DSM-5 AUTISM DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA---REWRITTEN BY A REAL LIVE AUTISTIC PERSON

Dear Persons,

Here, as promised, is my rewriting of the most commonly used publicly available DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for autism. 

It’s still clinical and doesn’t reflect what I personally would say about my neurology, never mind the brains and minds of the many, many Autistic people I’ve come to know. I myself would write a very different definition (we actually discuss this in our recent podcast).

And please note that I have issues with diagnosis, considering that autism is more properly an identity and way of human being than a “condition.” 

I’ve spoken frankly about “medical” diagnosis and the diseaseification/pathologization of autism in many of my talks, especially in this keynote about developing better neurodiversity paradigms. And I’ve written about it at length here on my blog and here [click on “Free Resources and Downloads”] in the FREE online fourth section of our most recent #ActuallyAutisticBook, under “Working for systemic evolution, No. 1: Shift professional paradigms.”

But I know that a diagnosis is still needed in many educational, therapeutic, medical, and other gatekeeping contexts. 

And it can give people really helpful tools and resources. 

So I thought perhaps this primary aspect of most diagnostic processes could benefit from improvement! 

It took a long time to update just this small amount of text because I had to do it in small doses. Kind of made me sick every time I would start. Traumatic. 

Please don’t force yourself to read it if it feels potentially painful! 

...Unless you are a professional, in which case, onward—please. 

I usually write first and foremost for my Autistic brethren, but this one is especially directed toward professionals. 

To be clear, this is a work in progress, a draft evolution of an inherently discriminatory and harmful system.

 

To that end, I have tried to eradicate words and phrases from the original text that were triggering, condescending, and discriminatory.

 

To offer just one relatively benign example, I might change the word “excessive”—which implies that the Autistic person is doing “too much” of something—to “intensive,“ which has the connotation that there’s a goodly amount of said activity, but doesn’t carry a negative  judgement or labeling aspect. 

I have included the general format and most of the original text, with updated language and descriptions of the differences we Autistic people share, as compared to neurotypical people, while attempting to erase the implicit and explicit negative connotations incorporated in the original text. 

The word “spectrum”—which I myself incorporated into my blog title more than a decade ago—is increasingly seen as an imperfect representation of our diversity, but I am not sure “wheel” (a more nuanced vision of neurodivergent variations) works in this setting, so I have simply removed the former.

 

I do want to say that even this updated criteria list can still be disturbing and upsetting. 

It’s really hard to be different in a world that does not always welcome, never mind celebrate, neurodivergence. 

That’s one of the reasons I set myself this task: to shift one element of this challenging world—these brutal diagnostic criteria—into something more useful, truer, more affirming.

Idea: Could these standards be subbed in for what clinicians use now in order to more realistically and fairly diagnose this common and equally valid neurological way of human being? 

Let me know what you think!!!

Autism DSM-5 diagnostic criteria: 

A. Persistent differences as compared to neurotypical social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by all of the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):

• Differences in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from unusual social approach and disinterest in typical back-and-forth conversation; to reduced or increased sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to a lesser tendency to initiate or respond to social interactions.

• Differences in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from less integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to variations in eye contact and body language or alterations in understanding and use of gestures; to a lower propensity for facial expressions and nonverbal communication.

• Differences in developing, maintaining, and navigating relationships, ranging, for example, from challenges with adjusting behavior to suit various neurotypical social contexts; to difficulties in sharing standard neurotypical imaginative play or in making friends via standard neurotypical means; to a lower or higher level of interest in peers.

Specify current impact: Impact is based on social communication challenges and focused and/or repetitive patterns of behavior.

B. Focused patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):

• Specific and/or repeated motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor or vocal repetitions, lining up toys or flipping objects, idiosyncratic phrases).

• Insistence on sameness, adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal/nonverbal behavior (e.g., distress around changes, difficulties with transitions, entrenched thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take the same route or eat the same food every day).

• Highly focused interests that are extraordinary in intensity or specificity (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with particular subjects or objects, very circumscribed or concentrated interest).

