<p>ⓒ Richard Levitte</p>
http://journal.richard.levitte.org/tags/archive-autism/Richard Levitte's journalikiwiki2010-01-30T01:51:52ZPeople with disabilities...http://journal.richard.levitte.org/entries/people-with-disabilities/2010-01-30T01:51:52Z2010-01-30T01:51:52Z
<p>I just saw the following status on Facebook:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People must understand that children with disabilities do not
have a disease; children with disabilities are not looking for a
cure but acceptance........93% of people won't copy and paste this,
Will you be one of the 7% that does............... and make this
your status for at least an hour?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I did copy it to my status, unchanged... I realise, though, that
the message really should be expanded, as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People must understand that people with disabilities do not have
a disease; people with disabilities are not looking for a cure but
acceptance........</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Although I agree with having quite a lot of focus on children, I
don't want to forget all the grownups with disabilities that are
asking for the same thing, to be accepted for who they are. It's an
important message to repeat, over and over, until people get
it.</p>
Plasticity of the brainhttp://journal.richard.levitte.org/entries/plasticity-of-the-brain/2009-03-27T06:07:14Z2009-03-27T05:36:27Z
<p>In early discussions about what's important for <a href=
"http://journal.richard.levitte.org/people/JaG/" rel='child met'>Jacob</a>'s development <a href=
"http://journal.richard.levitte.org/tags/archive-autism/#fn:jacobfootnote" id="fnref:jacobfootnote" class="footnote" name=
"fnref:jacobfootnote">1</a>, I've been told many times that it's
very important to act early (it's often called "early
intervention"), because the plasticity of the brain diminishes
quite a lot after the 4-ish first years.</p>
<p>Now, I'm reading <a href=
"http://wwwc.svd.se/dynamiskt/idag/did_15399449.asp">this
article</a> (in Swedish, sorry) that talks about how the brain
works and how it changes quite a lot during the teens an beyond,
not really setting before the age of 25, all according to american
neuroscientist Jay Giedd. According to the article, Jay Giedd
didn't believe his eyes when he saw how much change is going on in
the teens.</p>
<p>Googling a bit, I found some more articles telling the same
story (in English):</p>
<ul>
<li><a href=
"http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/interviews/giedd.html">
Jay Giedd explains</a></li>
<li><a href=
"http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/work/adolescent.html">
In depth</a> (make sure to read the cautionary words in this
one...)</li>
</ul>
<p>Reading this is interesting, and reassuring in a way.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn:jacobfootnote">
<p>Jacob has been diagnosed early with some difficulties that are
within the autistic spectrum, which lead to discussions about his
development.<a href="http://journal.richard.levitte.org/tags/archive-autism/#fnref:jacobfootnote" class=
"reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
Understanding...http://journal.richard.levitte.org/entries/understanding-and-stimming/2008-07-06T23:21:28Z2005-11-13T12:01:34Z
<p>It's weird, the way that we really understand each others and
each others' needs and desires.</p>
<p>While in the shower, I was suddenly thinking about my brother
who's an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger's_Syndrome"
title="Wikipedia on Asperger's Syndrome">aspie</a>, and how he
sometimes spits, and that thought lead me to <a href=
"http://aspiesforfreedom.com/wiki/index.php?title=Stimming" title=
"Article on stimming">stimming</a>, and how I hear my ex-wife tell
my son not to stim while I'm talking with her over the phone, and
I'm thinking "why the hell do we try to stop that?"</p>
<p>As part of this entry, I really must say Thank You to my dear
friend <a href="http://www.elmindreda.org/" title=
"elmindreda">elmindreda</a>, who has been and continues to be a
great source of information and inspiration, and who has been very
supportive when I've needed to understand the mind of an aspie.</p>
<p>Anyway, back to the stims, it just dawned on me that the
spitting that my brother does is probably a form of stimming, and
that while it doesn't look good to me, I can understand why he does
it (although he can't explain it). I'll admit I still have the
selfish wish that he could change to another form of stim, but
that's my thing, not his :-).</p>
<p>It disturbs me much more, really, when I hear my ex-wife tell my
son to stop stimming. I can't know if she really wants to stop him
from stimming entirely or if it's a particular form that she
doesn't like.</p>
<p>An interesting thing in this is that I recently had <a href=
"http://www.autism.org/mind.html" title="Theory of Mind">Theory of
Mind</a> thrown at me with the words "see how it applies to you,
either genetically or environmentally." I have and I do understand.
The interesting thing is that the Theory of Mind seems to apply to
most people in one form or another. I see many people having a
really hard time understanding people that are outside of their
norms, and I relate that directly to my ex-wife's wish to stop my
son from stimming, as it looks to me like she might not understand
his needs, deep down.</p>
<p>I guess it looks I'm pretty darn hooked on stimming :-). It's
not entirely true, what this is about is really this tendency I see
in many to want to tell others how they should be, and usually do
it through reaction and projections. If stimming is a working
method of relief to my son, why the hell should we stop it? Because
we don't like it? What does that mean to him? Or because we have
fears about how others might see it? What does <em>that</em> mean
to him?</p>
<p>Why is it so hard to accept and embrace each other for who and
what each of us really is? Why is it so hard to look past the
quirks on the surface and try to see the real person behind
instead? Why do we try to limit each other to some kind of norm
that no-one really understands deep down? What is the truth and
what is projections of our fears and egos? Those are hard questions
that we all must ask ourselves, and even more so when we have a
child to care for.</p>
<p>That said, I still have that projection of my own toward my
brother. If I find his spitting disturbing (disgusting, to tell the
truth), can I ask him to change to some other form of stimming? Is
that at all possible for him? I guess I'll try asking, some day
when I think of it...</p>