Celebrating & nurturing Autistic identity

Autistic children need Autistic role models. They need Autistic adults who are “out and proud” about their Autism.

Watch Shadia Hancock’s webinar on Embracing a Positive Autistic Identity. Shadia (pronouns they/them) is the proud owner and founder of Autism Actually, a thriving mentoring and advocacy business. In this webinar, Shadia will explore what a positive Autistic identity looks like, and how parents can facilitate such a positive identity by acknowledging challenges and embracing strengths.

As parents, we must offer our Autistic children the kind of unconditional love that we want, need and expect for ourselves.

Many Autistic individuals experience the world through magnified sensory processing. Alongside the potential for overwhelm is the potential to grasp the subtlety, the texture, the delight, the extraordinary. And that is a joyful thing.

Watch Cadence’s full self-directed documentary on language, communication, and living life as a non-speaking Autistic person.

We invite feedback on your experiences at the Now and Next Family Conference on Saturday 26 October, 2019.

On Saturday 26 October, Reframing Autism was launched at the Now and Next Family Conference. The following blog is the speech given by Reframing Autism’s CEO and founder, Dr Melanie Heyworth, at the launch.

I can make eye contact. Or I can listen to you. Please don’t ask me to do both.

Don’t rush. Take time to pause. Breathe. Your child is the same person they were before diagnosis. Perfect. Whole. Yours.

“We autistic people often line up our toys, line up our words, and line up our interests to calm the chaotic world. By expecting autistic people to ‘play the right way,’ or not stim, or have the right interests, something valuable and important is taken from that autistic person.”

Respect your child’s unique developmental trajectory. All children learn in their own time and space, and at the pace that is just right for them.

In this self-directed documentary, Cadence, an Autistic 11-year old, shares her reflections on communication as a non-speaking young person. Cadence shows how spoken or verbal communication is not just a product of language processing, but also a product of thinking processes. She gives speaking people access to her unique perspective by showing how much she has to say.