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scriptAutistic

@scriptautistic / scriptautistic.tumblr.com

a writing advice blog for writing autistic characters
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Masterpost: Autism, Diagnosis, and Identity

Especially when writing in a modern real-world setting, one thing to take into account when thinking about your autistic character is their diagnosis status. Diagnosis might sound straightforward, but there are actually many things to take into account when talking about it. In this masterpost, you will find factual information about diagnoses - how they work, what they look like concretely, what are their shortcomings as well as some words about self-diagnosis - and questions to ask yourself when writing your autistic character.

What is autism, officially?

Autism is a complicated concept and we spend the majority of our time on this blog trying to explain it in a nuanced and multifaceted way. If you haven’t read it already, we suggest reading this masterpost about how to write an autistic character. Another post we have helps specify what autism is; this post describes different functioning labels and why they aren’t particularly beneficial or useful. The main thing to understand about functioning labels in the context of diagnosis is, generally, a diagnostician is required to specify levels of functioning in an autism diagnosis. The autistic community has a rather large definition of the concept, while the “official” definition of who counts as autistic is somewhat narrower.

Diagnosing autism is often a difficult process. Since we don’t know the source(s) of autism on a biological level, we can’t do, for example, an easy test like a brain scan to check for autism with absolute certainty. As a consequence, a professional who wants to know whether or not someone should be diagnosed with autism will look at that person’s behavior first and foremost, and, if possible, will ask questions about their subjective experience. As a result, the diagnostic criteria focus exclusively on the person’s behavior.

Here are the DSM-V criteria, and here is a link to a PDF which lists stereotypical examples  for each of the criteria. The DSM-V is used in many countries around the world as a reference to diagnose mental illnesses and other conditions, in most cases these are the criteria that will be used during diagnosis. Other classifications with other sets of criteria exist, such as the CIM-10 (which still recognizes Asperger’s Syndrome and autism as separate diagnoses), are still in use in some countries.

A brief history of the DSM

The DSM is meant to describe all known mental illnesses recognized by the American Psychological Association’s (APA). There have been five editions to date, and many changes have been made to which disorders and mental illnesses are considered valid and their criteria. These changes were made in response to new research about the mind in general or about specific disorders.

The DSM is written based on research published by mental health professionals (practicing therapists, psychology researchers and students of researchers, psychiatrists, doctors, etc.). To get research findings recognized by the APA, the findings must be replicated enough times across published literature that any reader can be confident in the conclusions made by researchers.

If enough research emerges which prompts the board of the APA to reconsider the way the criteria in the DSM are written, and enough criteria are changed that the current edition stops being clinically useful or relevant to research, the DSM gets rewritten, and a new edition published. There are many debates about what criteria to include and which diagnoses are considered valid. Some diagnoses are added, removed, or changed in new editions of the DSM. The currently accepted edition of the DSM is the DSM-5 (or DSM-V).

In the DSM-5, there were several major changes, including grouping together Asperger’s Disorder, Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, and related disorders into the broader category of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Some people were diagnosed with, for example, Asperger’s Disorder before this change was made, but would now meet the criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder. They do not need to get re-diagnosed, and mental health professionals can still take their diagnosis into consideration.

Here are some things to consider :

  • When and where was your character diagnosed? What was the diagnostic manual used during their diagnosis, and how does that affect their identity? You might find part of our functioning labels masterpost about Asperger’s Syndrome  useful for more detail about this specific diagnosis
  • Which diagnostic criteria does your character meet? Are there some criteria they don’t meet? How did that influence the diagnostic process?

 How diagnosis works

Diagnoses are given when someone comes to a professional/clinician with experiences causing them distress or impairment. Depending on the country, there are multiple professionals qualified to give diagnoses - doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, for example - and they have to collect evidence in order to make diagnoses. In order to do so, some researchers develop tests to help check whether someone meets diagnostic criteria, and standardize them to large groups of people to make sure the tests are valid, i.e. truly measure what the researcher wants the test to measure. These tests are then used to determine whether or not someone can be diagnosed, that is, whether or not they meet a sufficient number of criteria.

In general, a diagnosis is given if someone meets a certain number of criteria within the list. For an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis, someone must meet the criteria of “persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts” and “restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.” They can meet these criteria currently or in their history, and the DSM-V mentions symptoms may be masked later in life, but must have shown up during early development. The symptoms must also cause distress or impairment and must not be better explained by a different disorder.

The diagnostic process itself can vary from country to country. Typically, there are two main phases to a diagnosis: first a screening, and then a full evaluation.

If parents, teachers, healthcare professionals or the person themselves suspect a child or adult is autistic, they will go to a professional, usually a pediatrician, psychiatrist or psychologist. Different screening tools can be used, depending on the context and the age of the person to be diagnosed. They include questionnaires filled out by the person or their relatives, guided interviews or short tests in which the person is asked to demonstrate a variety of behaviors. The Autism Quotient is an example of a screening tool for adults, the M-CHAT is a screening tool for children. You can download these tools as well as others on this page. The screening is usually a short process that doesn’t last more than one hour. Different tools are used for children and for adults. In some places, children may be systematically screened at a certain age, at daycare, school or at a well child appointment.

If the screening shows that there is a possibility that the person is autistic, they will undergo a full evaluation. This evaluation is usually done by at least one, but up to a team of professionals which can include psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psycho-motor therapists, etc. This is where the standardized tests are used. In most cases, the person will have to take at least a cognitive test (IQ test) and a test more specific to autism, in which their abilities in the domains of communication and social interactions, as well as specific autistic traits, are recorded, such as the ADOS.  Here is a video where you can see an example of an ADOS test for a child. Family members might be questioned about the early childhood of the individual as well as their daily life. This phase of diagnosis is a lot more involved and can span several days.

After diagnosis, the professional will meet with the person who was being diagnosed and/or their parents to explain the results in detail. This is also usually the point where treatment/management plans will be discussed, focusing on the areas of need discovered during diagnosis. For example, if the person showed lots of sensory difficulties but no problem with speech, they might be advised to go see an occupational therapist rather than a speech therapist. This is a link which discusses what a diagnosis process can look like for an older child or teenager. 

This description of how diagnoses are given does not have to match your story, especially if the setting is different. It’s a guideline, and you can do more research and thinking on what this process may look like in your story. Here are some questions you can consider during this process:

  • Where does your story take place - a certain country, a different planet, a fantasy setting? Are there mental health professionals there, or some kind of doctor? If the place exists, what diagnostic processes are common there? If it doesn’t, what can you imagine a diagnostic process would look like? Is their concept of autism similar to ours? What are the differences and how do they reflect on the diagnostic process?
  • When is your character diagnosed? If on earth, you may look up what mental health resources were available in the past, or imagine what mental health resources would be available in the future. If somewhere else, how do you imagine diagnostic tools evolved? Are there diagnostic tools at the time of your story? Is someone trying to build a process of diagnosis? Do the clinicians in your story know what autism is?

If you wish to narrate in your story the diagnosis scene itself, here are some resources.This Musings of an Aspie blog post is about getting professionally diagnosed as an adult. Another resource is this ~14 minute youtube video weighing the pros and cons of seeking autism diagnosis as an adult, including some personal anecdotes. This is a video that was made to explain children what will happen to them during an autism assessment.

Here are some things to ask yourself:

  • If the character being diagnosed is a child, how well do they understand what is going on and happening to them? What have they been told about the testing? How do they feel about it now, if you’re writing from the perspective of an adult reminiscing?
  • How do they feel during diagnosis? Are they scared? Overwhelmed? Do they find the testing difficult or easy? What do they think of the professionals diagnosing them?
  • What are they told about their diagnosis after the testing? How do they feel about it? Do their feelings change over time? Is any treatment/intervention/therapy plan started? If so, how does the diagnosed person feel about this process? Does it help them? Does it stigmatize autism?

