languageshead

[languageshead]

Hearing constantly about gifted autistic kids and people seeing it as THEE autistic trait has completely disregarded those who aren’t gifted and made a HUGE divide in the community. Seeing constantly “yeah autistic people are usually gifted” is so annoying because a VERY large chunk of autistic people, aren’t actually gifted and media has just put the gifted people at the front because they’re more palatable. The “autistic gifted kid burnout” has become more so a trend than anything and I’ve seen a lot of people assume they’re autistic because they are the “gifted kid burnout person” when that isn’t even a requirement for an autism diagnosis. You don’t have to be gifted to be autistic. You don’t have to be!!

Start putting the people who struggle more in the spotlight. Those with intellectual disabilities, those with learning disabilities, those with cognitive disabilities, those who are just generally stereotypically “dumb” and embrace it!

We need to have a very big discussion about this as a community and it needs to start today.

[languageshead]

ok i need. need. NEED. you all to understand what high support needs autism actually is. not just higher support, but highhhh (high) support.

& honestly me, am not even fit to talk about this!! but knowing popular (often low support) autism content creators & authors tokenize me & include me in justification “well i listen to high support needs people and they need—”

high support needs not just need remind take meds, not even need remind eat, need remind shower. if you think “high support needs” & those struggles come first in mind & see those as most represent of HSN, most classical way of be HSN, then you wrong. you wronggg.

many HSN autistic, not even “advanced” enough (for not have better word) to able use reminders. on average day often need physical help. for a lot, need complete physical help. need complete physical help hold spoon n fork, or not able be a part at all and need other people do it. need be told open mouth chew swallow sometimes. need other people clean up drool & spill from mouth & mess.

they have worth. deserve all the fucking help they need.

“difference between low & high support is not actual amount struggle because all struggle inside same but that high support show more external outside struggle & those struggle more annoying for people around them” hear this so often and make blood boil because cannot be farther from truth yet some you all so loudly proclaim.

then tell me why only hear LSN say this. why only hear LSN on internet. why all big content creator big authors big autistic speakers all LSN.

tell me how someone nonverbal and no robust communication no functional language struggle even nonverbally communicate not even AAC not yet or not ever ever, how that same inside as someone who able speak who speak fluent who able communicate want needs dreams have conversation with words

both struggle. but not fucking same struggle.

many people in between. but you not get use people like them like me to give self shiny credential of “i know high support needs because i listen”

don’t use me. you embarrass me.

[languageshead]

I really am struggling with the whole “Autism isn’t a disorder” debate. I understand some people don’t see it as a disorder, and some do. I have in these past few days seen countless posts of people trying to explain while they prefer to see autism as not a disorder, then follow it up with something that makes the person who’s watching feel shitty if they DO identify as autism being a disorder.

You can identify how you want. I literally could give zero fucks. However, I start to give a fuck when you start policing people, their terminology, and their feelings.

Saying “autism isn’t a disorder, therefore if you identify as neurodivergent then you shouldn’t believe autism is a disorder” is inherently fucked up. Saying “if you believe this and this— you should believe that autism isn’t a disorder” is fucked up.

I am autistic and intellectually disabled. I hate change. I hate when terminology changes, I hate when things change. If it’s for the greater good then sure, I’ll try and go along with it. However if it’s not, and doesn’t affect people, then I will have my own opinion.

Don’t attack people for believing autism is a disorder, it’s gross, it’s weird, it’s downright disgusting. Stop it. Stop making videos and posts attacking those who do. What harm are they causing? What harm are they causing by believing this? None. So leave them alone.

[languageshead]

I hate when people say that autism doesn’t have a look. Yes, I understand that many low support needs/high masking/level 1s constantly get fakeclaimed because people say they don’t “look” autistic. However, they(low support needs/high masking individuals) usually follow this up by saying “autism doesn’t have a look. Stop saying that”

I want people to understand that to a lot of higher support needs people, we DO look autistic. We do stim publicly. We do grunt, laugh, make noises/vocal stim loudly. We do carry AAC devices. We do look autistic. People can point us out. People can know just from looking at us for a few seconds. That’s the issue I have.

Many of us look developmentally disabled. We look different. It’s frustrating to see time and time again that autism doesn’t have a look when I get singled out in public just for simply existing. It’s just exhausting.

Please in the future rephrase your posts. We are on the internet. We are reading your posts. We’re on tumblr. We’re on Reddit. We’re on Facebook and more. And even if we aren’t, you’re still disregarding those of us who are visibly autistic.

[languageshead]

these are all tags from one post about fostering active curiosity in things you find interesting. no I don't have adhd or autism. even if I did, why are you hellbent on making a complete stranger's experiences all about what you think their brain chemistry looks like. you guys have seriously got to knock this weird online psych zodiac shit off, it's not cute.

