Estée KlarThe Joy of Autism

It has occured to me that Adam gives back. He’s not the only one in need of assistance. He and I, and all of us, are part of a network of give and take.

For many reasons this Hannukah and Christmas (or Fesitivus for the rest of us), Adam and I will be volunteering to assist families in need of food in Toronto.

Adam is affable, people love him, he puts smiles on people’s faces. More than this, he’s systematic and likes to contribute. Giving out food will be a constructive work for a nine-year-old who will be taking on his first “job.” I believe that we have to let our children learn and meet others who are part of the G&T network I referred to above. It equalizes us.

One mom the other day, of a younger autistic child, said she was self-conscious of going out with her child. I said that we as autistic families cannot ever stop going out and being part of the world. If we do, no one will understand us and there will be nothing available for autistic people. I thought this is a way for Adam to begin learning that he is valued and needed, as an autistic person.

Not only do we go out all the time and are part of our community, but Adam is not just on the receiving end of services. He is able to give back in so many ways.

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(Photo Inset: Danvers State Mental Hosptial, Danvers Massachusetts. Credit: Ayslum: Inside The Closed World of State Mental Hospitals, MIT Press, 2009.)

“Autism is a growing burden on society in Ontario,” said Steve Hudson, co-chair of the Spectrum of Hope Autism Foundation. Mr. Hudson is promoting the Kae Martin Centre, a place that will house autism research and life-skill teaching under one roof. I kindly ask for an apology from Mr. Hudson for his unfortunate use of language.

As for the Centre, in one respect, it always sounds like it could be a relief — there are very few programs that adequately teach, or even recognize, autistic strength. On the other hand, when I read in our national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, that autistics must have a place to be sequestered to “learn how to cook,” shivers run up and down my spine. My son, and many others like him, can do more than learn how to cook.

There’s nothing wrong with learning to cook, or being a cook, of course. It is wonderful that there are places being created to learn the skills that autistic people need to learn. But in autism we do know that continued, or Life Long Learning is a must in the making of an autistic life and education. There’s nothing wrong with that, either. In my forties, I returned to university for my M.A. and I’ve been taking courses, and will, all of my life.

Autistic people and their families want to be a part of the community. Autistic people wish to receive accommodation and recognition as whole, valuable human beings. As soon as people present with a disability, odd behaviour, we automatically think of them as aberrant.

I can’t believe sometimes that I still have to write posts like this. I keep hoping that “autism advocates” will actually become educated by listening to the autstic population around the world, many of whom are considered “severely autistic,” but have learned to socialize and communicate by typing, for instance. I am so despondent, admittedly, when I hear that the use of terms like “burden” are ways to appeal for money. What about accomplishment? What about the many autistic individuals who contribute right now? Could we be achieving more for our autistic children, young and old?

We are so behind other disabilities that were once viewed the same way — children were segregated, treated as dumb, assessed as unable to contribute anything to society. Later, such as in the recent HBO Journey Into Dyslexia, these same “children” are now talking about how their disability has advanced society itself. Many of our technologies that we use and take for granted today, were invented for individuals with communication disabilities.

As I read the article, the first thing that came to mind was what kind of research would be housed under one roof? Will it be to understand autistic thinking, processing and ability? How to teach the autistic person? Or are the same founders duped by the ABA is the only scientifcally proven therapy for autism myth? It is not scientifically proven. It simply has the most scientific research behind it. as Jonathan Adler states in his recent book, Challenging the Myths of Autism, “the most evidence does not mean the only evidence.”

I have to be honest. I have mixed feelings of putting Adam in an ABA school. Sure, everyone is nice and so far it’s eclectic, so for us it’s the best out there. Even writing about this, and I feel I put ourselves at risk for displacement where there is really no where else to go. Yet, I have to be honest in hopes for more services for us and every other autistic family out there. I think a civil dialogue about the issues pertaining to autism and their therapies and education is the best way to progress. I do this with Adam’s current school and it’s going very well. I also see that Adam is calmer and happier there. The staff is friendly and organized and have been so helpful to me. I do wonder if there is far too much time be wasted on baseline protocol — testing things Adam has known for years, and I worry about falling more behind. It’s too soon to tell and I’ll report back. From the other point of view, Adam has to get more “fluent,” and I don’t disagree that practice is important for Adam. It is my opinion that Adam’s disability is not fully taken into account by all schools, ABA or not — his catatonic-like movement and inconsitency. This school that I have Adam registered in, however, does teach him what I want them to, like literacy and typing, but of course everything in ABA becomes operationalized. All other methods tend to become ABA methods, even though they didn’t start off that way. What an autism school can do for him right now, where there is such a lack in Ontario, is provide him with better understanding and structure. They also have the ability to help us with some of the more challenging behaviour that arises from time-to-time, and seem to treat Adam with respect for his anxiety. What I am trying to say is that many methods matter and have to be included in the curriculum and in some settings I see this being incorporated more. I am always sending emails about understanding Adam’s behaviour and treating him with respect. I often wonder when people will become sick of me. But I cannot stop. There is a part of me that knows that we all have to work with what’s already out there.

Throwing him into a school with others where there was no such understanding and for Inclusion sake, didn’t work for Adam at this point in time. His current school is willing to deal with what I want for Adam, while making other suggestions and I’m willing to give it a try now that he is older and the method could be more suitable to him. Overall, though, an IEP for an autstic child must include life skills, academics, communication and social skills training, among so many other things. Adam is lucky to have all this and we are always asking questions about priorities and balance. Each autistic child’s needs are very different. What I want is for Adam to be accommodated for these needs in all settings. Adam enjoys his peers, but peers are not taught to accept Adam after a certain age. Adam isn’t viewed in these settings as someone who can contribute. He’s viewed as someone who needs extra help. That someone who needs extra help is viewed as the burden. So I’m worried just about every day. I want Adam to be safe, happy and learning. He wants to be out of the house and with others and he typed a couple of weeks ago “I want friends.” How do I ensure that he is being included in society, programs, and where he also wishes to be? How do I ensure he doesn’t become so bored (because he has a curious mind), because he can’t respond consistently? It tears me apart.

