Atypically Normal

13/11/2024

I work for a public school district. My position as a speech language pathologist is partially funded by the Department of Education. I provide services to children that ensure their civil right to an education. Approximately 15% of special education funds in Michigan come from DOE.

I'm concerned of course about my job, for many reasons. Some of which are the impact of a lack of funding will have on my students. This year one of my schools is one where our are the kids students with the most support needs attend. And the therapy team is amazing, most of us believe in a neurodiversity affirming approach to working with children.

For many reasons most of our students who could benefit from a rich AAC system haven't had access to speech generating devices, sign language, core vocabulary, picture communication ect. And my co-SLP is absolutely brilliant about ensuring access. Special education funding doesn't just go towards salaries but also communication systems, wheelchair mounts , other adaptive equipment that allow students to access an education.

Our school has an amazing therapy room, pool,gymnasium with adaptive PE equipment. What happens when schools have to decide between keeping the lights on and providing wheelchair mounts, switches,or equipment that safely maneuvers students from their chair to the physical therapy table or the toilet?

The best local & breaking news source in the US, featuring local weather, alerts, deals, events and more.

07/10/2024

Lucida Sans Unicode 10 is my new go to font. The letter formation works well on screen and print with my dyslexic brain. If you can be in love with a font....

03/09/2024

I had a 3 pound bag of mandarin oranges. I probably ate over half in the last week. All of them were perfect until the ONE before that in the picture.... It was sour and just ick... I didn't eat this one at lunch. It looked suspicious....

And this is why people like processed food. Consistently the same taste...no surprises.

26/08/2024

A friend waiting for her disability to be approved is in need of help to pay her energy bills.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/TKmTmWo8vn3oeFTj/?mibextid=qi2Omg

14/07/2024

14/07/2024

02/07/2024

Hi. My name is Tiffany Hammond and I have made the difficult decision to sue the publisher of my #1 NYT bestselling book, "A Day with No Words".

There are many things that led me here, a couple being that royalties owed to me have not been paid, and I would like to acquire the rights to my book. While the suit is public record, I will divulge no more than this.

Living through what should have been the best year of my life with this book and watching it turn into something that has made me cry more than it has made me smile is heartbreaking and something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

I am raising funds for legal fees. Filing a lawsuit is expensive. My husband had to pull from his retirement to help cover the first retainer. Our savings is almost depleted. And our dream of a stable home for our boys through ownership has been put on hold.

I have hourly costs, filing fees, service fees, court costs, and more to cover.

The expense of it all is part of what has kept me from wanting to go this route, but I am heartbroken and upset...authors should be paid for their work.

As a disabled author whose writing is not only what kept me grounded for decades in social justice work but allowed me to produce a debut book that has won multiple awards and landed on two bestseller lists, it pains me to be at this point.

I earned every penny of every copy purchased. I went on tour after tour, city after city, promoting and selling a book knowing my contract was breached by withholding payment. I still smiled, shook hands, still told everyone to buy the book. I believed in the book so much, people needed it...even though I wasn't going to be paid for it.

Silence is not an option many of us can afford. I won't reveal in detail what is stated in the suit, but I will tell you that I feel I deserved far better than I have received.

I will provide the donation information in comments.

Please share.

ETA: Simon and Schuster is not my publisher.

19/06/2024

I’m always here for Autistic pride.

I wrote this about my own neurodivergent friends.
It won’t apply to everyone.

I forgot to add ‘hilarious and brilliant’ on there. Then I ran out of room. Apparently my friends have amazing qualities too numerous to mention.
A fine problem to have, indeed.

Neurodivergent friendships are magic.

What would you add?

Em 🌈

P.s. who’s coming with us to the woods?

15/06/2024

I recently wrote a mini-book on toileting, or potty-training for Autistic clients and loved ones. I am selling it for $3.99 for a short time, so get it now! Look down below in comments. Please get this post out to as many as possible

