Autism Is Not An Excuse To Do Nothing

Post Reply New Topic

He looks like a cross between a rat, and a kangaroo!

A wallaby? Or maybe a kangaroo rat?

He is cute though.

It's me again, anti trolling on language in a friendly way. Going into severe literal mode on the title of this thread:

"Autism Is Not An Excuse To Do Nothing".

"Autism is not an excuse . . . " - I'll buy that, but autism can be a reason to do little.

"Autism is not an excuse to do nothing". Define nothing. We're always doing something. So in severe literal terms the phrase is already senseless. Oh yes it is.

Complicated bit that you may profitably skip: Whether the writer or the reader inserts the moral tone into the words is a highly interesting question, judging that the words do have an objective moral tone - (aside to audience - all right, in terms of academic rigour I'm not coming up with the goods here, my argument weak because I haven't defined what Objectivity is let alone Tone, or probably most importantly, Autism, but wtf, this is Wrong Planet not a dissertation).

"Autism Is Not An Excuse To Do Nothing" is an example of what college people call Rhetoric, i.e. language designed to sway the opinion of the reader, and it is often used in attempts to change public opinion.

Without getting out my critical faculties properly (they are a bit rusty), my argument is that what we are reading in the title of this thread is what George Orwell would call the political use of the English language.

None of this attack on the original article is in the slightest bit personal, it could well be that me and the writer of it share aims, and that she is an entirely personable person in the flesh.

My deep suspicion is that the original article has got "Workfare" in it.

Words, my lovely coping mechanism,

Make me what I am,

Please keep the judgement Overlooker,

Like the lion from the lamb

Isn't it a wombat? - they come in different types

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wombat

- including the magnificent Northern Hairy-Nosed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_h ... sed_wombat

It's not a bush dog, but these are cute too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_dog

That little creature in the gif is the true star of this thread IMO.

Yes, there seems to be the opposite here - there's relatively good support for adults if they want it in Auckland (which is the largest city). I'm not so sure that there is this sort of help in smaller cities though. Autistic children tend to be neglected by the education system and just lumped in with "special needs" and HFA is simply not understood in any adequate way by educators.

Autism NZ functions very much as a service and support organisation for both children and adults although the focus is mainly on children, though there are other groups which are run by adult people on the spectrum for adult peer support and information (eg ASK = Autistic Spectrum Kiwis). However it's only in the last 5 years or so that the needs of adults have been supported as well as they are now.

People seeking mentors obviously need somewhere to meet and assess potential mentors - they need to be someone you kind of 'gel' with - and who have the knowledge and experience to assist. Autism NZ appointed an adult services liaison person a while ago and she was terrific, she set up women's peer support groups, mentored and found mentors for people, liaised to set one to one supports up, provided any kind of information people sought...

So that's the first step perhaps for the more established service organisations. Create a position dedicated to adult services.
From what I've read over time on WP, that's not happening in the USA? (It hasn't happened for all that long here).

Just wanted to say that I spent all of yesterday in my pajamas, playing video games, and getting drunk.

I'm totally blaming autism for that......

To the best of my knowledge in the UK there is very little support for adults diagnosed late, if any.

Autistic services for kids transitioning to University (college) are there, and I've read of individual Universities having Autism support.

How far this extends I don't know, but hazard a guess that as the generation that were dx'd as kids grows old, the services will extend to their age group (?).

I wasn't born cynical, Britain has hypocrisy embedded in the culture as a fact. What the government pretends to be help may be anything but - the Welfare Office definition of the word "help" has to be experienced to be believed.

There is a burgeoning industry in this country to "help" people into work. This industry is undoubtedly corrupt - "Life comes in cans!" is just one example of the prevailing mentality.

There has been a case of the unemployed being coerced into attending a motivational lecture delivered by an NLP organisation, it is alleged.

Helping people into work, with the ordinary English understanding of the word help and with the helped one being a volunteer, is great.