Cynthia Kim's Blog, page 9

Uncooperative Words and Where I Go From Here

Something strange is going on in my brain. Aside from the usual strangeness, I mean, which I’m quite used to. Back in March I wrote about my missing word problem. Over the past few months, I’ve developed some funky new issues with writing: The missing words are no longer just small words like a or […]

Gender and Autism: A Preliminary Survey Post

I’ve been planning to write about gender and autism for a while now. Months ago, I wrote a personal reflection piece. It got two emphatic thumbs down in beta, so I let it languish in my drafts folder. Then, after some feedback from commenters here, I decided I would write a more informative companion post […]

Do We Need a Female Diagnostic Model for Autism?

I’m sure you can guess what my answer to that question is. My post this month at Autism Women’s Network, Understanding the Gender Gap: Autistic Women and Girls,outlines some key ways in which autistic girls and women often don’t fit the traditional diagnostic models for autism and Asperger’s syndrome. In part, this is because the […]

Giveaway: Yay! Autistic Artists

It’s time for another giveaway and I have exciting news: There are 4 giveaway items, which means 4 winners! The giveaway is open to international readers too so everyone can enter this time. All of the giveaway items are made by autistic individuals. Thanks to Lei over at the Parenting Autistic Children with Love and […]

This is My Autism

Written for the This is Autism flashblog taking place today. I write a lot about the more challenging aspects of being autistic but not today. Today is about the awesomeness that is my autistic brain. When I read Suzanne Wright’s letter about Autism Speaks’s view of autism, I was shocked and angry. Again and again […]

Invisible

Before we get to today’s post, an announcement: As part of the avalanche of advocacy this week, there will be a flashblog on Monday, Nov 18th. You can find the info at “This is Autism” Flashblog. It’s open to autistic individuals, parents and allies and is accepting writing, video, graphic and comics submissions. On to […]

Practically Perfect in Every Way

Perfectionist. You’re such a perfectionist. Are you cringing after reading that? I am. Perfectionist is rarely used in a positive context. As a put down, it’s a polite stand-in for rigid, controlling, procrastinating, slow, nitpicky, paralyzed. Even when people try to use it in a positive context, it rarely casts a favorable light. “Your strengths? […]

Silence III: Intention

The Scientist and I have done another experiment. A twenty-four hour vow of silence. We began at noon on a Tuesday and finished at noon on Wednesday. The agreement was no spoken communication, but we would text if something urgent arose. The first couple of hours were odd. I’ve never been intentionally silent simply to […]

Silence II: Variation

I have more than one kind of silence. There is the very bad kind, the crushing kind. That one I could do without. There is also the heavy silence. I can force the words to come out, but each one is an effort, like lobbing boulders out of a pit. They land in the dirt […]

Silence I: Frustration

The first in a 3-part series on silence. * My silence is frustrating. For me. For others. I don’t mean the silence between the words, the comfortable kind, the long drive in the car, relaxed lunch in the park, playing video games for hours side-by-side on the couch, reading together kind of silence. Frustrating silence […]