13/06/2024

How we perceive autism is important, as it changes both the conversation we are having and what we research and investigate.
-----------------
autism.
it’s a matter of perspective
We often consider the definition of autism to be a fixed concept, but it actually isn’t. How we understand autism though is more of a subjective concept, its value and interpretation uniquely defined by the stakeholder’s investment and individual experience and knowledge.
But why is how we define autism so important?
How we define autism changes how we understand the autistic person, their motivations, thoughts, experiences and reasoning.
This then impacts on how we relate to the autistic individual and how we teach others to relate to them.
How we define autism also teaches the autistic person how to define and relate to themselves and how they are valued.
----------------------------
Developmental
A follow-on from the neurodiversity paradigm, the developmental perspective means that the individual is developing the way they were intended to develop.
Under this perspective we focus on supporting the individual to follow their own developmental trajectory rather than predefined developmental pathways (Robertson, 2010; Davis, 2021).
----------------------------
Biological
The biological perspective is understood within the neurodiversity paradigm, the neurological differences that are part of natural human diversity.
Under this framework autism is seen as a community linked by similarities in sensory processing, communication, thinking styles, and motor coordination (Robertson, 2010; Davis, 2021).
----------------------------
Medical
Under a diagnostic or medical framework autism is defined as a neurodevelopmental condition whose “sufferers” have deficits in two core areas of development, behavior and communication.
Under this framework we are always trying to “fix” the person so they become more developmentally typical. The individual is always striving for “normal”.

----------------------------
Individual
Waterhouse et al. (2016) suggest that the diagnosis should be done away with completely, as the diagnostic criteria does not hold up to academic rigor.
Rather than looking through a diagnostic lens, the individual is taken into account holistically. Interventions, supports and funding are based on individual need rather than the diagnostic label.
----------------------------
Anthropological
In their research primer, Lord et al., (2020) use an anthropological perspective. In this paper autism is considered a social construct, defined only by current trends in social and behavioral expectations.
Under this framework our perspective focuses on understanding the individual themselves, outside of society and culture.

www.thelittleblackduck.com.au

13/06/2024

The Occuplaytional Therapist wow! I love how you talk about how you respect the child's autonomy during your sessions. And how your student knew he wasn't in the right space for the first activity and he felt he was able to tell you that he wanted to do something else. How you built a relationship and that it is so important in working with humans especially tiny ones. You knew he would like the fidget. You knew he would enjoy the scavenger hunt. And you gave he autonomy to ask for a change in the therapy plan even though you created something amazing. I wish more service providers knew how to do this...how to build a real relationship and to honor a child's ability to make choices. I can't say I always can put my ego aside after I create what I think is a great plan...but it is something I continue to strive for in speech language therapy sessions.

I had a student recently who I wanted to give a fidget to. He already had a fidget for his classroom, but I had recently got a big bag of fidgets and found a particular one I thought he’d enjoy, that I would gift to him.

I set up a little scavenger hunt for our OT session, that I also knew he would enjoy—all of this was for the fun and love of it, not me forcing him to do anything. As with all activities in my OT room, I mentioned the scavenger hunt to him as a suggestion if he was interested. Like I predicted, he was interested and quickly began solving the coded clues.

(Actually—it feels like a necessary note here—he gushed about how excited he was for the scavenger hunt all the way from the door of his classroom to the door of my classroom. Then he instantaneously changed his mind and said “I don’t want to do that scavenger hunt” before he had even seen a clue or anything about it. And I dropped it completely. I had a moment where, in my mind, I thought about trying to coax or cajole him into doing it. But it didn’t feel honest to myself and the kind of therapy I try to do, so I let it go entirely. We played soccer for the first several minutes, and then out of nowhere, he asked, “Is it too late to do the scavenger hunt now?” And we switched and did that!)

Importantly, I didn’t tell him that the fidget was a prize at the end or even that there was a prize at the end at all. I just handed him the first coded clue and he enthusiastically began solving it.

Four clues whizzed by and he ran to the bucket that had the prize in it, wrapped in a piece of paper that said “You Win 🙂 “

He re-emerged from digging around in the bucket with the piece of paper. Unrolled it and delightedly proclaimed with pride, “YEAH! I win!!! I did it!”

I laughed a little bit and said “Wait, did you already get the fidget?”

“The what?”

“There was a prize wrapped in that paper.”

“There was?”

“Yeah—look again!”

This time he dug around in the bucket again and found the fidget that had fallen out of the paper.

After finding it, he was excited about and delighted by the fidget—which I knew he would be. Still, I couldn’t help noticing that I had—however accidentally and innocently—robbed him of the moment in which he was simply, truly, proud of himself just for completing it. He didn’t open the paper and say “That’s it?” And at no time through the process did he ask me what he was “working toward” or know anything about an external motivator.

