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Engaging and Supporting Parents of Children Recently Diagnosed with Autism
No parent wants to learn that their child is autistic. Hopes and dreams for a neurotypical child are mostly abandoned and replaced by fear, uncertainty and, often, despair. Thus, effective professional intervention must begin with active listening to grasp the parent perspective on their child’s...
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Why Didn’t My Pre-Diagnosis Clinicians Bring Up the Possibility of Autism?
So much was lost as a result of not knowing for so long. Lost happiness, because of having to contend with unanswered questions as to why I faced such daunting challenges which none of my peers seemed to be facing. Lost time, during which I lived without a complete picture of who I truly am, during...
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I Was Finally Diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism, Now What?
I suspected I was on the Autism Spectrum for over 20 years before I finally received a diagnosis. Like many people with high-functioning autism, my autism went unnoticed because I was intelligent enough to succeed in school and my autistic traits were not seen as neurodivergent, but as learning...
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Autism Advocacy: Inclusion, Empowerment, and Human Rights
“Autism isn’t this strange alien thing, it’s just a different way of thinking and experiencing the world. Some of us will find ourselves more or less compatible with modern living than others, we will all have different needs…but autism is not terrifying or awful, nor is it marvellous and...
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Autism Advocacy Advice for Families of Color
Autism occurs equally in people of different races, ethnicities, and income levels, but autism services are not distributed equally, according to research. As a group, children who are Black, Hispanic, Asian-American, or low-income often receive fewer therapies and services for autism.1-2 They...
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Autistic Lived Experience: When I Learned that Helen Keller Believed in Eugenics
To say that learning about this for the first time felt like a punch in the gut is a gross understatement. Though I heard it from what I consider to be a credible source (the PBS documentary series The U.S. and the Holocaust), I nonetheless could not bring myself to believe the truth because I...
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Autism and the Troubling Risk of Suicide
This article has information about suicide and suicide prevention. For help 24/7, please call or text the U.S. Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Few people used to think about the risk of suicide among people on the autism spectrum. Researchers rarely studied it. Primary care doctors did not...
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Intimate Relationship Failures From an Autistic Perspective
The standard narrative positions autism as the cause of relationship trouble when a non-autistic person dates or falls in love with an autistic person. The autistic partner is assumed to be the disruptive or difficult one. Self-help books offer non-autistic partners tips on how to cope with their...
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Sex Education for Autistic People: Why It’s Not Too Much to AASK
One of the most vivid memories I have of growing up is when I had my first period. I was 12 years old, and I can still see my mother standing in the bathroom doorway, her face filled with amazement and delight. “Amy, you’re a woman now!” Confusion etched itself in lines across my...
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Demystifying Autistic Gender
Search online to learn about Autistic gender and you’ll find a range of allistic (nonautistic) articles stating that the link between autism and gender “diversity” and “dysphoria” are “not so clear.” Researchers apparently “do not yet understand why” there’s a strong correlation...
