neurodiversityclassroom-blog - Tumblr blog

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

The following poem comes to us from a High School student in Atlanta, Georgia. Enjoy! Let's start a fire so we shine. Its warmth will flow through all the differences. Any critics will feel its wrath. It will burn for all of us. This world will no longer be dark. The flames of our differences will brighten anything and anyone who understands. We will stand powerful. We will be strong. Not even the coldest water can douse it. It will never die. We will keep fueling it with our kindness. Let's make the world a better place.

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

This is my personal blog. Sharing here too because it is about education.

I wrote this. It’s about disability and education. And bewareness.

It’s World Autism “Awareness” Day, and I want to talk about ableism in education.

I come from multiple perspectives because I am Autistic, a parent of Autistic children, and a teacher of disabled and nondisabled students. So by trade I am considered a “special ed” teacher, though I dislike that phraseology. I want to talk about my colleagues though, and how “special ed” teachers see themselves and their students.

The unfortunate fact is that many “special ed” teachers see themselves as heroes simply for working with disabled children. They believe their job is to rescue these children from the fate of being disabled, rather than to support and accommodate. I see emails, shirts, initiatives by these teachers, proclaiming need for awareness, or talking of how the children “struggle every day.”

What they do not recognize is that the struggle is caused by lack of accommodation. Kids are told who they are and what they can do, and how they experience the world, is wrong. They are asked to do without accommodations, to learn to not need them. They assume we wish to not be disabled. That being disabled is inherently bad. It’s not. Being disabled with appropriate accommodations is ok. It is not lesser.

So our approach is very different. I look for ways to accommodate. They try to fix. If a child does not walk, it is not my job to teach child to walk. It is my job to make sure places we go are wheelchair accessible.

It causes trauma to these students. Kids clearly communicate, but teacher withholds in order to “teach” them. Kid cries out in pain as they are made to do things their disabled body is not meant to do.

We need to flip the script. Look for how to support and accommodate needs. Not look for how to make child no longer have needs.

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

This is the first poem in our April Autism Acceptance Month poetry event. It is by 10 year old Fox. Enjoy! TOO autistic is suppose to limit me TOO talented for people to believe TOO silent for equal rights TOO wistfully inside my body TOO helpful to have ragey body TOO thoughtful to stay quiet TOO loud to be ignored TOO wise to be stupid TOO tired to have control TOO curious not to learn TOO happy to be me ~Fox, age 10

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

Seeking poetry submissions from Autistic writers of all ages. April is National Poetry Month and Autism Acceptance Month. We would like to celebrate the beauty of Neurodiversity with poetry Poems can be about anything and can be in any style~ write how you want and what you want. Poetry will be featured on this page and our blog- Thereluctantelfqueen.WordPress.com beginning on April 1st. Please send your submissions to: neurodiversityadvocate@gmail.com. Please include the name you'd like associated with the poem. We will use full names, first names, initials or pseudonyms, if you prefer. Also, please include anything else that you would like readers to know about you Parents: if you are submitting on behalf of your child, please be sure to get their permission. Teachers, if you are submitting student work, please be sure to get permission from BOTH parent and child. Thank you and happy writing! Follow us on Instagram and Twitter- NeurodiversityClassroom

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

Oh, I love this. Don't be that teacher that tells students to have quiet hands! I love the empowerment here, of an Autistic person having loud hands and pride. (The video does include some swearing.)

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

CN: meds, mental health, mention of murder of neurodivergent people. I came across this yesterday and I was so glad to see it, because sometimes I feel isolated in how I think about things. So I have been away a lot, ironically, because I have been managing my mental health and not had much room for advocacy. But this post is important and I wanted to share it here. I agree with the post in its entirety. But the main points I want to talk about are the gender and mental health parts. So gender.... I am a dfab nonbinary trans person. I find all the gendering stuff of Autistic people really harmful and invalidating. I don't manifest differently. I may have been misread due to bias. I am not an example of "female autism," and I don't like the gendering of Autistic identities. I also think the gendering is damaging for Autistic trans women. The other thing is mental health. Sometimes people like to separate autism from mental health. It's true that autism is not a mental illness. But mental illness and personality disorders are very ok. I have both and am learning to manage them with the help of good, safe people and some SSRI meds. I have dear friends that also have mental illness and/or personality disorders. It is ok to talk about these things. It is ok to be these things. Great people are often multiply neurodivergent and that is very ok. Thanks for listening. ~LF