• Higher or lower reactivity to sensory input compared to neurotypical standards or strong interests in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g., apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, intensive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).

Specify current impact: Impact is based on social communication challenges and focused and/or repetitive patterns of behavior.

C. The above neurodivergence must be present in the early developmental period (but may not become fully manifest until neurotypical social demands increasingly misalign with neurodivergent capacities or may be masked by learned strategies in later life).

D. The above aspects of neurodivergence create significant impacts in social, occupational, or other important areas of current context.

E. These differences are not better explained by intellectual disability or global developmental delay. Intellectual disability and autism can co-occur; to make simultaneous diagnoses of autism and intellectual disability, social communication should vary from that expected for neurotypical developmental level.

Dear reader, thank you for taking this hard journey with me to reimagine these criteria, shifting from diagnosing a “problem” to describing a neurotype. 

Please be well and take care of yourself. Know that you are worthy. You matter. 

Little by little, we are together helping this world become more welcoming for all of us. 

Thanks and love,

Full Spectrum Mama

SHE/THEY/ME

For beloved T. And everyone else feeling scared right now, especially my 2SLGBTQIA+ siblings. I see you and I know together we will rise, elevate love over hate, and live welcoming and inclusive lives. 

But I will fight for and with you, too. 

Dear Persons,

I have a good brain. It helps me understand things about the world, like some of the rules of good manners or finances. And, in collaboration with my feelings, this brain has empowered me to be a strong advocate for justice, ethics, and inclusion. 

It’s enabled me to achieve great academic and professional success, too, although it never quite managed to suss out the institutional dynamics of schools and universities, never mind corporate environments. Nor did it help with earning the big bucks. Nonetheless, it does help me expertly manage what bucks I do have. 

In the absence of any neurotypical capacity to read social cues or intuitively grasp and honor customs and hierarchies, my brain has used logic to navigate interactions and spaces. It has a fairly powerful eidetic memory capacity. It can even answer lots of math questions without any conscious calculations. 

But there are some areas my brain hasn’t been able to help me with, such as certain aspects of proprioception, facial recognition, directions, unspoken sociocultural codes, and spatial awareness. 

And I’ve never been able to use my reasoning to figure out why people are supposed to look or act a certain way when it comes to gender and sexuality, from gender identity to relationship norms.

Statistics around gender diversity amongst Autistic people are eye-popping: We are per capita way, way more diverse in our gender identities, expressions, roles, sexual orientations, performances, relationships, lived and hoped-for family models, etc. than the neurotypical population. 

This makes sense to me, as an AFAB (assigned female at birth), nonbinary veering toward femme, pansexual Autistic human who has explored, blundered through, and lived a variety of relationship models—and who is probably naturally polyamorous—with an inclination toward living alone—despite being married (twice! see below). 

I have a doctorate in sociology, so I do have some academic-style thoughts on the matter, but I haven’t done more than anecdotal research in this area and so will hold off on sharing on that level. 

Still, I thought my personal experience might be illuminating and/or comforting for readers. 

Especially now, when those of us who don’t fit the incredibly limited bounds of the next president’s narrow vision of human worth feel more vulnerable than ever before. 

So here’s a microcosm of my own journey as a contributor to these remarkable statistics.

I don’t think I really thought about gender in childhood. I played with the (sometimes but not always gendered) toys I was given. The only toy I really remember desperately wanting was a skateboard, when I was eight or nine. From as early as I can remember, I really loved to draw, write, listen to music, and do extensive research in the library—all non-gendered activities. I was relatively content. 

But the years when you really try to fit in (mostly 11-17ish?) didn’t work out well for me. I admit to initially trying to pass as “normal,” with moderate to little success. This may have been especially challenging in my preppy environment, where the difference between Nantucket red and Caldor red was glaringly obvious to everybody but me. 

Yes, I was a blonde, thinnish, fairly tall white person, but I genuinely didn’t know what I looked like or claim my privilege.

What I did look like also included: sad, droopy, beaten down, “L sign” on my forehead.

Most social pressures that others bow to didn’t (and don’t) even register for me. Or if they did (do), and I occasionally attempt to capitulate (usually I don’t), I do it wrong. Think fluffy mohawk. 