So when I hear of Autism Centres, I get a mixed reactions. I want Adam out and about safely, and he comes out and about when he’s with me every weekend. I get queasy that Centres, and the lack of enforcement of Inclusion Policy in Canada, will continue to force us away from our community, and we become more isolated. I spend hours trying to find activities for Adam where is is happily included with an aide, but it seems to be getting more difficult. My mind is haunted by images of insitutions, even though the last one was closed in Canada in 1972.

We tend to think of mental hospitals as snake pits, hells of chaos and misery, squalor and brutality,” says Oliver Sacks in his introduction to Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals. “Most of them, now, are shattered and abandoned — and we think with a shiver of the terror of those who once found themselves confined to such places.”

“Like so many lofty ideals, the asylums failed to live up to their expectations.” Asylums were supposed to be places where disabled and mentally “ill” individuals could learn life skills, do art, create community. We all know what happened to these facilities and the levels of abuse inside of them.

I dream of autism schools somedays, ones that are as well revered as schools for gifted children (as many of our children, once they can start typing can end up there). I dream of Adam being included safely and accommodated in a public school where he is accepted and respected. I dream of people talking of autstic ability seriously as part of autism, not as an anechdote to autism, for that’s just another way of writing autistic people off. On the other hand, I am worried sick about the fate of Adam and where I place him every day. Is he really learning enough, to his abilities? Or are his deficits the only thing that will ever be the target in his IEP? How much time in a day does this single mother have to defend, program and place him?

I want to be happy about a new place where Adam is viewed as someone who can make it, who will contribute, who is intelligent. I have a dream. I know that typical people don’t think they need to care about us or where we will end up. Yet if you really think about it, it is our greatest lesson in the study of humanity. Our growing disabled population challenge our views and the way we treat others. In the words of Michel Berube, of the popular memoir about his son with Down syndrome Life As We Know It: A Father, A Family, An Exceptional Child, writes in his introduction to Simi Linton’s Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity about the field of Critical Disability Studies: “I now believe that my resistance to disability studies is a piece with a larger and more insidious cultural form of resistance whereby nondisabled people find it difficult or undesirable to imagine that disability law is central to civil rights legistation…as Simi Linton shows us [Critical Disability Studies] should be central to what we do in the humanities. And perhaps, just perhaps, if disability is understood as central to the humanities, it will evenutally be understood as central to humanity.”

The weight of our morals and ethics about how we treat and regard autistic people may be our real burden. So I guess I’m back at the blog, here, defending our right to be smack dab in the middle of our wonderful city, hoping for Centres and schools that will celebrate the lives of autistic people, their strengths, ability and potential. All I can ask, is to please see us as fully whole, not broken, human beings.

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The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.

I heard this term used by someone today. It is often used in ABA-speak — that every minute of every day must be a form of “therapy” for the autistic child. Some believe this is necessary because there is a belief that autistic children are not learning unless they are doing it in a way that that we can understand…measurable. This made me think of Sisyphus and the futile attempts we make in trying to normalize an autistic person.

The truth is, we take comfort in measures. Yet as I wrote in my essay/presentation The Mismeasure of Autism, we cannot hold autistic people up against the same measures as we do of people with typical people. Not all brains are wired in the same way.

For example, women have quickly discovered that when we compare ourselves to men in the workplace, or try to behave like men, we fail. In pretending to be like men, we can undergo a great deal of stress because we are working against our nature. When we are valued for the manner in which we can accomplish the same tasks as men, but in our own way, we discover that our differences can be beneficial to the workplace. Women to men are as autistic people to neurotypical ones: different and equal.

I was reminded of the contributions of those who are different from the film titled Journey Into Dyslexia, which profiles accomplished people with dyslexia. The trailer can be seen by clicking here.

During the film, dyslexic individuals describe their trauma with the education system — how no one appreciated the unique wiring of their brain and tried to make the dyslexic students learn like typical ones. I was so saddened by the life-long adverse effects this had on them.

In another segment, a researcher discusses how dyslexic individuals have unique abilities and pattern recognition and explain that our world would not be the same without such thinkers. This reminded me of the research being done which shows advanced perceptual ability in autistic individuals of all functioning levels.

It should be said that in the film about dyslexia, individuals do not appear disabled. In autism, this isn’t always the case. While some individuals do not physically appear different, others are distiguishable by their various eye-gaze, facial expression, gait and idiosyncratic body movements (which serve most often to regulate or feel the body in space), referred to as self-stimulatory behaviour. I thought to myself that in our (still) disabled-adverse society, it is easier to accept dyslexic people, that is, sadly easier to accept people who do not have any obvious appearance of disability. Yet, dyslexics did not always have the same recognition and status. Dyslexic students were labeled and marginalized — called stupid — and not much was expected from them in the future.

Time changed that. Studies of the brain and achievements and activism by dyslexic individuals changed it too. So I had to wonder, as I always do when I watch such movies, why it is taking so long for the autistic community to receive such recognition and access? There are scientific studies that demonstrate advanced perceptual abilities, patterning skills in autistic individuals despite the labels of “functioning levels.” There is anecdotal evidence that autistic individuals are exceptional employees — reliable, honest, able to do detailed and repetitive work, and perhaps even able to design world-renowned facilities (think Temple Grandin).

Still, we as an autistic community (meaning parents, researchers and autistic people) tend to discount the mounting evidence. While I don’t wish to go into yet another lengthy about high and low functioning labels, but I will reiterate that they are unreliable in determining intelligence levels. Not all intelligences can be measured the same way, as demonstrated by many of the neurological differences which now have labels out there. This is also explained brilliantly in the film.

We can learn from our fellow disability communities. We can turn to ones, like the dyslexic community, in learning how to advocate for autistic individuals. We can definitely acknowledge that it is natural for the human speicies to have differently-wired brains and that these “different” brains are integral to the survival of our speicies (watch the movie for an advanced argument on that point).