[languageshead]

Talking about a discourse that doesn't even exist on Tumblr

On Tumblr, us higher support needs nonverbal/nonspeaking people often had 2 possible scenarios to deal with:

1. People ignore us and our opinion because our writing isn't "proper" English, and they make fun of us or comment on our writing style.

2. People think we're faking because our writing is good.

I couldn't care less about scenario number 2. And luckily I'm not affected by scenario number 1.

But what happens now is that somebody tries to discuss a Twitter discourse that simply doesn't exist here on Tumblr: Nonverbal/nonspeaking people with severe or profound autism and/or severe or profound intellectual disability who use FC to run their blogs.

This isn't happening.

Nobody on here (except maybe 1 person, but even there I'm not sure) has profound autism. Severe yes, there are some. But we don't use FC to run our blogs. Nobody on here (except maybe 1 person) has a profound ID. Severe yeah, maybe. But most people with ID are mild or moderate. And none of them use FC to run their blog.

So what happens now is scenario number 3:

3. People (or rather 1 online troll) think that what we write is facilitated and not our own words.

Especially those of us who have severe autism and/or ID. This is worse than scenario number 1 or 2. Especially because there's no way to disprove it. The better our grammar, the higher the probability that somebody else wrote our posts; at least to this online troll.

So whenever you encounter someone who says that what we write is facilitated and/or written by someone else: Don't believe them. Yes, sometimes people write something for us, but we can always check if we agree with what's been written.

I've heard of the FC problem where caregivers wrote something for the nonverbal/nonspeaking person, and it always was about how great FC was, etc. I think this was on Twitter and on individual blogs somewhere on the internet. But this isn't happening on Tumblr. Nobody with severe autism and/or severe or profound ID uses FC to run their blog on Tumblr.

It's basically "Yelling into the void".

Edit:

Since this post reached people who aren't aware of what was going on lately:

FC is short for Facilitated Communication. It's a method for people who can't speak and struggle greatly with other communication methods, such as writing, signing, or using an AAC device.

There's nothing wrong with people helping someone to run their blog; I, too, sometimes need help to run my blog. There's also nothing wrong with people writing posts or messages for someone. This post was only to inform others that nobody on Tumblr uses FC full time to run their blog. Because this is what this troll believes. She basically complains about something that's not the case.

[languageshead]

you all way too comfortable telling nonverbal people that we speak too much we need speak less or shut up. moment you not agree with us you revert back to your ableism you side with our oppressors.

you never our ally you never activist if you allyship conditional on how agreeable acceptable palatable we are you never ally never listen in first place.

you all not that different from those autism parents you all claim to hate.

[languageshead]

“autistic people don’t have hard time communicating we just have hard time being understood because other people suck listening”

i hate you

hate you for pretend me not exist hate you for rewrite autism so only you feel comfortable be moral high ground and so you not have share same space with me

[languageshead]

A rant about how autism isn't an invisible disability

I'm free and willing to debate on this one.

So like, the term "invisible disability" for autism is correct, but also incorrect. Yes, just looking at an image of an autistic person, you wouldn't be able to know that they're autistic (unless they're obviously stimming in the image), unlike other disabilities such as physical disabilities. In this, yes, autism is an "invisible" disability. I honestly feel like a very narrow example like this is NOT representative of what we should be looking at for determining if a disability is truly "invisible."

Autism isn't "invisible" in the real world. For example, lets take stimming. Stimming is visible (or audible, depends on the stim). You can see when someone is stimming, assuming you can see the person. Autistic people stim a lot, whether it's unmasked hand flapping, hand shaking or rocking, among other things, or simply bouncing a leg, or along those lines.

Also, while yes, the social aspects of autism are invisible* they're still noticeable by allistic people. They notice the little nuances of how you act, how you portray yourself, et cetera.

Stuff like meltdowns, or shutdowns, are also obviously visible, even if meltdowns get confused with temper tantrums alot, they are still very much, visible.

To address the asterisk on invisible in the 3rd paragraph, some stuff is DEFINITELY visible, for example, not knowing personal space boundaries (something that I struggle with a lot) is something that is definitely visible, even to other autistic people, as it has to do with literal physical space. There are probably more things too.

The point(s?) I am really trying to make here is that

We shouldn't be saying a disability is "invisible" just because you can't tell immediately that someone is disabled by looking at a picture of glancing at them.

Autism isn't an invisible disability, not really.

[languageshead]

Sometimes I see people on here who want to be good allies to nonverbal autistics, but at the same time don't understand nonverbal autism at its core.

Most of us, who are nonverbal "from birth", struggle with language, to communicate, and to understand complex concepts. That's why we never learned to speak at all, ever.

But their strategy is to "hand us the mic" and ask "What are some misconceptions about nonverbal autism you'd like to discuss?" and expect us to respond.

"Misconceptions" is an abstract concept. Most of us can't just come up with an answer; my mind, for example, goes completely blank when I read this.

I wanted to talk about allies assuming that our brain works similar for at least 2 weeks, but it's only now that I am able to write something. 2 weeks!

Sure, there are autistics who can't speak due to apraxia, and who don't struggle with language otherwise, apart from the "not being able to speak with their mouth" part. But that's rare.

Even my ability to express myself well is rare. I am not your average nonverbal autistic. I am very skilled compared to the rest of us.

One thing about "never learning to speak" is that most of us really really struggle with language, and with understanding big words and topics. Not everyone, but many of us. That's why most of us aren't on social media.

Whenever I write "educational" posts, my inbox is flooded with follow up questions I just can't answer without help. Because most of the time I don't understand the text. I regularly have to close my inbox because people assume that I can process the text and respond like everyone else can. But having these abilities is an exception within autistics who never learned to speak from the very beginning. It seems normal, but those people just are the loudest. Because they're on social media and love to participate in discussions.

Most of us can't do that.

I'm glad that I made some speaking friends here who made an effort to understand us thoroughly, and they now often repeat what we think and want "but louder". Listen to them, most of us can't advocate for ourselves. They're not speaking over us, they're helping us to communicate without draining our energy.

And for everything else I have some posts linked in my pinned post because I can't just participate in discussions.

[languageshead]

This kiss was and still is everything. 

[languageshead]

random AAC thought .

when mistype ( typo ) with keyboard , that can make words look little bit silly or spell wrong , like if say ass but really try say pass , or fingers type so fast that put letters in wrong places .

but with AAC like what gwydion use , with picture buttons , that look different . because not spell out whole word piece by piece , instead each button is whole word and sometimes small phrase .

so for example .

normal sentence : want to eat bananas and strawberries today .

keyboard typo : want to eat bannans and strawberies today .

AAC typo : want to eat bananas and apples today .

see where problem there is ? this can look like say exactly what want say , but actually is not , because on accident use wrong button .

for AAC user that can also sometimes be hard to realise and correct , which might mean that have distress from not get what really want , or people seem not understand what communicate .

sometimes can be very clear when wrong button , but sometimes not . and unlike with keyboard typos , can not always guess what really mean even if know wrong , because need know how AAC layout look . unless live with person and see AAC everyday is probably not know that well to understand .

[languageshead]

just see something say that " most autism meltdowns not able notice " and that can learn " control " or " keep to self " … how do people come up with these things ?

sorry but when gwydion meltdown is not at all question , not at all something that will just not realise , and definitely not at all something can just " control " . there is scream and bang and cry , there is loss words , loss focus , any rational thought like " scream loud will hurt so need stop get louder " .

yes on good days can take steps try prevent , but even on those days nothing can stop once start happen … just need let brain ride wave . is brain that fully overwhelm and can not handle anymore . nothing about control discipline any anything .

[languageshead]

Autistic linguist?

In progress!!!!!!! 40% loading 😂

[languageshead]

I love it when I am having a discussion with someone who says autistic people know more about autism than NT parents of autistic people with high support needs and their argument is „autistic people do more and better research“ when literally most of us with higher support needs have language impairment as well as we are mostly likely unable to properly understand scientific papers, abstract concepts, long texts with complex writing, a lot of us have a hard time using the internet, a lot of us cannot use the internet, I (eg) don’t really know how to do research with Google because I cannot tell what is or isn‘t an advertisement, the many results make me overwhelm etc.

Like thank you for proving my point that the autism community actually knows nothing about us and that our parents actually do understand these concepts better than you.

*Of course a lot of parents of autistic people are bad parents, them being NT or autistic parents. But bad parents are bad parents regardless of autism. It‘s still not okay to bully (specially moms) parents and caregivers of autistic people and claim you know better just because you are autistic. It‘s completely dehumanizing of autistic people because it means you don‘t see them as a person with likes and dislikes, you just see them as autism.

[languageshead]

Autism advocacy is interesting.

It's interesting in the sense that part of Autism is "Social and Communication deficits". Why does that make this interesting?

Because it means I often can not participate in advocacy myself because I do not understand what exactly we're advocating for or what it means.

A lot of advocacy wants to force big changes but do not explain what type of changes we should implement or how that will help those with moderate-high support needs Autistics. Which makes it harder to understand or "get on board".

We are all Autistic. But some of us still need more support than others. This is not excluding others. This is fact.

I need to put some level of trust into Autism advocates because I do not have the ability to advocate that way. Autism limits my abilities to do so. If my NT parent can not understand the advocacy, it means I will struggle too. I need to trust that there are people advocating for people like me and that they are being listened to as well.