At a certain point, I guess I just decided that wasn’t going to work—the whole fitting-in project. I realized that while I was quite good at thinking for myself, I was not able to successfully or consistently think like the “normal” NT people. 

For example, there were girls and they acted like girls and associated only with female friends and…huh? Because they have those bits?

But what would work, as a mode of living and performing my own self? I began working out my own rules for living early on. At 11 years old, I didn’t know any vegetarians, but I became vegetarian. I didn’t initially know any Queer people either, but over the course of becoming conscious of sexuality and identity (also beginning around that same age of 11), I simultaneously evolved as Queer. In both cases, I followed what seemed to make rational sense to me…but also my heart and gut. 

I became who I was.

In the process, I never found any arguments that weren’t culture- or faith-based to explain the much more common, “acceptable” ways of living (like eating meat or looking like a “girl” and only “liking” “boys”). I was both unable and unwilling to conform to such norms in my life. 

All of the wonderful Queer gender diversity we see now in many (not all!) places was much more hidden then. One risked bullying, ostracization, etc. But I had less to lose (since I was already on the margins)—and more to gain (acceptance from people who truly accepted me). 

The punk rockers and the Goths, the weirdos and the Gays…they accepted me. 

Others…not so much. The only person in my family who really welcomed me exactly as I was (most family members were clueless or worse; in their defense, it was a different era) was my grandmother Merlin, a petite beauty from Knoxville, Tennessee, who, to all appearances, led a completely conventional life and should have naturally partaken in the discriminatory norms of her generation/milieu. 

I’ll never forget Gram saying to me at a Woolworths counter in the mall, “Darlin’, people should be able to love whoever they love.” 

Eventually, at my girls’ boarding school I learned that many other girls were also attracted to girls. Passionate crushes, love relationships, and everything in-between, with plenty of drama. My first romantic relationship was with a fellow AFAB student. 

Over time, I cut my hair progressively shorter and became androgynous. I never wanted to be masculine, exactly, so much as I wanted to be an elf. A gamine. A garçonne. A demigirl (new language! I love all the new language!!!)! 

My self. 

Throughout my entire life, I’ve been hugely into feminism, goddess spirituality, wimmins’ cultures and communes…but also Queer, alternative, artsy, edgy spaces and ways of being. Fundamentally, I’ve lived a life both feminist and unconventional, as usual at once following logic and heart—what feels like the essence of me. 

I married two men, though. I attribute this man-marriage thing in part to my friend Pickles betting me $100 to not cut off my hair (I bet her the same), thereby veering me toward femme. Since I’ve rarely cut it since, I guess I appear more cisgender now. 

But my internal essence has always combined all of the above. As “black and white” as my thinking has always been around justice, kindness, living a moral life, honesty, etc. (I’ve written and spoken about this a lot elsewhere), gender and sexuality have always seemed arbitrary to me. 

As with being Autistic, none of this has been something I’ve discussed much publicly, in part because I assumed everything about me was pretty obvious. Also, I’ve always felt that who I am is expressed through my actions and ethics, rather than the details of my identity. 

That was, I now realize, a luxury. 

Who will they come for next, dear reader? 

As for marriage, I like the ethical clarity of monogamy. I am open to it as an alternative option to my natural lack of monogamous inclination. I think it’s a good model for raising children and creating family, although I honor other models and think they can be just as successful, ethically valid, hot/enticing, and/or safe/comforting. 

Neither society nor any pro-monogamy ethos or religion has ever convincingly convinced me otherwise. 

Now I live in one of the most 2SLGBTQIA+-friendly areas in the world. Families and people of all permutations safely thrive here. For now. So  much so that it has rarely occurred to me to interrogate how I got where I am—to be me, here. But I get that for many others in other places or coming from more typical neurologies and/or inclinations this journey to comfort and self-acceptance can be very painful and even life-threatening. 

I very recently became terrified on behalf of many people I love, as well as myself, when the country I live in elected an openly transphobic, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rapist felon. And this draft post became even more important to me. (I am still terrified.) 