That is the reason why the idea that “every minute should be therapy” for the autistic person is a form of discrimination. Underneath the premise is the idea that autistic people need to learn and act like those who are different from them. I cannot imagine the anguish of that experience, and every day I try to feel what Adam must have to go through and what he may come to say of it when he grows older.

Before the hyper-programmed generation (that is, my generation), we had many bored moments when our parents let us figure out what to do on our own. We stared at clouds, talked to ourselves and created laboratories out of our mother’s cosmetic bottles and the contents therein. When I look back, I remember creating many imaginary worlds. Adam’s chatter is considered abnormal to many behaviourists, although I’ve never stopped him. I’ve now learned how valuable that self-chatter is to autistic children for language acquisition.

Compare the way we let typical children play to the existence of the autistic child today. It is said that autistic children can’t learn on their own, let alone imagine, without our intervention. Autistic free time is not valued. Autistic nature is not valued. Autistic learning is not valued and the autistic person is more often than not, underestimated.

I tend to use the story of how Adam taught himself how to read and count in an argument such as this. A more recent example I would use is how he has taught himself how to search for what he wants on the computer. You see, those are the things we see and measure, but I wouldn’t be able to determine how he came to do it. I can’t measure the exact process he went through. I can wait until he is able to explain some of it to me, unscientifically maybe, and I am certain now that he will as his verbal and typing skills catapulted again this summer along with his long days in the fresh air.

If I had turned each and every one of Adam’s minutes — nay existence — into “therapy,” not only would I become completely exhausted and dismayed, but I’m quite certain that Adam would not be has happy and as well adjusted as any young autistic individual can wish to be. He will have his complaints, I am certain. He is up against so much more than I have ever been.

I am thankful for my attitude of late and for the balanced approach that time and experience has given us. It is not always easy to maintain this attitude consistently in our community where autistic children are not taught to their needs or potential, let alone accepted into many schools and taught well. For many autism parents, it is the fear of the future that is the driving force behind the idea that every moment needs to be a therapeutic one. I completely understand that fear.

It is in these very moments when we need to turn to autistic adults and call upon all of our autism societies to spotlight the achievements of autistic individuals of all functioning levels, and their contributions to society. In autism we have Temple Grandin, Vernon Smith (Nobel Prize Winner), Stephen Wiltshire, Daniel Tammet, Donna Williams, Michelle Dawson, Matt Savage, Amanda Baggs, Larry Bissonnette, and so many more autistic contributors. In so many of their stories, we have heard how they have learned and achieved by virtue of their autistic brains and societal accommodation, not from minute-by-minute therapy.

We should do everything to celebrate the achievements of our comrades, as this will enable better services and accommodations for the next generation of autistic people to contribute. If we do not stand up for our own community, what chances will our children have to prove themselves? What chances for acceptance?

Everyone has something to contribute.

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Today, June 1st, the winds are blowing strong. I’m not a fan of wind, of things being stirred up furiously into the air. Wind has always made me nervous and I want to be inside. I’m sitting out at the foot of my back door, drinking a Corona, about to abandon the otherwise gorgeous sun. Drinking a mid-afternoon beer is not something I typically do on a Wednesday as I wait for Adam to return home from school. I watch the gold, silent bubbles float up effortlessly. Hundreds of maple “helicopters” pirouette and land gently on my deck, leaving a soft brown carpet for my feet. If only life were as effortless and gentle. A gust comes and the carpet is swept away a new shape is made — they jam in between the deck boards and jut out like a bed of nails. A couple of hours ago, I got a call from Adam’s school. His class, just before summer begins, is being “dismantled,” I was informed. I am dizzy about September. Or is it the beer?

It will take me a while to settle my thoughts as I head down this new path, and to say what it is I want and need to say. This blog keeps me going a lot of the time. It is but one outlet for this autism mom. These days I’ve been using Facebook more because the feedback is plentiful, supportive and the discussion boards can get really interesting.

I’ve also turned to a core group of people. There is the team for your child and the team for ourselves as parents. As a single mother who, with the exception of my supportive parents and friends, must climb mountains for her choices, I continue to learn the value of turning to these people. I’m grateful to those of you, and you know who you are, for being there just to talk as I work out the next climb.

Now, I need another beer as I work out the plan, before I write any more. For the rest of the day, I’m taking off my climbing gear, waiting for Adam’s laugh, and watching bubbles.

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You can sign the Declarataion for the Support of Community Living Here: http://www.institutionwatch.ca/petition-app

This from the Canadian Centre for Community Living 2010 Report Card:

Improvement still needed…

• Among children with intellectual disabilities
receiving early learning and child care
services, 32% have been denied this service
at some point in the past.

• 30% of children with an intellectual disability
had to leave their community in the past
twelve months in order to attend school.

• Only 33% of children with intellectual
disabilities are in high inclusion school
settings.

• Children with an intellectual disability are four
times more likely than other children with
disabilities to be attending special education
schools (16% vs. 4%).

• 41% felt threatened at school or on the school
bus within the past year and more than a third
(36%) were assaulted at school or on the
school bus.

• 52% of young adults with an intellectual
disability (aged 20 – 29 years) are neither
working nor attending school, compared with
12% of those without a disability.

• Young adults with intellectual disabilities are
five times more likely than those without
disabilities to have no formal education
certificate.

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When we have that right space, that corner, whatever it is that we can claim for ourselves, we can loosen up, be creative and explore. It’s the same for children. The world is different. Therefore, learning should be different, and it is certain that all children learn in a variety of ways.

As I did a little google search in looking into how I might design an art studio in my home for Adam I began to think about how we design our schools to assist with learning differences. How can space foster creativity? When I watched this video of Odrup School in Denmark, it struck me how cluttered our current school environments are, and how limited they are in terms of letting our kids physically move throughtout the day. We still expect that learning can only happen while sitting compliantly at a desk.

