scholarly journals Stimming, Improvisation, and COVID-19: (Re)negotiating Autistic Sensory Regulation During a Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Felepchuk
Keyword(s):  
Affordance Theory ◽  
Sensory Regulation ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Autistic People

Many autistic people consider repetitive and sensory practices such as stimming central to their identity and culture. In this paper, I argue that stimming is an improvisatory practice because it constitutes an articulation of autistic aesthetics and sensory preferences, is a crucial component of autistic culture, and consists of moment-by-moment negotiations with environmental and sensory barriers. Autistic people often stim with the help of technologies such as music and stim toys or tools to mediate between inner worlds and outer environments that may over/underwhelm us. I argue that during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the objects we touch (and our bodies) have become potential locations for transmission of the virus, our relationship with stimming (and our stim tools) has changed. This article connects critical improvisation studies, discourses on autistic stimming, and affordance theory to present a framework for understanding autistic stimming during the COVID-19 era: as improvisatory responses to the opportunities and barriers presented by the pandemic. I argue that stimming during the COVID-19 era is a continuously mediated response between our body-minds and the affordances of our environment, and I maintain that this process is a lived improvisation.

Normocentric biases taint cognitive neuroscience and intervention of autism

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Mottron
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Repetitive Behaviors ◽  
Restricted Interests ◽  
Autistic People

Abstract Stepping away from a normocentric understanding of autism goes beyond questioning the supposed lack of social motivation of autistic people. It evokes subversion of the prevalence of intellectual disability even in non-verbal autism. It also challenges the perceived purposelessness of some restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, and instead interprets them as legitimate exploratory and learning-associated manifestations.

What is taken for granted in autism research?

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Ilana Friedner
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodologies ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Autism Research ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research

Abstract This commentary focuses on three points: the need to consider semiotic ideologies of both researchers and autistic people, questions of commensurability, and problems with “the social” as an analytical concept. It ends with a call for new research methodologies that are not deficit-based and that consider a broad range of linguistic and non-linguistic communicative practices.

AMBIGUITIES OF FORGIVENESS IN LEFT TO TELL: DISCOVERING GOD AMIDST THE RWANDAN HOLOCAUST (2006)

Imbizo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
Shingirirai Gabi
Keyword(s):  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Positive Thinking ◽  
Rwandan Genocide ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
National Reconciliation

To interrogate the ambiguities of forgiveness it is important to understand the historicity of the Rwandan genocide and the complexities of the interchanging roles of victim/perpetrator and ‘the enemy other’. Ilibagiza is credited for including the historicity of the ethnic animosity in her memoir, as she acknowledges that the 1994 genocide did not just suddenly erupt, but the work will be critiqued for its persistent portrayal of the Tutsi as victims and the Hutu as perpetrators, and for not acknowledging that the Tutsi were a ‘historically privileged’ (Mamdani 2001) group before the 1959 revolution. This article interrogates Ilibagiza’s comprehension of forgiveness and its importance during the genocide and in post-genocide Rwanda. Left to tell centres on the power of religion, positive thinking and compassion as major steps towards forgiveness on an individual level, but shows limitations concerning justice after the commission of ‘crimes of state’, as Orentlicher (1991, 44) notes. Forgiveness is necessary in the healing process, but justice is a crucial component of national reconciliation. Forgiveness is only the first step towards restoring the humanity of the victim/ perpetrator, and should be followed by restorative justice.

“Second guessing yourself all the time about what they really mean…”: Cognitive differences between autistic and non-autistic adults in understanding implied meaning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Wilson ