“Olfactory Political Correctness“, by Lori D (A Quiet Week in the House blog). I simply couldn’t *not* post this! “One can look away from an unwelcome sight or muffle excessive noise, but an unsolicited smell is inescapable.”
Questions to engage parents
“Questions to engage the parent of a child with special needs“, by Christine Hoover (TheInclusiveChurch blog). Some great open-ended questions here for people who want to support and engage but aren’t sure how. While a few of the questions do mention faith and church, they could easily be generalised across other settings also.
Autistic self-care
“Just being me… who needs ‘normalcy’ anyway?” by Morenike. Morenike outlines several self-care strategies she uses- I love the fact that she knows herself well enough to know what works and doesn’t work for her. As she said, some of these strategies are big and some are small, but they all help her to live a balanced life.
Kindnesses to your spouse
“7 kindnesses to show your spouse while raising small kids“, by Natural Mama Nell (Wholeparentingfamily blog). Some great reminders!
You are not a failure
“You are not a failure“, by Ellen Stumbo (Special Needs Parenting blog). Beautiful encouraging conversation, finishing with “if you parent kids with disabilities, it is possible that at times you struggle with similar feelings and you feel like a failure …You’re not a failure, you give so much for your child, you love runs deep and wide and pushes you to move mountains.”
Hardest part of autism
“The hardest part of autism and it isn’t him“, by Lauren Casper. It isn’t the endless sleepless nights, or the delayed potty training- it’s other people.
Autism: “I Can!”
“Autism – How My Unstoppable Mother Proved the Experts Wrong” (Chris Varney at TEDxMelbourne). Labels/diagnoses are to help kids learn “I Can”, not “I Can’t”. Encourages adults (parents, teachers etc) to become part of a child’s “I Can” network, and gives some suggestions for how to do so.
Functioning Labels 101
“Functioning Labels 101: What’s the big deal?” (FeministAspie blog). “[Functioning Labels] are inaccurate due to being highly context-dependent. As an alternative way of describing the strengths, weaknesses and support needs of the autistic people in your life, try talking about them as individuals, and actually describing those strengths, weaknesses and support needs rather than trying to force them into an ill-fitting box.”
Calming down an Autistic person
How to calm down an Autistic person (WikiHow). I’m not usually a fan of generalised articles like this one, but it did seem to have some good suggestions to start with.
The stigma of autism
“The stigma of autism: when all eyes are upon you“, by Marina Sarris. The author describes the stigma experienced by many Autistic people and their families in several different countries, the efforts to de-stigmatise disability (especially autism), and the neurodiversity movement, which considers autism as a natural variation of the human condition.
lovenlearning 