@thinkingautism.com
The greatest autism info you will ever find, from autistic people, professionals, and parents. www.ThinkingAutism.com & buttondown.com/TPGA. Pro-neurodiversity. Even more TPGA community discussions on IG and FB.
My argument has never been to deny heterogeneity but autism's so complex that independent research teams have arguably not replicated valid subtypes, that functioning often varies widely within days & over lifespan & is hard to predict, & support should be personalized. www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/13...
The idea that autistic people lack "theory of mind" or are "mind blind" is not only malarkey, but is based on shifting goalposts—meaning that when autistic people passed ToM tests, researchers changed the criteria. TY @travislacroix.bsky.social:
theconversation.com/no-autistic-... #neurodiversity
Parents, pls tell your autistic kids they are autistic: "You may think that an autistic child won’t notice they are different than their non-autistic peers; I have not met one autistic person (me included) who hasn’t noticed their difference early in life."
thinkingautismguide.com/2017/02/pare...
By creating this new I-ACC autism committee, Alison Singer and her " #profoundAutism" campaigners can finally, openly exclude autistic advocacy and rights from research priorities. They can focus on cures and treatments. This is not what autistic people want or need. The I-ACC is a bad project. 4/4
Alison Singer & her " #ProfoundAutism" campaigners were really mad about the increased autistic IACC representation in 2022, because they wanted more "profound autism" parents. Even though other IACC parents/siblings *did* have high-support autistic loved ones.
www.ncsautism.org/blog//select... 3/
Yet even the IACC—compromised as it is—has three autistics on board. Yes, they are associated with anti-vaxxers &/or promote cures, but at least there are 3 autistic reps. Singer's I-ACC has exactly one autistic person. One. This is NOT representation. This is NOT "nothing about us without us." 2/
This article includes the closest thing to a conclusion I've come to, that accessibility necessarily means having more options as well as putting thought into those options. Think how light mode & dark mode are both used by people with vision issues, & both need contrast
About this new "I-ACC" panel Alison Singer has put together to counter RFK's pseudoscience garbage vortex IACC:
This is NOT good news for autistic people, because Singer loathes (and never stops trying to smear) autistic advocates. You should always be very skeptical of her autism projects. 1/
"We also can’t choose one group and decide to make everything accessible to them, and inaccessible to other people. It’s not acceptable to sacrifice one group of disabled people for another, nor is it necessary."
#autism #neurodiversity #accessibility 2/2
On competing access needs: "It’s vital that every disabled and neurodivergent person can attend events accessible to them. Accessibility is too important for us to ignore just because it can be difficult or unpopular." @brookewinters.bsky.social at TPGA:
thinkingautismguide.com/2018/10/ackn... 1/2
"It’s OK to be different. I encourage it, I love it. Let that freak flag fly high! It’s the responsibility of rest of the world to deal with our differences—we adapt to the world each day and I don’t think it is too much to ask the world to meet us halfway."
thinkingautismguide.com/2016/11/auti...
Who could have predicted a pick of #RFKTheLesser (Forever grateful to @ejwillingham.bsky.social for the appellation) would have turned out to to be such a spectacularly perilous dud. Except everybody. #ScienceIsReal @thinkingautism.com, @jonathanstea.bsky.social
To the contrary, many late-diagosed autistic people are parents of high-support needs people.
www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...
Experts have cautioned the general public about the dangers of autism acceptance, warning that it may lead to autistic people being treated like human beings.
"Creando este nuevo comité del autismo I-ACC, Singer y sus paladines del "autismo profundo" pueden final y abiertamente excluir la defensa y los derechos autistas de las prioridades de investigación."
Textured grey background. Text reads: DHS Violence Endangers the Autistic Community. Full Statement on Website. The ASAN logo is at the bottom.