Uncluttered environments, and ones that allow for sensory exploration, better enable our autistic kids to thrive and contribute as autistic people — not only would they get the sensory input they need in order to be settled, but project-based learning can be more expansive. “Coping” with autistic children and learning go far beyond the autistic person him/herself, and we might look at how we set our children up for failure as the culprit rather than for success. We don’t usually consider these options because it is sometimes easier not to change our ways.This is a systemic issue that speaks to how we believe learning ought to happen based on what we used to do.

What if you could make art out of a math project? In art history, (a course in Piero Della Francesca to be precise), I had to make geometric models of his paintings. Math is a challenge for me, but the project taught me more about math and persepctive than I ever learned while sitting in high school. Do we also not value collaboration? What if we enabled autistic people to work in more collaborative environments? Right, we say they don’t have the “social skills” to be able to do so. But wait. When Adam hears his peers answering questions, he is more apt to answer. He works harder when he sits with his peers in a circle. Sure, everyone needs to also learn to work alone, but it’s a piece of the process. Adam takes a lot of pride with his peers and teachers when he does well.

If we value these things and understand their importance on one level, then why do we seem to think that sitting at a table for forty hours a week is the ultimate way to teach an autistic person? Why do we consider that necessary or even fair? We talk often about how autistic people learn, and in so doing we have to talk about the environments that people best thrive in. Our space is yet another important tool for learning and it reflects what we believe about it, about people, and most of all, if we truly value and want to foster an inclusive society.

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Ralph James Savarese, Professor of English at Grinnell College and author of Reasonable People: A Memoir of Autism and Adoption, writes The Silver Trumpet of Freedom in The Huffington Post. It’s about his autistic son D.J. and how he communicates by typing. D.J., featured several years ago on CNN, is a non verbal autistic individual, and an autistic self advocate. D.J. is now in College and of this Ralph writes:

Pitting his fear of an oppressive neurotypical culture, which as a rule continues to exclude people with autism and to prevent them from realizing their potential, against his belief in the power of words to combat prejudice and to change society, he decided to apply to a range of highly selective liberal arts colleges. Although he had made a place for himself in our small, rural community, he had his doubts about the wider world.

The fact remains: very few people whom the medical community would describe as “severely autistic” matriculate to college. By some estimates, only 20 nonspeaking people with autism have ever earned a college degree. Tito Mukhopadhyay, author of three books and perhaps the world’s most renowned nonspeaking autist, puts it this way: “My school is the doubt in your eyes.”

We know of non verbal “severely” autistic people who have been or are currently attending colleges and universities. If they haven’t done that, they’ve written insightful books on autism, are important researchers in the field of autism, and lend perspective about themselves and the human condition. Their contributions are evolving our view of how autistic people and those with other disabilities are viewed. The goal? An understanding of what it means to be accommodated in order to be able to contribute and to be accepted.

Although I click my heels (there’s no place like home) with glee everytime I read one of these articles that raise the bar higher, I have to recall the recent story in my hometown of Toronto where Ashif Jaffer, a student with Down syndrome, was forced to withdraw from York University because he required assistance. It’s an interesting story and one to keep an eye on because many autistic individuals require assistance and accommodation to attend colleges and universities. Also, many are asked to leave precisely for this reason. There is little understanding of why an autistic individual is often dependent, in various degrees, and perhaps too much value placed on the myth of independence — at least the value of it. With new technologies, I see autistic individuals better able to respond and contribute to our university programs, but our institutions of higher education are not quite prepared, and still lack understanding of what assistance means for the disabled to be able to participate as they are in our society.

Huh. As I write, this thought lept into my mind: the typewriter was originally invented for the blind. As a result of this accommodation, I too have benefited.

Onward ho!

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We talk often in autism about a dissonance of skills and “uneven learning.” It’s an easy thing to notice or say, but it doesn’t seem that easy to accommodate. Not easy, because we still have the expectation that an autisitic person must respond typically.

Adam has had quite the transitional year. He has gone through parental separation, moved to a new home with me and started a new school where the expectation is that he sits at a desk. His sleep has worsened, and his avoidant behaviour in doing certain “tasks” has begun. And yet, my Adam is talking in full sentences more often, is telling me how he feels, and can play a mean “reciprocal” game of I Spy with me. He can draw well (if given the chance) with perspective that is more sophisticated than his same aged-peers, even if his motor planning, that is line, is not as sure and resolute.

I have to say that when someone talks to me about Adam’s “behaviour” I do think in the old-fashioned sense that he is not behaving “well,” as opposed to looking at what’s causing the behaviour. It still pops up from time to time, and I am concerned that implicating behaviour is a way to not only blame Adam, but put an expectation and onus on him that is not fair. That is but one legacy that ABA left behind, although I’m not commenting on some of the methods used by the practice as part of an overall pedagogy. I bribe him a lot to get things done.

Adam needs physicality, lots of movement, interesting content, and a chance to respond more by typing. He needs more preparation, I believe, to start his day, and a different kind of structure in it. What I mean is, by 2 p.m., the boy is tired. I am still trying to figure out what that structure should look like as I orchestrate new programs and activity in his life. Because, Adam is no longer a baby. He will be turning nine this April.

It seems to me that we are learning about how autistic children learn, or at least I’m learning everyday. My process of learning about Adam and trying to work with his team of teachers and supporters never ends. Sometimes, I sit and stare at the wall, I admit, and wonder why we still haven’t figured this out. Maybe I was secretly hoping we would have by now.

I’ve hit the books again. I’m watching Adam closely as he has trouble falling asleep at night. I watch my own responses to him when I feel tired and frustrated. And one thing that surprises me is that I still am not giving up. I don’t want to blame Adam for being autistic. I want so badly to support him and to have support. I am still trying to articulate what accommodation really means for him. I am constantly evolving my attitude, and behaviour, towards him.

Soon Adam will have an aide who will take him into the community, to help him be a part of it, make friends, take theatre classes and go skiing (he starts next week!). I hope to get him into Special Olympics and keep working with those who have helped us along the way. It is clear we don’t have all the answers yet. But if you have some success stories to share, we’d sure appreciate them.

