Neurodiversity

Thanks to my good friend Simran Garcia for the following quote and for bringing up this topic on Facebook.

“For my dear ND friends unfriend me or keep me after I say this because it needs to be said. You are ADULTS and you can make decisions for yourself. My son is a CHILD! How I care for him is MY decision because he is a CHILD! Yes I love him the way he is but he does not deserve to live a life full of asthma, allergies and brain and gut inflammation!!”

And for those of us with non verbal children I would add I am also my child’s voice and his advocate! If you are an adult and able to chose to like being Neuro Diverse, that is fine because you are able to advocate for yourself, but my child only has his parents for this!

For those of you reading this that are not familiar with the term ND or other terms there is definitions at the end of the blog.

This is a really touchy subject in the Autism community and it’s sad that it has to be. While I understand why High Functioning Adults maybe comfortable with how they are, I don’t understand how they feel the need to speak for all people with Autism. Especially children like Austin. When we started this journey 6 years ago our only concern was making Austin healthier and happier. He was awake 22 hours a day. In those 22 hours a day he spent the entire day spin in circles, coloring on paper, or running full force into the walls. He also had chronic loose stools. He thought of his parents and siblings no different then the couch or other household furniture. He also looked sick, his eyes were sunk in, and he had horrid black circles under them and his belly was extended. (Also see my husband's comment because he listed a whole bunch more that I had forgotten)

Turn the clock ahead 6 years and we have a completely different child. Do we have a recovered child or a NT child? What we have is a child with Autism who is no longer sick, who is so much healthier then he was then. He is also part of the world he lives in. He knows who we are and it is the most awesome experience to see his face light up when he recognizes someone or something he is familiar with. He is beginning to use a communication device. I know there may come a day when he decides to be part of the ND community. Until that time that he has the ability to communicate that desire, I feel it is not the place of the ND community to speak for my child.

I’d like to live in an Autism community that gets a long, but as long as my child does not have a voice, I will be his voice, I will be his advocate and I will ask the ND crowd to stop speaking for all people with Autism. You have the right and freedom to speak for yourself, but not for Austin Primer. It is my right as a parent to get my child as healthy as possible and to give him as many skills as I can to help him be a protective part of the world as an adult. Please respect those rights of parents of children with Autism.

Until next time my friends, PITAup and make the world a better place!!

Definitions:
Neurodiversity (or ND) is an idea which asserts that atypical (neurodivergent) neurological development is a normal human difference that is to be recognized and respected as any other human variation. Differences may arise in ways of processing information, including language, sound, images, light, texture, taste, or movement. The concept of neurodiversity is embraced by some autistic individuals and people with related conditions. Some groups apply the concept of neurodiversity to conditions potentially unrelated (or non-concomitant) to autism such as bipolar disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, developmental speech disorders, Parkinson's disease, dyslexia, and dyspraxia.

Neurotypical (or NT) is a term that was coined in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum: specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to their ability to process linguistic information and social cues. The concept was later adopted by both the neurodiversity movement and the scientific community