM, LifeAnother of my posts from the past, on a similar theme as my re-post last night of Knowledge in translation. This time, the translation in question is that between the language of autism and the language of the non-autistic. = = == === ===== WHAT IS YOUR LANGUAGE Everyone has their own path to follow [...]
Also tagged acceptance, autism, Education, learning, Life, parenting
