We mind. We matter.
As April approaches, I was thinking about how autism has fallen off the radar for the Presidential candidates. If it was ever there. Donald Trump paid what we now know was lip service to families when he ran in 2016. President Biden might have heard the word "autism" during his 8 years as Vice President under a President who ushered in the era of neurodiversity that all but supplanted the DSM version of autism the AofA family knows all too well.
Maybe it's a good thing that they are ignoring us. What has any politician done to protect and help our families? Schools are OK thanks to the decades old IDEA that mandated schooling for special education students. ABA is the "gold standard" in schools, even if many perceive it as pyrite. Students can stay in school to at least age 22. But then adulthood hits, and the cliff drops off steeply. Adult services are NOT mandated and so, are non-existent for many. Wait lists are years and even decades long. Funding is spotty, as most Departments of Developmental Services are predicated on IQ under 70. People with autism fall into a crevasse - IQ too high for services and behaviors too high to be accepted into most programming. Employment rates are low. Colleges are just starting to offer supports. Families bear the burden. Housing is a pink unicorn. All at a time when grandparents are in their eighties and beyond, and parents are in their fifties and beyond. Such a cheery picture!
Let's think about what we can do in April to make our kids part of the conversation again.
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Everyone has so-called "behaviors" to various extents now (especially in times of chaos/collapse/riots). The word "behaviors" alone, does not describe what kinds of difficulties that people with "autism" have, especially since all the "autism" on TV and in media now, is "neurodiversity books", "Attorney Woo", "The Good Doctor" and other trainwreck media about "mild autism" and savants.
YouTube is trying to ban/has banned "exploitative" videos of autistic meltdowns and tantrums. Only "neurodiversity/self advocacy" allowed without anything else. This is censorship on the world's biggest video hosting platform.
Posted by: WhiteAzalea | March 13, 2024 at 02:38 PM
Spot on, Kim.
Posted by: 4Bobby | March 12, 2024 at 09:50 PM
1/35 children.
That is a huge voting block. Has anyone, including Children's Health Defense, ever polled parents of these children to see how many believe childhood vaccines are the culprit? If you want to fix the problem, you first have to name it. If a large enough percentage of parents believe this and are convinced by the scientific evidence, then they can make it THE voting issue to get their vote. The campaign must start as word of mouth. One family of a vaccine injured child can reach out to 34 others. It's doable. If enough Americans used their legal right to NOT vaccinate themselves or children, the flood of new injuries would cease. Then, the ongoing needs of the adult vaccine injured can be addressed. It would become obvious that our government has no legal right to spend taxpayer dollars on illegal immigrants while our own citizens languish. Currently, ANY money spent by the Feds is BORROWED. We are trillions in debt and can't pay the interest on our loans to our master, the private Federal Reserve Bank. If our fiat dollar infrastructure collapses, you are on your own. Start food prepping, five cans a day.
My OLD Beginner's Prepper Pantry LIST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf7nmbAyJgw
Posted by: Emmaphiladelphia | March 12, 2024 at 11:57 AM
Even though most people (about 90%) never "recover" from so-called "autism" (but a small 10% do, mostly young biological males with idiopathic non-regressive ASDs)...
We need much more non-governmental, non-corporate adult autism resources and living arrangements, especially for adult autistics with various comorbidities (dyspraxia/dyscalculia, obesity, PTSD, seizures and more).
Off grid/rural jobs for ASD adults, and lots of nature-oriented therapies such as hippotherapy, gardening, rural jobs (with ASD accommodations, AAC cards and more), etc.
Think of "The Prepared Homestead" talking about "MAG Tribes" and rural communities. There are so many "neurodiverse" adults such as me who cannot live alone and cannot attend college, it's considered normal now. Even NT adults I see online cannot live alone, as they can't afford to buy themselves a house, no matter how many jobs they work.
All the "autism" we see on TV now is "mild autism" and Aspie/HFA super geniuses such as Attorney Woo and Sheldon Cooper. Even SpongeBob is "mildly" autistic. My I.D. is mild, but my autism's not mild at all. My autism prevented me from finishing middle school, attending any high 'school' outside home, or from attending regular education classes. I have to wear earplugs and ear defenders together at many times in public, sometimes even wearing sunglasses indoors. I have severe math difficulties/undiagnosed dyscalculia. I didn't know how algebra worked until I was 18 and it's still extremely difficult for me to learn. I never attended any high 'school' at all outside home, after the PANDAS strep/ASD regression hell on earth I suffered ages nine-14. Florida recently made it a criminal felony to sleep in public spaces, and Florida is taking away worker protections. So "happy" to live in the 1984 style "freedom state" of Florida... I wish I could leave Florida and move to the Appalachian Mountains. Florida is turning into anything but a "freedom state" especially for ASD adults like me.
Posted by: WhiteAzalea | March 12, 2024 at 11:42 AM
Kim, everything you point out in your post is all very sadly the reality of the situation facing families like us with children/adults who have autism. I have an adult son with autism who was in a day program for twelve years and then Covid hit and it was shut down and changed to a Zoom platform for three years. Then it reopened and the participants were given a choice of staying on Zoom or going back. My son and a several others preferred the Zoom platform and stayed on until the program president decided to end this option that was very educational and enjoyable for the ones who participated in it. Now my son does not want to go back to in person program because he is no longer interested in stacking shelves, shredding papers, cleaning mirrors and windows, folding pizza boxes and cleaning at public housing complexes. Some of the other young men felt the same way and preferred the educational Zoom platform. Now my son is out of the program as they refused to continue offering both services. He now does Zoom with the same staff member in an after hours program and also I have a private tutor who does academics with him and he prefers this situation. I am worried about the future as my parents who lived with us are no longer here and we are also getting older. I am hoping that researchers and small pharmaceutical companies can get the funding to do the very needed research into medications that can reverse and solve the mystery of this condition that was once so rare and now is so common all over the country and the world. We need our presidential candidates to start talking about the autism crisis if they want to run for president and not ignore our autism families. We need the attention and help now.
Posted by: Gayle | March 12, 2024 at 09:59 AM