 Hi everybody. It's so lovely to see you all. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to Brain Club. Just to introduce myself, both for those who are here and who are watching on recording. I'm Mel Hauser. I use she, they pronouns and I'm the executive director here at Allbrains Blanc. And you are joining us for Brain Club in our monthly book chat where today we will be chatting about A Day with No Words by Tiffany Hammond. So as you may know, Brain Club is our weekly community education program about everyday brain life. It's our intentionally created educational space to educate community about neurodiversity. And what we like to say right off the bat, just sort of define our roles here and our purpose because we know that as a community health organization that provides medical care and non-medical care, this is in the non-medical care bucket. And while we may have dual relationships with participants, we don't have a medical relationship with all of, with all the participants of Brain Club. So we like to say that this is our educational space and not a support group, not a place for medical or mental health advice, and not a place to process individual trauma or problem solve around specific individual problems. And why that is the case is that like partially processing trauma without ongoing supports and connection can actually be harmful to some people. And so we carb this out as our educational space. All forms of participation are okay. And as many of you have figured out, you can have your video on or off. And even if it's on, we don't expect anything of you. We certainly don't expect you to look at the camera, you know, you're welcome to walk, move, stim, fidget, eat, all the things. And everyone is welcome here at Brain Club. And all formats of communication are welcome. You can unmute and use mouth words. You can type them in the chat and whatever, whatever your most comfortable form of communication is. And in addition to affirming all aspects of identity, it's really important to us that we respect and protect the group's collective access needs. And if at any time, you need support around your access needs or you're uncomfortable for any reason, Lizzie Peratt, our Education Programs Coordinator, Lizzie, can you can you wave so people can see who you are when you're available? Amazing. Okay, great. So direct messaging is enabled and, you know, feel free to send Lizzie a private message. She will see it much faster than I. And speaking of access needs, our communication ground rules just like respect and give space for our participants. And because so many folks are participating with video off, there may be young ears offscreen that we're not seeing. So just sort of being respectful of the content and the language. All right, last bit of access. Liz, captioning is enabled. You just have to toggle it on if you'd like to use it. Depending on what version of Zoom you have, you might see the live transfer closed captioning icon. But if not, try the more dot dot dot and choose show subtitles. You can do the same to choose types of titles if you want to turn them off. And to find the chat, look for the speech bubble. All right. So last week of June, we're all month, we have been discussing various aspects of neurodivergent health. So a day with no words, which is a number one bestseller on the New York Times picture book list is written by Tiffany Hammond, who is an autistic person, I think diagnosed at age 18, and the parent of two autistic sons. And we're going to actually this is we have a video with the entirety of the book that we're going to watch tonight. And we're also going to watch a couple of clips of Tiffany talking about why she wrote the book and the broader context of conversation that we are inviting tonight. Because on a superficial level, this is a book about a non speaking autistic child of color and the ways in which the world interacts with him and the broader societal picture of changes that need to be made and what's possible. But we're hoping that this also invites reflection and conversation around the intersectionality of all of the different ways in which humans are other. And in this space, we talk about the neurodivergent community, but that is not a homogenous group. And since we all carry so many different aspects of our identity and we all experience intersectional aspects of privilege, intersectional aspects of oppression, power, and how that all plays out. And so there are going to be some themes that may be new if there are topics presented in the interviews of Tiffany Hammond that maybe don't match your personal experience, depending on how many different background characteristics of identity you share with the author. And either way, I think that centering the author's and her family's experience to learn about those other aspects of identity and how this intersects with neurodivergence. So as I said, Tiffany Hammond is an autistic author. She's a speaker, consultant, advocate, and parent of two autistic children. And she describes her work as sharing stories to challenge the perception of disability as a lifelong burden, cultivate a community that explores intersectionality and inspiring thought leadership through storytelling, education, and critical discourse. And we'll show this a couple different times, but we've been following Tiffany's work for a while here at All Greens Belong, and I definitely encourage you to check out her website and her Instagram account, which I personally learn so much from. All right, so David, can you play video number one? This is like the intro level of like why did Tiffany write this book? My son knows words, he just doesn't speak them. I love him so much that I'm like choosing to enter his world instead of trying to force him to enter mine. First and foremost, it's a love note to my Aiden, and it's inspired by a day that his brother came and said we should have. We should talk like Aiden talks, and it just kind of started those days, doing it the entire day. In the house, outside of the house, going on errands, going on field trips, going on whatever, just using it. You know, I didn't want it to be like just a book that just talked about all the deficits that he has as being autistic. It's about him, and it's inspired by his life, and how he is, and how loving he is, and how forgiving he is, and how caring he is. And it's just a story about a boy who just loves life, and he just happens to not speak. But now, let's let Olivia in. There we go. The deeper context of this book, as I said, is a look at the intersectional impact of having multiple characteristics of identity that are marginalized, and that when we think about inclusion, inclusion is perceived belonging, and anytime someone is othered, that's not going to be an inclusion. And when there are multiple aspects of marginalization that someone experiences, even when they are in communities of people who share some background characteristics, many people do not feel included and don't feel safe. And I'm going to just like provide a broader context for what this looks like. This is a public health framework, looking at health and equity and all of the variables that contribute to health and equity. I'm just going to zoom in. Oh, Lizzie, we forgot to fix the picture. It's a little bit blurry. I'm going to narrate. It's a lot of it blurry to my brain. So I'm just going to talk us through it. Social inequity, discrimination based on race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, which is of course going to have a bidirectional relationship to all access to power and like the institutional systemic power inequities that go on, which of course is going to have an impact on living conditions, things in the physical environment, social environment, economic and work environments, access to service environment, which of course is also going to then connect to the types of risk behaviors or environmental risks that someone struggles with, which of course is also going to then impact health conditions, chronic disease, substances, all kinds of things, which of course is going to connect to life expectancy. And when we think about all of these different variables, neurodivergent people have unequal access to so many of these different things, which is why when we talk about neurodivergent people as experiencing health inequities and then you layer on other aspects of marginalization, including race, class, gender, sexuality, the problem is compounded even more. I don't know why there's a million copies of these pictures. It appears as though I tried to do something better about these pictures. This is to show that access to health care, health education, support in all the different ways in which people need support for their health is also often thwarted in exponential ways for multiple marginalized people. All right, David, we are ready for video three to listen to Tiffany Hammond sharing her experiences and reflections on neurodivergence and intersectionality. I see a lot of inclusion and I see a lot of diversity posts and comments and then in my head I'm like we do not implement those very well. I think that a lot of people are satisfied with just putting diverse bodies into spaces where they weren't any and then they think that's what it is or with schools and we're like we're just going to put more disabled children with non-disabled children and then that's it and we're good and I think that we don't go far enough and I am exploring that post in so much greater detail and I'm going to share that later sometime but what I was getting at was that I don't feel comfortable within the autism community as a whole you know if I did I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing right now like I wouldn't be there's a lot of division there's a lot of there's a hierarchy here whether people want to admit it or not and and that's with all other disabled movements as well it's like it's they're all centered in in whiteness and they all do not consider the needs of their black and indigenous populations and so that was me saying I don't feel fully comfortable within the autism community. I also don't feel fully comfortable within the neurodiversity community either for the same reasons and when I wrote that I was like we gotta figure out a way to because at their core intersectionality and neurodiversity want the same thing and they examine the same types of things and so what would it be like if they work together instead of being two parallel concepts and so I was thinking I was like how would they work how would neurodiversity as a paradigm work with intersectionality as the theoretical concept and so that's what I was exploring when I was writing that I was like what would they how would that look and I was like I think we would have a better understanding of diversity and inclusion if we worked those two together like what are their strengths in each what are their what are their core principles would they work well together could they work well together and that's what I was doing I was writing it out and I think I was trying to like find the answer myself as I was writing I wanted to know like how would they work yeah together because I feel like they both want the same things yeah definitely and a lot of this