Blog about High Functioning Autism
October 11, 2015 8:43 PM Subscribe
My three year old son has been diagnosed with autism. His psychologist has said on the old scale he would have been classed as "high functioning." I'd love to read a blog or something similar that details how a child with 'high functioning' autism has developed or will develop. Something which is basically a long-term personal story where the kid starts at a similar age to my son and where the kid is now, say, 7 years or older would be perfect. Thanks in advance!
This is not exactly what you described, given that the author's son is now a young adult, but you might like Ron Suskind's book Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism.
I first heard about this book from Jon Stewart's interview of the author on The Daily Show. I recommend watching the interview to see if this book might interest you. For what it's worth, I loved it.
posted by merejane at 9:59 PM on October 11, 2015
I first heard about this book from Jon Stewart's interview of the author on The Daily Show. I recommend watching the interview to see if this book might interest you. For what it's worth, I loved it.
posted by merejane at 9:59 PM on October 11, 2015
You might want to check out some of the autism blogs, or just blogs by autistic people about stuff, on tumblr. The people on them are typing and reading extended posts, so I guess they would have been quote unquote 'high functioning', although I don't think I've ever read anyone saying that they liked that way of phrasing things. One place to start might be coolautism.tumblr.com . It's a pretty happy blog and every Saturday they have an event where they post selfies of people in a fairly celebratory fashion.
Because it is tumblr, there are a lot of teenagers. More personal blogs will have more personal information and more long-term narratives - the best way to find things is probably just to search for the #autism tag and go from there. Just bear in mind that the personal blogs are just that - personal - and so it's important to not interact with the people on them in a way that might make them feel like they're a medical object or a template for your own child. I'm sure you wouldn't anyway, just mentioning it before I direct you towards some very private public spaces. Stuff by autistic people is often a better source than stuff for parents, as the latter can get co-opted by the 'autism stole my child' brigade.
posted by Acheman at 5:37 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Because it is tumblr, there are a lot of teenagers. More personal blogs will have more personal information and more long-term narratives - the best way to find things is probably just to search for the #autism tag and go from there. Just bear in mind that the personal blogs are just that - personal - and so it's important to not interact with the people on them in a way that might make them feel like they're a medical object or a template for your own child. I'm sure you wouldn't anyway, just mentioning it before I direct you towards some very private public spaces. Stuff by autistic people is often a better source than stuff for parents, as the latter can get co-opted by the 'autism stole my child' brigade.
posted by Acheman at 5:37 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
(I am an autistic adult.) There are plenty of autistic adults writing about their experiences as children and now as adults which honestly would probably be more useful to you, assuming your goal is understanding your child.
The #autism tag on Tumblr is avoided by most autistic folks due to the prevalence of Autism Speaks rhetoric and the fact that neurotypical family members constantly use it to complain about or otherwise objectify their autistic cousin/sibling/child. You will find more personal stories by autistic folks in the #actuallyautistic tag and many of them are about toxic parenting/therapy/norms so be prepared for anger/frustration/sadness. (Please do not post in the #actuallyautistic tag if you are not, yourself, autistic. We had to create our own tag because it was impossible to talk to each other using #autism thanks to allistic people clogging it up with harmful junk.)
A specific Tumblr I really like is realsocialskills (written by someone on the spectrum) which talks about boundaries, assumptions, and how to be considerate of disabled folks (especially folks with communication disorders). Here is one of their posts called "autistic kids need to be able to talk about disability".
Just a reminder that no child (autistic or allistic) grows up exactly like another child and that functioning labels mean absolutely nothing. Try to keep your expectations in line with the person your child is becoming, stay as flexible as you can, and do your best to listen to what your child is trying to communicate even when you think their reaction doesn't make any sense.
posted by buteo at 6:27 AM on October 12, 2015 [10 favorites]
The #autism tag on Tumblr is avoided by most autistic folks due to the prevalence of Autism Speaks rhetoric and the fact that neurotypical family members constantly use it to complain about or otherwise objectify their autistic cousin/sibling/child. You will find more personal stories by autistic folks in the #actuallyautistic tag and many of them are about toxic parenting/therapy/norms so be prepared for anger/frustration/sadness. (Please do not post in the #actuallyautistic tag if you are not, yourself, autistic. We had to create our own tag because it was impossible to talk to each other using #autism thanks to allistic people clogging it up with harmful junk.)
A specific Tumblr I really like is realsocialskills (written by someone on the spectrum) which talks about boundaries, assumptions, and how to be considerate of disabled folks (especially folks with communication disorders). Here is one of their posts called "autistic kids need to be able to talk about disability".
Just a reminder that no child (autistic or allistic) grows up exactly like another child and that functioning labels mean absolutely nothing. Try to keep your expectations in line with the person your child is becoming, stay as flexible as you can, and do your best to listen to what your child is trying to communicate even when you think their reaction doesn't make any sense.
posted by buteo at 6:27 AM on October 12, 2015 [10 favorites]
It's old, but you might be interested in Hidden Laughter.
I also definitely recommend reading things written by people who are autistic themselves, not just parents, although obviously it's harder to get insight into that early childhood period from autistic people themselves.
posted by EmilyClimbs at 8:11 AM on October 12, 2015
I also definitely recommend reading things written by people who are autistic themselves, not just parents, although obviously it's harder to get insight into that early childhood period from autistic people themselves.
posted by EmilyClimbs at 8:11 AM on October 12, 2015
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posted by Ruki at 9:20 PM on October 11, 2015