[languageshead]

Thank you for your comment Bird of May. This makes a lot of sense and yes I really do see many level 2s with incredibly different skills from what I have which makes me question my own diagnosis sometimes because I feel so incapable.

Definitely the level system needs upgrade. Adding IADLS would be a great step to make it more specific. I personally also really like the ICD classification that takes in consideration: presence of functional language impairment and intellectual disability. Maybe the levels in the DSM could be also based on that.

People saying they are "higher needs" when you point out harmful and misinformation that they are spreading about higher needs autism.

I have noticed this quite often, it is definitely not uncommon. When you are being called out about misinformation it's much easier to say that you are a part of that community as a "free pass" to validate anything you say than come forward that you were wrong and maybe reflect a little bit about what you have said.

Whenever people say "levels are ableist", "levels are stereotyping us" and I point out that this perspective is very low needs centered and it's usually late-diagnosed, low needs people that spread this kind of information that is incorrect and harmful people always, always end up saying "I am higher needs too", "I am level 2/3" and this makes me so incredibly upset.

First, if the person is being honest about their level, which honestly you just have to believe they are and hope for the best, since a lot of people seem to be self-diagnosing with "higher needs", which I absolutely do not agree with, that doesn't make them exempt from having typically "low needs/late-diagnosed actions". Being higher needs does not make you immune to saying bullshit and to ignoring other higher needs autistics. Being autistic also doesn't exempt you from being ableist, from being an Aspie Supremacist, being part of a community does not make you immune to being ableist to your own community. The biggest example of this is how often gay men are homophobic towards their own LGBTQ+ community, how often they can be transphobic, lesbophobic etc.

So, if someone is pointing out that what you are saying goes against the majority of the higher needs autism community, you do not get to say "I am higher needs" to validate what you are saying. I never, ever assume someone's needs over the internet and to call you out for harmful misinformation about levels and the general higher needs autistic activism is not assuming your level. If I tell you that what you are saying goes against what the majority of higher needs autistics talk about, I am not assuming you aren't higher needs. I am simply pointing out that you are being harmful to higher needs autistics, whether you are or not one of us.

Second, I am honestly very surprised to see people claiming they are higher needs while clearly not participating in higher needs activism and discussions. It's clear to all of us here, as far as I am aware, that levels are needed and that they are not ableist. All of my online "friends" (I call you all friends, because I remember your usernames and always check to see what you've been posting, even if we don't really interact) are fighting to get low needs/late-diagnosed people to understand our perspective and to understand that some of us do have more needs than others and that's fine. And very honestly, if one of us, who truly knows what we go through in the autistic community, keeps spreading this type of misinformation, this makes me so incredibly sad and I honestly am unable to understand why they would do that.

And I honestly assume (I know it's not really okay to assume, but be patient with me, we're all trying our bests and a lot of us are just tired with the backlash from the mainstream autistic community), by the things these people usually say that they really do not engage in our activism and do not truly understand what we try to fight for within the autistic community. So I do not know if they are late-diagnosed higher needs and therefore do not know about us, if they aren't higher needs, if they are higher needs yet refuse to participate in our activism, if they self-diagnosed higher needs... I don't know. Anyways, in any of these cases, telling you to keep up with actual higher needs activism (like what we do here, over at Reddit etc) is not, in any way, assuming you are not higher needs. It's telling you that you are clearly not listening to higher needs autism activism.

I always try to be nice and end up being blocked because people within the autistic community cannot take any criticism, ever. Just happened right now. I put so much effort into my words (which is much harder when you have a language impairment) to try to educate people, to be nice and let them know what they are saying is incorrect and people just assume I am either attacking them, being "ableist" or any other kind of misinterpretation of my words. Sometimes I think I will lose my mind over activism. I feel so left out, I feel like I am screaming at no one. I am so done with mainstream autism activism and I am so done being ignored. I think sometimes that I need to distance myself from activism because this is so hard to cope with emotionally. But at the same time I cannot because I cannot see misinformation and ignore, misinformation makes me furious, injustice against people like me and my friends here makes me absolutely mad. I cannot ignore. Maybe this is a symptom of my own autism, I don't know, if anyone does feel free to let me know. I can't ignore this. Anyways, this post was a vent. I am always very opened to criticism and civil discussions as long as long don't keep your arguments to impact phrases(+) everyone is done listening and as long as you don't block me when I am trying to have a civil discussion.

+ I am not sure if "impact phrases" is the correct word to what I am saying, I had to google this on translator because I don't know how to say this in English. By "impact phrases" I mean very used things without any meaningful thought like "levels are ableist", "levels divide us", "levels are new functioning labels". If you actually believe these things, I am also opened to explain why I (and a lot of higher needs and allies) think this is incorrect.