Spectrums in Life

Extra section related to:

Blossoming

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Life experiences, individual personality,
and choices and changes throughout life:

(A myriad of little and big things play complex roles in
an individual’s experiences and influence their life)

‘Autism’ is just one thing among many others.

1

• Specific configuration of neurological differences (cognition, communication, sensory perception, movement, interaction)

• The fact that the variation of abilities and inabilities is inconsistent

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2

• In which areas you choose to fuel your energy, maybe at the expense of other areas

• How you (choose to) perform in each context

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3

• How others think of, view, judge and treat you; how they react to, respond to and what they believe about your actions

• Social dynamics; discrepancy between reality and others’ misperceptions

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4

• How you change in response of others: your approach, response and reaction to situations

• If and how you choose to show/hide your skills, your (internal) struggles, and your needs – which may differ from other people

• How easy/hard it is for you to get/lose support; which types of support you get/need

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5

• Whether or not you know and/or disclose you are autistic; when you knew it (if you know it), and your life history before this; how you conceive the label of ‘autistic’

• Whether or not you have, choose to have, or seek a diagnosis

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6

• Demographic characteristics, identities, experiences:
  • gender (gender roles, trans/non binary, etc.), race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, parenthood, cultural surroundings, socioeconomic status, physical disability, etc.

• Stigma, discrimination, prejudice, underdiagnosis, expectations, portrayal, etc.

• How different characteristics combine with being autistic

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Based on an article by Elizabeth Bartmess

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Outside of Stereotypes

Extra section related to:

Blossoming

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[…] for every behaviour or response or trait that even we think of as being ‘typically’ autistic, we can find someone on the spectrum who doesn’t have it, or do it.

We come from both genders and the inter-gender, all races and nationalities and religions and sexualities, all classes and sub-sections of humanity, and all ages too […]

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. There are autistics, for instance, who are fine with eye contact, extroverted autistics who enjoy other people’s company […] and autistics […] who are comfortable with change and variety […]

There are autistics who have never had a meltdown, who are hypo-sensitive to sensory input, especially pain, whose stims are non-existent […] or non-obvious, who have no particular ‘special interests’, or who are hopeless with maths and/or technology, preferring the social sciences or the arts or just about anything but computers.

There are whimsical autistics, and those who are totally serious. […] There are autistics who can handle and even do sarcasm and metaphor, and those who can understand and use abstract or figurative language and/or philosophical concepts just fine.

And while many autistics struggle with friendships and/or relationships, choose not to try for them, or truly don’t want them, many others are able to build long-lasting connections with others […] There are also many autistics who have no problem with physical or verbal affection […]

There are even autistics who can read facial expressions […] Some of us [are] actually quite socially savvy, and some are just naturally ‘social beings’ […]

StrangerInGodzone

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Blossoming

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Popular saying:

If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism

Stephen Shore

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Autism […] involves varying levels of disability, depending on both the situation in which an individual is placed, and the expectations that are set.

Kirsten Lindsmith

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Just as neurotypical people aren’t uniformly skilled at everything, autistic people have varying levels of competence in different areas of our lives.

Cynthia Kim

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[…] you can be excellent at one thing and barely coping at another. We simply can’t make such a sweeping generalisation of someone’s ability to function.

Bec Oakley

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[…] There’s a related problem where autistic people will hear something from another autistic person, and assume that they have to be similar to that other autistic person.

Mel Baggs

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If you look around the autistic community you’ll see artists and computer programmers and teachers and writers and engineers and activists and baristas and stage managers and linguists and mathematicians and speech therapists and managers and social workers and scientists and athletes and musicians and poets and sales people and business owners and vet techs and moms and dads and grandparents and students […]

Cynthia Kim

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Many people outside the autism community don’t understand the breadth of the autism spectrum, or the effect experience, age, and environment has on our development.

Ashia Ray

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There is a whole spectrum of, very often,

reasonable [and relevant and meaningful] responses [and motivations] to unusual experiences

Partial quote, Elizabeth Bartmess

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Writing Autistic Characters: Behaviorizing vs. Humanizing Approaches

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Autistic people are sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, coworkers and employees, students and teachers, friends and relatives, neighbors and community members. […] Autistic people have different abilities, different needs, different interests, and different personalities.

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

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Autism doesn’t make us better than other people, and it doesn’t make us worse. We’re not subhuman, and we’re not superhuman. We’re just people.

Ruti Regan

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We’re autistic, we’re human, get used to it

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Think about it this way: is there a one-size-fits-all description that sums up what it means to be human? Of course not, but does that put anyone off trying to describe it? No; instead it inspires people to explore every aspect of the human condition, doing their best to unravel its mysteries in new and intriguing ways, in the hope of giving us a deeper understanding of who we are.

Helen Wallace-Iles

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Extras:

Outside of Stereotypes

Spectrums in Life