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I know that gait in a split second. The one where I can tell that someone is autistic. It’s a little stiffer. The arms, they hang differently. The eyes blink and look intent on, say, a door. The door he is waiting to go through.

His brother comes. They look like identical twins. His brother’s body looks a little more relaxed and he guides his stiffer brother through the door to the line up at Adam’s favourite burger joint.

“What do you want on your burger, buddy?” He pats his brother on the back.

The stiffer brother wants the “asian” onions, which are really only plain fried onions. I stand behind with Adam while the same young man briskly puts his two fingers in front of his eyes. Then his hand goes down.

I tap his brother on the shoulder. I don’t usually do this. It’s Adam’s PD Day and just before the holidays.

“My son is similar,” I say, smiling.

“Oh, he’s autistic?” replies the fluid brother, the one who opened the door.

“Yes,” I reply, Adam looking at the hot peppers he has taken to recently. His eyes move towards the hands in latex gloves behind the glass, slathering burgers with mustard and relish. “He’s a wonderful boy. I am lucky,” I say that because I feel I have to. I do feel lucky but I’m hoping the conversation won’t take a negative turn, whatever that might be. After a tap on the shoulder, I could be entering territory I am not really prepared for today. Yet, I am curious. “Are you twins?” I continue.

“Nah, he’s my older brother,” his face is friendly, and he seems to relish in the fact that his brother is older. He’s relaxed talking to me. “We’re out today shoveling snow for money,” he says in that hey buddy kind of voice.

“That’s great,” I say. I get a little more story about the two brothers as Adam looks as if he’s staring down the mustard behind the glass. The other brother, right ahead of Adam is looking at the asian onions, but I have a feeling he is paying attention. I know that Adam does. He will now respond to many things that I say, precisely when it appears he isn’t listening. Adam often surprises me with his comments that often come a few long seconds, sometimes minutes, after I have finished talking.

“It’s really nice for me to see everyone out and about. I think for parents it’s good for us to see that we all belong in our communities. I hope that older autistic people will help Adam. It gives me hope.”

We share a few niceties. The burgers are served and we eat in separate booths. Adam first eats the hot peppers, then pickles, tomatoes and finally, the onions, picking small pieces with a delicate pincer grip. The actual hamburger is left to last, and he only takes a few bites. Suddenly, I feel a tap on my shoulder.

“Merry Christmas to you, eh?” says the brother. His autistic brother is standing further back, facing our direction.

“Hey, thanks so much. Merry Christmas to you too.” I turn to face his brother and smile. Although I wonder why I didn’t address his brother directly while standing in the line, I’m still hoping that my way of saying hello was okay. I’ve addressed and worked with other autistic adults before, but uncertainty lingers. I cringed inside, thinking of myself as that kind of person who addresses the aide, and not the handicapped individual. You know, like one typical person talking to another typical person as if the handicapped person is incapable. Maybe I was trying to find a way to segue into a possible inclusive conversation? Perhaps I was just trying to find that communion, there, standing in line?

Approaching any new person isn’t easy. I know I’m appreciative of people who try to approach me. Respect isn’t always smooth. I just wanted to talk and then I had thought of it afterwards like this. Still, I think I’ll commit to tripping, fumbling and making mistakes. As long as it keeps leading me to new people and we can keep learning.

As Adam reached for his last piece of hamburger covered in mustard, I stared out the window, other customers surrounding us in their booths.

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At what point do we stop participating in research studies? I think about this as I receive another request to do so with Adam. We’ve received many of these notices and requests over the years to participate in one research study or another — none of them very appealing to me.

Adam is eight. He began his life as any other infant and toddler. Then suddenly, at the age of 19 months, before he was two (!), he was diagnosed as autistic. Everything at that point changed in our family life, although Adam had never changed. Our views of him had changed by virtue of a label, a screen through which we now saw him. We spent time in doctor’s offices, with diagnosticians and therapists galore. Life has been nothing but a stream of experts and research trying to figure him out. As his mother, I’ve accompanied Adam on this journey, and even subjected him to this.

Although I’ve always been so inclined, and this is likely a natural progression for me, I feel as if I’m entering a period of trying to look at myself objectively as his parent and how I need to figure myself out. How have I managed, after all, with autism and the many things that life brings? I am becoming far less anxious about what Adam will be when he grows up to trying to figure out what will make us simply content in the day-to-day. The work we need to do should be less about fixing people than on creating an inclusive, welcoming communities.

After all, life is extremely fragile. The odds of being born are slimmer than we imagine. Nature has a way of aborting the “wrong combinations” of genes. Yet, there are so many fragile people who have usurped the odds and reached the point of being born. Who is to say that autism or any other disability in this sense, then, is “wrong?” Perhaps there is no real genetic “order,” and “normal,” is not one complete genetic sentence. It is a new way of looking at disability. It is a new way I can look at Adam who continues to overcome so many odds. Adam is here. He forced his way into the world and he not only survives — he thrives.

Today I can’t stop thinking about Adam’s quality of life, and what that means for him, not me, although the quality of mine seems to improve everytime I look at Adam and enjoy him. He must be taught, he will grow, and he will develop his own need for independence. No matter how severely disabled one is, the will to be so is strong in all of us, even when we need others to assist us in our daily lives. I’m reluctant to be a part of research studies as they are crafted right now — to subject Adam to batteries of tests and “experts,” even if some of these studies may be valuable. I know there are some disorders that may benefit from studies, although my thoughts are still inconclusive on this. Still, I do not want Adam to view his life as if he is living in a sort-of test tube. I do not want to get angry at people who will view, by virtue of their research role, on-looker and so forth, Adam as a subject or a pathology. Hey, he made it after all. He deserves to be here. Researchers should be throwing rose petals at his feet! (Hmmm, that’s an idea. Celebrate life. Novel.)

