“How do I get an autistic person to X?” – You’re asking the wrong question.

I remember my fourth grade year of school, when I was about ten years old, as being one of my most difficult years in school. I had just moved schools from my local public elementary school to a magnet school a bit farther away, as we thought it would fit me better. This new school …

Autistic Pride Day 2019

Today, June 18th, is Autistic Pride Day. It's a day created by autistics and for autistics to stand in contrast against all of the negativity and stigma surrounding autism and celebrate our differences, neurodiversity, and awesome autistic uniqueness. It sounds awesome, and Autistic Pride Day is something I've supported for several years now. The only …

Sensory Eating is not Picky Eating

I want you to imagine that you are a kid once again, maybe ten or eleven years old. You are sitting down in the evening with your family for dinner. The table is set, and your parents bring out what will be tonight's entree: a cut of cold, raw chicken breast. It's slimy pink mass …

Yes, autism is a disability… and that’s OK!

Relatively recently, I was having a pretty basic discussion on Facebook about accessibility accommodations that can be useful for autistic kids, and those that have been useful for me. It was going alright, until someone who wasn't originally part of the discussion replied to me saying (this is a paraphrase, not an exact quote) "You …

Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2019

Today, Friday, May 17th, is the last day of Neurodiversity Celebration Week. This was an initiative created by award-winning autism advocate and online friend of mine Siena Castellon of Quantum Leap Mentoring. It is an initiative to hopefully get people to celebrate neurodiversity - the idea that variations in how people's brains are wired, like autism, ADHD, …

On Invisible Barriers – Perspective Matters

Too often, people make the mistake of underestimating how much a disability, and this is particularly true for hidden disabilities, actually impact a person's ability to do fairly basic everyday things. As part of this, it is often assumed that just because a person can do something, that this means they have no trouble with it and …

Moving Beyond Autism Awareness

We're just about halfway through April now. As you may be aware, the month of April is often a very stressful time for many autistic people, due to the fact that April is "Autism Month." This stress of course comes somewhat from the fact that we tend not to like all kinds of attention forced …

To the Parents of a Newly Diagnosed Autistic Child…

Dear, Parent, Presumably, if you are reading this it is because your child has recently been diagnosed with autism. Firstly, before you read any further, I want you to take a deep breath and relax for a minute. Take a few minutes to listen to what I have to say. There are probably a number …