Many thanks to Jonathan Mitchell for alerting me to the following jewel:
“When we try to turn an autistic toddler into a non-autistic toddler, it’s painful, it’s expensive and it does not work.”
That statement comes from Laurent Mottron in a Vancouver Sun article, and although the statement seems a bit out of context within the article itself, it is a gem nonetheless.
And note how counter that statement runs to the assumed wisdom of almost the entire autism community—one voice on the side of acceptance and understanding against the nonstop cacophony crying for intensive early intervention. But as happens so often in such situations, it is the lone voice that conveys simple eloquence, while the crowd remains … well, just a crowd.
2 comments:
And then it gets you thinking about the other painful, expensive things we do that don't work.
It's as if we were suspicious that things that were not painful or expensive did work - or at least did no harm.
I think there are things that can help, but as long as they are not painful and relatively inexpensive...what does it hurt to try?
I've done some things I regret. All of them had to do with punishment, and nothing to do with acceptance. Luckily, cost-wise, I was too cheap to put up the house for $60,000-$100,000 a year ABA. It's sending a lot of kids to college (of the practitioners), but even though I considered it, my son is ABA free. Instead, I used the love chapter from the Bible.
I still can be an asshole, but I really try not to be.Something told me it would be better if I changed, not my son. He was a CHILD! He looked to me for safety. What else could I do?
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