That’s Not What You Said; That’s Not What I Meant

A couple has a fight. That fight sounds a bit like this.  “You said you were going to call the delivery company today,” says Sherry to John. Feeling accused, John […]

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COVID-19 Exposes Ableist Assumptions of Autistic Social Interaction

Many seem to think autistics are innately built or born for handling COVID-19’s regimen of sheltering in place and social distancing. There is this semi-truthful, semi-tongue-in-check notion that autistics must […]

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Safe Distance on the Neurohighway: Personal Space in Relationships

Personal space is typically defined in terms of physical space. Specifically, the area immediately surrounding a person. The size and permeability of this buffer varies per person - per nonautistic […]

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Navigating Neurohighways: A Road Atlas for Exploring Autistic/Neurotypical Relationships

Most autistics find themselves in some kind of relationship with nonautistics, whether by design or by circumstance. Both sides can like, love, laugh, and loathe engaging with a partner whose […]

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Parenting What Matters to Your Autistic Child

As a parent, you always hope that the things you teach your child will be meaningful when they are older; that they will look back on their childhood and appreciate […]

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COVID-19 Survival Kit for Autistics: 19 Tips to Maintain Your Mental and Physical Health

Autistics have waited for this moment their entire lives: Prescribed social distancing. The time has finally come! It just took an international pandemic for society to reevaluate the necessity of […]

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The Other Hidden Curriculum: Practical Strategies for Nonautistics Interacting with Autistics

The hidden curriculum refers to the unarticulated and unacknowledged rules, values, and behaviors people learn just by participating in society. Much has been made of the importance of teaching the […]

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Worth it at Any Age: Professional and Personal Perspectives on the Benefits of Autism Diagnosis in Adulthood

Almost weekly, I receive at least one email from an adult who suspects he or she might be autistic. The events that have preceded sending the email, though initially unknown […]

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Rejecting the Mask, Accepting the Autistic Self

Autistics are talking more and more openly about the masking they engage in to navigate their daily domination by neurotypicals. Neurotypical reactions to the “reveal” of autistic masking fall on […]

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Autistic is Not a Slur (And Other Things Autistics Want You to Know)

If you are not autistic, you know nothing that autistics want and need you to know. This list is supposed to help you, nonautistic. Want more? Search #ActuallyAutistic on Twitter.  […]

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“My Learner Profile” for Autistic College Students

I use this document with clients in college to help them examine their needs in the classroom. Additionally, I encourage clients to use this as a personal and practical introduction […]

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Mistakes by Autistics: Portals of Discovery, or Disaster?

“A man's mistakes are his portals of discovery.” With this statement, James Joyce presciently captured a now well-accepted self help axiom that positions mistakes as positive, beneficial, and character-building. Mistakes […]

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Think Autistics Lack Empathy? Typical, Neurotypical

“Often, empathy is absent.” Almost every autistic person alive has contradicted or negated this claim in some way, shape, or form. And, yet, neurotypicals have not fully realized their folly, […]

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Saying It and Meaning It: Autistics Versus Neurotypicals
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To Grieve Autism or Not To Grieve Autism…May Not Be the Actual Question

Grief is the acute and complex pain that accompanies loss. Grief follows the loss of something loved or valued, including a person or relationship, a companion animal or life-long dream, […]

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The Ugliness Behind the Mask

Many women on the spectrum mask during social interactions in order to survive. As the name indicates, masking is a hidden process that must happen internally. If it does not, […]

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Communicating with Autistics for Dummies: Tips for the Neurotypical
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What the RBF?

Back in May 2013, Broken People uploaded a parody PSA titled “Bitchy Resting Face” (BRF) on funnyordie.com. BRF “sufferers” displayed an angry, annoyed, irritated, bothered or contemptuous facial expression when […]

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Neurotypical Privilege & Autistic Drain

One of the most difficult concepts to properly explain to neurotypicals is how the events of the day — any routine, mundane day — greatly drain and debilitate the autistic. […]

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Self Diag-KNOW-sis in Autistic Women

Admit it. You have done it. You have googled a medical symptom (“blotchy red thing near my navel”) and panicked slightly as a rare and highly serious condition (“Staphylococcal scalded […]

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An Obit: Asperger’s Disorder (1994-2013)

Asperger’s Disorder, a lovable, socially awkward and at times misunderstood part of the autism spectrum, died in May 2013 due to complications related to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of […]

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