So I don’t participate. We don’t need false expectations and I don’t need the pain of prejudice, that is, that subtle suggestion that we should be doing something to change Adam and make him better. I am much more interested in, not the genetic code, those “incomplete genetic sentences,” if you will. I’m interested in book of life we are writing — fragmented to full sentences, idiosyncratic spelling, words, noises and all. We are born to give back to the world, to contribute, and to find the beauty in our lives. As I grow a little older, I no longer see the value in competition, in being the best. I see the necessity of working together in creating a more just world.

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On January 1, 2012, businesses are asked to comply with the new Accessible Customer Service Standard. In other words, all non profits and businesses will have to begin to accommodate individuals with various mental and physical disabilities. This will include autism.

In terms of understanding disability and preparing for the change, these videos provide an excellent start.

If the link doesn’t work there, you can try www.ontario.ca/AccessON.

“It is not about your physical premises,” states Alfred Spencer, Director of the Outreach and Compliance Branch of the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario. “It’s simply about understanding that customers with disabilities may have different needs. It’s about finding the best way to help them access your goods and services.”

May it be one critical step to Inclusion.

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As Adam begins to get older and the more options that become available to him, like overnight camps and aide workers, I am more attuned to the many stories I hear regarding the abuse of autistic people. There was a time when Adam and this blog were younger, that I had followed a website that tracked nearly every case of murder and abuse. It’s hard to get wrapped up in that for too long. One has to know when to look and when to carry on. There is fear and then there is awareness.

I never bought into the “recovery” model of autism — that the onus was on us and our children to “become normal.” To blame the autistic person or a family for a child not being able to talk is ludicrous and unsupportive. Rather, I believe we have to keep aware of the many cases where vulnerability lies, and provide the finanical support so that families can hire the aides they trust. While nothing is fool-proof and many of our children can be susceptible to abusers, autistic or not, it is helpful when parents have the right to choose a school aide or any type of support worker. A parent or primary caregiver should have the right to turn down someone they do not feel comfortable with. I say this because many children are ascribed workers and Educational Assistants here in Ontario. It might be assumed that if one needs financial support, then one must accept the individual ascribed to them. If it’s an issue for the family, that is if they want to change the worker, there seems to be a lot of red tape. I want to reiterate that the right to a support worker, that both the autistic and the family are comfortable with and trust, is an accommodation and should therefore be a right for autistic individuals.

More and more, I believe that autistic people, including our non verbal children, and parents must be central to the process in building our support teams. As I’m seeking camps and other activities for Adam to grow more independent and enjoy his life, I want to try my best to ensure he is protected. I’m not sure I can at all times, and maybe that is the most frightening part. Yet, Adam can indicate to me when he’s distressed by virtue of his behaviour. Just transitioning to a new home and a new school, he indicated to me that it was very difficult by body-jerking and losing some of his words. He was disorganized and needed more physical stimulation. He also expressed more repetitive behaviours during this time. Of course, Adam is still learning how to communicate in a typical way by typing on his computer and his devices.

These behaviours, however, were such important examples for me to see how Adam can express himself during stressful times. It is something I am tuned into now as he grows older and perhaps will express other distressing things to me where he needs more of my intervention and support.

For more reading material on autistic abuse see neurodiversity.com.

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I was very excited when Pascal Cheng told me that Larry Bissonnette and he, both of whom I brought to Toronto several years ago, and Tracy Thresher were traveling the world to change views about autism. They travel to Finland, Japan and Sri Lanka to change minds, attitudes and debunk myths which was documented in the film Wretches and Jabberers. We have learned from anthropologists like Roy Grinker in Unstrange Minds, among others, that the views about autism around the world can be less forgiving because of cultural differences.

 Adam was diagnosed at 19 months of age as a hyperlexic, “high-functioning” autistic boy. Over the years, however, he shows ability, is very bright and intelligent, but Adam has real communication difficulties and more “classic” aspects of autism…so dx is always precarious in the early years. I think of the very different experiences between Adam and Larry — how the world has changed so for autistic people and I am grateful for the generousity of autistic adults. 

As a parent in this for just over six years now, I have to say thank you to everyone who put forth this effort. I often dream of Adam traveling the world, talking to other people, helping other people. That’s my dream, I suppose, and not necessarily his, but that’s what parents tend to do. So even if Adam chooses another path,  I am thrilled that Larry and Tracy are forging a path for all the “Adams” who will grow up very soon.

“We are more like you than not,” says Larry in the following trailer.

That’s for certain.

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Using the title from Kat Kelland’s article in today’s Globe and Mail, she suggests that experts are worried that, with the extended array of defined disorders in the soon-to-be-released DSM V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), no normal person will continue to exist.

“Citing examples of new additions like ‘mild anxiety depression, ‘psychosis risk syndrome,’ and ‘temper dysregulation disorder’…many people previously seen as perfectly healthy could in future be told they are ill….’It’s leaking into normality. It is shrinking the pool of what is normal to a puddle…

Dr. Wykes and colleagues, Felicity Callard, also of Kings Institute of Psychiatry, and Nick Craddock of Cardiff University’s department of psychological medicine and neurology said many in the psychiatric community are worried that the further guidelines are expanded, the more likely it will become that nobody be classed as normal anymore.”

Well, it’s about time. Perhaps ironically, I’m not one for self-help aisles and a belief that we all suffer from some made-up ailment that can be remedied with expensive quackery. At the same time, I also understand that there is a widespread concern that if we simply dilute human differences and challenges we do not address serious  medical and practical needs. In other words, some people fear that a complete distillation of humankind will take away much needed work towards attaining the services, medical attention, and accommodations that we continue to need in order to replace the treacherous world of asylums. This article in The New York Times, cites some of the other concerns specific to the autism diagnostics proposed for the new manual.

What the Globe and Mail article assumes quite simply, however, is that there are only two kinds of people: normal and abnormal. We know that in history that it is this whitewash, this binary, that is the most dangerous because it has  subjugated individuals with differing needs, thinking ability and functioning levels to not only the margins of society, but to maltreatment and exclusion of all kinds.

