The Roots of Development- Are Autistic for an Autistic Person

 

April Autism Acceptance Month post:

This. The roots of development are autistic for an autistic person…this is their neurobiological existence, everything that flowers and grows from there, is experienced through an autistic root system. This is what grounds an individual to this planet.

This is what helps nurture the planet. This is what makes the planet what it is and helps sustain so many other living organisms. This diversity is vital to its existence. But every living thing on this planet has different needs and contributes to the health and well being of this one planet in their unique way and this is necessary for this entire living system to flourish and be well.

Autism acceptance……..belonging

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Original Post by NeuroWild-

There are zero non-autistic parts of an autistic person.

If you were to take the Autism away, that person would simply not exist anymore.

It is our entire experience, our whole existence, and for many of us it is a major part of our identity.

In case you’re new here, I’m big on Autistic pride.

What are you proud of today?

Literally 5 minutes ago I stumbled onto an older project that I never got finished (because it’s freaking massive), and reignited my intense passion for that. I’m all excited again now. If I don’t eat or sleep for the next 6 months we could have it done before Christmas

Em

AuDHD SLP

Therapeutic Parenting: Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable!

 Therapeutic Parenting- Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

therapeutic-parenting-get-comfortable-with-being-uncomfortable/

Therapeutic parenting isn’t “therapy.”  It’s about how we are with our kids at any given moment.

It is showing up for them in a way that is supportive of their well-being, their nervous system, and their individual needs at any given moment.  

It is through this “therapeutic” idea that attuned, connected caregivers can be “the agents of change” through our relationships with our children and by showing up authentically and responsively...........

click here to read the article in its entirety-

therapeutic-parenting-get-comfortable-with-being-uncomfortable/

........It is through these sensory-rich experiences that they begin to process and figure out how they fit into this world. This is a developmental process. This is learning. Kids learn through their senses (body up), and it becomes a felt sense in the body that, as they grow up, becomes a felt memory. It is these experiences of how others around them make them feel that contribute so much to their understanding about themselves, actively shaping who they are, and this becomes their inner voice: am I loveable, am I likable, am I good enough?  

It is through our repeated experiences and predictable co-regulation that we feel and can develop our own self-regulation skills, which we can then pass on to future generations. There is no self-regulation without co-regulation!

The parent-child connection is the most powerful mental health intervention known to mankind”

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

Self-regulation comes from feeling safe in the company of another. This is under our awareness. This sense of relational safety is felt in the nervous system.  ...........

........Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It is through this personal growth that we become more capable of showing up as authentically as possible for our kids. Our kids thrive when they feel seen, safe, and soothed by our presence. This, too, becomes their inner voice.

Relationships are the agents of change, and the most powerful therapy is human love.”

Dr.Bruce Perry

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Early trauma - sets up protection over connection…..

 All of this…. 👇. Unfortunately when my infant son was experiencing great pain in his first years of life (turns out due to dysfunctional diseased bowels) I knew just enough about the early years to be worried about his brain development and ability for attachment, bonding and his overall development and well being.  

And despite our greatest efforts to meet his needs and be attuned with him, A child in pain, is not a child who can easily attach and bond. 

Trauma (PTSD) from all his medical experiences was his first diagnosis at age 5. It’s been a long bumpy road, and we will never give up on him.  

Early trauma creates a nervous system that has a very hard time coming out of “protection” and struggles for “connection”.  

Healing can happen! Connection can happen!

Want to know why I don’t like ABA and believe it is harmful?

 Want to know more about why I don’t like ABA and believe it is harmful?  

This is a good explanation by the Autistic Science Person.

Always ask yourself, is this type of program supporting my child in a way that celebrates their differences, appreciates their experiences and understands they deserve respect, autonomy and to build their capacity to gain a sense of self without being ridiculed, shutdown and harmed?

If you don’t think this is happening in these behavioral programs, I would definitely ask a lot of questions of the staff that work with your kids  and notice how your child responds when they are told it’s time to go to the therapy center.  

Our kids are always communicating how they are feeling, even when we don’t want to see what their message is telling us.    Our kids are not to be profited off of by these corporations, and this is exactly what is happening now more than ever.  

Our US govt actually has moved away from these behavioral therapies because their research on outcomes was not favorable to continuing to pay for these services.   

There are so many better alternatives that prioritize what is well known about child and brain development, relationship based supports that don’t harm our kids.  

Behaviors are just the symptom, like a fever.  What needs support is everything that is the root cause of the “fever “.  Behavioral therapies just try to make th fever go away without understanding everything that contributed to the fever in the first place.  A fever won’t go away if their is an underlying infection.   You have to treat the underlying infection for the fever to improve.

Original post from Autistic Science Person-

I'm tired of hearing the same arguments that ABA therapists use over and over again, so I wrote a new post that breaks them down here:

"These situations are why ABA is a breeding ground for meltdowns. The only way ABA knows how to “train” a child, to “motivate” them (as if they were lacking in motivation before this), is to negate their needs or take away their joy.

It’s as if there’s an assumption being made that autistic people don’t want to communicate in any way or form to other people, ever. And this assumption is dehumanizing, further traumatizes autistic people, and reinforces the “they’re stuck in their own world” trope that tells allistic people we’re not really human. This is why treating abled neurotypical children this way is not normalized and why so many ABA therapists who are more critical in other areas of their lives somehow have blinders on when it comes to autistic children specifically." https://autisticscienceperson.com/2023/03/31/autism-acceptance-week-and-applied-behavior-analysis/