I want to be clear that being Queer is a way we are born and not a “choice” or “preference.” And obviously it’s not just an Autistic or Neurodivergent intersectionality. What I am exploring here, from my own perspective, is, first, the ways social pressures can be less obvious or binding to Neurodivergent people, as well as, second, the ways we may ultimately decide that since passing and masking are so hard and exhausting and even impossible, we might as well just be ourselves. 

I drafted these concluding paragraphs before the election, but they resonate even more now: 

My Autistic readers, do you see yourselves here? Maybe your story is quite similar—or maybe the resonances are around other aspects of your whole self that you’ve integrated and celebrated over time, perhaps despite societal or interpersonal obstacles? 

If you are not Autistic, can you imagine navigating life like this? Can you see how divergent it might feel from a neurotypical life, yet how internally coherent and integrous? 

And can you extrapolate to envision how Autistic people, as often not subject to, able to, and/or inclined to bow to the same pressures and conforming limitations, deserve to thrive everywhere, in their gloriously varied ways of interacting and envisioning and living and communicating, including diverse gender and relationship modalities? 

Likewise, dear reader, knowing that everyone has their own journey, are your mind and heart open to ALL other people’s perspectives and experiences, including gender and relationships and family and identity? 

I’m talking about the worth and dignity and equality of every human being, not just the ones who look, think, and behave like you—or in ways you and the people you know and the media you consume deem “acceptable.”  

Can you see and affirm our humanity? 

Love,

Full Spectrum Mama (she/they)

P.S. Here’s a formative song for me.

OUR NEW BOOK IS OUT!!!

 

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

Review links: 

Barnes and Noble

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THANKS AND LOVE,

FSM

A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF AUTISTICS

 

“I don't like using the terms ‘invisible’ or ‘hidden’ disability. You absolutely see my autism—you just don't code it correctly and instead you see everything about me as a character flaw.”

          - Kelly Bron Johnson

Dear Persons,

For years I’ve been thinking about using Mary Wollstonecraft’s brilliant feminist arguments about equality to make a parallel case for not only Autistic rights but also to contend, in line with her philosophical process, that the ways of thinking and “character flaws” that Autistic people are typically criticized for may actually be both correct and valuable. 

In Part I below, I echo Wollstonecraft’s archaic, academic language to make my case. In Part II, I state my case very briefly and simply, in plain language. Part III quotes the most relevant part of Wollstonecraft’s work for our purposes here. 

VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF AUTISTICS

(with apologies/gratitude to Mary Wollstonecraft, c. 1792)

I. The 1792-Style Version

In our present state of geopolitical chaos and unrest, it seems useful to look at what human qualities and behaviors might actually further the progress and peace we so desperately seek. To do so, we may well need to question the social-ethical status quo that has brought us here. 

As we will see, I’ll build my argument logically, disregarding justification based on the claim that ‘that is just how humans are.’ Like Wollstonecraft, I’ll ask straightforward questions to get to fundamental truths. 

As always, I cannot speak for all Autistics by any means, but I can quarrel with stereotypes and misperceptions, and reason from my own experience and observations to “dispute with some prevailing prejudice” (MW).

What makes humans special? 

Wollstonecraft argues that they are so because they can reason, possess virtue, and develop knowledge born of experience, i.e., wisdom. 

Yet we can all agree that it is common to see contradictions between 

• what is known to be true and right via reason, wisdom, and virtue, on the one hand,

• and what is conveniently (however subconsciously) believed or desired, and then borne out in action, on the other.

The former may be seen in rare shining examples, and exemplifies what is best in human beings; the latter, what is common in their actions. 

Are Autistic people typically as likely as the average Neurotypical person to deploy the “use of reason to justify” (MW) their self-centered behaviors in this way?  

My personal experience indicates that they are not. To wit, again and again I’ve been told things like “You don’t get complexity” or “This is a grey area,” when to my mind it’s more like I’m not willing to excuse myself or anyone else for building their thinking around rationalizing what they want. Almost invariably the gray area argued for by the gray-area advocate falls in favor of said advocate, e.g., such and such a clearly moral yet inconvenient choice is something that would be a good thing to do, but isn't actually necessary. 

