to ask you to PLEASE teach your children about autism

[CrochetBelle]

Apparently 'autistic' is now being used as an insult by teenagers - who really should know better.

Do your children know what autism is? Autism is not 'sitting in a corner rocking'. Autism is not 'Sheldon Cooper'. Autism is a whole spectrum and affects people to varying degrees. It does affect people though. There is no such thing as mild autism.

Schools are continuously waving the 'autism accredited' flag these days, with mandatory training on ASD. Don't get me wrong, that's great progress, but when you ask them what they are teaching the children? Nothing.

There is a whole host of accurate, reliable information out there about autism, and what it means. Please make sure your children are aware. Ignorance is no excuse.

Was about to post this link to explain to the majority of adults what autism is. But someone else has! Will do so again.

the-art-of-autism.com/understanding-the-spectrum-a-comic-strip-explanation/

Also, I believe some are calling it Autistic Spectrum Condition rather than disorder. The NAS do in their texts. Disorder is quite negative.

Handy clickly link to share via fb etc.

www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asd.aspx

I believe high functioning autism is offensive to some as I'd not call myself high functioning neurotypical. Nor mild neurotypical.

The colour wheel image is extremely useful for underlying the complexity of the condition to people who tend to think of a linear spectrum line rather than this example.

arsed that's horrendous. I hope the charges were dropped. Have you tried to take it further with Police Complaints or your MP? Massive for you.

I really only joined this thread to point out that it was 4Chan and the type of people who don't care what their Mum's think that are driving this stuff. But it's been really eye opening to read the things you and Crochet have posted. to you too Crochet if you are reading.

They've suspended your account!?

What the heck?

@Eltonjohnssyrup I’ve got some kind of warning which stays on my record for 2 years or something, but I’m more angry that he wasn’t convicted for a hate crime, because by his own admission with a big smirk on his face he did it because my boy is autistic. I looked his mother in the face at that point and said “and you’ve the cheek to tell me it’s my child who is abnormal?” She laughed and said he was a freak too.
That’s one incident in 18 months, but there were many many others. My son has been spat on, verbally abused, had sweets taken from him and thrown in the road, eggs chucked at him, bottles of fizzy juice thrown at him.
The police do fuck all, the PF do fuck all, if we do anything to defend our child or speak out we are the ones who get punished.

@MNHQ as Dixie said, what about “This is my Child?” Where were you when Crochet was being goaded by posters skating just inside talk guidelines? Nowhere, as per fucking usual.

Sorry disappeared off this for the night.

@MNHQ are you serious?

No ones suggesting the posts were ok but it was discussed and agreed and everyone understood the route cause.

You are a HUGE patenting sight with a lot of influence. Why are you suspending posters who open a good debate (and I have to say for a thread about disablism this has gone well and I feel some people have been educated.

It would have been far better and far more in the spirit of the site for you to offer to support our campaign to raise awareness of disablist language and make it as unacceptable as racist language.

It would have been far better and far more in the spirit of the site for you to offer to support our campaign to raise awareness of disablist language and make it as unacceptable as racist language

Yes! Why isn’t this happening? Why is disablism rife on here, yet clearly you are happy to ban posters so why not the disablist posters? You are marginalising an enormous amount of your members by failing to act.

‘This is my child’ was the slick marketing ‘Look how sensitive and empathic we are’ campaign of the moment. I doubted its usefulness and the honesty of MNHQ when it was first mooted, and I have seen little high value impact and change as a consequence. Many of these campaigns strike me as the MN equivalent of a ticker tape, advertising without real depth.
I found the thing that really changed the attitude of bullying, victimising teens and encouraged them to consider and moderate their language around my DS was his high intelligence combined with explosive strength when attacked. So uncomplicated that even the complex, developing minds of teenagers could make the connection.

Yes zzzzz totally agree the post needed deleted.

We also studied social biology and non-verbal communication, which resulted in a series of lessons in how to loom. So some LS uses disablist language. DS would step within their comfort zone, look down and say ‘Say that again’ in a clear, precise and monotone voice.
Once he’d done it a couple of times and the LS has backed down straight away, it became one of his strategies. No violence, no aggression or touching and nothing to get my son in trouble.
Because that’s the other thing. Mock someone to the point of damaging their emotional well-being, self-harming, school avoidance and that’s just teen society and banter. Hit someone because of it, you are instantly the evil alien.

Hi all,

Thanks so much for your input - we do see what you're saying, and you're right, we were too harsh here - many apologies for making the wrong call.

Just to explain our rationale a bit, we don't ban off the back of one thread - there's always a bigger picture behind the scenes, and we do have to follow up sometimes. It's a really tricky line to tread, and we definitely don't always get things right - we are holding our hands up and taking ownership of this one.

We're going to mail you, @CrochetBelle, so please do check your inbox.

If anyone has any problems or wider concerns, just drop us a line at [email protected] or hit the report button and we'll address them.

Thanks

Good to see that Crochet has been reinstated. Does @MNHQ have any comment on the rest of the ideas to combat and challenge disablism?

Op your post would have been a lot more helpful if you had linked to various age appropriate resources.

I already teach my children not to call people names.

Oh good. I taught mine not to hit people who call him names, or those who use disablist and racist language. So that’s working out nicely.

@hibbledibble why is it OPs responsibility to provide links? Why is it the responsibility of the parent of the bullied child to educate, and not just standard for all parents to teach not to bully or use hate speech?

Well good to see MNHQ admit they were harsh in response.

Welcome back crochet when you arrive

This does annoy me. It's always our responsibility to educate. You know, when I found out my child might have autism, I did the research myself.When I want to learn more about something, I do the research.

How hard is it for people to type "autism" in the search line and hit "enter" and do a little looking around. Make the effort, people.

CrochetBelle, my DD is a teacher. Her policy is that if a child in her class has been bullied then everyone in the class is punished if they have witnessed it and done nothing to help. Initially parents kicked off "my child wasn't involved" but her view is if you don't intervene or go to an adult and tell them what is happening and who is doing it then you are culpable. Amazingly the whole issue stops within a couple of weeks at most as the kids who don't want to be labelled as bullies and kept in detention soon realise what they need to do.

Could you suggest this to the school?

@grannytomine that’s brilliant, it teaches responsibility to act against injustice which we could all learn from. I bet not many schools would have the courage to implement it though!