For anyone who hasn’t heard about the latest insult from Autism Speaks, see Stat Mama’s excellent review of their current piece of money-making, fear-mongering, bigoted, misleading, negative garbage video. For those of you who, like me, are easily provoked into day-long internal diatribes that go nowhere, give you a headache, and keep you up at night fuming upset, you might want to skip the video. Stat Mama’s review has enough quoted text to convince you that if you’ve been avoiding Autism Speaks videos like the plague, you should continue to do so.
Lucky for us, there are people on the Internet who have incredible blogs about their beautiful autistic kids. One of my new favorites is Mother of Shrek, written by the mom of C, a 21-year-old, nonverbal, autistic young man. In the course of reading this blog, I discovered a jewel. In addition to Mother of Shrek, C’s mom publishes a blog called Faces of Autism, on which she posts photos of autistic children and adults that her readers have sent in. On the right side of the page, there are even photographs of artwork by some of the folks in the pictures. The site is a labor of love, and it makes my heart sing every time I stop by.
Yesterday, I sent in a photo of myself, along with a picture of one of my mobiles. I’m pretty sure that I’m the oldest person on the site now, but I wouldn’t mind any of you one-upping me. C’s mom is happy to use only first names or even first initials to protect your privacy, and you can write a little blurb to go with the photo, too.
The positive images on Faces of Autism are a welcome relief from the work of Autism Speaks. I hope you’ll take a look.
© 2009 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg
Great pic of you. What book did oyu publish in 2007? I wan tto read it!!! I know you sent me an email btw I have been too out of it to respond!! I did appreciateit I will respond! Hopefully after I make somedinner. Kate
Hi Kate,
I wrote a book about my elderly friend Francis, who grew up and raised his family on a local farm. The book is called “A Sense of Place: The Story of the Williams Family Farm.” Francis passed in February of 2007, but he was quite taken by the idea that someone would want to write a book about his life! He was a very shy, modest person.
That’s a lovely, positive site. Nice pic of you, and I love your mobile! How did you make it?
Thanks, Misfit. If you want to see an earlier version of the mobile, with some information about how I made it, see http://www.aspergerjourneys.com/2009/03/15/creating-art-from-found-objects/.
That group should call itself Autism Shrieks.
John: Excellent!
Thank you. Great to have you on board!
Autism speaks was recommended to me when I found out my son was diagnosed. But I’ll tell you, I never could follow it, and I sought my own path about what fit my life. Granted, it’s only been a mere four months since my son’s diagnosis of Autism, but you knew me, you’d know that’s a lifetime in what I can/will learn compared to some. (IE on top of everything else, I am taking 3 BS level courses this term, Exceptional Children, the Psychology of Learning and Cognition, and Developmental Psychology).
Anyway, that little peice of background history behind me, in hindsight, I can see where my son was autistic since birth, or at the very least had sensory processing disorder. He needed constant movement to sleep, or to nurse. It was one or the other, he was not happy otherwise. He wouldn’t lay down to sleep, as a newborn! I’ve since started my own grassroots campaign to encourage lactation professionals to learn to recognize sensory issues in infants. I know I did my very best in making it 7 months of breastfeeding, but there aren’t many people as stubborn as I. (I quit when he bit through my nipple, ouch!)
Anyway, I believe that with autism the best answer for now is no answer. I’m taking multi-modal approaches in helping my son, just like I do with my own health.
I understand some of the thinking for seeking blame for what is considered an epidemic now. But when evidence denies the existence of a link between autism and vaccinations, why continue to push it? How does the vaccination camp explain that fragile x syndrome is the highest known cause of autism, and is GENETIC, how do they explain chromosone 16 and 22 deficiencies?
Anyway, I believe this. There is no autism epidemic, instead there are other factors at work here. 1. The definition of autism spectrum disorders has expanded dramatically due to the lumping of several seperate disorders that respond well to the same therapies. 2) I think we’re all a little autistic. 3. As much as this may sound distasteful, bear in mind that as late as the 60s we were steralizing people who displayed mental illness. We have since recognized their reproductive rights, but what impact is this having on the next generations.
Ok..this is your blog and I had a long enough diatriabe.
Thanks for reading!
oh I just read this article too, autism speaks pulled it.
http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2009/10/02/autism-speaks-apology/5624/
Wow, that’s great. The video is still on their YouTube channel, but they’ve otherwise pulled it. Thanks for the link, Melissa!
[...] Autism Speaks from my mom. She described it as a “fear-mongering, bigoted, misleading” (source) company that depicts autistic people as “less than human” and “a burden on [...]