can sound really abstract sometimes so what are some of your examples specifically like maybe could you put it in a real life example um so that people can better understand so I'm seeing here and I'm um like an example of the way it could work together so intersectionality it looks at the our systems of privilege and oppression so it's looking at um not just all the ways that we are put at a disadvantage it's also looking at the ways that we are privileged it's looking at where power comes in and where power leaves it's a power based concept what intersectionality will do is it will take a person or a community and it will look at where their where their power comes in and where their power depletes or where they have no power at all and they are looking to find different ways that they can support that person or that community based on where their power fluctuates you know um neural diversity does similar but then I kind of look a little bit of a different way so what they are looking at is they're looking at how our brains operate and how it works within a society who mostly disables us because of how our minds work or because of how our bodies work um they're looking at also where we are strong at and where society will view us as we get and looking at all the ways that they can address those needs and help those with different minds live successfully in this world and so when you have these two intersectionality and neural diversity both looking at different power structures different privileges different oppressions and you have these two incredibly what I feel are powerful concepts or powerful things and they're operating in different lanes I was just like what if we put them together so I'm sitting there and I'm like as a black autistic woman that I'm disadvantaged in a lot of different ways and intersectionality recognizes this it shows where my power lies and it'll show me where it doesn't what can they what can be done to fix that you're looking at a a black child who's autistic who will be diagnosed at a later age than a white child with autism um excuse me if they're diagnosed at all but sometimes they're misdiagnosed sometimes they're not diagnosed at all and sometimes they're given diagnosis of ODB um or just simply ADHD if even that you know a lot of times we don't even get one or they're diagnosed far later so they're missing out on a lot of vital early intervention programs they're missing out on a lot of services schools will suspend black children at higher rates um expel them at higher rates so then they're also missing out on services and supports there so intersectionality will look at what is happening here and they'll attempt to address that neurodiversity also does a similar thing they're looking at their minds they're looking at how their minds operate why is it that this mind is treated so differently than every other one what is it that can be done to address that and so when looking at both of them and dissecting both of their parts right because I like to take things apart so looking at them both separately and you're looking at these and you're just like they're kind of wanting similar things they're kind of wanting the same types of things they're looking at the same types of stuff right so why not try to figure out how well they could intersect a lot of times people don't really look at um intersectionality from a disabled perspective see a lot of times disabled people are left out of like a lot of conversations majority conversations really and so then but then you have the neurodiversity movement and they're not always looking at race right they're usually just looking at neuro type they're usually just approaching the the issue as a state of how our minds are operating they're just usually approaching it from me just being autistic mm-hmm so they're looking for solutions on how to help me as an autistic person and then you typically neglect that I have these issues coming into me for as being a black person as well so we need to introduce both introduce because a lot of times neurodiversity isn't intersectional that much especially when it cross sections with race or gender or um sexuality anything it's a it's a large focus on a neuro type how our brains are and how we are disadvantaged in a society that leverages normal brains quote unquote um yeah yeah you're bringing up a lot of great points and you're creating that space like you're saying through your blog you're inviting the different angles to shed some light on areas that maybe weren't that's what I'm trying to do I mean even if you even if you were to ask someone who's not in the disabled community at all but they've heard of neurodiversity and you're like what do y'all guys think neurodiversity is most of the people that have asked they automatically assume it's an autistic movement like they don't even consider the other neuro types out there yeah and so it's looked at as a wholly largely autistic thing and they're missing all of the other neurodevelopmental diagnosis is out there they're missing ADHD they're missing dyslexia you know they're missing those they're missing those that have like autism and ADHD together you know or if they have another type of learning disability it's together and so at first I was like oh okay well they don't really know that much about the neurodiversity community because they're like outside of it so maybe that's why they just assume it's an autism thing but when you actually break it down and you're sitting there and you're looking at it it does look largely autistic right it's like it that's what dominates this movement you know and it's like we aren't