I am shocked, they used word "normal"!

[lisad123isasnuttyasaboxoffrogs]

I am on a course by Hanen for parents of children with ASD.
This week, they were showing us the way children with ASD are unable to refocus as NT children are.
There was moving pics, and it kept flashing, normal child, child with ASD, normal child, child with ASD, normal child and so on.
I am shocked they chose to use these words am I over reacting??

I suppose normal is really a term meaning within the normal distribution of development (whatever that is ) but think it now has a more emotive connotation. I use normal sometimes to describe ds2 but probably wouldn't call ds1 abnormal

No- it's certainly not a word I would ever use- and what the heck is 'normal' anyway

OMG, I went on a Hanen course and I never saw that. I would have picked up on immediately. Different PCT from you though.

Blimey.

Is the material FROM Hanen?

I saw that too - but got the impression it was not from Hanen itself but something different - not sure why I thought that though

I don't know that you aren't over-reacting. A definition of normal:
"conforming with or constituting an accepted standard, model, or pattern; esp., corresponding to the median or average of a large group in type, appearance, achievement, function, development, etc.; natural; usual; standard; regular"

So they were showing you (presumably) what the median/average child in a group of all children could do, compared to what an ASD child could do. So what is standard amongst most of the children in the country and how that differs to ASD children. I think normal in that sense is fair enough.

If they'd used the word "abnormal" my heckles might have started to rise, as that has horrible connotations.

Yes that's what i meant too - probably should have been definitely in my last sentence, abnormal sounds terrible whereas normal could just be a stats term.

I do think that 'normal' is a standard term. My DD1 definitely isn't 'normal'. Her reactions, her interpretations, her emotions. You can dress it up any way you like, but it isn't what you would 'normally' expect of a 5 year old, no matter how 'quirky' their personality.

every professional I've had contact with has used typical/atypical I think most realise that normal/abnormal is stigmatising. I wouldn't be happy with normal/ASD.

I suppose they are saying 'normal' because its very lumbering to keep repeating neuro typical or normally developing child. I kept repeating normally developing child when talking about DGS, in the end I just said 'sod it, normal! He has CP and CP isn't normal than goodness.

In the context it was used it was acceptable, in the context of - (supermarket outing) 'that childs not normal!' NO thats NOT acceptable!

I can see that saying "neurotypical" all the time might be cumbersome.

but I htink that "typical" is a lot more acceptable in this situation thn "normal"

I prefer 'typically developing' rather than neurotypical personally. I think it is more accessible and friendly than neurotypical which you only learn about when you have a child who isn't!

It's the part of the course where they did a test on children and had three screens with flashing lights in different ways, it's part of the more thAn words course and yes was Hanen material.
Willow are we on same course?

Gosh there was nothing like that on ITT hanen course

Normal is a washing machine setting

It's certainly not a hanging offence but probably would have been kinder to the sensibilities of their audience to have said 'typical'. I think its worth having a quiet word lisa at the end of the course (or writing afterwards) to point this out to them.

I definitely saw the flashing lights and how children react video - was 2 years ago now though. It was 'More Than Words' Hanen. I don't remember how the children were described on our course.

We raised it straight away with salt who is taking the course, me and another mum and they said to write to Hannan.
I guess I thought they would gave consider this given target group!

Oh dear - am doing a course on understanding autism at the moment, and the first chapter of textbook went through all the "acceptable terminology", as used by NAS etc. I must admit I kind of humphed to myself because I quite often refer to ds2 as "normal" when discussing ds1 and his asd. NT just seems so cumbersome and pc somehow. I wouldn't stand for ds1 being referred to as abnormal though, and thinking about it, I would prefer NT or the like to be used in any official documents or discussions. Am off to have a reconsider to myself.

I tend to use the word typical as a contrast, highlighting that my kids are different from most children, but they're not wrong. They way they are is also normal for them, so I'd rather not imply that they're not normal.

I;ve accidentally used it whilst thinking 'shut teh f up Peachy' ; not becuase I don;t understand it but because my nmouth brain link never really worked. I was trying to say neurotypical.

However repeated use in this environment- nah. Not on.

But then I sat a job test run by the Government the otehr day that repeatedly described council estates as 'rough' and thought WTF at that too.