Autism Friendly by autistic author Donna Williams

[shplixie]

any way we can slow this slide show a bit....i would love to show this in class....but it goes too quickly for thorough reading...and the info. is really valuable

[1210donna]

@shplixie no problem. you could use a pause button to stop it now and then.

[1210donna]

Hi Zenange, nice to meet you.

[ABAisSCIENCE]

Text book autism exists in a population of individuals. I know them.

The fact is people love them. Do you know my nephews? If my nephew learns to say "duck" at a young age, but by 3 yrs old does not talk at all; then would U say that an intervention that allows him 2 B indistinguishable & in honors 3rd grade is bad?

How about my nephew who took 100,000 trials 2 learn his 1st word. Do I love him? He speaks well, but is not indistinguishable. Do I love him less?

[1210donna]

not at all. If by age 3 a child has lost speech then I'd look beyond behaviour to things like social anxiety, depression and selective mutism. I saw a child who lost all speech by age 5 WITH ABA and who got it back after antidepressants and a shift to an indirectly confrontational approach... its about diversity. different things work for different people.

[1210donna]

the child I mention got her speech back within months after these interventions and the interventions were virtually cost free.

but if 100,000 trials helped your son learn his 1st word, so be it. And all the best to him in his journey.

[ABAisSCIENCE]

We R all conditioned, but people R far more then the fruit of conditioning.

The individual who is highly affected w/ autism is conditioned 2 make sounds, but then straight-away is conditioned 2 find language useless.

Such a conditioning path is bound 2 have social interaction less reinforcing due 2 the limited availability of reinforcers 2 B given in social situations.

No doubt behaviorism needs 2 B tried different ways 2 optimize the conditioning of overcoming learned helplessness.

[1210donna]

sorry but from my perspective what you're saying is textbook but not necessarily reality. I had vocal tics since age 2 but babbled by age 4, had stored speech strings and songs by age 5 and began to acquire functional interpretive language by age 9-11... I've worked with 100s of people on the spectrum, their language journies are ALL different. Rarely, rarely text book.

[1210donna]

learned helplessness is a tragedy, so is blind compliance when the emotional self has not developed to join to actions. Therapies must consider the whole human being, not as a broken machine, but as a complex human requiring an individualised program and perspective.... also when discussing humans, please avoid text book style, it is as offensive as patronising tones... thanks.

[limeslimey]

Thank you Donna for opening my eyes when I still did not much understand my being autistic. (Read your first book).

[1210donna]

:-)

[Oracle212]

We should be showing this in classrooms across the world - maybe then we would gain shared meanings and understandings.

[BSPAngeli]

Absolutely!!! I am a mom of two with autism, one of them totally blind and other, both have a lot of sensory issues, and after reading this, so many things make more sense!

[jenniefrench]

Donna,

I enjoyed your books and think you are quite terrific...good work and thanks

Jennie

[slkuzel]

You are a hero to me. I am in awe. I am a teacher and behaviorist of children on the spectrum. I refer all of my parents of newly diagnosed children to your book. Thank you for all you do

[grandmahogg]

Blessings to you Donna! May you continue to be the voice that so many do not have!

[Yetti0]

We should be echoing Donnas voice,if we dont' have a voice ourselves.  Knowledge is power.

[1210donna]

I write and compose all my songs. You will see from my usual signature in places that I'm an author, artist, composer, screenwriter (yeah, also consultant and public speaker). I have other you tube clips which are up at present. Hope you enjoy them. Warmly, Donna *)

[1210donna]

Yes, the music is a backing track to the song 'Still Awake' which features on the album 'Nobody Nowhere' (yes named after the book as there's also a song I wrote titled Nobody Nowhere on that album). The album is on CD Baby and people can find it on my site and hear it with words being sung. I'm singing it at my tour dates this year.

... Donna *)

[Autistic1]

I like the music! Is it yours Donna? I can't read, look at pictures, and hear music all at ones. Its just part of my artism ;) (wink and a smile)

I hope you posted this information at your website, too. You've really helped me make sense of the whirled, and you have so many words for what I do, feel, and think. Thanks for being.

[ralpheadsuz]

Thanks for putting this out there, Donna. Worth pausing to read. Anthropological Adventure! woohoo, I'm on it!

[1210donna]

yes, you can press the pause button to get more reading time. But I'm not yet techie enough to manage the music to slides thing so they do change too fast to read fully without the pause button. I guess the most important slide is the 2nd last one - the summary :-)

[GingerAutie]

I like this video, especially the fotos in it, but for me, it was a bit too much to read.

[dinahkcm]

Thanks Donna, now in the posautive youtube group and its /sense subgroup.

[1210donna]

She bows graciously

;-)

[CreddyEddy]

I love this video. It captures what a lot of people on youtube are trying to say and I reckon many of us on the spectrum canlearn from it too.