really looking at other diagnosis is that make our minds different that make our minds different from the general population and that also like we're kind of intersectional in our neuro type as well because everything's not you know one kind of thing so yeah and it's important to give everyone a voice and a place to stand yeah that's what I think that's why I was thinking they can work they can work together yeah I think that it can just like as like I was as I was saying I was like intersectionality or as it will look at me as a black person and a woman and it and it'll combine those two and then it'll show a completely new experience that I have so it's it's it's me being more than black it's me being more than a woman it's me being put together and what experience doesn't a completely new experience that I have so if we were to find a way to put intersectionality together with neurodiversity combine those that would create an entirely different framework that we can operate under yeah and maybe that will give us some better ways to address the issue of inclusion or diversity what does that really mean you've been watching autism knows no borders if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel also thank you I'm just going to comment in the chat I started typing a response but I'll I'll I'll I'll use mouth words the rest of my response so it's come in the chat from Elizabeth I feel like because of how neurodivergent folks are so sensitive to power dynamics fairness poking at the inconsistencies of systems we're uniquely positioned to communicate about inequality and what I started to type is that I think that while many autistic and or ADHD folks are sensitive to energy by our dynamics I'm more sensitive to threat such people do end up often becoming advocates for a more just society and I think that from the the perspective of safety there's so many things that go into the perception of safety threat versus safety and there are many nervous systems that that that recognize that if if not everyone is safe no one is safe all right so so David I think we can now that we have this background context I think I think it's time to watch the book a day with no words by Tiffany Hammond illustrations by Kate Cosgrove early morning chases a long night mama pulls the curtains back to welcome the sunlight my eyes squeeze shut but I'm not ready to get up but I open my eyes I reach for my tablet look at the screen tap yes on the app my thoughts are now seen I am surrounded by voices chattering away it seems as if everyone has so much to say some people have big voices that feel like storms in my head they thrash and they scream others have voices that are soft and smooth like freshly whipped cream like water mama's voice dances around bobbing up and down as it leaves her throat much like the waves that carry a boat daddy's voices like air soft as a light summer breeze that kisses my cheek strong as the winds of hurricanes that abandon ships at sea all these people around me diverse and unique I hear them all but they do not hear me I do not speak I was born like this no voice from my lips I am autistic I use a tablet to be heard pushing buttons with pictures that speak my words mama taps park now no crowd I love the park and quickly tap yes with no crowd I'll feel less stress mama knew this she always knows when I feel comfortable and when my anxiety grows I do things many people do not understand I like to stare through the parted fingers of my right hand I comfort the trees with hugs when the sun disappears I like to spin barefoot on soft grass after the rain clears there are some kids at the park with their mamas nearby the clouds are still gray because the sky has just cried they all turn to look at me as I jump and flap one mother sneers that boy is handicapped mama inhales deeply her brows crease she closes her eyes deep breath release mama types quickly her fingers are blur the tablet she holds says her words my son does not speak but his ears work just fine the words that you say go straight to his mind then mama turns to me with a smile and taps on her screen wet grass soft spin shoes socks off bare skin and I want to twirl twirl and damp grass until I can no longer stand I tap all done mama smiles and takes my hand mama turns on her tablet looks at the cashier smiles then types small fries root beer it takes him a moment but then he pushes buttons too mama looks down at me your turn you choose I tap my tablet quickly I don't need time to decide chicken nuggets orange soda a large side of fries this was a very special book and I hope you enjoyed it I will read to you again soon I love you so much even so I think that when we think about hearing descriptions of experiences that maybe maybe we've experienced ourselves maybe we've not I think that as we seek to more fully understand neurodivergence neurodiversity the broad number of ways in which brains differ within the context of identity I think it it is essential to center the experiences of people whose experiences differ from our own and I'm going to just share screen again with some prompts of some questions that our team was wondering about today so I think that when we think about inclusive community a community where everyone feels that they belong how do we do that how do we choose safety to all nervous systems acknowledging that there are much like Tiffany Hammond described how she herself as a well-known autistic advocate does not feel safe comfortable within the space of other autistic people and when we think about how autistic burnout that is depleting cognitive resources maybe interfering with perspective taking or