Textured grey background. There's a blue box wtih text that reads: Government agents from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have hurt many people in the last few months. They have killed people too. Government agents from ICE or CBP killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January. Sometimes ICE puts disabled people in detention centers. They often don’t let disabled people get medical care they need while they are in detention centers and disabled people have died there, including Nhon Ngoc Nguyen, Johnny Noviello, and Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani. When ICE and CBP hurt so many people, this puts our autistic and disabled communities in danger. Congress needs to stop ICE and CBP from protecting their agents who threaten and kill people. Congress needs to stop ICE and CBP from terrorizing communities. This has to end.
Government agents from ICE and CBP have hurt and killed many people in the last few months. This puts our autistic and disabled communities in danger. Congress needs to stop ICE and CBP from threatening, killing, and terrorizing communities. This has to end. autisticadvocacy.org/2026/03/dhs-...
You know what autistic people don't need? TWO terrible U.S. autism committees. Both RFK Jr's IACC and the Autism Science Foundation's Alison Singer's I-ACC strategically exclude autistic concerns and needs. By @ejwillingham.bsky.social, in the latest TPGA newsletter:
buttondown.com/TPGA/archive...
also tell them what it means, what about their brains pointed to that diagnosis, who else in their life is autistic (if you don't know any yet, 1. yes you do, and 2. get safe enough they'll tell you), which tv characters they love are autistic, what you love about them that is related to autism...
To be clear, I will go to prison before I use a men's bathroom.
Death before detransition. I have fought too long and too hard for my womanhood to comply with a stupid immoral law.
I have illegally used women's bathrooms before, and I will again.
Because I am a woman.
12 and I had the conversation this year…and when I tell you he BLOSSOMED as a person. Suddenly he had answers for why he felt different and why things were harder for him. He’s found confidence through the stories of others like him. He learned to better regulate his emotions. He’s made friends!
All the virtual hugs to you and your child self. Glad you are here now.
CW: Suicide
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Looked at like an alien when I did exactly what someone else did. Practicing facial expressions in the mirror. Self-harming while silently screaming "WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!" Abused at home and ostracized at school, I attempted at 8yo.
Please tell them.
Give them a "why."
This is great, and matches our experiences; we have two kids who stim super differently but do it just as much with joy as distress, which is why we have “do not interfere with stimming” written into their IEPs. It also, selfishly, is a pretty good indicator to me as a parent of how they’re feeling
"Debido a que el stimming es frecuentemente elegido para reducción o eliminación, sus funciones positivas son ignoradas. Esto podría contribuir al estigma, presión para enmascarar, y daño al bienestar autista." Bates et al., 2026.
Watercolor image of red and black fidget spinners, on a white background.
Our spectacular new TPGA FB banner is a watercolor by artist @scrappapertiger.bsky.social. TY Sonny!
We thought AI-generated art was fun a few years ago, and used it for many of our graphics. Reader, we were so misled. We are now replacing those graphics with art from real artists & photographers.
Autistic stimming is functional, and can be soothing and natural. Although sometimes the function of stimming is to to indicate distress—which means the distress needs to be investigated, NOT that the stim needs to be eliminated.
Sooner or later, every person an autistic kid meets will give them the Look that says “you’re different and strange”
They will get it from their peers, their classmates, their families, their teachers, strangers on the streets, their own families
They know they’re different
Help them *understand*
The therapies I got as a kid I largely don't regret, although the one I do regret was a behaviorist summer program -- my school thought it wise to send bullies and victims to this same summer camp. But it wasn't the bullies, it was the BS behaviorism that was the worst part.
Bizarre for Frith say that increased autism diagnoses "overshadows the needs of those with intellectual disabilities, who require much more intensive support." I don't know a single late-diagnosed #ActuallyAutistic self-advocates who wants to erase high-support needs people.
Uta Frith’s pivot has been a huge suprise. We met once at an event and she seems a great human. But she’s holding onto the old lenses.
Neurodiversity is the future. A civil rights movement is being born and creating effective change already.
Great rebuttals of her recent article below.