When I talk about disability, I'm not really all that concerned about language. I really don't care what the flavor of the month is to skip around and be politically correct, and when I say "mentally retarded" to mean IQ<70 and problems with daily living, chances are I mean the exact same thing as somebody being politically correct and saying, " ( Read more... )

I have a housemate who has a very high level of social skill. She can practically "read minds"; and she's good at understanding emotions, manipulating social situations, and making good impressions on people. She often corrects me when I make a social blunder (which I don't mind, because how am I going to learn if I'm not told?). Basically, our ( Read more... )

Define Your Terms! That was what my calculus prof always said when we worked on word problems... and it's what I think might be needed for anyone who's new to the autism world (whether by your own diagnosis or a friend/family member's). If you look at my last post, you'll see how full of jargon it is; and I've become aware that many people don't ( Read more... )

Obviously there are autistic people more affected than me; and I can't know what it's like to be an autistic person who does not use language. All I can say is that I can understand it just a little better than NTs.

But my existence as an autistic person without langauge delay does not mean that autistics who don't use language are automatically ( Read more... )

I never saw the point of being offended at mere words. Well, I would be offended if somebody swore "God" or "Jesus" or some such. But that's because I'm a Christian and I hold God in rather high regard. But why sexual or scatological terms should be offensive is really beyond me, though obviously they are ( Read more... )