advocating or reflecting and learning in ways that need doing I think that probably does play a role in interfering with truly inclusive community but I wonder I wonder what folks think and feel free to feel free to respond to these prompts or feel free to share whatever whatever additional reflections you have about anything that has come up tonight also okay to sit and think yeah great idea Alicia here we go I'll also put in the chat on the website and Instagram handle for Tiffany Hammond as well oh go ahead David yeah no I just could you say a bit more about how those three prompts emerge from the book what the connection is I don't think that they did directly come from the book these were um on reflecting about the topic of members of the broader neurodivergent community because of intersectional aspects of their identity that are marginalized besides being neurodivergent as our as our staff here was reflecting on that and you know how do we at offerings belong for example like how do we cue safety don't like anyway like these are the questions that came up for for us that I'm throwing out to you even though they were not directly raised in the picture book Sarah I mean I love I love the concept that she that um like uh that the author comes up with about just sort of expanding this concept of neurodiversity um and the and um and I'm thinking that that um and and I also love sort of the that the the idea of kind of expanding the the neurodiversity into sort of this idea of human diversity it strikes me that as a as a you know for whatever historic or survival reasons you know as a as a culture or society what we we've sort of got we sort of did this all backwards um that we with we um we started out like pathologizing human difference before we ever tried to understand it and so um so we've got all of this pathology and we've got all these experts um who who don't actually have the difference itself that are experts on the pathology and treating the pathology and who have never like you've never been to pathology land I mean they've never lived with they they've never lived with the thing that they are supposedly experts and they never really tried to understand from the perspective from the first person perspective of the person who's so called pathological what what what what what what this what this is and what whether there's a gift to this or not and then whether evolution is up to something or not and and so I think the the idea is what would it be like I mean I think our journey at this point in human history is really to go to go back and to say wait wait wait we've pathologized all this stuff without trying to understand it without trying to understand how um whether how evolution could be up to something how our culture could benefit from these differences um what these different how these differences could reflect healthy ranges of difference in our species that could be complementary um that that could or that could show us that could highlight aspects of our our humanity that could be that that we wouldn't understand our giftedness without our differences um and um and and so so to take that I think it's sort of this that that and it includes like you know we I think of um my own struggle you know with things that they call depression or with things that you know they call bipolar and and I think well we're sort of pathologized low mood and we pathologize you know you're supposed to be too happy or you're not supposed to be too sad and we pathologize those kinds of ranges without the idea well what what could we get I mean what what what's what's useful about these things as a culture maybe maybe these two these things too are reflect differences within our species and maybe maybe across the span of mental disorder is not just I mean it strikes me a lot of people that I know who have had alternate reality experiences that we might call schizophrenia or hearing voices that that there's a there's a huge overlap between that and and a kind of spirituality or a sensitivity to um to a sensitivity to to things to a world of perception that um that that um that then that there's a giftedness there or a potential giftedness there that and we don't even know if there's a giftedness there because we've dismissed it before even exploring it and so those are so I think which strikes me as unscientific and and among other things in addition to a sort of a crime against humanity but um so anyway I'll stop yammering on you get my point but but I just sort of think we could there's a ways we could expand diversity and I love this idea of expanding neurodiversity and I and I'd like to even kind of push the edges of that and say well maybe maybe the entire DSM we could expand the concept of neurodiversity to that that maybe maybe there's benefits maybe there's things are really really overlooking that we yet we haven't even asked the question yet about how how these things could be helping how we could be helping each other with these traits so anyway thanks for listening to me for so long thank you Sarah and I think that um when we think about um I think one of one of the many points you made Sarah is about centering the experience of a person who is experiencing whatever someone's talking about um and I think you know as we layer layer on um you know all of the all all of the ways in which aspects of identity stack up um I think that that that concept is also very true um just working working backwards in the chat um Jack says regarding the first question of how we can cue safety for all nervous systems Jack says what we can do is consider how we set up a space virtual and in person and