Or someone will tell me I "don't get" something. Occasionally, that's true. Usually, though, I understand, but I don't accept the status quo. Think Greta Thunberg.  

Our generally shared quality of being literal tends to prevent these common types of reasoning and behavior. This is but one of many ways in which a Neurodivergent mind may differ from a Neurotypical one. 

Are Autistic people likely, then, likely to think in iconoclastic and/or highly innovative ways? 

But of course. 

Thus, I contend:

• that whereas both in their disregard for convention and the taken-for-granted, and in their lack of self-justification in conducting themselves as they wish (as is most convenient, easy, desirable, and so on) because they see the inherent contradictions in doing so, Autistic people indeed tend to be more ethical and more original;  

• that the very things they are lampooned for are in fact precious traits that not only further human progress, they further human goodness; 

and

• that their failed efforts to fit in fail because the structures of Neurotypical culture are inherently harmful—not just to we Autistic people, but to all people and to the planet;

the prevailing prejudice that Autistic people are lacking or less-than is patently false. 

Given the current ubiquity of horrible prejudices (in the face of reason), environmental-corporate devastation (against all wisdom), and spurious societal-political-personal phenomena (versus virtue), rational, logical, incontrovertible reasoning combined with original thinking may be our only recourse. 

In Wollstonecraft’s immortal words, “The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles.” Such minds, such worthy human beings, must be cherished and nurtured for the good of all humanity.

Wollstonecraft holds that the apex of our rights and duties involves the “perfection of our nature and capability of happiness.” Autistic people must have opportunities to be their whole selves, and to be happy, if we are to contribute desperately needed new perspectives and ideas. 

Only with genuine equity and equality enabling full participation and self-realization will honoring the rights of Autistics bring these vital contributions to the world.

II. The Plain Version

We can use lots of completely solid philosophical arguments to come to the conclusion that not only are different ways of thinking valuable and often more logically and ethically correct than mainstream ways of thinking, but they may also be the only thing that can save this crazy world right about now. 

As likely Autistic person Albert Einstein said, ““You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”

This means basic goodness, civil rights, and social justice are not the sole reasons for furthering the human rights and improving the lives of Autistic people. We might even help save the world. 

III. The Original [from Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1792]

 

In the present state of society, it appears necessary to go back to first principles in search of the most simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch of ground. To clear my way, I must be allowed to ask some plain questions, and the answers will probably appear as unequivocal as the axioms on which reasoning is built; though, when entangled with various motives of action, they are formally contradicted, either by the words or conduct of men.

In what does man's pre-eminence over the brute creation consist? The answer is as clear as that a half is less than the whole; in Reason.

What acquirement exalts one being above another? Virtue; we spontaneously reply.

For what purpose were the passions implanted? That man by struggling with them might attain a degree of knowledge denied to the brutes: whispers Experience.

Consequently the perfection of our nature and capability of happiness, must be estimated by the degree of reason, virtue, and knowledge, that distinguish the individual, and direct the laws which bind society: and that from the exercise of reason, knowledge and virtue naturally flow, is equally undeniable, if mankind be viewed collectively.

The rights and duties of man thus simplified, it seems almost impertinent to attempt to illustrate truths that appear so incontrovertible: yet such deeply rooted prejudices have clouded reason, and such spurious qualities have assumed the name of virtues, that it is necessary to pursue the course of reason as it has been perplexed and involved in error, by various adventitious circumstances, comparing the simple axiom with casual deviations.

Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they cannot trace how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves. Yet the imperfect conclusions thus drawn, are frequently very plausible, because they are built on partial experience, on just, though narrow, views.

QED. 

Thanks and love,

Full Spectrum Mama

P.S. Here's a video of a recent talk I gave on The #ActuallyAutistic Guide to Advocacy!

SCHOOL TESTING, 2023

When my co-author and I committed to writing back-to-school posts as part of our #ActuallyAutistic book outreach with Jessica Kingsley Press/Hachette, I literally could not think of a better back-to-school message to uplift families than one about the glories of schools welcoming and celebrating our children exactly as they are. 

