By Atlanta Parent Editorial — 2021
I am autistic. I am also the mother of an autistic child, and the wife of a neurotypical (nonautistic) partner. We are a neurodiverse family.
Read on www.atlantaparent.com
CLEAR ALL
Tracy Murray has witnessed a lot of change in her 27 years of work in classrooms. But in her view, no shift has been as radical—or as positive—as the difference in the way children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are viewed by society.
Brain differences such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia are not something to be cured, but something to be embraced as part of human diversity.
It remains controversial—but it doesn’t have to be. We need to embrace both the neurodiversity model and the medical model to fully understand autism.
Does your autistic loved one tend to overshare or overexplain? We don't mean to come off as desperate or creepy, we just connect differently.
For many years, researchers have treated the individual traits and characteristics of autistic people as an enduring essence of their autism-- in isolation of the social context and without even asking autistic people what their social life is actually like. However, perspective matters.
A grassroots civil-dialogue movement creates a new kind of safe space: one that invites students from across the political spectrum to discuss controversial issues, including policing, gender identity, and free speech itself.
2
A generation of parents are revealing some advantages of the condition, even when their children don’t share the diagnosis.
An autism diagnosis affects the whole family. Explore ways to help parents, siblings, and extended family to live well with and support an autistic family member.
Anthony Hopkins, Wentworth Miller and others are showing us that autism is more varied than it once seemed to be.
Your child is wired differently, and that means his life may not follow the path you envisioned. Before you can help him thrive, you must give yourself space and time to recognize the emotions that a neurodivergent diagnosis brings. Here’s how to get started embracing your new “normal.”