We're Not Broken

Author: Eric Garcia
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 1328587843
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 309

Book Description
"This book is a message from autistic people to their parents, friends, teachers, coworkers and doctors showing what life is like on the spectrum. It's also my love letter to autistic people. For too long, we have been forced to navigate a world where all the road signs are written in another language." With a reporter's eye and an insider's perspective, Eric Garcia shows what it's like to be autistic across America. Garcia began writing about autism because he was frustrated by the media's coverage of it; the myths that the disorder is caused by vaccines, the narrow portrayals of autistic people as white men working in Silicon Valley. His own life as an autistic person didn't look anything like that. He is Latino, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, and works as a journalist covering politics in Washington D.C. Garcia realized he needed to put into writing what so many autistic people have been saying for years; autism is a part of their identity, they don't need to be fixed. In We're Not Broken, Garcia uses his own life as a springboard to discuss the social and policy gaps that exist in supporting those on the spectrum. From education to healthcare, he explores how autistic people wrestle with systems that were not built with them in mind. At the same time, he shares the experiences of all types of autistic people, from those with higher support needs, to autistic people of color, to those in the LGBTQ community. In doing so, Garcia gives his community a platform to articulate their own needs, rather than having others speak for them, which has been the standard for far too long.

Naming Adult Autism

Author: James McGrath
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1783480424
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
Naming Adult Autism is one of the first critiques of cultural and medical narratives of Autism to be authored by an adult diagnosed with this condition. Autism is a ‘social disorder’, defined by interactions and lifestyle. Yet, the expectations of normalcy against which Autism is defined have too rarely been questioned. This book demonstrates the value of the Humanities towards developing fuller understandings of Autistic adulthood, adapting theory from Adorno, Foucault and Butler. The chapters expose serious scientific limitations of medical assumptions that Autistic people are gifted at maths but indifferent to fiction. After interrogating such clichés in literature, cinema and television, James McGrath also explores more radical depictions of Autism via novels by Douglas Coupland, Margaret Atwood, Clare Morrall and Meg Wolitzer, plus poems by Les Murray and Joanne Limburg. Follow this link to see James McGrath in conversation with Kelly-Anne Watson at Leeds Beckett University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQOotRZRzv4 Follow this link to view a content breakdown of the above interview: https://www.academia.edu/36406389/Naming_Adult_Autism_A_Conversation_winter_2017_ Follow this link to read a 'Seeking Sara' blog interview with James: https://seekingsara174.wordpress.com/2018/08/19/639/

Trauma, Autism, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Author: Jason M. Fogler
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030005038
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 295

Book Description
This book examines the diagnostic overlap and frequent confusion between the newly named DSM-5 diagnostic categories of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), which include autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and trauma and stressor related disorders (TSRDs). These conditions are similar in that a) children with developmental disorders are particularly vulnerable to traumatic events and b) all have pervasive effects on the brain and development. Chapters provide a wealth of effective clinical, family, and school-based interventions, developed from established studies and important new findings. In addition, chapters use illustrative case studies to survey assessment challenges in today’s healthcare climate and consider alternative routes for improving correct diagnoses, identifying appropriate interventions, and referring proper targeted, evidence-based treatment and services. The book concludes with the editors’ recommendations for needs-based service access, including a more widespread use and acceptance of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) framework. Topics featured in this book include: The neurobiological contributors to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) and its diagnosis in children with a history of trauma. Interventions for trauma and stressor-related disorders in preschool-aged children. Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis and care in a cultural context. Special population consideration in ASD identification and treatment. Challenges associated with the transition to adulthood. Trauma and neurodevelopmental disorders from a public health perspective. Trauma, Autism, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians and related professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, public health, social work, pediatrics, and special education.

Uncanny Bodies

Author: Scott T. Smith
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271086300
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Book Description
Superhero comics reckon with issues of corporeal control. And while they commonly deal in characters of exceptional or superhuman ability, they have also shown an increasing attention and sensitivity to diverse forms of disability, both physical and cognitive. The essays in this collection reveal how the superhero genre, in fusing fantasy with realism, provides a visual forum for engaging with issues of disability and intersectional identity (race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality) and helps to imagine different ways of being in the world. Working from the premise that the theoretical mode of the uncanny, with its interest in what is simultaneously known and unknown, ordinary and extraordinary, opens new ways to think about categories and markers of identity, Uncanny Bodies explores how continuums of ability in superhero comics can reflect, resist, or reevaluate broader cultural conceptions about disability. The chapters focus on lesser-known characters—such as Echo, Omega the Unknown, and the Silver Scorpion—as well as the famous Barbara Gordon and the protagonist of the acclaimed series Hawkeye, whose superheroic uncanniness provides a counterpoint to constructs of normalcy. Several essays explore how superhero comics can provide a vocabulary and discourse for conceptualizing disability more broadly. Thoughtful and challenging, this eye-opening examination of superhero comics breaks new ground in disability studies and scholarship in popular culture. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Sarah Bowden, Charlie Christie, Sarah Gibbons, Andrew Godfrey-Meers, Marit Hanson, Charles Hatfield, Naja Later, Lauren O’Connor, Daniel J. O'Rourke, Daniel Pinti, Lauranne Poharec, and Deleasa Randall-Griffiths.

