Sincerely, Your Autistic Child: What People on the Autism Spectrum Wish Their Parents Knew... 2021-07-18

[VictorR]

VictorR submitted a new resource:

Sincerely, Your Autistic Child: What People on the Autism Spectrum Wish Their Parents Knew... - An Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network anthology

Part memoir, part guide, and part love letter, Sincerely, Your Autistic Child is an indispensable collection that invites parents and allies into the unique and often unheard experiences of autistic children and teens, highlighting how parents can avoid common mistakes and misconceptions, and make their child feel truly accepted, valued, and celebrated for who they are.



Most resources available for parents come from psychologists, educators, and doctors, offering parents a narrow and...

Read more about this resource...

 

[VictorR]

Chapter List:

Early Memories, Childhood, and Education

1) Acknowledge Vulnerability; Presume Competence
2) It’s Us Against the World, Kid
3) What Autistic Girls Wish Their Parents Knew About Friendship
4) What Your Daughter Deserves: Love, Safety, and the Truth
5) What I Wish You Knew
6) Change the World, Not Your Child
7) Empathy and Non-Verbal Cues
8) The First Time I Heard of Autism
9) What I Wish My Parents Knew About Being Their Autistic Daughter
10) A Particular Way of Being

Acceptance and Adaptation
11) A Daughter’s Journey: Lessons, Honesty, and Love
12) Still Your Child
13) Perfect in an Imperfect World
14) Who Gets to Be Diagnosed? And Who Does It Serve?
15) Unconventional
16) I Wish I Wasn’t So Hard on Myself Back Then
17) Ten Things I Wish My Parents Had Known When I Was Growing Up
18) I Am an Autistic Woman
19) The View from Outside the Window
20) Finding Me: The Journey to Acceptance
21) Autism, Self-Acceptance, and Hope

Intersectional Identity and Finding Community
22) Keep Her Safe; Let Her Fly Free
23) Tell Me I’m Autistic
24) Autism, Sensory Experiences, and Family Culture
25) Safe Harbors in a Difficult World
26) Give Your Daughters Autistic Community
27) A Parents’ Guide to Being Transgender and Autistic
28) On Surviving Loneliness and Isolation, and Learning to Live with Loss
29) There’s a Place

 

[VictorR]

For review #22, I’ve chosen the award winning anthology from the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network (AWN) published just earlier this spring.

Anthologies are always difficult to review, since with multiple authors and thereforewriting styles, there is some inevitable choppiness.

Admittedly, when I was at about the quarter mark, I was not very happy about both the amount of choppiness I was encountering, and also the relative lack of new/novel material.

That being said, the rest of the book is a lot better – lots of narratives from those experiencing multiple intersectionalities, whether they be from cultural minorities, and/or those experiencing multiple disabilities. And that’s what I was expecting from this book, to provide that combination of the books Spectrum Women and Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN)’s Knowing Why in helping bring a selection of marginalized voices to the table, with stories and thoughts that we’ve yet to see.

If I could boil down the book to a few overarching points, they’d be:

* Acceptance of your autistic family members for who they are

* Helping them navigate life and social rules, and identifying where they may need help/support, and assisting with exploring things and finding potential strengths

* Talking to them, and also talking to others in the autistic community

One caveat that I have to throw in is that exploration costs time and money, and some, especially from marginalized backgrounds, may not have either or both of those luxuries. Growing up with a disability / disabilities in a lower income background is vastly different from a middle or upper class one.

Overall, a strong entry to the field of books on autism, and one which like many others, continues to raise the bar. In some ways I’m almost afraid to review older books since the more stories that are being told, the fewer stories there are left to be told that are relatively novel.

Of course, presentation and thematic organization can still provide many opportunities for mainstream stories, ideas, and narratives to be presented. Non-binary and asexual narratives is also an area where we're thin on material, notwithstanding that Temple Grandin, one of the first autistic to tell their story, speaks about being ace.

5.25/5 (max score 5.50)