autism – Jordyn Saelor

Quiet Hands/Screw ABA Therapy

Quiet hands don’t tap the desk quiet hands don’t flap quiet hands cause no problems quiet hands hide in your lap quiet mouths say “fine,” “I’m sorry,” “my bad”

Do I take this for a sign of the breakdown of society? Or evidence for the inner voice asking if I’m fully human? I play video games but only multiplayer ones because I always pick the support character (the healer, the one making everyone else better, but who’s less-than-great at standing on their own)– itContinue reading “Video Games”

masking

I act every day, if the party’s too noisy I tuck my distaste away if I feel like collecting sixteen maple seeds and throwing them in the parking lot but there’s strangers around, I’ll act like I’ve got no interest but walking, not skipping, or hopping, or tiptoeing over the sidewalk cracks. I know howContinue reading “masking”

Echo, or Deaf

My own footsteps tap-top bongos in my skull on the sidewalk my silicone soles roll in the snow, my shoes seem to slosh through shallow shoals– these feet mime an earthquake of music and the symphony stretches, shivering, across my whole surface, my breath my bite my beating blood; I scream with sound to theContinue reading “Echo, or Deaf”

The Question of Neurodivergence

“I have a bunch of labels we could make a list, complete it with appendices, asterisks, sub-headings for short definitions and paragraphs for minutiae.” So says the narrator in my head, anticipating the question, “why?” like, “Why don’t you talk?” “Why don’t you like that?” “Why don’t you drive?” “Why are you acting this way?”Continue reading “The Question of Neurodivergence”

Time Travelers and Flimsy Papers

I came up with a metaphor for me: instead of just existing in regular 3D, my brain, my body, my heart take an average of 4D genius and 2D simplicity and pretend to like it in the middle plane when really rather they’d be time travelers and flimsy papers, shiny puddles and every state ofContinue reading “Time Travelers and Flimsy Papers”

Some random Autism Spectrum stuff

Autism Spectrum Disorder–or, when you experience challenges in multiple (or all) of these areas, and a whole bunch of others that aren’t included here. Autism Spectrum Circle/Wheel/Chart thing–a great graphic for explaining complex neurodiversity Autistic individuals present traits to varying degrees in many categories. For example, if your senses are easily overloaded, you might sayContinue reading “Some random Autism Spectrum stuff”

the best invention

So. I recently found out about squeezable cream cheese. In a tube. it inspired me. See, if we have squeezable cream cheese in a tube, we definitely, absolutely need…(dun dun dun)…toothpaste in a tub. This would be so easy! Just pop the lid, scoop your toothbrush inside, and boom, plenty of toothpaste to brush yourContinue reading “the *best* invention”

Literally, directions don’t do diddly

Ways autistic traits impact my daily life #6 A pretty common trait among autistic people is understanding phrases at literal, face value. For example: “laughing my head off” or “stick in the mud.” Autistic people also tend to follow directions super literally, so “could you put the clean towels away in the bathroom?” results inContinue reading “Literally, directions don’t do diddly”

When you look at this picture, what do you see?

Let’s have fun thinking about our own thoughts, shall we? When you see this image, what pops out to you first? I’ll explain my thought process when I first saw this image: the first thing I picked up on was a letter H. Then lots of letter H’s in rows, and a column. Then IContinue reading “When you look at this picture, what do you see?”