Salon's Elizabeth Svoboda Provides Balanced Picture of Autism and Neurodiversity

I was interviewed by Elizabeth Svoboda for her Salon.com feature on Neurodiversity "I am not a puzzle" and I am impressed by the balance shown in the article for which that interview was conducted.

I have complained in the past that Neurodiversity gets a free ride from the mainstream media (especially Canada's publicly funded CBC) and is permitted to misrepresent the nature of autism. Few in the media even question the right of some persons with Aspergers or High Functioning Autism to speak on the behalf of all autistic persons including lower functioning persons with Autistic Disorder, like my son, with whom they have very, very little in common.

In addition to presenting different perspectives Ms Svoboda's interview allowed some Neurodiversity leaders like Ari Ne'eman, the ASAN leader with Aspergers Disorder, to go on the public record with their distorted representations of Applied Behavior Analysis, the empirically backed autism intervention that has helped so many children with autism disorders and serious deficits to acquire skills and reduce dangerous self injurious behaviors. As his quotes in the Salon article show, Ari Ne'eman relies on outdated caricatures of ABA, arguing erroneously and with nothing to back it up, that ABA, as practiced today, still relies largely on aversives.

I thank Ms Svoboda and Salon.com for practicing real journalism. Unlike the CBC, which routinely promotes Neurodiversity on its English and French radio and television programs, En jeux, Quirks and Quarks and prime time news features like "Positively Autistic", Salon. com has offered a balanced, professional view of this misguided ideology and some of its leaders.

autism

Conor Visits Grammy and Grampy And The Drive-In

Those who wonder why the puzzle piece is the symbol for autism should consider Conor's recent visits with his Grammy and Grampy. He always loved to visit and would run right away into the
living room to scan their video collection to make sure all his favorites were there, in their proper
locations. On the past two visits to their home in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley though Conor has wanted to keep his eyes closed and ears covered once he was inside their home. Even though he asks for them regularly when we are home in New Brunswick.

Even today in the hotel room after swimming, he asked to go to Grammy and Grampy's for the second time today. Yet when we got there he kept his ears covered and walked around the house humming loudly. He has progressed since our previous trip when he kept his eyes closed completely.

Outside the house no problem. And Conor posed for a nice picture with Grammy and Grampy

I took advantage of our trip to take some pictures of the Valley Drive-In Theatre, still showing the latest hits, decades after my first visits there as a young child.

autism

Autism and Conor's Eyes Shut Visit With Grammy and Grampy

The last few days were spent on the road visiting my mother and father in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.

In the past when we arrived at my parents' home Conor would run into the living room and check out the video cassettes that have been kept there for him over the years inspecting each one on the shelf on which they were stored. This year Conor would not open his eyes at all while inside the house itself. He did open them in the front entrance area before entering the kitchen and while outside the house. (It wasn't shyness around Grammy and Grampy; Grammy got a big smile and a flash of Conor's blue eyes - outside the house, and while in the entrance area, but not inside the house itself).

Conor, through the window, in the entrance area before
coming into the house itself at Grammy and Grampy's

Conor will sometimes react negatively when seeing people from his past, people he was really close to but whom he does not expect to see anymore. This appeared to be more of that tendency. Some object to the use of the puzzle piece as a symbol for autism. I think it is very appropriate and Conor's eyes shut visit with Grammy and Grampy is part of Conor's autism puzzle.

autism