Cynthia Kim's Blog, page 10
November 1, 2013
Autistic as a Reclaimed Word
Most adults on the spectrum prefer to be called autistic, rather than a person with autism or a person who has autism. The general consensus is that autism is not a separable entity. To be “with” something or to “have” something implies that we might somehow be able to rid ourselves of that thing and […]
October 29, 2013
Hovering on the Fringe
My apartment building is testing the alarm system so I’m at the park today, sitting at a picnic table, writing. It’s a beautiful day and the park had been deserted until a few moments ago when a group of kids on a field trip showed up to eat lunch at the picnic tables and play […]
October 24, 2013
The Myth of Passing
Autism is often a hidden disability. There is no universally visible signifier–no mobility aid that we all use, no assistive technology or service animal or language common to all or even most autistic people. While many of us use assistive technology, many others go through our days–our lives–passing for nondisabled. Or do we? If you’re […]
October 22, 2013
Rules to Live By
Back when I first started reading about ASD, I came across David Finch’s “Journal of Best Practices.” If you haven’t read it, all you need to know is that after being diagnosed with Asperger’s he started keeping a journal filled with social rules (best practices) that he wanted to remember. What a great idea, I […]
October 17, 2013
Diagnosis Barriers for Autistic Women and Girls
I’m very excited to announce that I’ve been invited to contribute monthly articles to the Autism Women’s Network. My first piece,Hiding in Plain Sight: Diagnosis Barriers for Autistic Women and Girls, was posted today. Thank you to everyone who shared their stories last month. It turned out that your answers to my questions were more […]
October 15, 2013
Asking for Help
I’ve never been good at asking for help. A few memorable examples to help you understand how nonexistent my “asking for help” skills were as a kid: When I was five, I fell out of a tree that I was climbing and landed on my back. As you can imagine, I completely knocked the wind […]
September 25, 2013
What I Want
At the end of July I embarked on a 30-day experiment, the aptly-named “What Do I Want” experiment. My intention was to report back at the end of August with a neat little of summary of what I’d learned. Well. Initially, I thought “what do I want?” meant learning to identify my needs and desires. […]
September 23, 2013
Focusing on Assets, Building on Strengths
A few months ago, I watched a lecture by Sam Goldstein about resilience. At the start of his talk he mentioned how in Utah, teachers used to begin IEPs with a discussion of a child’s strengths. They’ve moved away from this in recent years because, as he put it, many teachers felt that listing what […]
September 18, 2013
Echolalia: That’s What She Said
When my daughter Jess was a toddler, we had a set of board books about the Disney Babies, which were the “baby” versions of Mickey, Minnie and Donald. Jess loved these books. For months, every night we had to read her the Disney Baby books at bedtime. The opening line of one of the books […]
September 16, 2013
Monday Morning Musings (9/16)
Giveaway Winner Congratulations to Tumblr usercaptain-irrayditation who is the winner of the weighted blanket giveaway. There were a ton of entries and I wish I was able to give every single person a weighted blanket. Hopefully there will be more giveaways in the not too distant future. Looking for Input from Women Who are Late/Mis/Un-Diagnosed […]
