Respectfully Connected | Happy Birthday Respectfully Connected

Happy Birthday Respectfully Connected

Respectfully Connected is one year old! Thank you to the community of people worldwide who have shown support for writing about respectful, connected relationships with neurodivergent children. Our writers have reflected on the year, and each picked a post to share with you. Please keep commenting and sharing your thoughts on respectful parenting and neurodiversity. We appreciate you!

Image is a word meme with rainbow-coloured text on a white background: I propose the possibility that, while we continue to force autistic people to jump through our hoops; while we continue to induce high anxiety in autistic people by trying to push them into certain scenarios; while we continue placing them into schools and therapy centres that are, by their very nature and structure, inappropriate for autistic people; while we continue using a non-autistic yardstick as a measure of success; while we continue to draw big conclusions based on outer markers over inner being; while we continue to allow non-autistic people to make important judgments and start research projects and write diagnostic criteria and design treatment models based upon their own neurology; while we continue to allow non-autistic people to stigmatise and stereotype being autistic; while we continue to believe that being autistic means that there is something &#39wrong&#39 with you - we have no real idea what autistic people are capable of. — Possibilities.
I am a mama in an unschooling family. If you haven't heard of…
January 19, 2015/by Ally Grace

Accepting that your child — “I 100% accept that my child is autistic but…..”
In my conversations with parents of autistic children, I’m…
July 9, 2015/by Leia Solo

Should
He should sleep by himself. He should be medicated. He should…
January 19, 2015/by Cat Walker

To Live is to Learn- image is of a four year old girl with blonde pigtails on top of a glorious carousel horse, one hand on the golden pole, one in her mouth in nervous excitement, supported from the side by her mom. — Life is All a Magic Window
There is a pervasive ideology in the mainstream autism parenting…
February 4, 2015/by Sophie's Trains

Image: a child in a yellow shirt and jeans and on roller skates, holding hands with an adult (the only part of whom is visible is the arm) while she moves across a blue rink. — I am not a hero
Surely it is not only me who, upon revealing that I have neurodivergent…
February 3, 2015/by Michelle Sutton

Image shows four silhouettes of children holding hands — Child of Mine
Child of mine, I see you. I see you. How much you love and…
April 21, 2015/by Morénike

Green background with the words: Please know there is nothing wrong with you. Not even a little bit. You are incredible and strong and bright....You are so many things, but not one part of you is broken - Court Alice Thatcher — Autistic, not broken
Autism "professionals" tell me you need a lot of help and intervention. NOW,…
December 6, 2015/by Court Alice Thatcher

Not an outcome.

Sometimes I am jolted into the realisation that's some people…

February 6, 2015/by Amy Bean

Photo shows three children lying on their stomachs on the ground, two of the children are facing one another, the ground is a dark-coloured concrete. — My family lie on the ground in public places. Let us be!
Today, towards the end of a visit to our favourite museum, All…
June 24, 2015/by Briannon Lee

Wait… You want me to do what?
(This is a blog post I wrote in April 2013, six months after…
January 20, 2015/by Naomi

Image is a blurry gray and gold background with the words: Being verbal, intellectually gifted, and able bodied are not the prerequisites to basic human dignity. Just being human is enough. - Meg Murry, FB/RespectfullyConnected. — Being Human is Enough
I’ve run into a curious phenomenon in my online life as I discuss…
June 25, 2015/by Meg Murry