Until  recently, disabled people have had no rights. Still today, seen as non-persons despite legislation and the ADA, disabled and autistic individuals continue to struggle for their right to have a voice at policy-making tables, and to be accepted and accommodated for their needs while contributing as autistic and disabled people. Not a day goes by that the notion of cures and getting “better” (that is “more normal”), underlies the purpose of teaching autistic people at all, as opposed to teaching them to their strengths and abilities as well as with a regard to the value of autistic contribution.

As a committe works to redefine the characteristics of autism, the questions that the committee ask in the panels are well worth reading.  I cannot help but wonder how getting an autism diagnosis may change for parents and autistic people, and consider that the future could be brighter. In my view, we seem to be asking some of the right questions with regard to the spectrum of autism and the fallacy of the association between intelligence and functioning levels. So I guess I’m saying that as I read the Globe article this morning, I was sort of nodding my head. Yes, there is no normal….that’s right. Why fear that? What is it that we must do and how must we think differently in order to finally obliterate that binary?

It is here that  I have to refer to Wendy Lawson’s book Concepts of Normality: The Autistic And Typical Spectrum (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008). In it she states,

“Currently the debate about ‘what is normal’ is causing some heated exchange; this is not new. In particular the debate concerning autism, disability, neuro-diversity and typicality poses some ongoing challenges. Disability presents itself in a variety of ways, and for most of us living with disability, who we are is normal for us. For many people on the autism spectrum, which is certainly very disability in a world that does not accept, value or accomodate ‘difference,’ being handicapped is an everyday reality…Having a respectful understanding of one another should include accessibility to appropriate resources, support, safe places and sincere appreciation of difference. Anything less is not acceptable.” (Introduction)

Recently, Thomas Armstrong released his book, Neurodiversity: Discovering the Extraordinary Gifts of Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and Other Brain Differences, (De Capo Press, Cambridge, 2010). In his first chapter “Neurodiversity: A Concept Whose Time Has Come,” he has cleverly quoted Margaret Mead:

“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so eave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each human gift will fall into place.” (from Sex and Temperment in Three Primitive Societies).

Thomas goes on: “In 1952 the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association listed one hundred categories of psychiatric illness. By 2000 this number has tripled. We’ve become accustomed as a culture to the idea that significant segments of the population are afflicted with neurologically based disorders such as ‘learning disabilities,’ ‘attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,’ and ‘Aspergers syndrome,’ conditions that were unheard of sixty years ago. Now, even newer disabilities are being considered for the next DSM in 2010, including relational disorder, sexual behaviour disorders, and video game addiction.”

“How did we get here?” Thomas asks. He cites things like a greater knowledge of the human brain and research into the area, a growth of advocacy movements that push for “awareness,” (alas, is it no wonder why most of us shudder at “Autism Awareness Month?). Mostly, the need for the advocacy marketing plan is the way to raise money for things like remedies and therapies. No family wishes to envision their children in asylums and mental hospitals (another topic because they were set up with all of the good intentions we have today for many of our “centres,” but ended up so overpopulated that the patients within them were neglected and abused). While there has been a valid reason for advocacy movements, perhaps an acknowledgement that all humans are interdependent and need different supports (no matter the severity of their handicaps), may be a very welcome change.

While we keep tripping over the question of what is normal, I wonder if we need a supplementary manual that cites abilities, suggestions for inclusion, education, and the like.  Perhpas we need not define handicaps as disorders, but very real challenges and acknowledge them against the social stigma of having any kind of disability. I have to question that if the stigma didn’t exist, would we also be a society that tends towards over-medicalization? For I do acknowledge that heading into a doctor’s office these days one wonders why so many meds are offered so readily for what I feel to be the way in which we respond to life — anti-depressants and meds like Ritalin come to mind.

To me, this need not be a question of what is the right or the wrong way to be human, but how to support all ways in which to be human. A DSM can only do so much. It is up to us to ensure that we cultivate the society that treats and regards each person individually, for although we are united in our lack of normality, we are also unique. It’s a complicated matter indeed, but in the end, all we wish is to be seen and loved…blemishes and all.

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Here in Toronto, I sit on Inclusion Committees. My son has been included in a Montessori classroom but we are going to leave after June. The school gave Adam loads of acceptance and enabled him to bring his aide, his adapted programs, his computer laptop and the like. The school was wonderful in that it was a calm environment that had concrete Montessori materials for him to use.

We had to adapt his program, ourselves, while staying within the structure of the classroom. He worked alongside the other kids and the other kids loved him. He learned how to engage with them and they learned how to engage with him. It was very important at the time we made the move to a Montessori school that Adam be with peers and be able to learn to tolerate them, the noise, and being able to play and learn with others. It was the right move for him. My wish is that schools would provide more education about people with disabilities: how to be more patient, tolerant and accommodating, and there are programs in Toronto that are attempting to achieve such goals. Last night, I attended Inclusion Awards night in Toronto and spoke briefly with The Honourable David Onley (Governor General of Ontario) who is himself disabled.

It was a successful experience and I have to admit, we’ve not had any problems with our school choices like so many other families who must endure the public school system, the IPRC process and assigned E.A’s. In addition, too many “special needs” schools ironically turn down autistic children with behavioural challenges or children like Adam, who have difficulty talking. I understand that that is very difficult, heart-wrenching and it seems we sit on pins and needles waiting to see if we either get the luck of the draw or if we have to endure another heart-wrenching process as I have also been privy to it. This is the most unjust process I can think of as no child should be turned down from any school, let alone the “special needs” schools, but this is the reality right now. Here in Ontario so far, Inclusion is only as successful as the person who is leading the process within the school. A teacher is only as good who understands the child as a unique and whole human being, and is willing to go the extra mile. But for those of us who live through this daily, I’m not saying anything new.

Although I am thankful for our successful early years, our weekends were left struggling to find play-dates from many of these children. Adam always gravitates to the other students with special needs anyway, so it became easier to enroll him in social programs for special needs children. It’s a common story: like attracts like. We feel more comfortable with the people who may understand us and with whom we may understand, and we have to allow room for all of this in the Inclusion process. Adam’s school was a brilliant jumping board for Adam to graduate to the next level, so he will be attending a school that will be able to accommodate his learning needs more appropriate to his new found curiousity. Or so I’m hoping.

