This was Epistemic! @kimmears.bsky.social spoke beautifully on why & how our #SLT practice needs to change; lifting our anchored beliefs, acknowledging the journey, disrupting dominant discourse & embracing emancipatory practice. This is #NeurodiversityAffirming. Anything less is #NeurodiversityLite
A white box at the top reads: FAKE NEURO-AFFIRMING. A Red figure stands with a Light Blue/Blue figure and says, “Oh no, we don’t target things like eye contact and hand flapping anymore. We know how harmful that can be for individuals with neurodiversity. We even got rid of our puzzle piece stuff! But e still focus on *other* stims, and social skills, and tolerating distress, and sensory desensitization, and…” Light Blue/Blue looks skeptical. Behind them are three posters: one about Whole Body Listening (open eyes, open ears, closed mouth, quiet hands, and calm feet); one that reads, “They say I’m neurodiverse, but I say I’m perfect,” and has a rainbow infinity symbol on it; and one about the ABC’s of Behavior (Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence).
A white box at the top reads: REAL NEURO-AFFIRMING. A Yellow/Gold figure stands with a Light Blue/Blue figure and says, “We aim to help a person understand how their particular brain and body work, and how to work *with* that instead of against it, and how to accommodate themselves and advocate for their needs in a world not built for them, and basically just make sure they know that it’s okay to be different.” Light Blue/Blue looks pleased. Behind them are three posters: one about Bumper, A Whole Body Learner (What do you look like when you are learning?) by Autism Level UP; one that reads, “Beauty in Diversity - All Brains, All Bodies, All Humans,” featuring a diverse group of people, by Neurowild; and one about the Four A’s of the Advoc8 Framework (Agency, Autonomy, Acceptance, and Authenticity) from Kieran Rose, The Autistic Advocate.
The language of the Neurodiversity Paradigm is soooo hot right now. But you can’t just pop some neuro-word in place of “autism” and call yourself “Neuro-affirming.” That’s the low-hanging fruit of #neurodiversitylite. #neuro-affiriming #neurodiversity #actuallyautistic
