Monthly Archives: November 2010

Would you stand up for a special needs person you didn’t know? via @AutisticHelper

via autistichelper.org

I spotted this video yesterday on AutisticHelper.org (from Twitter, via @cookiemonster82) and started sniffling and shedding a few tears while watching.

Edit: The video seems to have been taken down, but you can view it here

Karan’s had to deal with similar verbal outbursts and non-verbal glances of disgust. And it’s not like he can respond, being non-verbal and blissfully unaware (as far as we can tell) of insulting looks/words that come his way. Mom and I usually blast whoever it is if they say something, and throw back equally dirty looks if we get those.

Would you speak up for a special needs person, or stay quiet like some of the people in this video who thought it wasn’t their place to get involved?

On my part, I’d urge people to get involved. It raises awareness and no one deserves to be treated with disrespect. No one.

Hating people who say autism can be “cured”

I mean, what do they mean “cured” or “healed”??? It’s not a disease that it can or should be “cured”.

These messiahs of hope (I blame Pandora) preach about how parents should do XYZ and ABC therapies because that “definitely works”. Uh. No.

Just like every person has different taste buds, autism affects everyone differently. As I’ve said before, when you meet one person with autism, you meet just one person with autism. Therapies are a guideline to certain things that may help to teach the autistic person skills to deal with the neuro-typical world. But it’s not one size fits all. Just because one therapy works for one person, doesn’t mean it will for another. It’s a trial-and-error process. Compics and flashcards work for many, my brother doesn’t really like them. Period. He prefers signs. Surely I’d be stupid to keep forcing something on him when he doesn’t like it…so what if it works for your child? It doesn’t work with him.

I give you: Jenny McCarthy. The Horse Boy.

No, no, NO!

My brother doesn’t need to be healed or cured or whatever other nonsense. He needs to learn how to handle the world. Do I wish he didn’t have autism? Sure, sometimes I do in my most despairing moments. But his autism makes him the sweet and innocent boy he is, not some crazed teenage boy (for which I’m sometimes thankful; have you seen what some teenagers get up to nowadays!?).

If I see another person telling me how to heal or cure my brother, I’m going to blow a gasket. Autism is life-long. It’s not going to go away just because you say so. The more you preach to the world about how your child has beaten autism, the more I’ll think you’re a quack and the more I’ll think your child was incorrectly diagnosed in the first place.