 The mess of professional diagnosis

Diagnosing autism is very difficult, for several reasons:

  • There’s huge territories of symptom overlap and comorbidity between autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other neurodivergences, which makes differential diagnosis complex and not always successful.
  • Individual autistic traits, such as atypical social communication, sensory problems, executive dysfunction, etc. may also be seen in an individual without them being autistic.
  • Autism diagnosis is based on behavior and on external observation of this behavior. Its neurological sources aren’t clear and there is no easy, yes-or-no test. A lot will depend on the subjective point of view of the diagnostician, even though standardized tests help make the process more consistent.
  • Many people have learned to mask and hide their autistic traits, potentially making outside observation of these traits - if necessary to the diagnostic process - more difficult. 
  • Autism has been studied more and is more well-known in some subtypes of the population (i.e. white, male children). That stereotype frames the public mentality, and that affects the mentalities of psychologists and neurologists studying and diagnosing autism. People that don’t fit this archetype may have a harder time getting diagnosed.
  • Diagnoses are made to be standardized enough that people halfway across the world will, hopefully, be talking about the same disorder or disease as a different doctor/psychologist/researcher. This is usually a good thing, but it can also mean that some people who have more atypical profiles (because of unusual identities, comorbidities, upbringings…) can sometimes be missed during the diagnosis process. It is also worth keeping in mind that the criteria evolve very regularly; someone who isn’t included now could be in ten years, and vice-versa.
  • People change. Someone who would have definitely been diagnosed as a child might not fit the criteria as an adult. This doesn’t mean they’ve stopped being autistic or been “cured”, it just means their traits have evolved as they’ve found better coping tools. Whether that’s the case or not, getting a diagnosis as an adult is often a lot more difficult. Not a lot of research has been done about what autistic adults are like. There can be fewer groups of mental health professionals open to giving autism diagnoses to adults; these specialists are less knowledgeable about it, and might be reluctant in many cases to give a diagnosis that could be marginalizing for the person.

These are all reasons that make diagnosis difficult and could lead to a misdiagnosis (or even to a refusal of even starting the diagnosis process). Misdiagnosis in very, very common, especially in women and in people who were diagnosed as adults. This is one of the many reasons that could lead someone to self-diagnose.

Something to take into consideration is the history of autism in the DSM, and how mental health professionals may use or misuse it for diagnosis. Originally, autism was thought to be a different form of schizophrenia (sometimes it was called Childhood Schizophrenia) because the children brought to clinicians for evaluations were noticing and being affected by sensory experiences which most people weren’t. Eventually clinicians noticed the diagnosed individuals did not truly meet the criteria for schizophrenia, though even today clinicians still confuse these diagnoses. Many autistic people can meet criteria for ADHD, and some people mistake the hyperfixations and sometimes rigid preferences of autistics for obsessions and compulsions of someone with OCD.

Here are some things to think about:

  • Was your character’s diagnosis story straightforward, or did they have to undergo misdiagnoses and referrals before finally being diagnosed? (Common misdiagnoses are OCD, ADHD, BPD, or schizophrenia, though these can also be co-morbid)
  • Did their symptoms look to a diagnostician like they could meet a diagnosis different from autism? Did your character have any other psychological conditions which affected the diagnostic process?
  • How confident was the professional making the diagnosis? Did any of your character’s identities, comorbidities or behaviors make diagnosis more difficult?

The process of self-diagnosis

Some people do not have access to a professional diagnosis. Some examples of barriers to diagnosis are:

  • Doctor/psychologist visits and hours spent evaluating can be a very expensive process, and not everyone has insurance or enough money to pay for this.
  • Some parts of the world do not have enough medical care available to people because there are not enough doctors for the population. Long waiting lists and overworked doctors may prevent someone from wanting to seek diagnosis. General doctors may not specialize in psychology, and feel under-prepared to properly screen for autism.
  • Many people have learned to mask their symptoms. There are many pressures from society to fit in, and autistics are often forced to learn to look “normal” - by parents or peers. Many who have learned to mask have a hard time relaxing and acting more naturally.
  • Some clinicians have very conservative screening standards and refuse to evaluate if a client/patient does not meet expected criteria for the screen (i.e. missing social cues, avoiding eye contact, “atypical” vocal patterns).

While professional diagnosis can be validating and provide a path to accessing resources and accommodations, some do not want a professional diagnosis at all. Usually the reason someone might avoid receiving a diagnosis is stigma. If a parent or other adult is responsible for and has access to the individual’s healthcare records, they may not trust that person to treat them well. They might be afraid of discrimination or disempowerment by healthcare providers, workplaces and the government (for adoption for instance). They may feel isolated if they receive the diagnosis. Others may not want it because they feel confident in their self-knowledge and want to avoid the expense. Parents may avoid getting their children diagnosed because they don’t want them separated into different classrooms in school, or may not have the money for healthcare.

A person seeking self-diagnosis may have an experience which gets them thinking about autism and recognizing themselves in that label and people associated with it. For example, the individual may have met someone autistic and related to them like no-one they had ever met before. Perhaps a caregiver anecdotally mentioned to them it was a possibility. Finding the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder is relatively easy online, and some start by reading about the criteria. Most people who self-diagnose spend a lot of time researching autism as well as other neurodivergences, reading writing by autistic authors about their experiences, taking tests online, etc. Some self-diagnosed autistic people may end up knowing as much, if not more, about their condition as most professionals.

Self-diagnosis also usually comes with a lot of self-doubt, “impostor syndrome” and changes of mind. Lack of recognition by healthcare professionals, lack of access to accommodations and benefits, and gate-keeping are all experiences frequently associated with self-diagnosis.

If your character is self-diagnosed, ask yourself :

  • Why isn’t your character professionally diagnosed? Do they wish to be one day? Have they tried to get a professional diagnosis without success? If so, how do they feel about it?
  • How confident is your character in their self-diagnosis? Did they do a lot of research? How did that make them feel? Do they have an accepting community, whether locally or online? Do they have to deal with others gate-keeping because they lack an official diagnosis?
  • Are there some accommodations, therapies or benefits your character needs but can’t obtain without diagnosis? How does it impact their life?

Diagnosis & Identity

Think about your character’s journey with diagnosis, and how it impacts their identity, how they feel about themselves and how they think of themselves.

  • At what age were they diagnosed?
  • Did they have an active role in the diagnostic process; did they seek it out? Did they accept it or resist it?
  • How did their diagnosis or lack thereof affect their education/work experience? Did they receive accommodations? Were they kept from doing certain things because others believed they couldn’t?
  • How did their diagnosis or lack thereof affect the development of coping skills?
  • How did they learn about autism? If diagnosed as a child, were they told about their diagnosis? In what terms? If not, how did they find out? How did it make them feel? What impact did this have on their choice to identify as autistic (another way to think about this was, were they in denial because of shame or some other reason, or did they rejoice in finally having an explanation for their experiences? Or something in between)? How did they react to their diagnosis or lack thereof?
  • Who, if anyone, are they comfortable telling? Did anyone find out who the character didn’t want to know? Did their parents tell someone, if applicable? Does anyone know about their diagnosis/identity, officially confirmed or otherwise?
  • Do they interact with other autistics - online or in person? Do they have autistic friends? Do they feel part of a community, autistic/neurodivergent or otherwise?
  • What makes them feel included or not? What makes them feel similar or dissimilar to other autistics, or to the stereotype of how autism is perceived by the public and/or their community?
  • Are there moments of doubt about their diagnosis?
  • If officially diagnosed, how long did that process take? Are they currently seeking diagnosis?
  • Does your character encounter stigma as a result of their diagnosis or lack thereof?

These questions can help you think about your character’s experience. Diagnosis is tricky business. I hope this provides some nuanced ideas on diagnosis of autism and autistic identity.