He did it because he loved it. He pushed through challenge because it was just the right amount of challenge for him, and because he had spent the first 15 minutes of the session getting regulated first and his body was ready to tackle a fun challenge just for the love of it. And when he got to the end after hard work, he was satisfied just knowing he’d managed to complete it and it was a joyful journey.

That’s, like, exactly what I want for all of my kids. (And your kids! And you!)

[Image description: A picture of my spy code decoder page next to four clues that are written in code. The code looks like lots of pre-writing shapes — circles, squares, crosses, triangles, etc and each shape corresponds to a letter. Each clue has been solved by writing the right letters in the blanks to read: “In the tent”, “Under beanbag”, “By the iPad”, and “In red bucket”. End description.]

12/06/2024

I fight for real communication support for my students. I understand parents want to hear their child's voice but I'm not there to make parents happy. I'm there to help child communicate in the way that is best for them. Not what's best or easiest for teachers, parents, or me.

Part 5 of a 5 part series about the ways harmful practices are being made to sound more appealing and how to spot the differences between helpful and harmful approaches.

Communication support is a desperately needed thing for so many autistic people and their families. So unlike some of the other things I’ve posted about this week, this is 100% a worthy goal. Unfortunately, many places that claim they can offer it are not delivering.

In some cases, they simply don’t have the education to properly support communication needs (I’m looking at you, ABA). Other times they do have the proper education (ie Speech Language Pathologists) but they will gatekeep certain methods of communication, either because they believe harmful myths about them or they haven’t been trained in that particular method. Also, not every SLP knows about Gestalt Language Processing, so even an otherwise great therapist could be missing some information.

So here are some questions to ask when trying to figure out if someone is truly capable of offering well-rounded, neuro-affirming communication support:

Are they more concerned with making the client easier to deal with for others, or are they focused on the client’s rights, needs, and wishes? (We’re looking for the second one.)

Do they address the client directly, or do they speak as if the client isn’t even in the room? (We’re looking for the first one.)

Do they see speech and language as a behavioral thing? (Verbal Behavior and PECS are dead giveaways - and we want a NO.)

Do they understand that an inability to produce speech has no bearing on a person’s ability to think and feel? (YES ✅)

Do they only push for speech, see speech as the end goal, or value speech above all other methods of communication? (NO ✅)

Do they honor things like echolalia, pointing to objects, and bringing an adult over to something they want as valid communication? (YES ✅)

Do they honor things like refusal to participate, crying, and meltdowns as valid communication? (YES ✅)

Do they believe that things like pacifiers, AAC, or responding to “non-functional communication” discourages speech/“functional” communication? (NO ✅)

Do they know about Gestalt Language Processing and believe it is a thing? (YES ✅)

Do they require “pre-requisites” before they will try alternative communication methods? (NO ✅)

Do they require the client to earn time on their AAC device or remove the device when they deem it a distraction, essentially taking away their voice? (NO ✅)

Do they know who to send you to if they aren’t personally trained in an approach they think would be more helpful? (YES ✅)

Obviously, trying to find someone local to you with all the green flags and no red ones is kind of like trying to find a unicorn for most people. But if you have a choice between two or more therapists, you can at least go with the one who has more right answers and be ready to advocate/educate when needed.

If you literally have only one option available to you and it’s not a good one, you can either be ready to advocate at every turn or just choose not to use their services. Yeah, that’s allowed! Not every autistic person needs speech therapy, and not all communication support has to be directly administered by a professional. You as the parent or caregiver will play a huge role in supporting your person with their communication needs, and luckily there are online resources and virtual trainings that can help you do that.

P.S. What’s the difference between PECS and picture cards, you ask? PECS is a whole ABA-based program that uses a limited set of picture cards and should be avoided for several reasons. Meanwhile, plain old picture cards are something that can be made and used by anyone without any specific program. Links to more on that in the comments.

P.P.S. Zero debates about the legitimacy of Spelling to Communicate (S2C) or Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) will be entertained (translation - it will be deleted so don’t waste your time). Links to learn more about it are included in the “additional resources” comment.

[Image description: A 2 panel cartoon by Autball.

1: A white box at the top reads: FAKE COMMUNICATION SUPPORT.

A red adult sits at a table with a blue/purple adult and a green/blue child. The red adult says to the other adult, “Communication is so important for reducing frustration and challenging behaviors (which are so hard on the rest of us!), so let’s see what we can do to get them talking.” On the table are only two options: a binder labeled “Speech” and a binder labeled “PECS.”

