no one ever tells children why they are being made to do this stupid shit in school. normal kids can deal with the constant cognitive dissonance and eventually internalize it; autistic children will eventually be driven insane. they need tools to make sense of the nastiness
i bang this drum constantly but my parents told me this: you are not there to “learn”, that’s just marketing. you’re there to get a piece of paper that says you can play well with others. that paper is your passport into Society when/if you need to prove you can do it
telling autistic kids “you have to do this because it’s the way it’s done” or “because i said so” or “because it’s what nice people do” isn’t helpful because those aren’t real reasons. you have to provide logical framework. “manners are so people can communicate with each other”
“we use a certain greeting on the phone because it gives people the information they need in a way they can understand it in order to make everyone’s day INCLUDING MINE easier and faster and lower stress.” then you answer all the branching questions from that answer
if you can learn conversation branching in video games and economy and cheat codes and boss patterns you are in a pretty good spot to transfer that method of learning to real life interactions. the fundamental logical frameworks are more complex but aren’t different
and guess what! being rebuked and corrected and maybe even teased a little bit is how the people around you let you know that you’re fucking up and that you should try again in a different way. rejection dysphoria is a bitch admittedly but it is not insurmountable
You can follow @3liza.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: