New Book Warning.
This is out in the next few days. Another book claiming that autism is a mistaken behaviour and by normalising and modifying the child, you get rid of The Nasty Autizmz and make them into the child they want.
Ignoring every bit of modern research, of course.

Here's the parent's wishlist for what they want the services to deliver. I'll paraphrase it as
"See this autistic child? Make it into one that does this for me, so I feel better and have to do zero work in understanding a different and valid social communication system."
Meantime, in the real world, countless thousands of autistic people explain what sort of pain, distress, and relationship-smashing results from being forced to live inauthentically, to please others.
But let's ignore all of those, because Mom Wants Her Perfect Child At Any Cost.
Here's another snippet of the weird and irrelevant stuff upon which the author builds their argument. The false belief that there's a Real Person behind autism (!). And that diagnostic professionals haven't a clue how to tell a shy child from a psychotic child or an autistic one
Autism isn't shyness.
Autism isn't being psychotic.
Being autistic is a different social communication system, every bit as effective as the nonautistic methods.
https://t.co/Q0MGgBnmVr
A different sensory system. A different degree of focus.
For many, a need for routine/
The mistake is to look at our very different way of socialising with others and think, "Oh no, my child is broken - they have no emotions - they will never care about others - this is terrible - fix it!"
In fact, the exact opposite is more true. Deep caring for others is common
So many parents waste their autistic child's childhood, and every penny they have, chasing ways to 'fix' their child.

And books like this take yet more money off them.

It annoys me greatly. (Can you tell...?)
What happens when we've forced normal socialisation onto our autistic children, e.g. eye contact.
Do they go on to lead fabulous lives?
Well...generally no. This is a poll. Vast majority said no, it didn't lead to a better quality of a life for them.
So, who is it for?/
But it's worse.
We have excellent research showing camouflaging our autism is a factor in greater rates of suicide.
https://t.co/LJGUlMpr0s This by the team led by Sarah Cassidy for example.
Parents are being lured into this alleged nirvana, and risking their child's life.
Because we usually get someone alleging that we Just Don't Care About Those With High Support Needs, yes, we do.
Making them suicidal, and forcing an inauthentic mask to please the parent, isn't going to improve their life, is it, eh?

Start learning things that actually help.
The author is edging towards their own personal 'aha!' moment here, because they're right - we do need to look for strengths. But their mistake is to assume that our strengths look like nonautistic strengths. That autism is nothing but deficit.
It's just 1940s nonsense.
What helps:
Enabling us to be our authentic selves.
Learning about autism from autistic people.
Realising their own behaviour influences how we respond, and altering their own approaches.
Watching this 2 min video of sensory hell, with the sound turned up: https://t.co/5W71N6hmwU
And when you've watched that, consider how that child was ever going to look like they were calm and caring, in that deafening terrifying stench?
Get autistic people involved in assessing environments.
Be allies, not erasers.
Listen and learn.
Thank you for reading.
PS - the author is a fan of this approach https://t.co/AZCC1A6OSX DIR-floortime. It assumes autistic children don't want to interact with the outside world, so by overloading them with play requests all day, you 'help them grow'.
Well, no. You teach masking.

More from Culture

One of the authors of the Policy Exchange report on academic free speech thinks it is "ridiculous" to expect him to accurately portray an incident at Cardiff University in his study, both in the reporting and in a question put to a student sample.


Here is the incident Kaufmann incorporated into his study, as told by a Cardiff professor who was there. As you can see, the incident involved the university intervening to *uphold* free speech principles:


Here is the first mention of the Greer at Cardiff incident in Kaufmann's report. It refers to the "concrete case" of the "no-platforming of Germaine Greer". Any reasonable reader would assume that refers to an incident of no-platforming instead of its opposite.


Here is the next mention of Greer in the report. The text asks whether the University "should have overruled protestors" and "stepped in...and guaranteed Greer the right to speak". Again the strong implication is that this did not happen and Greer was "no platformed".


The authors could easily have added a footnote at this point explaining what actually happened in Cardiff. They did not.
@bellingcat's attempt in their new book, published by
@BloomsburyBooks, to coverup the @OPCW #Douma controversy, promote US and UK gov. war narratives, and whitewash fraudulent conduct within the OPCW, is an exercise in deception through omission. @BloomsburyPub @Tim_Hayward_


1) 2000 words are devoted to the OPCW controversy regarding the alleged chemical weapon attack in #Douma, Syria in 2018 but critical material is omitted from the book. Reading it, one would never know the following:

2) That the controversy started when the original interim report, drafted and agreed by Douma inspection team members, was secretly modified by an unknown OPCW person who had manipulated the findings to suggest an attack had occurred. https://t.co/QtAAyH9WyX… @RobertF40396660


3) This act of attempted deception was only derailed because an inspector discovered the secret changes. The manipulations were reported by @ClarkeMicah
and can be readily observed in documents now available https://t.co/2BUNlD8ZUv….

4) @bellingcat's book also makes no mention of the @couragefoundation panel, attended by the @opcw's first Director General, Jose Bustani, at which an OPCW official detailed key procedural irregularities and scientific flaws with the Final Douma Report:

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प्राचीन काल में गाधि नामक एक राजा थे।उनकी सत्यवती नाम की एक पुत्री थी।राजा गाधि ने अपनी पुत्री का विवाह महर्षि भृगु के पुत्र से करवा दिया।महर्षि भृगु इस विवाह से बहुत प्रसन्न हुए और उन्होने अपनी पुत्रवधु को आशीर्वाद देकर उसे कोई भी वर मांगने को कहा।


सत्यवती ने महर्षि भृगु से अपने तथा अपनी माता के लिए पुत्र का वरदान मांगा।ये जानकर महर्षि भृगु ने यज्ञ किया और तत्पश्चात सत्यवती और उसकी माता को अलग-अलग प्रकार के दो चरू (यज्ञ के लिए पकाया हुआ अन्न) दिए और कहा कि ऋतु स्नान के बाद तुम्हारी माता पुत्र की इच्छा लेकर पीपल का आलिंगन...

...करें और तुम भी पुत्र की इच्छा लेकर गूलर वृक्ष का आलिंगन करना। आलिंगन करने के बाद चरू का सेवन करना, इससे तुम दोनो को पुत्र प्राप्ति होगी।परंतु मां बेटी के चरू आपस में बदल जाते हैं और ये महर्षि भृगु अपनी दिव्य दृष्टि से देख लेते हैं।

भृगु ऋषि सत्यवती से कहते हैं,"पुत्री तुम्हारा और तुम्हारी माता ने एक दुसरे के चरू खा लिए हैं।इस कारण तुम्हारा पुत्र ब्राह्मण होते हुए भी क्षत्रिय सा आचरण करेगा और तुम्हारी माता का पुत्र क्षत्रिय होकर भी ब्राह्मण सा आचरण करेगा।"
इस पर सत्यवती ने भृगु ऋषि से बड़ी विनती की।


सत्यवती ने कहा,"मुझे आशीर्वाद दें कि मेरा पुत्र ब्राह्मण सा ही आचरण करे।"तब महर्षि ने उसे ये आशीर्वाद दे दिया कि उसका पुत्र ब्राह्मण सा ही आचरण करेगा किन्तु उसका पौत्र क्षत्रियों सा व्यवहार करेगा। सत्यवती का एक पुत्र हुआ जिसका नाम जम्दाग्नि था जो सप्त ऋषियों में से एक हैं।