This post was originally meant to apply to the kinds of testing that children undergo during the U.S. IEP (individualized education plan) process, but it has resonated over the years with parents, educators, and students from all over dealing with standardized testing in general.  

And so, without further ado, here is "School Testing," a personal favorite--and my most read post of all time...:  

Dear Persons,

This spring, I received the voluminous results of a huge barrage of testing for my son G’s three-year evaluation for his IEP (individualized education plan). Among many, many, many other outcomes, I was informed that G had scored under the first percentile in “Irony.”

Although we have had him on a strict Monty Python/Austin Powers program for some time, and the kid has a fantastic sense of humor, we realize that perhaps he may well be lacking in “Irony.” Like many individuals who don’t fit the typical “norms” or test “average” in many areas,   G excels (sometimes extraordinarily) in some areas and is less skilled (sometimes remarkably so) in others.

In my experience, these sorts of test results--lower than expected, very uneven--are actually “normal” for many people on the autism spectrum, people with ADHD, people with sensory processing differences, people who are neurodivergent and/or disabled and/or differently-abled and/or quirky and/or don’t care about testing...

Just once, though, I’d like to receive some test results along the following lines:

Dear Dr. Full Spectrum Mama,

Here are our test results for your accepted-just-as-he-is child.

G scored in the 70^th percentile for “Telling Bad Jokes.” Although we found that his jokes were generally pretty lame, and noted, significantly, that he was almost always the only one laughing at said jokes, his score was slightly lower because he at times did in fact stop telling jokes, especially when asked to “stop repeating that joke which we have already heard seven times.” Still, this is a respectable “Telling Bad Jokes” score, and something he should feel good about.

We noted several areas of growth. G’s “Confidence in the Face of a Lot of Really Daunting Obstacles” outcome has improved by 50 percentage points – to the 88^th percentile - since he was last evaluated in his former school where he was getting bullied. Also improved were his ratings in “Zipping Pants” (up by 20, to 61^st percentile), “Blowing Nose Rather Than Just Letting Snot Drip Down” (up by 15, to 56^th), and “Overall Executive Function” (up by 3, to 4^th).

His “Amazing Metaphorical/Metaphysical Insights Not Necessarily Appreciated by Peers but Mind-Blowing for Adults” score remains very high (92^nd percentile), as corroborated by many of his teachers in the narrative portion of the evaluation; while the closely-related “Willingness to Write It Down According to Assignment, Dangit” score remains alarmingly low (5^th percentile).  

We would also like to raise some concerns around the fact that G’s “Remembering School Stuff” score of 8^th percentile does not seem to match his remarkable achievements in the areas of “Remembering How Many Days I Have Been Dating ___ “ (98^th percentile), or “Remembering the Tiniest Details About Every Pokemon, Ever” (99^th percentile) -  even with a 10% margin of error.

His IEP should reflect the need for accommodation in the former area, yet also take into account the possibility that G may have an asymmetrical range of priorities specific to his own...priorities.

Some of his strongest scores were in “Wonderfulness” (85^th percentile; this score was mitigated by “Teenage Rote Sullenness” [45^th]); “Interest in Girls” (98^th percentile; this test is administered according to self-reported sexual preference and controls for Trying-to-act-like-you-are-not-thinking-about-____-All.The.Time); and “Thinking About Pokemon” (90^th percentile; down nine points from previous score - possibly offset by “Interest in Girls”). “Knowing the Names of Pixies, David Bowie, Nirvana, and Red Hot Chili Peppers Songs,” at 65^th percentile, was also solidly above average. 

He should continue to build on these strengths.

Although he scored just above average in “Teenage Boy Flatulence” (58^th percentile), when measured against the general population G’s gassiness was easily in the top 10%.

Most importantly, for being unfailingly kind and polite (even thankful!) to our extensive testing staff, and for countless other reasons, G scored off the charts (above the 99^th percentile!) in “Being Himself.”

Congratulations,

The Testing People

Love,

Full Spectrum Mama

BOOOOOOOOOOK!

