Aspies For Freedom

OMFG! It's a growing weed! Pluck it out! Pluck it out!

Heck, if I had a garden, I'd allow weeds to grow in it as long as they didn't harm the other plants.

~*~

Luckily, nobody figured out I was autistic until I was in second grade. I'm sure I got zero intervention before school, but in grade one they stuck me in a not-very-high functioning class. Apparently me and someone else were the highest-functioning of the lot, so during math and reading, our teacher would send us to a normal first grade class, where we did well. I always wondered why they didn't just stick us in the class fully, since we learned better there. Luckily, I was stuck into my secondary third grade class at last, and things become normal from there. I guess that was about when I was diagnosed.

Early intervention... well, good EI means just basically playing with and interacting with the kid. Expose them to different things, so they won't be frightened by them later. Teach household rules. Teach communication. But all in all, I don't think it ought to take up more time than what you'd use just interacting with an NT baby. Maybe you have to be more explicit if there's autism involved, and take care to facilitate communication learning, but kids are kids, and really what they need at that age is mom's love, a safe, predictable life, and exposure to lots of new things so they can learn.

If your early-intervention program is along the lines of a therapist coming to your house twice a week to show you new learning games you can play with your kid, or help you teach alternative communication, or whatever... well, I'd say it can't hurt, and the attention and exposure to new experiences will help any kid. (Naturally don't push the comfort zone too much. You can't teach anything to an overstimulated, crying child.)

But if it's intensive, ABA-style, dog-training-for-humans... Well, don't get me started. Just STAY AWAY.

Hi MomMagnus.

Regarding all this panic over every little sign of autism, such as not always making eye contact:  It looks to me like there's an "autism industry" just like there's a "cancer industry".  Yes, some people need alot of work done on them, but it's all about making money.  The panic is how they advertise.  The difference is, even the slightest cancer is very serious.  Somebody's making a ton of money off the autism "epidemic".  I wonder how that somebody can stand it with all the lives that are sure to be ruined as a result of unnecessary interventions.

Regarding everything else on this topic, anything I could have said has already been covered.

Tried odor-free stick deodorant, or the hypoallergenic style?... Well, it does have a smell, of course; only it's not as strong as most. It's not good not to keep up hygiene because you can make other people rather upset if you smell bad.

I'm not overly concerned with being hygenic, but I try to avoid turning into smelly germ factory.

I usually shower every few days (always in the evening), and I wash my hair every time I shower.

I often forget to use deoderant. It's never something that crosses my mind. Pretty much the only times I use deoderant are when someone tells me to, my armpits are sweaty, or I smell so bad I can smell it myself. Everyone else always stinks and I try to tolerate it as best as I can, so I think people tolerate others' smells, too.

I forget to brush my teeth occasionally. But not so much that it's awful. I never floss my teeth. I am constantly licking at the areas between my teeth anyway, so I don't bother. As for scrubbing methods, I don't have any because I use a mechanical toothbrush.

I wash my hands very often, at least 4-5 times a day, because I get graphite all over my hands quickly and I like the feel of cool water against my hands. I remember when I was very little I systemized hygiene by thinking that you always wash your hand in one minute and you brushed your teeth in two. Nowadays, a minute seems a little long. I usually was my hands

A little more to the original point, I never actually learned how to wash my face until I was 13 (I'm 14 now). I still only wash my face in the shower because I find it impossible to rinse my face at the sink. I can cup water in my hands, but I can't get it all over my face. I don't really care about washing my face anyway because my acne is rather light. As long as it is light, I don't really care. I heard that one tip to keep your face clean of acne is to not touch it to avoid spreading bacteria to your face. Problem is, most face cleaners merely seem to dry out your face in such a way you get dandruff on your face, and so I end up picking and scratching it off with my school-tainted fingers.

Is shaving considered hygiene? Because I only shave my armpits every several days (when fur has grown in well), because I feel they may be contributors to sweating due to the heat that fur captures. I only shave my legs once every million years (the fur is rather light anyway), I NEVER shave my arms (The fur is extremely thin there anyway and I like stroking it), and I only shave my pubic hair when it bothers me. In short, I don't shave much. And I don't even shave properly. I usually only shave in the shower with water. I never use any shaving cream because my mom doesn't appear to have any.

I use aerosol, because it only takes a couple of days for sticks to give me rashes.  Also, in addition to the couple of big cans of deodorant I keep in the bathroom at home, there's a little "travel size" can in the glove compartment of my car.  (My volunteer job on Sunday, outdoors in the Florida heat, can sometimes leave me a little ripe.  Even then, there is no way I am going into a store on the way home smelling nasty.)

Pikajedi3, please!  Are you in some kind of power struggle with the rest of the world?  If you are, guess who's going to win.  There are alot more of "them" than you, and certainly they're not all garbage.  (If everyone around you is garbage, then you must live in an extremely rough neighborhood.)  If you identify as an aspie, you're representing all aspies and not just yourself.  

I don't let a day go by without brushing my teeth.  There's nothing I hate worse than that nasty feeling in my mouth when I wake up in the morning.  It's not a fun chore, but it's absolutely necessary.  I use a state-of-the-art sonic toothbrush and soak the brushhead in denture cleaner when I'm done.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but hygeine is one thing you don't want to be lax on, especially if you're part of a minority group that's going to have to fight hard to keep the respect of the world.  Please take it seriously.  I am only saying this out of respect for all of you.

the troble is i personally forget... time manage ment issuses.

it depend where you live i guess.

In the USA, a woman not shaving armpit hair is considered quite disgusting. In Germany, many women don't do so--it's just a matter of choice here. Since I'm German-American, I generally do shave, but only once a week--kind of a compromise between stinky pits and razor bumps, I guess. (Hair does trap smell a bit, so you have to use a stronger deodorant if you don't shave.)

I don't think pubic hair shaving is considered necessary anywhere, but many women do because it's more comfortable or because they think it's sexier.

Oops, that should read, "In Germany, many women don't do so--it's just a matter of choice there."

(EDIT BUTTON, GARETH!!)

I thank God that in my country the diagnosis is not available.

Like that, my childhood was attacked from the outside only (verbal attacks from NTs, et cetera) .... but, had there been chemicals and stuff i would have been attacked from the inside too .. oh my god !

Stop the madness = Stop chemicals !

Silky:

It's an Aspie website.  Of course we're gonna get all off-topic and keep changing the subject!  

The main kinds of early intervention I would have liked were for somebody to tell me that teasing didn't mean other kids hated me, how my actions affected others (not a big spiel, but just a little bit of information as I often just "didn't get it") and most of all, that just because I was a girl, didn't mean I couldn't do most things boys could.

Still, that was probably a bit much to ask for back in the 60's and 70's.
Even at 5 years old, I loathed with a passion being told I couldn't do something "because I was a girl". I still hate it.

Because of being quite high functioning, I didn't "need" ABA or PECS or an aide in school or remedial classes.

But most of all, it would have been so great to have not been continually "cut down to size" because I was advanced in some ways for my age.

Hm, my little brother did PECS, I hadn't really thought of it as intervention - just helping him tell us what he wanted. Maybe there are different ways of doing it that are more intrusive - with us it was just a bunch of pictures velcroed to the fridge door, and if he wanted something he brought it to us. Youngest brother (NT) joined in because he was too small to speak much at the time - and then he got very confused when autie brother progressed to WECS!

Some role-playing of various social situations might have helped me somewhat but it would have had to have been done in primary school before I got really short on confidence.