have a plan for when access needs clash yeah um there's a um a panel on this at at the uh recent um star um sensory processing and also some costs for conference and seek out and be open to and take in feedback and then apply said feedback and that this has brought each of those pieces above could be taken apart and discussed with greater nuance right I think that um uh yes and so um setting up the space virtual and in person you know that not just like the the physical or the environmental but like the the emotional or cognitive aspect um of of of how to set up a space um I think are are really important and um we we brain club in October the whole theme was neuro inclusive space but um and and while there may have been like brief mentions um to other marginalized aspects of identity um I don't know that we covered that or talked about that in as much depth as we should have during during that month and I think it would be wise to revisit that for sure reading Allie's comment um I really resonate with the idea of society learning different brain types instead of diagnosing you know whether that be autism or ADHD is a difference to be treated moving into a world um or we're simply learning that there are multiple brain types and they're all valuable and serve a purpose similarly to how all live experiences perspectives and backgrounds bring value and meaning to humanity thank you Allie thank you Jack um what else is is coming up for folks around around community around inclusion around queuing safety for all of our community members there's a lot of queuing of safety in that book of course she's heard the way she deals with situations and is sensitive to the her son's access needs I mean it's beautifully presented and it's a beautiful book absolutely um and I think like so so much like the way that a person is viewed well like the paradigm through which a person is viewed I think so so determines the the energy um that that enters into into an equation and I think that um for so many people who are viewed through a deficit-based lens by by other people um that energy is unsafe and is experienced by many of those nervous systems I'm gonna just share screen again um Lizzie plucked out some quotes from the book so um I'm surrounded by voices chattering away it seems as if everyone has so much to say and I think that um for non-speaking communicators um and I think like in healthcare we see this we see these these slights of non-speaking communicators not being addressed directly for example um the mistake around expressive language via smoke and communication as though that has anything to do with receptive language understanding spoken speech I think that that is um that is a theme that I think when we think about last month's book chat when we looked at the reason I jumped that was this this quote reminded me of a similar quote from that non-speaking author just to catch up in the chat um Elizabeth says queuing safety I just want to acknowledge that the person holding the most power in a space has to be the one to queue safety for those with less power yes thank you Elizabeth Allie is referencing to the idea of um teaching children about different perspectives and backgrounds of this book would be a perfect tool for that writing a basis of understanding of difference and safety can assist in further inclusivity I agree um when just about three years old um you know I just named the thing that that people communicate in all different ways and so the first time that she encountered um an adolescent using an AAC device alternative augmentive communication she was like oh it's an AAC device do do do like it was it was like no big deal because it is no big deal um and um I think I think to Allie's point normalizing difference as early as possible is really important Jack points out that part of set during the experience of neurodivergent people whose experiences differ from our own is asking questions like who's presenting at conferences who's invited to teach at schools who was in charge of the event planning what books and other media are you consuming and whose perspective was centralized in your own education and media growing up um noticing patterns of consumption and education without judgment giving yourself grace and unlearning all of the the isms that the discriminatory isms um it's a lifelong process and part of unlearning I'm sorry I'm reading over and over sorry brain at this hour um is exploring a variety of media taking classes reading books watching films that center those whose experiences differ from our own thank you Jack um and we will continue to be doing that um all all July long um because our theme for July is reimagining community um and um we will be taking a look um both through the lens of healthcare employment um and our our and the way the the the the way that we engage all of these um intersectional aspects of identity um over the next month um thank you Lizzie for putting the registration link in the chat um let me just actually Lizzie just made our schedule and here we go let me share um next week there will be no brain club on July 4th um on July 11th we'll be talking about employment class and health on the 18th um we've invited a guest presenter Chrissy Cologne Brant who is one of the co-authors of Parenting for Social Justice I looked for a visual support that I could hold up the book um and then um for our book chat for July we'll be taking a look at Things You're More Not Broken by Eric Garcia so with that thank you all so much for coming tonight and participating in your own ways and um we'll look forward to seeing you in two weeks. Have a good night. Bye