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We build our expectations for birth and pregnancy from childhood; birth stories pervade our culture, from TV and movies to baby dolls. My own life always included lovely retellings of my birth, at home, peaceful and perfect. The trouble is that fear pervades...
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Today’s guest post is an excerpt from The Digital Mystique: How the Culture of Connectivity Can Empower Your Life—Online and Off by Sarah Granger. The summer of 2005 found me in a distressing place. I was on vacation in London with my husband—and...
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This is a short post to wish all of you a happy holiday and New Year. Adam and I have had such a wonderful year – his wish now to write a book and all that progress with his typing. Finally out of the clutches of autism schools that haven’t...
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Thanks to everyone who submitted something to share with other survivors for this month’s carnival! This month, I decided to repeat a theme that the carnival has had before, change, for my own personal reasons. As it turns out, the very day that...
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I’m going to be hosting the monthly Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse here this month. Since this is a month where I am facing some big changes in life, including moving across the country at the end of it, I thought why not look into the topic...
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A few weeks back, Patricia wrote about being an advocate, and being accused of being “stuck in victim mode” because she continued to talk about child abuse. It’s something that I’ve been thinking about too. Part of that thought...
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I think many parents will agree that one of the most challenging things for families with autistic children are outings. Adam’s anxiety and repetitive activities increase over his perceived threats and fear of change; he will need to check out the...
Posted to
The Joy of Autism
by
Estée Klar
on
03-21-2014
Filed under:
Filed under: Anxiety, Inclusion, communication, Obsessions, Autistic Self Advocacy, Travel, Sensory Differences, Transitions, Safety, Parenting, Autism Theories, Behaviours, Wandering, ABA, Language, Community, Living, seizures, Intelligence, Aides and Assistants, Accessibility
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There are times when you have to just stop everything. Adam has required it…his school has required it. A focus on Adam’s typing and adaptations in school have alas been paying him dividends. Despite his want for escape, screaming and bolting...
Posted to
The Joy of Autism
by
Estée Klar
on
03-17-2014
Filed under:
Filed under: Adam, Anxiety, Inclusion, communication, Obsessions, Sensory Differences, Advocacy, Transitions, Wandering, Movement Disturbance, Community, Living, Intelligence
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Darby being awesome! I hope all of our readers have enjoyed all of our regular posts, but you might not know that Scott, Travis Martin, Michelle Monte, and myself all spend a lot of our time helping others tell their own stories. Writing helps us a lot so we try and take time to help others do the same...
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There are days when I feel so grateful for the support Adam and I receive from the team, friends and family. My university is so supportive of our needs as well, allowing me a leave so I can lesson-plan for Adam and train him more in language and typing...
Posted to
The Joy of Autism
by
Estée Klar
on
12-18-2013
Filed under:
Filed under: Anxiety, Critical Disability Studies, Inclusion, Acceptance, Joy, communication, Inspiration, Behaviours, school, Language, Community, Intelligence, Academia
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Adam types, mostly independently, and also with various modes of assistance. Of late, he has developed his grammatically perfect sentences and I have to wonder about teaching the system of language. To most, this should be a heralded moment when Adam...
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We met Mark this year; he was so sweet to Adam. Mark also wrote the script for this movie I Am In Here. Mark answered many questions after the filming of this, and Adam listened. Thank you everyone for your hard work. I believe we are getting to know...
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The end of the day of Adam healing from the croup and us both watching repeats of Wretches & Jabberers for my thesis. Adam can’t help laughing at the scenes of Naoki jumping up and down to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee –...
Posted to
The Joy of Autism
by
Estée Klar
on
05-28-2013
Filed under:
Filed under: Activism, Adam, Critical Disability Studies, Writing, Autism and Intelligence, communication, Advocacy, Politics, Computing/iPad, Community, Living
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I’m writing my thesis and am hankering to blog – so many things on my mind with the recent Ontario budget proposal, the ever-so teensy weensy allowance for an individual on ODSP to take home a couple hundred bucks a month and the way we may...
Posted to
The Joy of Autism
by
Estée Klar
on
05-09-2013
Filed under:
Filed under: Activism, Autism and Learning, Critical Disability Studies, Autism and Intelligence, Acceptance, communication, autism, Advocacy, Politics, Organizations/Events, Ableism, Language, Community, Charity, The Autism Acceptance Project
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How can The Toronto Star and by many autism charities address the diverse needs and views of the autism community? My concern is that there is little (if not any) of critical disability perspectives. Typically, journalists run to autism “experts”...