Embracing Autism: New Book
March 3, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Embracing Autism: Connecting and Communicating with Children in the Autism Spectrum is a new book edited by Robert Parish, whose autistic son Jack is now a teenager. Parish has also made a number of DVDs about autism including Come Back Jack and ASD 101; he is one of many parents of autistic children whom I have met over the Internet. (And while he now lives in Ohio, I was pleased to find out that Parish is originally from New Jersey, where we now live.)
Contributors to Embracing Autism are a diverse group, with differing views about autism; they include autistic adults, parents of autistic children, and professionals, including Stephen Shore, co-author of Understanding Autism for Dummies and a frequent speaker about being on the autism spectrum; writer Cammie McGovern, one of the founders of Whole Children, a Massachusetts center offering movement, art, recreation and music programs for infants, children and teens of all abilities; Robert and Teresa Becerra, parents of Robert, Jr.; Susan Senator, author of Making Peace with Autism; blogger Kim Stagliano; and many others, including myself. My chapter, “Grass in the Wind,” is adapted from two posts I wrote back in December 2006 on my old blog, Autismland, one post being In My Hands and the other, Grass in the Wind.
Writes Parish in his Introduction:
….The spectrum has not beginning, no end, no limitations. To me and many others, ASD is not a disorder. It’s a difficulty, or a difference to be worked with.
Don’t misunderstand. Connecting with ASD takes patience, persistence, and timing. But when you think about it, anything that matters does. Jack has taught me much about everything. Although our time together can be incredibly frustrating, when we’re truly connected the experience is electrifying.
Who’s to say the ASD view of the world is impaired? Jack lives every day with more authentic joy than most of us.
The book’s final chapter is entitled “The Big Question” and brings together each contributors’ answers to the question “What, in your view, is the most important concept for professional educators to embrace in interacting with ASD children and adults?”. You can also see a YouTube video about Embracing Autism; the book ships on March 14th.
Many thanks to Robert for envisioning Embracing Autism!
They didn’t ask me, but my answer to that question would be, “finding their route to communication and using it.” I think we’re all becoming increasingly aware that autism is about communication bottlenecks and wires crossing (in other words, NOT about “not wanting to communicate, etc.”). Recent stories I’ve read here and elsewhere point clearly to the fact that having the ability to communicate–finding that outlet, whatever it is–is like opening a door into the mind. What neurotypicals have to shed is the expectation that all communication will happen in the same way through the same channels.
I like the introduction.
“What, in your view, is the most important concept for professional educators to embrace in interacting with ASD children and adults?”
My first answer to that question is something I’ve made reference to here before, namely: “Always remember that you are every bit as inept at ‘reading’ us as we are at ‘reading’ you.”
For most non-autistics, the “mind-reading” so heavily relied upon in social interaction is both learned and practiced almost exclusively on the basis of unconscious habitual processes. Were these attributions of intent and/or disposition taking place on a conscious level, one might say, “If I were behaving as you are, it would be because I was feeling [x]; therefore, you are feeling [x].” Thus, in a very important sense, it’s hardly much different from “projection” (except, perhaps, that it need not involve the simultaneous “disowning” of one’s own internal states), and even between two “normal” people, this “mind-reading” is still a crapshoot at best.
But when one participant is Autistic, and their nonverbal behavior is randomized relative to the “normal” assumptions of what any given behavior should mean, all bets are off — or they should be off. The usual neurotypical assumptions about what we intend or think or feel simply cannot be presumed reliable without incurring extreme (and unnecessary) risk of misunderstanding or even upheaval. Unfortunately, very few people, even researchers or professionals, are even remotely aware of how this problem is as much their responsibility as it is ours.
But in this regard, Autistics may well have a hard-won “advantage.” As we mature and look back on our lives, we find we have been constantly forced by circumstances to endlessly reexamine and rethink our assumptions about what others intend or think or feel. This often puts us in the position of being keenly aware of the dangers, and of the need to take pains to avoid those dangers. But when our non-autistic counterparts see no need to switch off their “mind-reading” autopilot and question their own assumptions about us, well, there’s only so much we can do…
Sounds pretty interesting.
Stagliano? The woman who objectifies her daughters as poop smearing monsters on Huffingtonpost, who says, “Others with autism, like my three girls, got the ear wax/vomit/dog poop flavor.” Comparing them to people with Asperger’s who have the raspberry cream flavored kind of disorder, mocking the difficulties of people with Asperger’s. Stagliano offered to have sex with researchers who would cure her daughters, and then turns around and says that her girls have contributed so much to the quality of her marriage (in comments about whether or not they are indigo children on the EoHarm group). That Stagliano??? I will not be purchasing this book or even reading it, precisely because that vile, anti-public-health woman’s word’s are in it, too bad the editor made such a hideous choice. I’m sure the rest of the book is not so offensive.
@anomimous,
I’m hoping not!
I talk about Confucius and “presuming competence.”
Yes, that Stagliano, of whom I wrote this over a year ago, and my sentiments still stand.
I’m sure what you wrote was great, Kristina. But seriously, I can not stand the thought of holding a book in my hands that has Stagliano’s words in it. I’d have to go scrub immediately. She just strikes me as one of the most vile human beings who will say whatever just to maintain her position of “popularity”. She continually attacks public health that means my health and my kids’ health are in danger because she keeps yapping about vaccines causing autism, this one with the three autistic daughters one of whom is not vaccinated! She’s totally reprehensible. I’m sorry that Mr. Parish made such a poor choice in selecting her to add to the book. I can only hope all her extremist antivax friends will turn on her now that she’s in a book called, “embracing autism!” She’s been kicking “autism” in the gut ever since she barged onto the scene with her hopeless attempts at humorous writing and “advocacy.”
I’m looking forward to reading the book … Think I’ll just skip the Stagliano portion. She’s funny .. but the hate and bitterness she projects just make me sad.
Having an autistic child is a great challenge. It good to know that there are a lot of references that we can use to handle the ordeal.
I just got a review copy of the book that one of our librarians wasn’t able to find someone to review… so I’ll be reading it!