I compiled some posts from here into a summary of recent studies on Autism at 3 Quarks Daily, but the word count limit there forced me to cut this bit on the history of our understanding of autism: 1908 – “The term ‘autistic’ was used to classify schizophrenic patients who
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A Puff of Absurdity: The Questionable Mindblind Theory of Autism
There was a cute social media post recently that asked kindergarten kids what gifts would be best for 30-year-olds. Of course there were lots of hearing aids and hip replacements in the mix. And it struck me that this could be a good exercise to gently raise awareness of our
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Mini-Study on ND vs NT Use of Masks
Abstract: An online survey was conducted to compare the rate of masks wearing behaviour between neurotypical and neurodiverse populations. A greater number of neurodiverse participants reported always wearing a mask. Introduction: The impetus for this study came from a post by Lucy (2023) who asked why “neuro atypical” people are so
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Disagnosing Mental Illness During Difficult Times
A guest essay in the NY Times makes some excellent points about the way we’re framing mental health issues in kids. Psychologist Darby Saxbe discusses the well-intentioned but problematic way many schools have added mental health resources, like those focusing on emotional regulation or mindfulness: “Recent studies have found that
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Inaccessible Accessibility
Why is remote learning suddenly so difficult to access when we have all the tech we need to pull it off? When I was in grade 12, I started to just show up to classes I needed to go to. I had high 90s, so I just went for clarification when
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Cultural Differences of ASD
I was once introduced to a new colleague who made very direct, sustained eye contact, and I thought to myself as I spoke with him: he’s on track to be in admin. He just seemed the type to make connections and get ahead and would likely end up at the board
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: ASD Assessments
Assessments for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are sometimes a piece of work. I’ll look at two of them here. As a reminder, everyone with ASD is really different from one another. If you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism. The diagnostic categories are general and
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Training Children
I have some nuanced or maybe fence-sitting views about Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) that I’ll try to sort out below. As a trustee, I went to a PD session in part about the WRDSB’s use of ABA, which I questioned, and I’m currently taking a course with some material about Autism
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Autistic Pride
Today is Autistic Pride Day. It’s well researched that people with autism are disproportionately 2SLGBTQIA+. A study, from the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders in 2010, studied people who had visited a gender identity clinic, and found that almost 8% were ASD, compared to 1% of people with ASD in the general
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Neurodivergent with Hindsight
Maybe because I finally have some time to just exist without anything to plan or prepare, or maybe because I’m back in school as a student, whatever the reason, many childhood scenarios have been resurfacing, playing out in my head, and I’m all, WTF? No trigger warnings necessary – nothing
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Year in Review
I don’t normally do a year in review, but his was my most tumultuous year in decades. It’s right up there with the year I dropped out of high school and moved in with my sister in Ottawa on a whim, and the year I moved six times mainly by bicycle.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On "Fixing" ASD
I watched a course-load of videos by Dr. Alok Kanojia (@HealthyGamerGG) this past summer. He’s a therapist specializing in addiction in his day job and focused on gaming addictions online, but he has broadened his videos to encompass many other issues. He doesn’t do therapy online but “coaches” people instead.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Self-Diagnosis with Checklist Criteria: the Big Five and ASD
When I was a kid, my folks said I was a little slow to warm up to people and sometimes needed a nudge to interact. Then, in grade 11, we all had to do this really long test, filling in stacks of Scantron-type cards with our answers, which were fed
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: World Autism Day
I’ve come up for air from this crazy year of teaching for World Autism Day – and I’m a day late. Many autistic people find April an awkward time because much of the messaging around autism comes from non-autistics. Miss Luna Rose made this great graphic to illustrate some of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Maintaining Firm Categories: Do Labels Matter?
This link about people on the spectrum came to my FB feed as “Sponsored Content,” so I’m wary at the get go, but they present this argument to be addressed: “Autism is a neurological difference in processing, and simply having a collection of traits or quirks without this difference in processing
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Continuums: ASD, OCD, ADHD, Alzheimers, and Allergies
Since the Aspergers designation was excluded from the DSM V, many people were, and are, outraged that all cases fall under the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) instead of the separate categories of Autism and Aspergers. There is a world of difference between someone who has some mild problems understanding social
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Entitlement and Unfettered Rage
One of the benefits or downfalls of the internet is that it allows fringe groups to find each other online. When it comes to feeling like nobody in the world knows about climate change or the Myanmar genocide (or philosophy), because nobody in my immediate vicinity is too concerned or
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Rising Anxiety Rates
A couple weeks ago, CBC ran an article about a high-school guidance counsellor, Boyd Perry, concerned with the increase in anxiety in students, and I’ve been dwelling on it ever since. This is crazy long as I’m just figuring all the angles here. Perry thinks we need to assess anxiety
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Rising Anxiety Rates
A couple weeks ago, CBC ran an article about a high-school guidance counsellor, Boyd Perry, concerned with the increase in anxiety in students, and I’ve been dwelling on it ever since. This is crazy long as I’m just figuring all the angles here. Perry thinks we need to assess anxiety
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Aging and Playfulness
My city is full of construction in preparation for Light Rail Transit. I hit the bookstore today and was walking towards the hardware store for some blinds when the sidewalk abruptly ended. An orange mesh fence framing a “Pedestrians, use the other si…
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