Inclusion is nascent in the Toronto community. Still, there are attitudes to hurdle, not to mention a reluctance to invest time, money and training, perhaps because these attitudes are not really up-to-speed. If a question I received yesterday from another parent with a child with another disability was any indication (“is your son violent?” ),one may begin to understand the many general assumptions that exist out in the world about autism and wonder if fear is the biggest barrier to Inclusion. I certainly don’t blame anyone for asking such questions — there are people with many challenges out there. Adam is not violent. He is affable, social (for an autie — he just does it differently but often craves being with others even if he may engage in the “Adam way”), and he wants to learn, even if he struggles with what appears to us like distraction (or should I rephrase that and say it is also us as the parents and teachers who struggle with it because it challenges us to have to learn and see the way our children might?). Adam is talking more now and he was approved for a new device which will enable him to communicate even more. He is bright, able in so many ways. He has a handicap in a world where his style of being is the minority, mind you, but this doesn’t stop him, or me, from moving ahead.

This is the first year I’ve engaged Adam in more special needs programs — for social skills, life-skills and general leisure. He is still Included in a “regular” summer camp, but Adam now needs a different kind of support as he grows into the world. I am very happy for him that he will be gaining these new skills and looking forward to his ability to help others, as I believe it is crucial in life that we all find our areas in which to swagger. In fact, as I’ve sat with it for a few days now, I’m thrilled. I still have no doubt that he will be able to do contribute and go on to further education in his future. It’s not an outrageous expectation: I’m basing it on the person I see in front of me who is utterly capable and who is a privileged boy in that he is being given two healthy, willing parents who enable opportunities for him in his life. I still work in Inclusion because I want to see more opportunities for Adam by the time he reaches his twenties. We have to work at all angles — both in Special Education and Inclusion. The trainings co-exist and are not exclusive of each other.

This lead to another thought I had this morning as I still read the many pleas for money for “Early Intervention.” I wondered why, after I’ve come so far in my own thinking, the term still bothers me to the extent that it does. So here’s my answer: Adam doesn’t need intervention. I may be lucky that Adam is an only child as I have nothing and no-one to compare him to except for my own childhood. I figure we have made our own normal. Our weekends are full — yes, we do visit friends and other children, we have programs to attend, concerts and plays to see — and yes, these have to be pre-planned (but then again, what family doesn’t organize a play-date?). No, I cannot drop him off and leave him alone in someone else’s house yet, but like all things Adam, he will do things his way and his own time. I could sit here and cry and bemoan that fact that he is not doing all of the “typical” things other boys his age might do, or imagine that he is somehow lonelier for it. But is he? He has no siblings to compare himself to. He is competent in our home, a burgeoning artist, musician and cook. He enjoys other children and will likely gain a long-time friend when he is ready. Like myself as an only-child, he has learned to entertain himself or play with me or spend time with his grandparents or much older half-siblings when they return from university. For us, our normal was early engagement and we grew into acceptance. For certain when Adam was two years old, I believed all this engagement would make him more “normal,” whatever that meant to me at the time. Six years later, I can see that our life is normal. It is normal to us and aside from our personal struggles recently with life transitions, I really love our life. I figure that one of the many gifts I might be able to give to Adam is my belief in this. All I have to do to believe it, is to let go.

The idea that one has to intervene still suggests that something is wrong. The other day, my best friend’s niece was on the A&E show called Intervention. Amy suffers from aneorexia/bulimia and is in serious trouble. The family asked for the show’s help in getting Amy the help she really needed. If not, Amy would die. To me, this is the seriousness of that word Intervention: it suggests that something is seriously wrong and is akin to the analogy that autism is like “a fate worse than cancer.”

It is not. Autism is our normal. Autism simply means that I needed to engage differently at those early stages of growth, not employ the tactics of early intervention. I wish I had had someone to tell me this when Adam was first diagnosed as it has taken me time to grow into my thoughts and words. Adam was not ready for the forty hours of ABA that was suggested back in those days, and we all know that even with all that ABA and all those promises, our children are still autistic.

When I hear parents complain about autism (see this blog on Kim Stagliano and her recent tirade on blaming autism for Aiden Johnson death), I can feel myself being sucked into a vortex and I do not see how that helps us become better parents to our children. Yet I suppose if certain parents truly feel empowered by believing autism is like cancer, if that gives them some kind of hope as the walks, marathons, runs do to defeat disease, then they will work and talk hard. They will use fighting-words.

I am of the belief that by fighting, one is defeating the child, not the autism. I am of the belief that by attacking the child from every angle like a huge dose of chemo sends a message to that child with a different perspective and manner of engaging in the world, that THEY are wrong. I see autistic children as they grow older with those beliefs surrounding them, absorbing the idea that autism is a disease and that “they are more than their autism.” What does that mean other than a denial that autism has truly effected the way one perceives and engages with others and the environment? Why not be proud of that and learn ways to take advantage of it?? I’m so sad to see parents fight so hard and then become so despondent.

I propose that while we are changing schools next term, that we again look at the terms we use. Had I intervened with Adam in an aggressive way, I truly believe he would have regressed into himself and perhaps with more aggressive behaviours. Instead, I propose we act gently. We have to challenge ourselves everyday with the notion that there are many kinds of normal in this world and while the world may not yet totally get it, it is through our use of terms and our actions that will enable the rest of our communities to jump aboard.

I am very uncomfortable using the term early intervention for assisting autistic children. I believe we have to work to change not only our attitudes, but our terms have to catch up. Perhaps we can use terms such as early engagement and early promotion of the different forms of play that we can engage autistic toddlers in the same respect and presentation we promote play for typical toddlers. Of course, the earlier we can do this, the earlier parents may be able to accept their autistic toddlers, and this supports everyone.

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