April is Autism Acceptance Month. This month, we’re releasing one new episode each week, in addition to our regularly scheduled episodes. These episodes are all about the language surrounding Autism. We had the privilege of interviewing several people for this Mini Series and we’re excited for you to listen in!
Jessie is a social media manager, work-from-home mother, Autism advocate, and accidental influencer. She’s the mother to a wonderful 4-year-old boy and she shares their journey on Instagram.
Jessie’s Instagram @daily_dig
We’d love to answer your questions on the podcast! Fill out this form -> https://harkla.typeform.com/to/ItWxQNP3
Looking for more in-depth help? Sign up for 2-on-1 Mentoring With Us!!
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products & child development courses.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Links
All Things Sensory Podcast Instagram
Harkla Website - Shop Sensory Products!
April is Autism Acceptance Month. This month, we’re releasing one new episode each week, in addition to our regularly scheduled episodes. These episodes are all about the language surrounding Autism. We had the privilege of interviewing several people for this Mini Series and we’re excited for you to listen in!
Jessie is a social media manager, work-from-home mother, Autism advocate, and accidental influencer. She’s the mother to a wonderful 4-year-old boy and she shares their journey on Instagram.
Jessie’s Instagram @daily_dig
We’d love to answer your questions on the podcast! Fill out this form -> https://harkla.typeform.com/to/ItWxQNP3
Looking for more in-depth help? Sign up for 2-on-1 Mentoring With Us!!
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products & child development courses.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Links
All Things Sensory Podcast Instagram
Harkla Website - Shop Sensory Products!
Hey there, welcome to our autism language mini series. In this series we are going to be discussing the verbiage surrounding autism and how it has changed over the years.
Jessica:We're interviewing a variety of guests within the autism community, including parents, professionals and autistic adults, in order to better understand their preferences surrounding the way autism is talked about.
Rachel:We're sharing a new mini episode every Monday throughout April because April is autism acceptance month. We hope you learn something new and enjoy these conversations. Hey there, welcome to all things sensory by Harkla. We are happy to have you back for another one of our autism language mini series. This is episode three.
Jessica:We are going to be chatting with Jessie, she actually did an interview with us a while back talking about her journey with her son, who is autistic. And so today in our mini series episode, she's going to share her opinions, her views her, experience with autism, and how she sees the autism community and her experiences with it.
Rachel:We hope that you can take just a fun little nugget from this episode as well as our previous mini series episodes. If you haven't listened to those, make sure you go back and check those out. Share them with your community, share them with a family member or a friend or a fellow therapist who needs to be aware of this changing language. And just to have that, that understanding in their back pocket.
Jessica:All right, let's chat with Jessie.
Rachel:I'm Rachel.
Jessica:And I'm Jessica. And this is all things sensory by Harkla.
Rachel:We are both certified occupational therapy assistants and together with Harkla. We are on a mission to empower parents, therapists and educators to help raise confident and strong children of all abilities.
Jessica:On this podcast, we chat about all things sensory diving into special needs occupational therapy, parenting, self care, overall health and wellness and so much more.
Rachel:We're here to provide raw, honest and fun strategies, ideas, and information for parents, therapists, and educators, as well as other professionals, to implement into daily life.
Jessica:Thank you so much for joining us. Hey, Jessica, that sounds weird as I'm saying my name, but how are you?
Jessie:Doing well. How are you guys?
Jessica:Oh, we're good. Thanks so much for joining us for this quick conversation that we're about to have.
Jessie:Of course, I'm excited to be here.
Rachel:Okay, so today we're going to be chatting about the autism community and let our listeners know your relationship with the autism community, who you are and how you fit in.
Jessie:Yeah, so I am a mom, a neurodivergent mom with ADHD and I have a four year old little boy, John, that is autistic. So I am a mother to an autistic toddler.
Jessica:Okay. Now, recently, in the last few years, there's been kind of a change in the verbiage around autism. It used to be that we would say, a child with autism or a person with autism and that has changed to autistic child or autistic adult. When did you notice that change?
Jessie:Honestly, I would say it was probably one that was on social media. So probably close to like two years ago, I started noticing that like maybe the way I would refer to some, you know, something. Other people had different ways to say it or simply would avoid saying the word autism or noticing that, like there were other ways to say it. So I would say probably around two years ago.
Rachel:So when John was first diagnosed, doctors, therapists, they were all saying he had autism. He was a child with autism using that language.
Jessie:Exactly. Yes.
Rachel:In therapy now, do his I mean, you probably don't, like communicate that like oh, yeah, he's autistic, you know, because like, obviously the there. Yeah. Um, do you feel like in the clinic that he is that now that that verbiage has shifted at all?
Jessie:Definitely. It's definitely more neurodiversity affirming. So they Yeah, I mean, it's more autistic child. And just kind of like openness talking about it. Yeah.
Rachel:You keep about like paperwork to, like, I wonder if if paperwork is person with autism or...
Jessie:autistic child? Yeah, I'm sure I wonder.
