The Autism Acceptance Month Week-long Celebration starts tomorrow!

April 24th through April 30th I will be posting daily autism-related content! While I will not be posting additional requested content during this week, feel free to send in asks and requests! I’ll be responding like usual, and I will start filling requests I receive after the celebration ends. 

This is your reminder to turn off notifications or block the celebration tag if you are not interested or do not want to be spammed! All content posted during this week will be tagged with #autism acceptance month. 

Advice originally about something else: it's always easier the second time around. When tutoring, I found it true that I would get more comfortable teaching a topic as more students asked me about it. (I tutored math for two quarters in college, but am not a teacher.)

Eureka Math has (almost) minute-by-minute scripts of their lessons, for free. It seems a lot of neurotypical teachers hate how inflexible the scripts are. It sounds like lesson scripts are just what you need. I don't know if they have scripts for their other textbooks, though.

Anyway, you don't have to be good. Just good enough. They were in their school's general college preparatory program. As a tutor, I just had to be better than the student's professor. Not even better at the subject matter. Just better at listening to their questions and understanding where their confusions are. Teaching strategies that include frequent quizzing/testing are meant to help with this.

Also, a quick little tip: if a student asks a question and doesn't seem helped with your answer, ask the class to answer the question. Usually another student had the same question/thought process already and can explain clearly. If not the answer, at least they can try to rephrase the question for you since, again, there's probably other students with the same question. This will help you keep the class moving instead of getting stuck on a question.

Are you trapped on tumblr right now?

Is there something you planned to do before you got trapped in the endless tumblr scroll?

Are you yelling at yourself to get up and do the thing, but you can’t, because you’re trapped in the endless tumblr scroll?

Consider this your save point.

Put tumblr down, stand up, stretch, and go do the thing you planned to do. Future you will be incredibly grateful.

Things people in the notes have been able to do thanks to this post:

I need y’all to know that you’re doing amazing, and I’m so glad that I was able to help you break out of a procrastination loop you did not want to be stuck in.

Hey, quick tip for messaging your neurodivergent and/or chronically ill pals:

If they do not respond to you right away or in a little while, please do not keep spamming them with messages until they respond. They could be dealing with a flare up or might be focused on something else atm. Texting and messaging people can also take a lot of energy, especially when we’re in pain, and if you keep adding message after message you’re making it more difficult for us to actually get back to you because you keep giving us more that we have to respond to.

I know it can feel this way, but when we temporarily “ignore” you (and I use that word very loosely) this does not mean we suddenly don’t love or care about you. We’re just fatigued, in pain, experiencing a mental block, etc. and we need extra time. Just give us a little breathing room, we’re already suffocating.

Neurotypical and able-bodied people are highly encouraged to reblog this, just don’t clown.

This happened two times today so I'm just gonna say it.

The other example that happened moments after:

If you don't tell me what to do or how to do it I'm not going to know or understand what you mean or what you want me to do. I really don't see how neurotypicals even do this because it makes no sense to me. Like if someone said "brush your hair" I'm not going to assume they meant "brush your hair, straighten it, then put it in a ponytail" now am I?

An autistic friend of mine just said this to me “The harder I work at communication the more people expect from me and the less they are willing to compromise.” and it is the most fucking heartbreaking thing I’ve heard.

This is very much a thing, though - and I’m sure people across the board with other disabilities can verify that it happens to them, too. People will turn any progress you make toward being “normal” - no matter how straining or difficult it is for you, no matter how little it actually helps you - as either inspiration porn, or proof that you don’t really need accommodations, you just need to “apply yourself! :)))))”

YUP

And they do NOT get that just because I can do something one day, doesn’t mean I can do it every day

Autistics Speak

This is painfully accurate

Look into them more. The stuff they have advocated for is straight evil. Suggestions genocide, claiming autism is both infections and a terminal illness. Plus more. They are like the Peta of people.

@mysteriouslyjoyfulfire

Saw someone with an “Autism Speaks” Shirt in my school…..in my school of all places, a FUCKING SCHOOL FOR THE DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED AND PHYSICALLY DISABLED 

All they do is silence us while claiming to speak for us. 

hey would anybody with autism (and who is touch hypersensitive) mind telling me how being touched affects your daily life? like... how does it feel when people touch you (maybe hugs or shoulder pats)?

im curious bc 1) I might have autism??? (still trying to figure that out) so I'd be interested in seeing if i relate and 2) I'm writing a character with autism who is touch sensitive so i wanna be accurate :)

Ok so, to me, being touched makes me feel very bad, a chill goes over my body and it's very uncomfortable, specially with light touch

Depending on how/by who/where I'm touched, I feel like I'm being violated and immediately start crying and shaking (maybe I have meltdowns? I'm still not good at defining it)

I'm very ticklish, idk if it had anything to do with it

Not all touch is bad, it really depends. For example, I like being hugged by people I trust. I like the pressure of a tight hug.

It quite affects my daily life as it's common for people to touch each other friendly in Brazil. People, specially adults, will hug me, touch my hair, tickle me etc. And because it's so common, people don't understand when I tell I don't want to be touched, and will think I'm just being rude. So most of the time I just have to endure the touch because I have no choice.

Going to the doctor is specially terrible, as doctors will have to touch you to see if you're okay.

I hope I haven't rambled too much! These are just my experiences as an autistic person

I can only handle being touched by people that I trust, but it has to be like, an actual touch. Like there needs to be pressure. When people just barely touch me or brush up against me it’s the worst feeling ever. Bad touches cause me to feel overwhelmed almost instantly and they start meltdowns pretty fast too.

Doctors don’t bother me all that much. I don’t like it when they touch me, but they do it ‘right’ so it’s not sensory hell.