Another Article published!

http://www.suite101.com/content/your-first-visit-to-new-zealand-a382487

 I've finally gotten around to publishing another article on Suite 101, this one's for you 'foreigners', a bit of a guide for anyone likely to visit New Zealand for the first time soon (maybe for the Rugby World Cup??) or just wanting to know a little more about us Kiwis.

Hope you like it!

Something That Really Bugs Me About Most Autism Articles in the Media

I've clarified something that really bugs me about most articles about autism in the mainstream media (not our own of course). It's that they never, or hardly ever, interview anyone who's actually got autism. Can you imagine doing an article on, say, living with a kid with diabetes, and not interviewing either the kid ( if old enough) or an adult with diabetes? Or cancer, mental health issues, spina bifida, etc etc? Indeed, just about any condition you name, they will always do their best to interview those with the condition, or, if it's about kids and they're too young, to interview some adults with it. In other words, they go for journalistic balance.
BUT NOT WHEN IT COMES TO AUTISM. The most I've ever seen is the occasional sidebar, usually with someone like Jen Birch. (She must get sick of being interviewed by NZ media, every time autism or aspergers comes up!) Otherwise, it's like there is this great gaping hole in their articles.
I can only presume it's because of the overwhelmingly negative image that autism has, and which they continue to foster. I'm unsure whether those on the spectrum are assumed to be too 'handicapped' to be able to communicate their position (even those who are obviously verbal, and adults), or whether they aren't seen as having a valid viewpoint or position to discuss. Either way, the image presented is either of children who will grow up into remote, uncaring, selfish 'weirdos' and semi-automatons (with spots, BO, thick glasses and pocket protectors perhaps?), or, if 'lower functioning', someone to be put into 'care' of some kind, and forgotten about. Certainly not anyone the average person would want to know, or make a connection with, or learn about the experiences and viewpoints of.
I could say 'well that's their loss', but in truth, it's ours. Through such attitudes being common, and commonly perpetuated by the media, we continue to be marginalised, dismissed, rejected, stereotyped, bullied, harassed, shut out of employment, and generally excluded from so much of life, and the world. We end up lonely, bruised in spirit, often bitter and cynical, with mental health issues like depression and anxiety disorders, not to mention frequently living in poverty, or homeless. In short, we are suffering, and while one article alone doesn't cause this, it certainly won't help either. If only someone would do a REALLY balanced article, one that puts the other side of the story, and starts to demolish some of the myths, eg that we are incapable of love, have no capacity for empathy, and no feelings.
If only. I must confess, i'm not holding my breath waiting.

Autism : Love as a One Way Street?

Recently I read an article in the latest issue of the New Zealand magazine ‘North and South’, called “Autism: A Mother’s Story”, also labelled, on the cover, as “Autism: When Love is a One Way Street”, about a young autistic boy and his parents. I was determined not to let this latter put me off – it was obviously done to sensationalise and sell copies, right?

At first, it seems, well, fairly ‘well-balanced’. This is a mainstream NZ publication after all, and the words ‘monster’ and ‘stolen’ are nowhere in evidence. And it’s sympathetic… But. A more discerning read reveals underlying biases: –

1) The sympathy is for the parents, especially the mother. Nowhere is there any sympathy for the child. When the mother explains, for instance, that she thinks his language delays are due to auditory processing problems, nowhere is there any hint that this, or anything else, might be a source of frustration for the boy, or for any autistic person for that matter. It’s all about how hard things have been for the mother, how ‘heroic’ the parents are, etc etc. (I’m not saying that it isn’t difficult bringing up an autistic child, but plenty of testimony has now emerged that life is damn hard for the growing autistic too.)