Jessica:Do you have a preference when other people are talking about John about your child? Do you prefer them to use a certain way of describing him and talking about him?
Jessie:So I'm pretty late. back with this kind of stuff, I think it's important to kind of value everyone's opinion and the way that they want to be, you know, kind of spoken about. But with John, I just kind of, you know, some people just don't know. And if you don't know, then, you know, what comes natural to them might be different than what he may prefer when he is old enough to tell me what he prefers. So whatever people say, I am really okay with it. And because Yeah, he does have autism, and he's also autistic. So I think it's important to know that people are trying at least.
Rachel:Do you ever correct someone or tell them like, hey, we actually say he's autistic?
Jessie:Not really, I mean, I haven't really had situations where it's like, Oh, does he have autism? Oh, is he autistic? It's more so like, we get talking other moms. And I'm just kind of like, oh, yeah, John is autistic. And you know, this the way we do things.
Jessica:I know that you talked with you that you do use that verbiage.
Jessie:Yeah.
Jessica:And can John verbalize which one he prefers right now? I think you said, you know, someday, maybe he'll be able to tell you what he prefers.
Jessie:Yeah, not yet. But someday.
Rachel:Yeah. Is that a conversation that you're going to have with him?
Jessie:100%? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like you have a cool brain and you're autistic. So
Jessica:do you think that he'll use the same language you use? Because he hears you talk?
Jessie:Yeah, I mean, I think it's like autism doesn't define him. But it's a part of him. So I think I mean, I guess I don't know, until I asked him. But I do think like saying, he's autistic, kind of, I don't know, would maybe fit him better? I don't know. Be something he prefers. It is so interesting. It's it's a weird conversation. That's why we're trying to like, can you be older so I can ask you? Also, don't grow up.
Jessica:We'll ask you again in 10 years, and we'll see where we're at. And I think that's also an interesting thing for parents to think about. Because you don't want this to necessarily define them for life. Right? You want them to make sure that they know who they are, what they believe in, what their interests are. It's not just that they are autistic.
Jessie:Exactly. Well, it's like I think about myself too. And it's like, I have ADHD, but then you don't necessarily want to say I have autism. It's like you want to say, I'm autistic, or, like, how would I say that for ADHD? You know, it's just like, it's kind of confusing.
Rachel:Yeah, that's true.
Jessica:Yeah, I think sometimes the language can kind of just get so jumbled that we have to identify what's the point? What point are we trying to make when we say
Rachel:this? Yes. That's the end goal.
Jessica:Yeah. What's the end goal?
Rachel:So going along with that, do you feel like it's necessary to change how people view autism, the more the verbiage that they use when describing it?
Jessie:It's hard to say, yeah, like, it's a hard question. I think more than anything, like awareness, and acceptance is the biggest thing and what I want for my child. So like the verbiage, as long as it's not, like, negative, you know, it's not being used negatively. I don't necessarily, you know, like the verbiage doesn't really bother me. It's more so just inclusion and acceptance, that is the most important thing to me.
Rachel:It's almost like show me with your actions more than your words.
Jessie:Exactly. Right. 100%.
Jessica:Well, thank you so much for answering our questions. I just think that it's, I think it's good to ask these questions so we can kind of think more about why we do what we do, why we say what we say, and what that end goal is with all of it.
Jessie:Totally,
Rachel:And also to increase our success as practitioners, right? I know that in the area that I am, you know, the older generation of therapists who've been practicing for a while, it's definitely harder for them to switch and they are the ones who are like, no, it's personal thought to them like, well, you know, there's It depends, you know.
Jessie:Right. It's a preference.
Rachel:Okay.
Jessica:I think it's just good to have all the different opinions.
Jessie:Yes, totally.
Rachel:Well, thank you so much. This is great. We'll link all your information if people want to follow you and your journey with John and all of your beautiful sensory bins.
Jessie:Sounds great. Thank you guys.
Rachel:Thank you so much for listening to All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Jessica:If you want more information on anything mentioned in the show, head over to harkla.co/podcast to get the shownotes.
Rachel:If you have any follow up questions, the best place to ask those is in the comments on the show notes or message us on our Instagram account, which is at Harkla underscore Family or at AllTthings Sensory podcast. If you just search Harkla you'll find us there.
Jessica:Like we mentioned before our podcast, listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla. Whether it's for one of our digital courses or one of our sensory swings, the discount code sensory, we'll get you 10% off. That's s e n s o r y.
Rachel:Head to harkla.co/sensory to use that discount code right now.
Jessica:We're so excited to work together to help create competent kids all over the world. While we make every effort to share correct information, we're still learning.
Rachel:We will double check all of our facts but realize that medicine is a constantly changing science and art.
Jessica:One doctor or therapist may have a different way of doing things from another.
Rachel:We are simply presenting our views and opinions on how to address common sensory challenges health related difficulties, and what we have found to be beneficial that will be as evidence based as possible.
Jessica:By listening to this podcast you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or your child.
Rachel:Consult your child's pediatrician or therapist for any medical issues that he or she may be
Jessica:This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast.
Rachel:Thanks so much for listening