Re: Blog~The aliens among us

[Guest guest]

CJ:

I'm coming in a bit late to this discussion, but I'd like to add some " cautions "

with regard to Winner's perceptions. I've met her several times

and in earlier years attended her basic and advanced level workshops for Speech

Language paths and other professionals in public school special education. Even

now, unless she's very recently changed her essay that was written in January

2010, I am distressed by her bifurcation of classification of children on the

spectrum who'd benefit from her interventions and those who likely would not.

While she's working now with an older population of children than the group she

first started with, and HAS had an opportunity to expand her clinical practice

in San to mature, late-diagnosed adults on the spectrum, there's still the

" hangover effect " from earlier years where, for sake of simplification, she's

had to identify spectrum sitters in somewhat simplistic language for public

school educators and providers who, again, for simplification, are mystified,

easily frustrated, and share an enormous culture of prejudice and misinformation

about autism spectrum disorder.

For that reason, I was glad to see she's hooked up with an adult practitioner

and co-authored her most recent book on Social Thinking and the Workplace. For

the most part, she does have it right, but again, there are some limitations to

her observations because even though she's working with a provider better

exposed to the real workplace and who has worked with real adults who've been in

the workforce, often for many years (whether successfully or unsuccessfully),

she at least has an experienced partner as they've both written her newest book

together.

For folks who can afford the very expensive assistance of a professional

intimately knowledgeable about the range of sophistication in late-diagnosed,

mature adult thinking and behaviors, her observations are fine. Generally,

they're good, but the one thing that concerns me the most is that most mature,

late-diagnosed adults cannot afford the intensive level of affective education

her approach appears to require. This fact makes effective interventions with

the average adult on the spectrum truly unaffordable. Her most recent book was

published at the depths of the jobless recovery, and things have really gotten

worse, not better, with long time unemployed and underemployed, aging adults.

While she pays lip service to some of the more successful kinds of interventions

with adults on the spectrum, most of those interventions, as well, are

fund-based, intensive, and expensive. We're seeing social services and provider

services being pulled from state and local human services budgets, and are

continuing to see downsizing of human resource department competencies as more

moderately sized businesses export or contract their human services operations

to third parties. This fact of our economy, and the structural changes in the

nature of the workplace make observations about social relationships in the

workplace more troublesome than ever, because the rate of change of the hidden

curriculum, the stated and unstated rules, and the dynamics between employers

and their employees, and employees amongst themselves, are in a major state of

flux. Rules once identified, are often fleeting. Values thought to be immutable

are discarded when acquisitions,contracting out, exporting jobs, downsizing,

temping, and other labor and money-saving measures are imposed by business

owners no matter the size of the business.

Short of the personal time in private relationships, for the average mature,

late-diagnosed adult on the spectrum can spend the biggest identifiable chunk of

his or her time in the world of work, and the social relationship aspects of

work, whether work is conducted at a professional or an unskilled level.

Some of the observations you've added, and perspectives shared by , are as

appropriate to apply to employment and working for a living relationships.

Perhaps when speaking about intimate or significant relationships, it might be

helpful to consider the width and breadth of " the box " that many individuals on

the spectrum experience in that world as well.

So, I'm not proposing a criticism of peoples' observations, but merely hoping

that folks keep their minds open to the broad range of ways individuals on the

spectrum experience the world, both as a world necessarily filled with silos as

well as a world filled with ever-shifting sand dunes when it comes to social

communication.

If folks have been able to make it to this point in my comments so far, thanks.

For other readers, I'll try to keep my comments shorter.

N. Meyer

Re: Blog~The aliens among us

>

> Newland wrote:

>>

>>

>> The aliens among us

>> <http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/12/the-aliens-among-us/> /

>> Discover Magazine

>>

>> Response to Amy Harmon's article, Navigating Love and Autism

>>

<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X & q=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/us/navigatin\

g-love-and-autism.html & ct=ga & cad=CAEQAhgAIAAoATAAOABA4oLl9wRIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT & cd\

=ABzc6zk9O2M & usg=AFQjCNEs9HbJO5B3GmrgyeEdX6JJAyzcNw>

>>

>> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/12/the-aliens-among-us/

>>

>> Comments?

>

>

>

>I thought the points made about micro-norms were dead-on, .

>

>Personally, I've never understood why so many Aspies feel that sharing a

>label in common is enough to make for compatibility. In my experience,

>we Aspies (as a group) are no more compatible with each other than we

>are with NTs. lol

>

>I was also pleased to see the reference to within-group conformity as a

>major hallmark of human behavior, one that is probably biologically

>wired in all of us.

>

> Winner makes many references to this in her writing as

>well, pointing out that even groups known to be nonconformist (by

>mainstream standards) nonetheless exhibit within-group conformity among

>their own kind. She often uses the classic 60s era hippie as an example

>when writing about within-group conformity.

>

>In my experience, sometimes it is the so-called nonconformist groups

>that can be the most conforming in terms of their dress and values. I

>wouldn't be surprised if some of the " purity tests " common to 'alt'

>groups are even more restrictive than those out in mainstream culture.

>

>

>Best,

>~CJ

>

>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>

> " Often we have to conform to the group's expectations in order to be

>celebrated as unique within the group. " ~~ Winner

>http://www.socialthinking.com/

>

>

>------------------------------------

>

> " We each have our own way of living in the world, together we are

like a symphony.

>Some are the melody, some are the rhythm, some are the harmony

>It all blends together, we are like a symphony, and each part is crucial.

>We all contribute to the song of life. "

> ...Sondra

>

> We might not always agree; but TOGETHER we will make a difference.

>

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