2) Much is made of the autistic child’s ‘inability’ to show love and affection. (Translation: he doesn’t show it how we expect, so therefore he doesn’t feel any.) Yet despite acknowledging that the boy “is capable of affection and loves hugs and the sensation of skin on skin”, they still bang on about ‘love being a one-way street’, pointing out that he sometimes calls his mother “by the name of one of his therapists as though the distinction between mother and therapist is lost on him”. Or, could it possibly be, that he simply doesn’t understand or remember names too well? And could it be that he does love his parents, but has no understanding that this can or should be expressed, let alone how? The underlying assumption or implication seems to be that autistics don’t have feelings like ‘normal’ human beings do, that they are cold, callous, selfish and uncaring.

3) Autism is still depicted as a ‘terrible’ thing. On the first page, we are told how, when she was told her son had autism, her reaction was that, having as older parents had all the tests to reduce the chance of a disabled child, “now they had a child with one of the worst of all”. Unquote. Sigh.

4) There’s no understanding that things might develop or change as the child grows older. The assumption is that the child will always be this way. (He’s seven!) Yet even a little research would have told the journalists that we on the spectrum are late maturers (often very late), and continue to grow our capabilities well beyond the usual age at which those of NTs become ‘fixed’.

5) There’s also no real understanding that autism is a spectrum varying in its degree of severity or its range of symptoms, and certainly no mention that at least some parents don’t see it as a ‘tragedy’. Or even that some parents are on the spectrum themselves.

6) And of course there is next to no mention of autistic adults. We might as well not exist, as far as this article is concerned, except in the sidebar about a different child, whose father is related to the now deceased author Janet Frame. And there they refer to her probable HFA or Asperger’s as “mental illness”. I kid you not.

This same family were the subject of a previous article in the NZ Listener in 2007, when the boy was only three. It had much the same tone, the only thing really different was that the family were then at the beginning of a whole host of therapies, which, the mother now admits, were “useless” and “a major scam”. (Oh, and the Listener article had a sidebar on Jen Birch, not the media’s first, or last, interview with her. I have immense respect for Jen, but the way the press uses her as a ‘go-to’ person for AS, you’d think she was the only adult on the spectrum in NZ.)

So my overall impression? That it’s ‘business as usual’ in the media regarding autism, it’s still ‘Awful Autism’, autistic children are still ‘cold’ and ‘heartless’, have no real feelings (and therefore we needn’t worry about them), they’re the last sort of child any parent would want, and autistic adults are invisible. Autism is getting ‘air-time’ and ‘page-time’, yes, and that’s good in a way, but there’s still little real understanding of autism, and the perspective of the autistics themselves is still missing, still not valued, not even truly recognised as existing. And this doesn’t look like changing any time soon.

Sigh. And double sigh.

(Quotes from “Autism: A Mother’s Story”, North and South magazine, April 2011 issue.)

Article Number Four!

This one's kind of for fun really, it's about cake baking.

It's at http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-bake-a-perfect-cake---without-packet-mixes-a358912

Article Number Three

Okay, I'm on a roll here. Article number three went up yesterday. It's about cooking and baking without wheat or dairy, and is the sum of the better part of thirty years experience and experimenting with this. I feel it's something many aspies might be interested in. Note that I'm talking about wheat free, not gluten free, baking.

Anyway, here it is, at  http://www.suite101.com/content/look-ma-no-wheat-or-dairy-a357450

Another article published!

Hi people, another article up and running on suite101.com, this one is on beginning genealogy research. Researching my family history has been something of a 'special interest' (i don't like the word 'obsession', it's too negative), on and off for some years. Lately, with my daughter also getting interested in it, it's picked up again. And people have been asking me, how do i start? Where do i go? How do i find out stuff? So i wrote this. I hope you might enjoy reading it.
It's at http://www.suite101.com/content/genealogy-research-for-the-absolute-beginner-a352288

My first article published online!

Hi people, long time no post i know, been busy writing a first-time article, heaps to get the hang of, steep learning curve! Anyway, said article has now been posted, it's on parenting, hope at least some might find it interesting. It's at http://www.suite101.com/content/basics-of-good-modern-parenting-a343660


Please do have a look, the more who look, the more i am likely to earn, and i am one very hard-up aspie!!! :D