The Politics of Autism

Author: Dr. Bryna Siegel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199361010
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 484

Book Description
The Politics of Autism investigates the truths and fictions of public understanding about autism, questioning apparent realities too sensitive or impolitic to challenge. Is there really more autism? How has the count expanded by diagnosing autism over other conditions? Have scientific methods in autism diagnosis gone hand-in-hand with autism increases? Are mild autism cases really a 'disorder,' rather than personality variant? Can autism be quiescent in childhood but truly first recognizable in adulthood? Why does popular media often portray people with autism as odd geniuses ignoring the kind of autism most have? Siegel tackles thorny issues and perennial questions: How do we weigh likely treatment gains with treatment costs? Why does our autism education persist in teaching academic subjects some never master? Why do we fail to plan realistically for autistic adulthood? Which parents get caught up in non-mainstream 'treatments' and fear of vaccines? Readers will see an insider's view of controversies in autism research. Siegel's views, sometimes iconoclastic, always frank and informed, challenge broad unexamined assumptions about our understanding of autism. Each chapter addresses different issues, data, and social policy recommendations. A chapter-by-chapter bibliography with URLs provides both popular media and scientific references.

Sensemaking and Neuroaesthetics

Author: James Hutson
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031580451
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description

Library Programming for Autistic Children and Teens

Author: Amelia Anderson
Publisher: American Library Association
ISBN: 0838938051
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
Foreword by Barbara Klipper Since the first edition of this landmark guide was published, there has been increased interest in services for library patrons on the autism spectrum; indeed, more people of all ages now self-identify as autistic. Those who understand the unique characteristics of autistic young people know that ordinary library programming guides are not up to the task of effectively serving these library users. Well qualified to speak to this need, Anderson is an educator, library researcher, and former public librarian who has helped to develop two IMLS funded initiatives that train library workers to better understand and serve autistic patrons. Here, she offers librarians who work with children and teens in both public library and K-12 educational settings an updated, comprehensive resource that includes an updated introduction to the basics of autism, including language, symbolism, and best practices in the library rooted in the principles of Universal Design; step-by-step programs from librarians across the country, adaptable for both public and school library settings, that are cost-effective and easy to replicate; contributions from autistic self-advocates throughout the text, demonstrating that the program ideas included are truly designed with their preferences in mind; suggestions for securing funding and establishing partnerships with community organizations; and many helpful appendices, with handy resources for training and education, building a collection, storytimes, sensory integration activities, and a “Tips for a Successful Library Visit” template.

Challenging Psychiatry’s Reliance on the Disease Model

Author: Digby Tantam
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040110436
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
This volume critiques and challenges the use and promotion of the disease model in psychiatry, arguing that its misconceived approach prevents the preferred disablement model from becoming the default method to understand mental health conditions, including schizophrenia. Featuring first-hand experiences as well as qualitative and quantitative findings, the book posits that mental illnesses are an expression of disablement, not disease, and that the alternative disablement approach (already being applied in the psychiatry of neurodevelopmental disorders but applicable to mental illness, too) allows for greater dignity and autonomy for the patient, collaboration between medical professionals, a replacement of categorical approaches with more appropriate dimensional ones, and a liberation from the restrictive idea of a ‘cure’. The initial chapters of the book summarize the now overwhelming evidence that the disease model is flawed, as is the simplistic materialism that psychiatry has built around the concept of the brain as a kind of standalone biological computer. The later chapters consider the currently existent alternatives to the disease model and put forward the evidence for a psychiatry based on the person, as described by the philosopher Heidegger among others. This volume will appeal to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in clinical psychiatry, mental health research, and psychotherapy. Psychologists and clinicians active in research or teaching in mental health will also benefit from this volume.

The Autism of Gxd

Author: Ruth M. Dunster
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725268353
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 441

Book Description
The Autism of Gxd: An Atheological Love Story is truly a love story—the story of Ruth Dunster’s autistic search for an authentic, personal, and theological “Gxd.” In this, it resembles Augustine’s Confessions, as a theological autobiography. It becomes atheological, however, as Dunster reckons with what Denys Turner terms “The Darkness of God.” This awareness leads her through the poetry of Medieval mystics to the mythic “death of God” theology of Thomas J. J. Altizer. The search for faith is nonetheless very real in this strange territory. Dunster hears her autistic Gxd speaking in art, poetry, novels, and music; and this further leads her into the territory of Literature, Theology, and the Arts, where, in Blanchot’s words, “the answer is the poem’s absence.” Indeed, Dunster calls the book “a strange poem, or even a hymn.” Weaving an autistic mythology out of a rigorous survey of clinical autism, this book abounds in challenge and paradox. It offers a fascinating view into how an autistic poet becomes a theologian; and what more mainstream theologies might learn from this “disabled Gxd.”

Affect, Animals, and Autists

Author: Marla Carlson
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472053825
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Book Description
Explores the emotional responses of audiences to neurodiverse characters and non-human animals on stage to question the boundaries of the human