Why We Model Language and Honor All Communication, instead of Using PECS®
Today in a virtual Zoom therapy session, the parent asked me why I don’t use PECS® in speech therapy (with non-speaking or minimally speaking Autistic children). After watching her child laugh, dance, and have fun during therapy, after watching them imitate action verbs, and spontaneously communicate a desire, spontaneously point to my assistant and me on the screen, and smile at us all, it became clear to this parent that there are different kinds of therapy sessions. This kind isn’t all about compliance.
A British, Autistic SLT’s Pro-Neurodiversity Paradigm Shift
My journey to realising that I was autistic is similar to that of many women, in that I was placed in the mental health system as a child. For the next 15 years, I was given various diagnoses – one of these being Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). My sensory and emotional difficulties were pathologised and misdiagnosed. What we know now is that there is a multitude of evidence showing how often autistic girls and women are misdiagnosed. But, that’s not what this blog is about.
On Writing Masking Goals for Autistic Middle School Girls – Stop It!
Our autistic female students are constantly mimicking and copying behaviors of peers so they can hide their autism. We, as clinicians, teach them to do this because we were taught that autism must be hidden and masked through the therapy we provide. We are licensed, credentialed ableists, “therapizing: our autistic students to learn to be in a constant state of making in order to be acceptable, to be worthy, to be liked.
Why Perspective-Taking and Neurodiversity Acceptance? (Part 2 of “Training” Social Skills is Dehumanizing: The One with the Therapy Goals)
Wasted years upon years of endlessly drilling autistic children and adolescents to memorize and parrot “appropriate” rote phrases for specific social situations will not lead to their peers perceiving them as more likable. Social skills training is not a “cure” for autism despite what the ABA industry would like for us all to believe. All “social skills training’ does is to teach autistic people how to mask their autism. And the potential harms of masking (exhaustion, anxiety, depression, frustration, decreased self-esteem suicidal ideation) are significant.
“Training” Social Skills is Dehumanizing (Part 1)
Dictating how a neurodivergent person is expected to communicate in specific social situations takes away their self-determination. Training people as one trains animals is appalling. SLP Neurodiversity Collective believes in respecting the authentic social communication of all people, rather than compelling compliance for neurotypical expectations through a system of rewards and punishments.
Fundamental Research Problems with the ASHA Board Certified Specialist in Autism Spectrum Disorders (BCS-ASD), by BARRY R. NATHAN, PhD
There are fundamental problems with the Board Certified Specialist in Autism Spectrum Disorders (BCS-ASD). Therefore, it is imperative that ASHA not only sever any relationship with the BCS-ASD, but vociferously work to prevent its adoption by speech-language pathologists.
A Letter from an SLP to a Parent, Immediately After an Autism Diagnosis for a 5-Year-Old
“Please remember what we talked about regarding eye contact, echolalia, sensory needs, picky eating and especially how to choose therapies that will respect his dignity and autonomy, and that won’t crush the joyous and precious little person that he is. I will advocate for him; but because you will need to learn how to become be his biggest champion, I have sent you links to resources for you to begin to educate yourself about Autism. I understand that you were very upset yesterday when they told you the diagnosis. My hope is that you begin to view this diagnosis differently.”