 - Mods Cat, Snail, and Siena

FAQ // Like our work? You can support us: Cat’s Ko-fi ; Snail’s Ko-fi ; Siena’s Ko-fi

#masterpost#identity#diagnosis#psychology#differential diagnosis#self-diagnosis#therapy#neurodiversity#writing advice#characterization#writing tips#actuallyautistic#autism
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Anonymous asked:

my protagonist is autistic and part of her backstory involves underperforming at school and eventually feeling very so discouraged due to the behaviour of her classmates and teachers (who kept telling her she was just not trying hard enough) that she gives up on trying to pursue one of her special interests there. My question is if there are any difficulties autistic ppl in particular are more likely to face in school (in tests, classroom environment, etc).

Unfortunately, I would say this type of backstory is pretty realistic and all too common in autistic people, especially when they’re undiagnosed. I don’t know if your character is in this situation, but being undiagnosed means that on top of the things they’re likely to struggle with, they will probably feel that it’s their fault, that they’re not good enough or not trying hard enough despite trying their hardest, etc.

Here are some things autistic people can struggle with in school:

  • Difficulty with social skills can make making friends and getting along with classmates more difficult. Autistic children are very often bullied, especially but not exclusively when they’re undiagnosed. This can make school very difficult in and of itself. It is much harder to focus on schoolwork when you’re being mocked or thrown things, and bullying can have very serious impacts on mental health, which in turn affect schoolwork.
  • Auditory processing difficulties can be a problem when it comes to understanding the teacher’s instructions and following them; an autistic student could appear inattentive or disobedient when really they have trouble understanding what’s being asked of them. Lessons are often given orally; taking notes is very difficult when you only understand every other word. 
  • Dyspraxia and motor control difficulties can make schoolwork super hard. Someone with poor fine motor control will probably have a lot of trouble with handwriting. They may write very slow, be unable to write anything legible, or spend all of their resources on writing correctly and have no resource left over to understand what they’re doing. Difficulties with global motor control are overall less problematic in school, but could make PE classes a nightmare.
  • Many autistic people have comorbid specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia or dyscalculia. 
  • A classroom, especially in the younger grades, is rarely perfectly quiet. Background noise, agitation, or fluorescent lightning could all be sources of sensory overload, which is difficult to deal with in a school setting when you’re not allowed to step out in a calm spot when you’re getting overwhelmed. Recess in particular is often super noisy and filled with children that shout and run in all directions.
  • Being in class often means needing to sit still and refrain from stimming (especially in disruptive ways, but many teachers forbid even the most discreet forms of stimming), which can be hard and make concentrating more difficult.
  • Difficulties with executive function can make many school tasks very hard. For instance, getting started on an exercise sheet, switching tasks once you’re done, getting your ideas organized to write an essay or remembering to do homework are all things that someone struggling with executive dysfunction could have trouble with.
  • In school, you often have to learn things you don’t want to be learning, which is unpleasant for everyone but can be worse for some autistic people who just want to focus on their special interests.
  • There can be a lot of ableism in a school environment, coming from fellow students but also from teachers. A lot of teachers will punish first before trying to understand why the student behaves the way they do or how they could best be helped succeed.

Of course, this list is far from exhaustive. As always, autistic people are very welcome to share their stories and experiences.

-Mod Cat

If this was helpful, you can support me on ko-fi!

#mod cat#question#school#child character#ableism cw
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Anonymous asked:

I was wondering how autism might affect motor skills? Specifically I have a character who is autistic and learns to dance at a young age and applies the "script" that dance requires to how they walk and move, and I was wondering if it that was realistic?

scriptautistic answered:

Hello! I’ll tell you what my experiences are with movement and athletics as well as give you some ideas on how to break overall movement down into categories and think about which of those categories are required for dance or walking then which your character struggles with and which they are good at.

I experience a fair bit of dyspraxia with gross motor movements (the difficulty integrating proprioception, or the perception of what angles joints are bent at which can make gross motor skills or quick movement very confusing). I have to pay attention to one limb at a time in order to learn a movement, and my other limbs could be doing whatever and I wouldn’t be able to tell very well/quickly. I have to practice movements over and over again and pay attention to different parts of my body in order to make sure that part is cooperating. My gross motor skills are very rough as a result, yet my fine motor skills are very precise. Consider whether or not your character has trouble with either, or if none.

The motor skills required for dancing don’t transpose well to walking. Something though, depending on the type of dance which would translate, is foot placement and general leg movement while walking. For example, someone who has trained in ballet may extend their leg fully before making contact on the ground using their toe or ball of their foot to make contact, imitating a bit the point a ballerina/o would make. 

I have some experience with many sports (I found I was bad at many of them because team sports require attention to too many things at once and I don’t learn very quickly). I found that my movement style transposed between sports. I have a lot of strength behind my movements, so I can over-exaggerate certain movements. I have trouble with understanding how far away I need to be from something or someone in order to have a certain effect. I have a very easy time with sports requiring balance, strength, and repetitive motions or holding a position i.e. skiing, water skiing, biking, running. So that translates to too much power during dancing and martial arts and not enough control, and ability to walk steadily but very strongly if that makes sense.

Think about these general aspects of movement and how they apply to dancing and/or other types of movement:

  • fluidity or choppiness, also called gracefulness
  • rhythm
  • angles of joints during certain motions
  • big or small movements
  • fine motor (being able to isolate one muscle group to work in a certain way and/or hands and feet detail movement)
  • gross motor (being able to use multiple muscle groups at a time to perform a certain function, especially with multiple body parts at a time)
  • strength
  • what body part makes contact with which part of the environment
  • when body parts make contact
  • lightness or heaviness of movement, i.e. how hard does a foot fall on the ground? Does it make sound?
  • speed of movement
  • balance
  • how long someone is able to hold a certain position
  • flexibility and stability, and are these things about equal? Too much flexibility without stability is hypermobility. Too much stability without flexibility is tension.

These are just some examples, I hope this was helpful! You can also check out our tag motor skills for more posts with ideas.

 - Mod Siena

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If it helps you further, I’m also dyspraxic, and when I saw an occupational therapist and physio recently I found out a lot of my movement adaptations are a lot like dancing. I tend to prefer being up on my toes, I extend my legs to walk and turn more than most, I tend to have at least one arm out for counterbalance to most movements. When I bend to pick things up I extend a leg behind me for balance. That sort of thing. I’ve only ever learned ballroom dancing, and only a bit of that, but my movements are a lot like ballet movements. My balance when trying to move normally is utterly awful though, and even moving my way I tend to bounce off of every nearby obstacle and trip regularly.

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Oh! I did basketball, swimming and athletics as a child. And swimming and a little bit of yoga as an adult. My overall experience is that it takes me twice as long to learn the movements. Solo sports are better than team sports, because of the same reasons @scriptautistic cited above.

I did make all teams but I was always a screw up in the end and if I get nervous my mental schematics of how to move get jittery and I miss steps or a miscalculate strength or distance, and I end up hitting someone in the face or something. The one thing I do well is resistance and stamina. Once I get a rhythm going I can go for kilometres as long as I breath properly, because I let my mind go somewhere else and block the pain and tiredness.

I also have that too much strength thing. If I’m not paying attention I rip things to pieces, break windows or dent walls with my elbow. My mother to this day brings up the time I moved too fast and put my foot through the hallway wall (plaster/drywall) and broke through to the other side. I didn’t even feel it. I wanted to show off my new shoes and I was so excited I miscalculated.

Because of yoga I’ve learnt to balance better. Like the leg stretched behind me as I lean down or an arm to keep balance.

The way I see myself, my “natural” movements are blocky but if I practice a lot, they get more graceful, though that requires a lot of thought.

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Anonymous asked:

Hello! I was wondering if it would be offensive for an adult (19 years old) low-functioning autistic person to be acting "childish?" They are a long-term victim of violent physical, mental, and sexual abuse, which causes the childish behavior, but would it be offensive to write them with the personality/mannerisms of a young child? Thank you!

Hiya, we answered a very similar question here.

I hope that gives you the information you want!