Dear Persons,

 

I hope this finds you cozy and well despite these challenging times.

As Madeline, Judy, Celeste, and I convened for the first time 10 years ago (this month!) to discuss our initial writing group submissions, we could not have imagined what we would all go through in the following decade—or the world we would live in today.

 

Nor would I have dared to dream that the wee blog I began that day would grow to have hundreds of thousands of readers interested in neurodiversity...and ultimately result in a book collaboration that means the world to me. 

 

I'm over the moon to let you know that my first book with Jenna Gensic, The #ActuallyAutistic Guide to Advocacy: Step-by-Step Advice on How to Ally and Speak Up with Autistic People and the Autism Community, is available for pre-order here. 

 

Please stay tuned for more release information and reach out (my email is jineffable@gmail.com) if you'd like to help spread this book's message. We believe this text will serve Autistic people themselves, as well as families, educators, therapists, caregivers, friends, partners, employers, and anyone else who'd like to know more about Autistic perspectives.

 

In addition, we've begun work on our second book, The #ActuallyAutistic Guide to Teen and Young Adult Advocacy and Activism: Step-by-Step Advice for Autistic Youth and Those Who Care About Them. 

 

We're asking all interested Autistic teens and young adults to fill out our survey. Here are the links if you fit this demographic or know anybody who does (please only fill out one version):

 

SHORT survey: https://forms.gle/qKRmuAVsCCwEAF4A9

LONG survey, for people who really like writing: https://forms.gle/FYhmxMmvoYWpcX1e7

 

Thank you so much for being a part of this journey to spread inclusion and awareness!

Love,

Full Spectrum Mama

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The #ActuallyAutistic Guide to Advocacy

by Jenna Gensic

Giveaway ends April 30, 2022.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING (Big news and a SURVEY!!!!)

Dear Persons,

I hope this post finds you well.

 

And it may not have found you as it usually would, as the app that sent out my posts to subscribers stopped working with Blogger. If you’re here and would like to be notified of future posts, try the new subscribe button at upper right. I don’t know how these functions work, but I didn’t understand the old one either. I’m just hoping it will work for you! With almost 300K readers, FSM has been a success beyond my wildest dreams, at least in the connection department (still waiting for the enormous financial windfall so typical of personal blogs about family and differences…). 

 

Lots of other news in Full Spectrum Land. I do hope to have some new substantive posts in the coming months but for now:

 

1.     My first book about neurodiversity is coming out on 2/21/2022. Written in collaboration with Jenna Gensic of the Learn From Autistics blog, The #ActuallyAutistic Guide to Advocacy: Step-by-step advice on how to ally and speak up with Autistic individuals and the autism community integrates more than a hundred interviews with Autistic people to offer guidance to anyone looking to thoughtfully, respectfully, effectively self-advocate, or advocate/ally with Autistic people. 

 

Both Temple Grandin and John Elder Robison have already endorsed the book!!!! I’m over the moon. I’ll get a link up here when it’s available for advance purchase. You’ll also be able to contact the publishers for review copies. WOOT.

 

 

2.     We’ve begun work in earnest on BOOK TWO!!!! This book will cover many of the same advocacy themes but from a teen and young adult perspective, with a special focus on BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and other intersectional perspectives. 

 

To that end, we are looking for Autistic teens and young adults to fill out our survey, so that we can include the broadest range of voices possible. By the way, we consider self-diagnosis completely valid. If you or anyone you know fits the demographic (that is, ANY Autistic teen or young adult), please click ****here****. 

Feel free to forward this survey link to anyone who might be interested. Please also note that the survey is long. Take your time, use the save/cut-and-paste options if helpful, and absolutely feel free to skip questions that don’t interest or relate to you. The ONLY required question is contact info.

 

Our survey was designed and is being disseminated with the brilliant and powerful young folks at Detester Magazine. 

 

Here are some links to find out more about it:

 

·      Instagram survey post 

 

·      Instagram podcast post 

 

·      Facebook survey post

 

·      Facebook podcast post 

 

Thanks and love,

Full Spectrum Mama