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

Poetry event

Seeking poetry submissions from Autistic writers of all ages. April is National Poetry Month and Autism Acceptance Month. We would like to celebrate the beauty of Neurodiversity with poetry Poems can be about anything and can be in any style~ write how you want and what you want. Poetry will be featured on this page and our blog- Thereluctantelfqueen.WordPress.com beginning on April 1st. Please send your submissions to: neurodiversityadvocate@gmail.com. Please include the name you'd like associated with the poem. We will use full names, first names, initials or pseudonyms, if you prefer. Also, please include anything else that you would like readers to know about you Parents: if you are submitting on behalf of your child, please be sure to get their permission. Teachers, if you are submitting student work, please be sure to get permission from BOTH parent and child. Thank you and happy writing! Follow us on Instagram and Twitter- NeurodiversityClassroom

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

Hi

Oh hi. Hey hello. I know I fell off the planet and not posting. But I am trying to be back, so hiiii. I am not going to be able to catch up but I will try to keep up now.... :D

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

We second Giraffe Party's sentiment: Respect the stim! https://www.facebook.com/autisticpartygiraffe/posts/572128049664606

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

It has been a really long time since I wrote anything, but today I did. It's about how I got to the place of assuming everyone hates me, and how of course, it's not ok that people are told they are not ok. ~LF For ease of reading, I'll paste the post in full below: I have been thinking about how afraid I am to talk to people. I assume people don't like me, don't want to spend time with me, and unfortunately, this is not uncommon among Autistic people. It began because I read the words of another Autistic, describing those dreadful calls for pity of an Autistic person, inevitably arranged by an abled loved one, to send birthday cards. You can read that post here. https://www.facebook.com/andrew.hogginbottom/posts/10207073459946248 Other times it asks that we simply "like" the photo to tell the disabled person they are beautiful. It may feel like abled people are helping, telling us we are beautiful, but the message is clear. You are not enough on your own. Abled people can take time to give you a thrill now and then though. We are so much more than this. I'm a teacher and a parent of Autistic kids. They interact with abled kids and abled teachers and therapists. They are amazing and I fall in love with them each individually, not in spite of their autism, because of their autism! When they can't stop talking about languages because they love languages that much, or they use a script that so accurately tells me just how they are and what they need at that moment, more than trying to describe it ever could, when they marvel at the beauty in a drop of water as it hits the light. How could you not love that? But we are taught that we are less than. People say we can not care for other humans. That we are heartless. Nevermind that Autistic people have made me feel far more like they see me and care for my emotional needs than any abled person has. We hear that a man so deplorable it sends shivers down my spine to think he may become our next president, must be mentally ill, because of course a neurotypical person could not be that deplorable. We see depictions in haunted houses and Halloween decor of the scary mental patient. Nevermind that most violent crimes are committed by people without a mental illness. So I hide. I avoid people. I assume people hate me. Because let's be honest, they probably do. I act strangely, go out of my way to be weird. I don't make eye contact. I can't do small talk. And all you've ever been taught is to feel sorry for me. Send me a card on my birthday. Take me as your pity date to the prom. Do a Best Buddies project with me. It's no wonder so many of us struggle to feel like real people. Wanted people. Loved people. If you are a parent, therapist, teacher, etc., do better. Show us that you see us for real.

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

Sunday morning Sharing! - Respectful & Meaningful Supports can change lives. It is just that simple. https://www.facebook.com/goodsunflowerpower/posts/1761176694155843

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

Sharing this old post as a reminder that identity first language is preferred by many~if not most~ autistic people. Do we really need to remind ourselves that autistic people are people? That's what we're doing when we insist upon using person first language. And especially when we have the gall to tell autistic people how they should identify. Don't do that.

The first installment in “What was wrong with the presentation, ‘working with special needs in the preschool classroom.’ ”

Immediately, the presenter strongly emphasized that we always, always, always need to “ put the person first.” Also stating that it is not right to refer to someone as disabled. She then took person first language to a new level; “a person living on the spectrum of autism.”

No.

[neurodiversityclassroom-blog]

As always, the side by side "signs of autism" posters that we posted earlier has been shared widely. If you like what Lei Wiley-Mydske did to the original (and clearly you do!) you'll love the newest version available here.