-Mod Snail

#csa tw#mod snail#Anonymous
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Anonymous asked:

I was wondering how autism might affect motor skills? Specifically I have a character who is autistic and learns to dance at a young age and applies the "script" that dance requires to how they walk and move, and I was wondering if it that was realistic?

scriptautistic answered:

Hello! I’ll tell you what my experiences are with movement and athletics as well as give you some ideas on how to break overall movement down into categories and think about which of those categories are required for dance or walking then which your character struggles with and which they are good at.

I experience a fair bit of dyspraxia with gross motor movements (the difficulty integrating proprioception, or the perception of what angles joints are bent at which can make gross motor skills or quick movement very confusing). I have to pay attention to one limb at a time in order to learn a movement, and my other limbs could be doing whatever and I wouldn’t be able to tell very well/quickly. I have to practice movements over and over again and pay attention to different parts of my body in order to make sure that part is cooperating. My gross motor skills are very rough as a result, yet my fine motor skills are very precise. Consider whether or not your character has trouble with either, or if none.

The motor skills required for dancing don’t transpose well to walking. Something though, depending on the type of dance which would translate, is foot placement and general leg movement while walking. For example, someone who has trained in ballet may extend their leg fully before making contact on the ground using their toe or ball of their foot to make contact, imitating a bit the point a ballerina/o would make. 

I have some experience with many sports (I found I was bad at many of them because team sports require attention to too many things at once and I don’t learn very quickly). I found that my movement style transposed between sports. I have a lot of strength behind my movements, so I can over-exaggerate certain movements. I have trouble with understanding how far away I need to be from something or someone in order to have a certain effect. I have a very easy time with sports requiring balance, strength, and repetitive motions or holding a position i.e. skiing, water skiing, biking, running. So that translates to too much power during dancing and martial arts and not enough control, and ability to walk steadily but very strongly if that makes sense.

Think about these general aspects of movement and how they apply to dancing and/or other types of movement:

  • fluidity or choppiness, also called gracefulness
  • rhythm
  • angles of joints during certain motions
  • big or small movements
  • fine motor (being able to isolate one muscle group to work in a certain way and/or hands and feet detail movement)
  • gross motor (being able to use multiple muscle groups at a time to perform a certain function, especially with multiple body parts at a time)
  • strength
  • what body part makes contact with which part of the environment
  • when body parts make contact
  • lightness or heaviness of movement, i.e. how hard does a foot fall on the ground? Does it make sound?
  • speed of movement
  • balance
  • how long someone is able to hold a certain position
  • flexibility and stability, and are these things about equal? Too much flexibility without stability is hypermobility. Too much stability without flexibility is tension.

These are just some examples, I hope this was helpful! You can also check out our tag motor skills for more posts with ideas.

 - Mod Siena

Found this helpful? Please buy me a coffee // here’s our FAQ

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If it helps you further, I’m also dyspraxic, and when I saw an occupational therapist and physio recently I found out a lot of my movement adaptations are a lot like dancing. I tend to prefer being up on my toes, I extend my legs to walk and turn more than most, I tend to have at least one arm out for counterbalance to most movements. When I bend to pick things up I extend a leg behind me for balance. That sort of thing. I’ve only ever learned ballroom dancing, and only a bit of that, but my movements are a lot like ballet movements. My balance when trying to move normally is utterly awful though, and even moving my way I tend to bounce off of every nearby obstacle and trip regularly.

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hoogger asked:

Hello! I was wondering about how autism tends to affect dreaming; especially lucid dreaming. In my story, the characters are all trapped together in a dream (at first they don't realize they're dreaming, then one of them realizes it and tells the others). Would an autistic person be likely to react to stimuli (such as cold or pain) the same way in a dream as in real life? Also, are dramatic changes in environment/routine any easier in a dream? Or is it pretty much the same?

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The brain of anyone is actually, in general, pretty bad at distinguishing between dreams and real life. Sensory experiences tend to happen in dreams the same way they would happen in real life, and same with styles of thinking, level of detail awareness, perceptions, etc. The biggest difference between dreams and real life is continuous context (like I went to sleep in my bed and I’m waking up in my bed, so I must be awake) and logic.

Dreams tend to use very abstract logic and associations which may not make sense in real life. I know my dreams tend to be a lot more abstract than those of my neurotypical friends, like my dreams involve associations which wouldn’t make sense in real life at all more often than not. Autistic people tend to think more abstractly than NTs, so dreams and transitions in them may also be more abstract/unlike real life.

Lucid dreaming requires using real life checks “Am I dreaming?” consistently enough that the check shows up in a dream. Autistic people may love to make these checks a part of their routine and/or cyclically think about the check and consistently do so throughout the day. Dreams are fascinating both personally and in a general psychology context, and would make a fascinating special interest. Keeping a dream journal is recommended for those trying to lucid dream, as well as trying to interpret dreams based on personal associations to the symbols/events/people of the dream.

You can look up some ideas for checks to use, but many people check clock faces, details on their hand, mirrors, etc. I have tried using these checks but my brain is very good at imitating real-life details in dreams because I am so detail-oriented. For me, checking larger contexts and logic would be a better check than small details. Think about whether your autistic character is detail-oriented or big-picture-oriented (autistic people tend to be the former but it’s not always the case).

In my experience, dreams’ environments flow more smoothly than in real life and drastic changes in setting don’t alarm me like they would in real life. My brain, focusing on details, only notices relevant things in dreams. It’s harder for me to lucid dream than it seems for others because my brain focuses on details. Sometimes certain details stay the same while the rest of an environment shifts and I don’t notice the shift at all during the dream because I’m so focused on the detail and its sensory experience.

Hope this helps!

 - Mod Siena

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Anonymous asked:

I was wondering how autism might affect motor skills? Specifically I have a character who is autistic and learns to dance at a young age and applies the "script" that dance requires to how they walk and move, and I was wondering if it that was realistic?

Hello! I’ll tell you what my experiences are with movement and athletics as well as give you some ideas on how to break overall movement down into categories and think about which of those categories are required for dance or walking then which your character struggles with and which they are good at.

I experience a fair bit of dyspraxia with gross motor movements (the difficulty integrating proprioception, or the perception of what angles joints are bent at which can make gross motor skills or quick movement very confusing). I have to pay attention to one limb at a time in order to learn a movement, and my other limbs could be doing whatever and I wouldn’t be able to tell very well/quickly. I have to practice movements over and over again and pay attention to different parts of my body in order to make sure that part is cooperating. My gross motor skills are very rough as a result, yet my fine motor skills are very precise. Consider whether or not your character has trouble with either, or if none.

The motor skills required for dancing don’t transpose well to walking. Something though, depending on the type of dance which would translate, is foot placement and general leg movement while walking. For example, someone who has trained in ballet may extend their leg fully before making contact on the ground using their toe or ball of their foot to make contact, imitating a bit the point a ballerina/o would make. 

I have some experience with many sports (I found I was bad at many of them because team sports require attention to too many things at once and I don’t learn very quickly). I found that my movement style transposed between sports. I have a lot of strength behind my movements, so I can over-exaggerate certain movements. I have trouble with understanding how far away I need to be from something or someone in order to have a certain effect. I have a very easy time with sports requiring balance, strength, and repetitive motions or holding a position i.e. skiing, water skiing, biking, running. So that translates to too much power during dancing and martial arts and not enough control, and ability to walk steadily but very strongly if that makes sense.

Think about these general aspects of movement and how they apply to dancing and/or other types of movement:

  • fluidity or choppiness, also called gracefulness
  • rhythm
  • angles of joints during certain motions
  • big or small movements
  • fine motor (being able to isolate one muscle group to work in a certain way and/or hands and feet detail movement)
  • gross motor (being able to use multiple muscle groups at a time to perform a certain function, especially with multiple body parts at a time)
  • strength
  • what body part makes contact with which part of the environment
  • when body parts make contact
  • lightness or heaviness of movement, i.e. how hard does a foot fall on the ground? Does it make sound?
  • speed of movement
  • balance
  • how long someone is able to hold a certain position
  • flexibility and stability, and are these things about equal? Too much flexibility without stability is hypermobility. Too much stability without flexibility is tension.

