If all we do is try to shape the child’s behavior “from the outside”, utilizing techniques such as verbal commands, token reinforcements, intellectual validations and extinctions (“do you “understand me?”) and fail to “see” how and where in the psyche and physical body they experience stimuli and ex…

Leah has an incredible talent to remember faces and names. “Her teacher once told me that Leah could be walking by a classroom, glance inside for a moment, and tell her who was absent,” Lori says. By Debra Muzikar Many autistic children have trouble making friends. Leah DeMonia when she was in 3rd g…

by Debra Muzikar Editor’s Note: The official trailer for Normal People Scare Me Too was released yesterday. James Jagow’s created the musical score for the trailer. It’s 2002. Keri Bowers is raising her 14-year old autistic son, Taylor, in Thousand Oaks, a suburban community in …

By Mabz Beet 2015 is considered by many to be the year transgender people and the issues they are faced with were brought to mainstream attention. Transparent, a show that has employed more transgender people than any show in the United States, returned for a second season. Laverne Cox continued to …

By Leanne Libas There are two different categories that people fall into: those who make New Year’s resolutions and those who don’t. Do I believe in resolutions? Yes, just as long as they are reasonable and attainable. The problem I usually encounter with New Year’s resolutions is how I utterly fail…

Many therapies with the intent to cure are dangerous to our health. We are not science experiments. We are human beings. We are your children. By Jocelyn Eastman Part 3 in a 3-part series Part 1 – I am Standing Right Here – Don’t Speak for Me Part 2 – I am Standing Right Here…

We want to be on the same page because we don’t want your children to be another statistic. By Jocelyn Eastman Part 2 in a 3-Part Series Part 1 – I am standing right here  – Don’ Speak for Me TW/CW: Violence and abuse in multiple forms, murder of disabled and autistic person…

Being autistic is not about living in a vacuum, sucking in everything around you, living in an existence shutout from your environment. If anything, the environment becomes more real, more painful, more evident. By Jocelyn Eastman Part 1 in a 3-Part Series TW/CW: Upsetting dialogue, discussion of p…

By Leanne Libas “If my child was autistic, I would say to them them: ‘Baby, it’s going to be okay. There’s nothing wrong with you,'”Leanne Libas As I look back at the blogs I’ve written for The Art of Autism, I started wondering what should I write for the last month of the year. Then, I…

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Clarina. It was Christmas time .She decorated the Christmas tree. So, Clairina thought that Santa Claus will give a present for her. ’’I wish I want a present for me’’ Clairina said. So she took a pencil and paper to write a wonderful letter for Santa. ”I w…

You like to categorize things into ‘it is’ or ‘it is not’. It helps you keep track of the world around you, but I have to tell you are going about it the wrong way. This is not a world of binaries. Certainly some binaries do exist, but this is largely a world of spectra- vibrant, living, breathing, …

Autistic people are chronically targets of bullying, discrimination, ableism, domestic violence and time and time again are being murdered by the people who are supposed to take care of them. If a person has the ability to avoid all of that by hiding what makes them appear to be autistic, I think t…

Jenny Palmiotto writes a letter from her future self to herself in 2015 Dear Jenny of 2015, When letters start off this way, it is usually to reflect on our past selves. These letters are filled with wisdom from the passage of time and the knowledge that ‘everything is going to be okay.’ This is not…

Dear Amy, I know you’re feeling pretty bad right now. The other kids make fun of you a lot, and you don’t know why. You’re trying really hard to be friends with them–doing all of the things you think they want you to do, and it’s just not working. But there is one thing…