Welp, this blew up. I don't have a Soundcloud because I don't really get along with podcasts, so here are some autism-related book reviews:

Emily Katy - Girl Unmasked
https://www.draliceviolett.com/blog-tour-girl-unmasked

Fern Brady - Strong Female Character
https://www.draliceviolett.com/blog-tour-strong-female-character

Ada Hoffmann - Resurrections
https://www.draliceviolett.com/resurrections-by-ada-hoffman

Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow - All The Little Bird-Hearts
https://www.draliceviolett.com/blog-tour-all-the-little-bird-hearts

@alicemcalicepants

Mine were just so bright they got labeled gifted and talented and floated along til they were adults. Every time I got them tested I just got told what a "Perfectly delightful child" they were. Sigh.

@alicemcalicepants not even children. I'm 32 and struggling hard to graduate but now that I know the issues I have I'm doing better and I think I have an actual chance to graduate.

and I didn't even get an proper diagnosis (yet?)

@alicemcalicepants Our daughter struggled in preschool, tested and diagnosed in kindergarten, attended school for gifted learning-disabled (LDA) students by virtue of her ADHD. She flourished there and later in public school and two different colleges.

Don't struggle. Get diagnosed and understand yourself!

@alicemcalicepants @christianp
If I could mega boost this I would. Diversity of our bodies is obvious, with differing survival advantages. To act like the brain isn’t part of our body, and diversity of thought isn’t strength is as best, just stupid.

Which is what smart neurodiverse kids get told they are when they go through the Victorian school system built to ensure good workers.

Different isn’t lesser. It’s different.

@alicemcalicepants
this makes sense to me.

I'll add that getting ADHD diagnoses for my daughters was quick and simple, but finding someone qualified to do an autism evaluation and then getting on their six month waiting list was a headache. But they have their autism diagnoses now.

They both did well in school until about sixth grade, then everything went off the rails.

@alicemcalicepants As a person with ADHD diagnosed in the early 90s, I got a label of course and I got some very useful support. But we didn’t know as much about ADHD then as we do now, and there were a lot of things about my brain and such that nobody told me (they couldn’t) or all my issues were addressed in terms of “how they are annoying to neurotypical people” or “how they keep you from doing what you are supposed to do.”

1/2

@alicemcalicepants @siracusa my mother always took the approach that I just had to study harder.

But you always have to be beware of labels. We are not good at diagnosing and we want to avoid slotting people.

@[email protected] the one hand, everyone I know who's ND thinks they're special because of it (including self) and blames it for everything that goes wrong in their lives. OTOH, they have SUCH an easier time coping than if they didn't know.

Does it take an entire study to figure this out?