These are just some examples, I hope this was helpful! You can also check out our tag motor skills for more posts with ideas.

 - Mod Siena

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morninglassofoj asked:

I don’t know if y’all have answered this before but what’s your opinion on the show The Good Doctor?

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Hi, I want to be clear - we don’t really do reviews on this blog. We help writers write autistic characters more accurately. But! That doesn’t mean there aren’t some useful lessons on writing autistic characters from the show. In the future, a more useful question to ask is, “What mistakes or benefits does this show have in the way they’ve portrayed their autistic character(s)?” The more specific you can make your question, the easier answering it becomes. Let’s get into it.

The Good Doctor and its accuracy in portraying an autistic character:

I have seen all of season 1, and this show is paced well. If you plan on writing any shows, there’s something to be learned about making sure the pacing of the show is enjoyable. It has a nice balance of drama and resolution, and while there’s a couple of medical cases per episode, the characters’ personal plot arcs last much longer than an episode which keeps it from being stressful. This is a TV show though, and as usual story elements are exaggerated to enhance the viewer’s emotional responses… so the show is not without its drama. The Good Doctor has character arcs which last for several episodes at a time, and allow you to get to know a character. Most importantly, it allows us to see Shaun in a variety of contexts.

This show also has a deluge of very subtle messages about autistic people. There are a few intentional scripted explanations about Shaun being autistic yet competent, but the show is good at showing the messages about Shaun rather than clumsily preaching them. The show’s script uses a mix of person-first and identity-first language. People who like Shaun and dislike him have said he’s autistic, and similarly with saying he has autism. It seems like the show is written in a way that using both has a purpose, but I’m not exactly sure what that purpose is - perhaps to try to satisfy anyone who prefers either description?

Many people have problems with an allistic actor portraying an autistic character, and I won’t be getting into that argument or state my personal opinion, but the portrayal of accuracy in autistic characterization is very high. This is one of those rare shows which shows an autistic adult being competent in a job as well as navigating friendships and attraction to people. He is also shown as an autistic adult; he doesn’t think or act like a child.

Shaun’s strengths and struggles: My main contention with the show’s accuracy is the Savant Syndrome super powers Shaun (the main character) has, but I think that was in part a relic from the show being loosely adapted from a Korean drama of the same name. This could have a deleterious effect on the way the audience sees autistics’ skills and smarts - as something separate from autism. A more accurate way to describe Shaun’s skills would be his special interest has been in medical sciences and physiology for years, and he is a visual learner and can extrapolate spacial information from what he has learned about the layout of the body to understand medical problems on a deeper level. This is a set of skills and intelligence very related to autism instead of a separate thing stacked on top of it; he can hyperfocus and not get bored, makes abstract links between disparate pieces of information in order to reach a conclusion, can learn a system well based on visual patterns, etc. For him, these are very autistic traits. For another character, based on their learning style/preferences/personality the autistic traits can vary. Essentially, autism touches every way an autistic person experiences the world. The show makes this a clear message, at least.

While Shaun is excellent surgeon and very intelligent, he struggles with other things. This is very accurate for autistics; there may be some things autistics are very good at and/or have fun doing, but other activities can be difficult and distressing. For example, Shaun cannot drive because there is too much sensory information associated with driving. This is a very common experience, though not necessarily true to all autistics, and it doesn’t correlate with someone’s level of verbal communication. I know a non-verbal person who drives to her work every day, and a very verbal autistic who finds driving absolutely horrendous. At the end of the day, Shaun is very skilled but makes mistakes like anyone else, though his resolutions to problems are often unique, meaning he thinks “outside of the box,” or abstractly the way many autistics tend to. He follows rules yet is creative, something often unappreciated or overlooked in autistics’ portrayals.

Portrayal of sensory experience: Shaun dislikes eye contact and seems to pay attention to people by listening or looking at what they are talking about. His mannerisms and body postures seem to be geared around rhythmic gross motor movements and precise fine motor movements, navigating and interacting with his sensory environment. He also has a myriad of sensory problems, and the degree with which he struggles with them may vary on the situation. For example, he couldn’t deal with certain noises during the day, but he couldn’t sleep when the faucet wasn’t dripping because he wanted to have the familiarity of the dripping faucet. Autistic people have sensory preferences, meaning some people love certain sensory experiences others hate and vice versa. He also is visually very sensory-seeking and bought himself a high resolution flatscreen TV so he could watch it up close. This is something consistent with his character, since he thinks very visually. Shaun has a comfort item - a toy scalpel his younger brother got him and he carries it with him everywhere. This is similar to myself and a lot of other autistics, and it’s related to a loved one and a special interest.

He also struggled with being asked direct questions when he interacted with a character - Claire - up close and couldn’t answer them, but he had prepared for his interview and could respond to questions asked directly by strangers in that context earlier in front of a room full of people. Later, he can respond to Claire’s questions more easily, likely because he got to know her better. While it might seem counter-intuitive or poorly written for Shaun to have an inconsistent ability to answer questions, but the contexts in which he was asked certain questions were different, and he had different levels of preparation to be asked questions. 

Emotions: In one episode he had an ‘atypical’ (at least by allistic standards) reaction to seeing someone get shot in a store - he compartmentalized his distress and feelings of guilt to help the person and go about his job, then later lashed out after he had packed his emotions down. He also didn’t want people to know his emotions. Yet some allistics are like this as well.The show writers leave him room to be similar or dissimilar to allistics, depending on his preferences and personality. 

His facial expressions are so subtle, other characters may not catch them and be able to read his emotions. This contributes to the stereotype he is ‘robotic,’ but Shaun certainly does NOT emote flatly. His facial expression system is merely different from those around him. He is in pain/guilt a lot of the time and has been abused and bullied, so he learned to suppress his emotions rather than trying to deal with them because they can often be too much to handle. This is consistent with his character, yet doesn’t contribute to the idea that he doesn’t feel. Instead, he is portrayed as feeling a LOT: becoming attached to certain people quickly, feeling distressed if they are removed from his life either by dying or moving or cutting off contact. He often gets watery eyes but turns away to prevent people from seeing. It’s a choice of his to keep his emotions to himself; they’re his, as he asserts at one point.

Portrayal of Shaun’s history of abuse and bullying: Unfortunately, this portrayal is very accurate. Without spoiling too much of he plot, I will describe the types of abuse Shaun experiences. He was abused by his father verbally and likely physically, though the latter can be inferred. There is at least one scene showing this. His memories shown are mostly traumatic in nature - being kicked by classmates in the schoolyard, seeing death, and being pressured into take his pants off (though he  didn’t, this is sexual harassment and humiliation) then surrounded by classmates and mocked. Autistic people are often targets for abuse of all kinds, and Shaun’s lack of obvious emotional reaction to his memories of these instances shows how acclimated to his memories of these kinds of violations he has become. Yet when he realized someone pretending to be his “friend” and manipulating him for his money, he was stung.

Portrayal of sexuality and romance: Shaun is shown as straight in this show, and becomes very attached to someone who also is interested in him. He seems intimidated by sexual experiences, but not disinterested in them - a very different portrayal of autistic sexuality than usual, as most autistics are portrayed as asexual. It is made clear he is interested in romantic experiences, and is shown as attractive.

Interactions with another autistic: There is an episode in which Shaun has an autistic patient (portrayed by an up-and-coming autistic actor). There was a little bit of weird ‘autistic whisperer’ feeling shown when Shaun translated the patient’s distress and the reasoning behind it, which may happen if autistic people know each other well or have similar sensory problems, but one autistic person may or may not be able to simply understand and explain another autistic person’s experiences.

