Many “Highly Sensitive People” are actually heavily masked Autistics — Differences are not deficits I can’t believe we’re having this discussion again. At the beginning of this year, I wrote a piece entitled The “Highly Sensitive Person” is Code for Autistic, after reading a popular psychology article which claimed to differentiate the two, but essentially described all the ways in which they are the…

Some accommodations are normalized while others are pathologized — Everyone needs accommodations to thrive I just read an article arguing that highly sensitive people (HSP) and autistic people are not the same. The article then went on to describe all the ways in which they are, in fact, The. Same. Thing. The screen shot below was from the section detailing all of the “differences”…

Challenging stereotypes and describing some lesser-known Autistic traits — A lot of non-conforming and marginalized people are misdiagnosed in healthcare, (including mental health) and psychological diagnoses. This includes female-presenting people (including cis-women), transgender folks-basically anyone in the LGBTQIA2+ community — people of colour, people impacted by poverty, and many others. Identifying someone as Autistic can be difficult, especially if…

PBIS Is Just ABA With Different Letters — PBIS P.B.I.S. stands for Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports, and was the foundation for Manitoba Education’s 2011 policy document, Towards Inclusion: Supporting Positive Behaviour in Manitoba Classrooms. That’s not a typo, the document intended as a guide for creating inclusive schools and classrooms has its roots in behaviourism. The year isn’t…

Or if you prefer, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities — Inclusion is much more than accommodation In honour of the International Day of Disabled Persons, I am sharing a collection of my articles related to accessibility and inclusion. This year’s theme is transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world. That’s a heady theme, but when you think…

Expressing differences of opinion is an important life skill — Stop teaching compliance Instead of teaching children to be “polite” and not argue with adults, we need to teach them how to do so in effective, respectful ways. Some of most sought-after skills in the labour market are independent and critical thinking, communication, creativity, and problem-solving. …

Nothing against yoga or meditation, I’m just talking smaller picture — Picture this See what I did there? February 2022 It’s a cold Saturday morning in February. I make my way to the city to meet with a client. The trip is uneventful and the meeting goes well. …

We need to trust kids and encourage them to trust their own experiences — Airing of grievances It bothers me when adults say that children are “making excuses” or avoiding their work if they ask to go get a drink of water or use the washroom more often than the adults deem “necessary”. I mean, first of all, how would you know? The child may genuinely need…