2: A white box at the top reads: REAL COMMUNICATION SUPPORT.

A green adult sits at a table with a blue/purple adult and a green/blue child. The green adult says to the child, “Communication is human right, and you deserve to be heard. We’re gonna try all the respectful methods of communication available to us until we find what works best for you.” On the table are many more options: Picture Cards, Speech, a letterboard, a pen and notepad, Sign Language, and an AAC device.]

30/05/2024

This morning I was tagged in a video of one of my former students. When I met this lil guy he was in preschool and a non-speaker 2019-2020 school year. Then COVID and the shut down happened, this child blossomed virtually, academically. He started utilizing mouth words... He favorite words were basketball ball and pancake both of which meant he wanted to do anything other than speech therapy. Side note I love it when my students can express a solid negation, it means I'm safe enough for them to express their dislikes and still know I'll listen and like them.
One or both of his parents would not only be online with him during his speech sessions they were with him for all his academic lessons. The whole team:parents, therapist, teachers, and this kid would engage.

So back to this mornings video. Dad filmed the kid reading mostly independently.

I'm thankful for getting to collaborate with this family. And for hearing a classic Mercer Mayer story first thing in the morning.

30/05/2024

neurodivergent_insights

30/05/2024

Thanks for posting this That Spicy Autistic Femme

Your gentle reminder to stay hydrated and limit your time exposed to the heat and sun this summer if on any of these meds. Take care, friends. 💖

20/05/2024

Many neurodivergents will experience burnout at some point in their lives. For some this can be multiple times. But how does burnout occur?

1.
Burnout does not need to be proceeded by a single event or by a sudden increase in stress, it can be simply the continued pressure of daily demands and expectations that wear us down over time. The constant need for masking, for example. Please bear in mind that functioning in a neurotypical world takes far more effort on a daily basis than it does for a neurotypical person.

2.
An increase in frustration, irritability and/or anger and combativeness is the cry for help that is often missed or mistaken by others. The tendency is to think that 'fixing' the immediate 'crisis' or 'problem' will solve the whole situation. But it does not take into account the holistic state of the neurodivergent and in fact conveys the message that if the immediate issue is remedied then the ND can simply carry on without a problem. They cannot.

3.
Once the point of total physical, emotional and cognitive exhaustion has been reached, an neuro divergent is in full burn out. It may be impossible for them to function at all, let alone tell you what they need, at this point. They may experience physical and psychological issues, as well as severe cognitive decline and a loss of the skills they need to function.

I would like to people to understand why it is important to see the initial signs of struggle as worthy of support. I would like people to understand that the anger and frustration is a cry for help, not something to be pushed back against. I would like people to understand that being burned out is not a situation anyone chooses, and is not being lazy or weak or difficult. The right support before hand when the warning signs appear can make a huge difference. Be willing to step up and support, not use ableism to dismiss. It can literally save someone's life.

https://diversitydoodleprint.etsy.com

04/05/2024

🦓 May is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) Awareness Month.
We have a focused interest in the topic of EDS for several reasons. 🦓

1) There is a higher prevalence of Autism in the EDS population than there is in the general population. There is a demonstrated correlation between Hypermobile EDS (hEDS) and Autism.

2) Jacquelyn has a hyper-mobile EDS profile (hEDS).

3) Amy participated in EDS ECHO for health care providers gathering information and learning.

4) As a part of this process, It became apparent to both of us that there is not enough information available to the autism community about what EDS is and why/when you might want to talk to your /your family member's doctor about it.

⭐️⭐️5) hEDS often presents with Dysautonomia and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Both of these presentations cause some wicked Feelzzz in the body. These Feelzzz can result in a person resisting position changes, refusing tasks, and seeking of inputs (aka- challenging behaviors in some circles). If a person isn't able to express / communicate their Feelzzz and link those to their behaviors - caregivers may unintentionally be creating medical distress.⭐️⭐️

6) hEDS and EDS are multi-system syndromes. Diagnosis can be elusive. But, management of symptoms is critical for health and quality of life.

Below is a one page flyer containing information about hEDS, the link to autism, some associated symptoms, when to talk to your doctor, and where to find more information.
To download the .pdf of the flyer or review the attached image with a document reader please find link in comments