Yet there was something interesting about this other autistic character which is not often addressed in media: he had different struggles and strengths than Shaun, different ways of communicating, and different responses to stress. Shaun internalizes his stress until he explodes, but this character seemed very communicative of stress and pain.

Something else interesting was Shaun’s initial almost-dislike of this character. Something gooshy to do on the writers’ parts would be to have them instantly become best friends, but to Shaun, he was just another patient, and Shaun had never met another autistic person. This was another way to show Shaun’s dislike of himself on some level (I would say self-hatred but I’m not too quick to point to evidence of this because the audience sees into his emotions only through memories and seeing him in private moments). Shaun has been taught by those around him there is something wrong with him, and he expected to find this patient difficult based on others’ historical communication to him that he is annoying or difficult to be around. Unfortunately, this kind of internalization of negative self-perceptions is very common for autistic people.

By the end of that episode, Shaun had seemed to get over his ambivalent feelings toward this patient and chided the patients’ parents for giving the patient a kava root supplement, as it was the cause of the patients’ presenting health problems. Allistic parents of autistic kids are often quick to jump to any supposed ‘cure’ or ‘support’ for their kids to change their autistic-ness, and this episode was wonderful at showing how dangerous this is, as the patient was in a severe amount of pain and distress. The parents were also very quick to decide both their child and Shaun were incompetent because of autism, but Shaun’s surgical team members were very quick to advocate for him despite their distrust of his skills in the beginning of the show. This gets at the show’s core message, I think: Autistic people are capable and one should assume competence.

This show is also not inspiration porn, since the narrative focuses on Shaun as the main character and doesn’t objectify him - a big plus in narratives featuring autistics.

Overall message about autism: In one episode, a physically disabled patient considering surgery to try to walk again tells Shaun, “You understand; you’d jump at a cure for autism, wouldn’t you?” And Shaun avoids the question by saying, “There is no cure for autism.” Shaun then prompts the patient to realize his best attributes - patience, willing to help others, etc. were learned because he went through physical therapy, and the patient says the difference between his ‘cure’ to walk again - surgery - and Shaun’s autism is the lessons he learned from being in a wheelchair wouldn’t go away if he can walk again. Also within this conversation, the patient told Shaun his wife married him because she accepted him for who he was, and that someone who accepted Shaun could marry him. Shaun pointed out some of his own personal qualities which are there because he is autistic. I winced at the initial question but the following conversation relieved me. This show, so far, communicates autism is a part of Shaun, not something he carries around which keeps the real him locked up.

Hope this helps with writing autistic characters in the future, especially in the medium of a show, movie, or play wherein there is a visual element for the audience in acting.

 - Mod Siena

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On going non-verbal

I notice when I read about being non-verbal, how it feels and what it is like is very diverse and different for everyone.

I just went nonverbal during first period and targeted learning at school. That is um… Two or three hours? I don’t actually know.

This is how it felt for me.

The world moved a bit slower and my movements were slower.

I tried focusing on my lips and throat, imagining sounds coming out of them but I couldn’t even hum. It was like pushing against a wall. I couldn’t even open my mouth.

It wasn’t really painful, and I was using emergency chat to communicate. I was able to use the correct words and find words in the chat so it wasn’t that I didn’t have words.

It was more like, I wasn’t processing the steps I needed to make to form sounds and vowels and consonants and make actual words. It felt like what I feel when my executive dysfunction is messing with me.

Trying to make myself talk was draining and I am kind of tired now. I don’t think I could have a coherent conversation now actually. I can now make noises and verbally stim. But when I tried to talk at the end of class after I was able to get my mouth parts moving, my words were blocky and hard to find and translate into sounds.

I wonder if this is how it’s like for others who go non verbal.

Reblog with your experiences if you wish. Maybe this could turn into a conversation on what non verbal episodes feel like and what they are to people.

~modrat

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asperdoll

Thank you for writing this, I have not been able to explain this before.

This is very similar to how it feels for me. It feels like pushing against a wall trying to even get my mouth to open, and sometimes I can’t nod or shake my head either. Even if I know exactly what i want to say it can be like I’m trapped inside my head, which is very frustrating. It also goes in stages, something like: 1) completely irresponsive 2) able to nod/shake to yes no questions 3) able to nod at the correct option from a list 4) able to say individual words in response to a well known script (e,g.) “where is your bag?” “Classroom.” And so on.

Usually what happens when I’m stressed out, and any kind of communication including writing is very difficult and tiering for me, and I sometimes can’t even think clearly what I want to say, like there is white noise in my head. Sometime I an non verbal and not over stimulated, and in these cases I can write/use hand gestures and it is less tiering.

I also find after the first time I manage to speak it becomes easier from then on.

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I explained my non verbal episodes as to what it was like that day, so yah I relate to this. I have moments when I am completely unable to respond, but I get put into dangerous situations because of that. Teachers threaten to call my parents. My parents will yell at me if I don’t respond. And people get frustrated around me.

It feels like I have to physically fight and pull myself out of it so I can at least nod yes or shake no. I have to take time to think of every single word and slowly force it out of my mouth and it’s usually “shut. Down. No. Speak.”

It helps to know that I’m not the only one to experience this kind of non verbal shut downs. (These are usually my shut downs. I have non verbal episodes where I’m not actually shut down and can communicate in other ways then speaking) within the autistic community. Thank you for your impute.

#personal accounts#reblog
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gamma-arcturus asked:

Would it be realistic for a nonspeaking autistic character with auditory processing issues to have meltdowns every time someone talks while around him? He finds it really frustrating because he wants to be able to understand what they're saying, but he can't.

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scriptautistic answered:

No, I don’t think this is realistic.

Having a meltdown because of frustration caused by not being able to understand what happens around you and what is being said to you, and to communicate your thoughts and needs, is definitely possible, and I would even say common. Many nonverbal people who haven’t yet found a type of AAC that works for them have frequent meltdowns.

But a meltdown is very, very energy consuming. It can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, and this time will be spent screaming, crying, possibly moving violently. A meltdown is very draining. You could have a look at this personal account of a meltdown, which describes how a meltdown feels like, and how you can feel like after having had one. I’ve heard people describing that after a meltdown, they feel as though they have been running a marathon and they need a lot of time to recharge.

Now, unless your characters lives all alone in the woods or something, he’s probably going to hear human speech very often. Moreover, most people’s reaction to seeing someone being very distressed is to talk to them to find out what is going on. So I think in the scenario you are describing, your character would just be in a constant state of meltdown, which is just not possible: anyone would drop from exhaustion at some point.

What I think is more realistic is your character, while being very frustrated by his inability to communicate and understand people and having frequent meltdowns because of that, will most likely have learnt to tune out in one way or another people speaking. Maybe he just doesn’t try to understand, maybe he puts his hands of his ears or hums when he hears someone speaking, maybe he avoids people as much as possible.

I’m also not sure how realistic it is for him to understand none of what people say. Most people with even serious auditory processing difficulties can make out at least partially what people are saying to them, relying on context and lip reading as well as the sounds they hear. I am also guessing, based on your description, that your character is a child; it is very likely that his parents would have learnt quite fast to supplement their communication in some way (for instance using baby sign language or gestures), and his family is probably the people he interacts with most.

So while your idea is not completely unrealistic, I think you need to nuance it a bit to make it believable.

-Mod Cat

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It is not unrealistic but it might be hard for other peoples to grasp. It is not unrealistic.

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Also, assuming the character is an adult, a person who meltdowns when others speak around him would have learnt to protect himself from it. Either by blocking out sound (by wearing headphones or earplugs or those heavy-duty ear protection that construction workers wear) or by doing something like a stim that counters and alleviates the stress that leads to meltdown. Or he would live in some kind of a sheltered environment where the accommodations he needs (aka people not speaking around him) were provided.

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@ oodlenoodleroodle has it close to right. Sheltered work space is the norm (since those of us what can’t handle talking also can’t handle fingers (earbuds) in our ears). We is isolated from the general workforce when is practical.

