Midterm Reflection

Hi everyone! This is my midterm reflection (which I just realized has been sitting in my drafts and I forgot to post before spring break hectic-ness hit 🙂 ) as well as my ideas for next steps with my Independent Study and beyond!

Next Week’s Goals

1. Read the Education chapter in We’re Not Broken
2. Read the chapter on schooling (and possibly workplaces) in Women and Girls with ASD
3. Email potential interviewees and schedule times
4. Research colleges and other schools with systems of support for neurodivergent students

Reflection

Going into this study, I already had researched a lot on the basics of autism’s presentation, manifestation, masking, and diagnosis discrimination, but over the course of this semester, I have really been able to dive into what each of those means, have my understanding expanded upon and confirmed by various experts in the field, and learned to articulate my thoughts on the matter, as well as learning useful tidbits along the way!

For instance, my readings in We’re Not Broken and Women and Girls with ASD have been invaluable in not only providing a solid basis of support for what I was learning about autism’s manifestation in general and across gender presentations, but they furthermore introduced me to new information, such as that girls are more likely to become involved in fantasy play with strict rules, or that women and girls are more likely to be victims of sexual harassment and assault because intense masking results in a lack of self-advocacy and understanding of their own personal boundaries, all of which have allowed me to articulate concrete examples of these ideas about gendered presentation and diagnosis discrimination, as well as their very serious effects. 

One non-academic thing I have learned so far is that it is very hard for me to stop during my research and take notes on what I am learning, for instance when I am reading my books, and it slows me down a lot when I force myself to do so. In response, I have started to only note down things that stick out to me, but this has continued to be hard as almost everything in each book strikes me as important or worthy of note, whether or not it is interesting new information or confirmation of something I knew beforehand. That being said, I have loved being able to distill some of what I have learned into short resources on my blog including my Important Basics and Diagnosis Discrimination pages, and I hope that experience will help me further distill this semester’s learning into an engaging faculty presentation!

A part of my study that I didn’t expect that has been very cool has been the discussions I have had with real-life people about my study’s topic. I am not used to being able to discuss this topic with people, and it has been really amazing to have a space with Ms. Rogers to talk about it, as well as to have conversations with people like my mom about various things I am learning. I hope that the faculty presentation will open up more opportunities for learning and conversation, and I am very grateful to this study for making me feel more comfortable expressing interest in neurodiversity in my everyday life, as well as empowering me with the knowledge to actually have those discussions, combat misperceptions, and share relevant and accurate information.

One thing I would like to try moving forward is setting out goals on my weekly blog posts for what I want to accomplish in the next week, as well as long-term reminders of my schedule because I think this will help me stay on track as the year comes to a close. I have already started doing so in this post!

Ideas for May’s Faculty Presentation:

• Include an overview of neurodiversity informed by my participation in the DEI conference this semester, my readings, my discussions with Ms. Rogers, and my external research, emphasize the spectrum and individualistic nature of neurodiversity, as well as the social model of disability
• Introduce important vocabulary terms
• Potentially include a discussion of Diagnostic Inequality—depending on time, as this isn’t directly relevant to faculty BUT it is important to counteract misinformation
• Inform about formal and informal accommodations, including the importance of avoiding assumptions about someone’s intentions based on a neurotypical way of thinking and interacting, as well as  emphasizing differentiation based on the individual and providing teachers with concrete examples and tools to use in the classroom with students (confirmed neurodivergent or otherwise)
  • Structure: explain a difficulty a neurodivergent student may face, the reasons behind that, and then strategies to support + specific examples of things that teachers can say or do in various scenarios
• Explore the systems of support in place at colleges and other high schools to inform and provide examples for future reformative change at DA
• Questions for the audience—have teachers raise their hand if they have had professional development including autism/neurodiversity, if it’s been in the last 5 years, and if it has included autism being taught as a spectrum and the social model of disability
• Send out a form before my presentation with questions or topics people would like me to cover or address? I could also hold a Q&A section, but it might be better for me to have questions submitted ahead of time so I could talk through them with Ms. Rogers and make sure I am giving out the correct information when I answer them—if I want to do this, I would like to send out the form for the first time at the beginning of April perhaps, so that people have time to submit questions, and then include a few follow-ups as reminders?
• Invite people to check out my blog and the resources I have on my pages!

Long-term Goals

1. Start working on faculty presentation
2. Schedule and have interviews (hopefully)!!
3. Once my presentation is over, spend the last month of my study…
   1. Potentially reviewing feedback from the presentation 
   2. Diving into chapters of the books I am reading not directly related to gender/overall autism (ie. chapters on race intersectionality, the workplace, old age, etc.)
   3. Finding and finishing any interviews I may have
   4. Work on Independent Study Proposal for next year?

On that last note—I am looking to do independent study in the fall of next year, but I am a little torn on what to do. I am interested in potentially pursuing an exploration of disability representation in fantasy and fictional worlds or maybe the spectrum of gender across time and cultures but, at the same time, I was wondering if maybe holding a continuation of this study might be a beneficial option as well (or if it would even be possible, as I know fall to spring continuations are a thing but am not sure if I would be able to do so over the summer). Not only is there a lot of information about autism and neurodiversity that I could still explore, as well as many incredible people working in the field of neurodiversity that I could talk with, but I also think it’s very important to continue educating the DA community about this topic, and I think it would be interesting to receive feedback (through a form or something) after my faculty presentation and follow through on that in the fall of next year. However, I was also talking with Ms. Rogers about whether this might be better suited as a club, which could consolidate more people and would probably be a better avenue for organizing educational and celebrational events for days and months of awareness in October (Learning Differences Awareness month + others) and April (Autism Awareness Month). I am not sure whether this would fit under the current Learning Differences Affinity Group or if another club would be helpful. In summary, lots of things to think about moving forward long-term!!

That’s all! Thanks so much for reading 🙂