More people miss the point...

[conuly]

In the comments here.

We (well, I) read this book to Ana. She runs away so I can't hug-and-kiss her, but then she pops her head out from hiding and demands I read it again. And again. And again. It's the Snuggle Puppy book. Oooh, I love that book...

"I love what you are, and I love what you do, fuzzy little snuggle puppy, I love you. And I say Ooooooooh! Snuggle puppy of mine! Everything about you is especially fine! I love what you are, and I love what you do... OOOOOOOOOH! I LOVE YOU! *smooch*"

And the best picture of all is where the puppy is upside down, holding a ball up with his bottom feet (they're anthropomorphic, like picture book creatures often are). He looks like this is just the way puppies are *supposed* to stand, on their heads. I love it.

And it's true, you know. We do love her. And I love her even though she's right-handed, though you better believe that's irritating, and we love her when she bites (ow), and we love her when she's tired and cranky, and when she's driving us batty by saying the same thing and expecting a response (yes, ana, for the thousandth time, I see the doggy. Please be quiet now. I love you).

Not just when she's cute and friendly.

And here's this guy with an autistic daughter, and he views the Getting the Truth Out site, and he concludes that this person would've been so helped by his prefered treatment, that she could've done better. It doesn't matter that she's happy as she is, that in that site it's clear she's eloquent and independant, at least in the ways that matter. No, she could've been normal, and lived up to her potential. (What really gets me is that his daughter'll be "loved and taken care of until we're too old". And then what? She just stops? )

And then he goes on and on about how because kids are developing, you can separate their neurologies from them. Well, you can't. You can't turn a lefty into a righty by tying their left hands down, you can't turn a gay person into a straight person by any method of biological "treatment", and even if mercury were involved in autism (which I've seen no evidence for) you couldn't cure it by removing the mercury. Once those pathways have been built in your brain, they aren't rewired.

The only evidence for chelation, by his own admission, is anecdotal evidence. Well, sweetie, anecdotal evidence counts for shit, especially when you're doing a patchwork of other treatments on your kid. If she develops, starts speaking, whatever, you'll never know if that was because of this therapy or that one, or if maybe she just *grew up*.

God save us all from the stupid people. I myself haven't the patience to talk to them without telling them that I think they're stupid, so I think I'll stay away from this one.

I'm not really irritated by her righty-ness. I just say that.

Comments

[hopefulnebula]

SNUGGLE PUPPY! :D That is *so* Lori and Olivia's book.

You know, for my playwriting class this term we have to write a 10-minute play, and I've been toying with the idea of making mine about a college-age nonverbal autistic whose parents decide to put him through several forms of treatment, and he just seems to get worse and worse, and more hostile to his parents and the doctors. They eventually teach force him to speak and the first thing he says is "go away, I don't want this."

Or something like that. I'd for sure have to flesh it out.

[conuly]

I love Sandra Boyton. Seriously.

"Ten makes a celebration LOUDLOUDLOUD! And one is wonderful after a crowd."

[hopefulnebula]

By the way, it seems Olivia's left-handed too. Just like her dad (who had to write right-handed all through school because left-handedness is of the devil, and all that. Got to love the nuns.)

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

I must say, though, that while I disagree vehemently with making a kid write with their "other" hand ALL of the time, I think it would probably be good for ALL of us to learn how to switch back and forth (within reason, and our limitations, of course.) I just have this feeling that balancing out our sidedness might not be that bad an idea...

[hopefulnebula]

Of course. And at my elementary school, my class once had a day where we wrote everything with whatever hands we don't use more often, just to see what it was like. That was pretty fun. Not, I'm sure, exactly what you're talking about, but fun.

And yeah... the nuns at my uncle's school did the "whacking with rulers" thing with people who wrote left-handed. And Pete's dyslexic too, so he was screwed anyway.

[hopefulnebula]

SNUGGLE PUPPY! :D That is *so* Lori and Olivia's book.

You know, for my playwriting class this term we have to write a 10-minute play, and I've been toying with the idea of making mine about a college-age nonverbal autistic whose parents decide to put him through several forms of treatment, and he just seems to get worse and worse, and more hostile to his parents and the doctors. They eventually teach force him to speak and the first thing he says is "go away, I don't want this."

Or something like that. I'd for sure have to flesh it out.

[conuly]

I love Sandra Boyton. Seriously.

"Ten makes a celebration LOUDLOUDLOUD! And one is wonderful after a crowd."

[hopefulnebula]

By the way, it seems Olivia's left-handed too. Just like her dad (who had to write right-handed all through school because left-handedness is of the devil, and all that. Got to love the nuns.)

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

I must say, though, that while I disagree vehemently with making a kid write with their "other" hand ALL of the time, I think it would probably be good for ALL of us to learn how to switch back and forth (within reason, and our limitations, of course.) I just have this feeling that balancing out our sidedness might not be that bad an idea...

[hopefulnebula]

Of course. And at my elementary school, my class once had a day where we wrote everything with whatever hands we don't use more often, just to see what it was like. That was pretty fun. Not, I'm sure, exactly what you're talking about, but fun.

And yeah... the nuns at my uncle's school did the "whacking with rulers" thing with people who wrote left-handed. And Pete's dyslexic too, so he was screwed anyway.