I cannot tolerate teh sound of people speaking near me cause my brain wants to make sense of it but it can’t - painful meltdown ensues OFTEN.

We establish rules - there is signs near my desk in every office I has worked what says “NO SPEAKING within sight of this sign”. Has pics of cell phones with red lines and all just to make sure peoples know *I CAN’T HANDLE IT*. 

Is not unreal, is just hard to enforce and companies get real upset when they has to admit that, since it was clearly stated all around me, that I was not being out of bounds reacting as I did to a people getting close and doing as the signs said not to do.

No, it is not common. Most companies pay their lawyers extra for finding ways around the rules. But they do exist RL and people like me that cannot handle the sound of people speaking do exist.

It is unbelievable. It is real. Can you write it so it comes across as real? That’s gonna be HARD cause even us what lives teh life can’t get people to believe it.

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Anonymous asked:

Hi! Congratulations on one year anniversary and very informative blog, as well for always being so sweet and polite. I have two questions if it is allowed. I wrote one character as sensitive to bright lights, shouting, strong smells and tastes. First is question is, is that too much (should I cut on some senses) and second is, since character is working as cook, what problems might he encounter? Thank you and have nice day!

Hi there! Thanks for the kind words!

For the first question, being sensitive to all of that is definitely realistic, you can go ahead with that.

As for the second question:

  • People that are oversensitive to taste often are “picky eaters”, and only like a limited range of often bland food. I don’t know how that would work with being a cook, which involves tasting the food that you are making to check the seasoning and so on. 
  • Kitchens often have a lot of smells. Some of them can be pleasant, but others (for example fish or cleaning supplies) less so, and in any case they could probably get overwhelming pretty fast, especially if your character is working in a restaurant with several other cooks.
  • If your character is working with other people in a kitchen, i think things could get pretty loud, with people talking to each other, the sound of knives when chopping, maybe the sound of blenders and so on. This could be overwhelming as well if your character is sensitive to sounds or has auditory processing difficulties. I also think there is a lot of movement, which could also add to the overwhelm.
  • I have never been a cook, but I think being a cook in a restaurant can be pretty stressful at rush hour, because there are lots of things that need to be done as soon as possible. Autistic people are often less good at dealing with stress than allistic people.
  • Cooking a dish requires a lot of steps. If your character struggles with executive dysfunction, this could be a problem for him. Maybe he’ll have to rely on recipes more than his coworkers, or to use other accomodations to keep the steps straight and not forget anything.

These are just a few suggestions, but if anyone wants to weigh in, it is as always welcome.

-Mod Cat

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matt-the-blind-cinnamon-roll asked:

So I'm on chapter 8 of Into the Drowning Deep, and I have a question: did you mean to code Olivia as autistic? I'm autistic and I see so many of my own little ticks and quirks in her it's astounding.

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seananmcguire answered:

I didn’t mean to code Olivia as autistic, no: Olivia is autistic, full stop.  She says as much a little later in the book, when she’s talking about her relationship with her parents (mostly her father) and some assumptions they made about her future before she was old enough to shut that shit down.

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ladyrpgr

Excuse my ignorance - what’s the difference between somebody being “coded” and actually being it? I was under the apparently erroneous impression that they were basically the same thing, only coded being used exclusively for fictional characters showing real life disorders/sexualities/whatever. 

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Frequently when a character is “coded” one way or another, it’s to get the schema of a group of people without actually having to commit to the realities of fictional diversity.

Example: Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory is coded autistic.  He does things that are stereotypical “autistic behaviors,” as interpreted by the mainstream media; he talks in the “ha ha funny” way that is often used for neuroatypical characters.

But.

The creators will not say that Sheldon is autistic, because then the fact that much of the show’s humor (”humor”) is at his expense would be visibly and blatantly cruel.  Look at us, mocking an autistic person for being themselves, aren’t we swell people ha ha ha oh wait.  So they basically say “no, he could be just like everyone else, he could be ‘normal,’ so when everyone is awful to Sheldon, he’s bringing it on himself,” while still writing the character using a set of schema and narrative shorthands that makes it very, very clear that we’re supposed to laugh at people mocking an autistic man.

(Sheldon is also an asshole.  You can be autistic and still be an asshole.  But consider how hard it is to have conversations like “knowing what dinner will be at 9am is important for my mental health because I have food insecurity” if you’re not allowed to say the words “mental health” or “food insecurity.”)

I saw something earlier today that pointed out that mocking people for behaviors we code as autistic–special interests, stimming, etc.–is an asshole move whether they have a diagnosis or not, and that is absolutely true.  But mocking the “weirdo” is still considered socially acceptable in so many circles, and that means that characters get coded as autistic, or OCD, or queer, or Jewish, and then never actually given that identity, all to make them “other.”

#reblog
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Anonymous asked:

How would a high-support (or low-functioning, im not sure the correct term) autistic csa survivor act? I want to make sure i write his character as accurate as possible. He age regresses a lot and is really only close with one other character, who he thinks of like his older brother. Would it be offensive for him to act like a young child?

My problem is this: I do not know what you mean by high-support or low-functioning. We say in our read before you ask that we prefer people not to use functioning labels. This post gives a more in-depth explanation of why “low functioning” is not a meaningful label, but aside from any problems with functioning labels in a general sense, not knowing what askers mean makes answering pretty awkward.

For any readers who don’t know, CSA stands for “childhood sexual abuse”. We won’t be discussing any specifics related to abuse, but there will be discussion of post-traumatic symptoms, so skip this post if that is difficult for you.

CSA survivors and autistic people are individuals who all act differently, so it is very difficult to tell you how your character would react. It would make much more sense for you to give me some guidelines for what you had in mind, and I would be able to comment on this and say whether it is realistic, because he could act in so many different ways depending on his experiences and personality.

So, how should your character act? One way of addressing this is to consider what you need narratively. Obviously, how the character acts helps to define the character’s trauma, but then again so would any post-traumatic symptoms, so other things to consider are:

  • Do you want a symptom that is going to be more noticeable to others, an opportunity for other characters to try to help/fail to help/mock?
  • Panic attacks, flashbacks, significant changes in sleep and eating, more stimming, and an increase in shutdowns/meltdowns might all work for this
  • Do you want a symptom that gives a chance to fill in his backstory?
  • If so, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, or nightmares might be useful
  • Do you want something that shapes your character socially?
  • Maybe he spends time avoiding triggers, struggles more with social situations (like suggested in this post), is very literal following triggers/flashbacks,
  • Do you want something that is going to cause an issue/put the character in a bad place when x plot thing happens?
  • Increased nervous system arousal, insomnia, a recent trigger that means that the character has greater sensory needs than usual

This post by @scripttraumasurvivors gives more ideas for working backwards from what you want to write.

There are lots of factors that can affect how your character responds to trauma. Interpersonal traumas like CSA are more likely to cause post-traumatic symptoms, but on top of this, there are other complicating factors such as how often he was abused, how other characters reacted to him, and whether he has had support.

As for age regression, we have written about “child-like” characters before in our “infantilization” tag. The important thing to remember is that even if your character age regresses, they are not the younger age. You ask whether it would be offensive for the character to act like a young child. The truth is that what people perceive as offensive varies. However, my questions would be 1) what do you mean by “acting like a young child”?; and 2) can you use a humanizing approach to describe the character’s experiences and how he is reacting, rather than just describing the behaviour.

Finally, here are some links that you might find helpful:

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gamma-arcturus asked:

Would it be realistic for a nonspeaking autistic character with auditory processing issues to have meltdowns every time someone talks while around him? He finds it really frustrating because he wants to be able to understand what they're saying, but he can't.

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No, I don’t think this is realistic.

Having a meltdown because of frustration caused by not being able to understand what happens around you and what is being said to you, and to communicate your thoughts and needs, is definitely possible, and I would even say common. Many nonverbal people who haven’t yet found a type of AAC that works for them have frequent meltdowns.

