About two years ago, we sat our then nine-year-old son down to review test results from the child psychologist he’d visited a few weeks earlier. “Did she say I’m autistic?” he asked. “Yes,” I said. “You are Autistic.” He was silent momentarily and finally replied, “But I don’t want to be Autistic. The kids at…
Do you remember those hearing tests in elementary school? A test administrator would plunk bulky headphones over your ears and ask you to raise your hand every time you heard a sound. I always expected to fail those things but never did. Once my mother asked my doctor to do the test. She was certain…
I always seem to miss the obvious. I miss a vital piece of non-verbal communication needed to lead me to an obvious conclusion. Or miss making a connection between two concepts at work, and someone must explain it to me. Or I don’t take an action I “should have known to take because it was…
Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had…and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed. Linda Wooten It’s no secret that working moms have exceptionally high standards placed on them. Society judges us if we give anything less to our children than a stay-at-home in the 1950s. We must justify our…
When I was a child, my parents encouraged – well, more like forced – me to make eye contact. “Look me in the eyes when I speak to you,” they’d bark. They didn’t understand how painful making eye contact can be for me. It feels like I’m forcing myself to hold my hand over an…
Facial expressions are a form of non-verbal communication that accompanies a verbal message and can help convey the intent behind the message and the speaker’s emotional state. In short, it rounds out the complete picture for the receiver. And for neurotypicals, a conflict between a person’s words and facial expressions can lead to misunderstandings. For…
The natural communication style for autistics tends to take a straightforward approach. We know what we want to say, and we say it. But there’s more to communicating than words for non-autistics. Words are just one piece of the puzzle, and the non-verbal communication accompanying a verbal message can significantly influence how others interpret the…
Although everyone stims to some degree, it’s necessary for autistics. Stimming helps us regulate our emotions and relieve anxiety. But in the workplace, our stims can distract coworkers – drawing unwanted and unnecessary attention. Not all workplaces are a safe environment for autistics to be our authentic selves. Our social challenges often cause our coworkers…
If everyone is a little autistic, then wouldn’t it be the norm?
My mom often related my childhood reading habits to devouring food. From my mother’s perspective, I was speeding through books as though my eyes were a machine with a conveyer belt tongue feeding me one after another. Convinced I wasn’t actually reading them, she required me to write book reports to prove I retained the…