But a meltdown is very, very energy consuming. It can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, and this time will be spent screaming, crying, possibly moving violently. A meltdown is very draining. You could have a look at this personal account of a meltdown, which describes how a meltdown feels like, and how you can feel like after having had one. I’ve heard people describing that after a meltdown, they feel as though they have been running a marathon and they need a lot of time to recharge.

Now, unless your characters lives all alone in the woods or something, he’s probably going to hear human speech very often. Moreover, most people’s reaction to seeing someone being very distressed is to talk to them to find out what is going on. So I think in the scenario you are describing, your character would just be in a constant state of meltdown, which is just not possible: anyone would drop from exhaustion at some point.

What I think is more realistic is your character, while being very frustrated by his inability to communicate and understand people and having frequent meltdowns because of that, will most likely have learnt to tune out in one way or another people speaking. Maybe he just doesn’t try to understand, maybe he puts his hands of his ears or hums when he hears someone speaking, maybe he avoids people as much as possible.

I’m also not sure how realistic it is for him to understand none of what people say. Most people with even serious auditory processing difficulties can make out at least partially what people are saying to them, relying on context and lip reading as well as the sounds they hear. I am also guessing, based on your description, that your character is a child; it is very likely that his parents would have learnt quite fast to supplement their communication in some way (for instance using baby sign language or gestures), and his family is probably the people he interacts with most.

So while your idea is not completely unrealistic, I think you need to nuance it a bit to make it believable.

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Submitted by Anonymous
Hi, are you only accepting personal accounts from autistics? How about someone with an autistic sibling. Perhaps it’s helpful to know about interaction between someone autistic and someone who isn’t? Writing autistic characters generally means there’s interaction with those who aren’t. I also have many accounts on dealing with idiotic people who won’t understand my sister’s needs. There are also some people who try to help my sister but are actually helping wrongly.

Hi!

We were debating a little on how to answer this. This could potentially be interesting, but there is the possibility of harmful sibling narratives, and we want to avoid a situation where we get too many submissions from allistic family members. Focusing on and boosting autistic voices is an important part of what we do, and we are a little hesitant about setting a precedent of having allistic people writing about us on the blog.

With that in mind, we do think it could be interesting to have a post where there were points of view from both an autistic and a non-autistic sibling. While we are very familiar with interactions between autistic and non-autistic people (we have to interact with a lot of allistic people in real life!), there are interesting discussions to be had about sibling relationships that could be useful for our readers.

A similar model could be used in general for talking about other relationships between autistic and allistic people. Rather than hearing from just the allistic person, including the autistic person’s viewpoint could help to contextualise the relationship. It also means that we get the opportunity to promote autistic voices, particularly those of people who might not otherwise share their opinions and experiences with a wider audience.

Tl;dr - we’d love to hear from you and your sister, but we won’t be taking personal accounts from non-autistic people without input from an autistic person as well.

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Reblogged princesse-tchimpavita-deactivat
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Anonymous asked:

so in your most recent post, you mentioned that some autistics cant manage their menstraution, and i was wondering if you can elaborate on that? cause i struggle with it a lot

13faeinapenguinsuit answered:

Right, so understand first that this all stuff that has been shared with by other autistics either publicly or I have asked specifically if I can share these things anonymously.

I do not, however, have a uterus and while I can share these stories there is a lot that I am just not going to understand.

Some, but not all of the things involved:

Drastic, rapid change in sensory experiences; this includes changes in emotions, which themselves can cause sensory experiences.

There is the sensory experience of having a period itself, including the experience of pads, tampons, cups, etc. 

And that’s before bring things into like PCOS with cysts and all that, and endo affecting everything which isn’t just the pain but can affect urination, bowel movements, joints, etc., depending on how bad / progressed it is.

Oh, migraines are often also tied to hormonal changes that come with menstrual cycles, and that’s a whole new level of hypersensitivity on top of all the autistic stuff.

Then there’s just the practical stuff; dealing with clots and oozing feelings and wet feelings and slimy feelsings.

And then lets all mix that up with with alexithymia because we can’t just have all those things but we have to be confused about what we’re feeling.

Some people have said the hormonal shifts also affect their empathy feels and how sensitive they are to other people’s emotions.

Throw dysphoria on top of all of that and repeat it all for dysphoria and just… yeah.

There are some autistics who just have meltdowns, too. Meltdowns from the pain. Meltdowns from the sensory experience. Meltdowns from the emotional overload. Meltdowns from the anxiety of dealing with the whole cycle or individual aspects of that.

One adult autistic shared with me that when they meltdown when they are changing their pads, they end up smearing the walls with the pad because they just can’t get away from the feeling and that’s the only outlet they have.

…and of course in my culture it is more or less taboo to talk openly about and a lot of people won’t even talk privately about it, so there is just no help for most people, let alone autistic people.

Basically, it sucks, but it especially sucks when you’re autistic or trans, and doubly so when you’re autistic and trans.

I’m sure that people that have a uterus can fill in the extensive gaps in all of that, and speak from experience, though I don’t know if anyone will feel up to it.

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I like that you mentioned menstrual cups, because functionally all of my direct sensory issues with menstruation went away when I started using one. For the past half year, my body has persisted in menstruating even though I’ve been on T again for long enough it should have stopped. It has gotten lessened though, so there have been days where I won’t remember it’s even happening, because it’s so well managed with the cup. If I had known about menstrual cups sooner, I would have been saved an unknown but significant number of shutdowns and meltdowns over the years.

I agree that I also really wish there were a comfortable gender neutral space for discussion on this all where I don’t feel obligated to specify that I’m agender so I’m not mistaken for a gender I’m not. That’s probably really far away, since I’m not sure there’s a particularly comfortable space for anyone to talk about it.

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Yeah, there should definitely be space to talk about these things.

I actually can’t go to uni/work when I’m approaching my period because of the increase in sensory issues and meltdowns when I’m hormonal.

I’ve finally found a pill that works for me to stop all of this, but when I was younger, I used to have to stay home from school simply because I was in a state where I would burst into tears at the drop of a hat.

And atm, I missed taking one of my pills last month and now I’m having the thing where I just fucking bleed all month, which meant that I couldn’t be in my lectures last week because the sound of the guy breathing behind me made me feel like I wanted to scream. I don’t actually know if I’m any better this week, I’m just going to have to go today and see…

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princesse-tchimpavita

I feel like participating in this conversation.

Having a period is usually not a great time for most people, but in my experience, having less energy than usual can be the difference between tolerating my environment and feeling overwhelmed and unable to focus.

I also get super hungry and nauseous at the same time, which is not great.

One thing I really want to mention is that while periods affect emotions, emotions can affect periods. Mental health things like anxiety, stress and even trauma can make the cramps worse or make the periods irregular and unpredictable, so sometimes things can feel super agonizing even though nothing is wrong on a physical level, which is scary IMO.

#reblog#menstruation#unsanitary cw
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Anonymous asked:

I know the stereotype about killers being autistic is really, really harmful, but is it inherently bad to have an autistic villain/murderer? I myself am autistic and those are the types of character I gravitate towards, so I kinda wanted to write an autistic one. (To clarify, it is not the only autistic character in the story, and most of them are heroes.)

Hello. I don’t think that it is inherently bad to have an autistic villain. You already have other autistic characters in the story and it could, in fact, be argued that there is something beneficial about showing that autistic people come with a variety of personalities, and that morality is not inherently tied to a neurotype.

Sometimes ‘positive’ stereotypes can be dehumanising. Showing that at autistic people are capable of both good and evil helps to show that we are fully human.

We also answered a similar question here. Like we said there, “if you write this story I think it is important that your character being a killer is not portrayed as part of their autism. Being an assassin and being autistic at the same time is probably ok as long as you don’t inadvertently send the message that ‘I am an amazing killer because I am autistic.’”

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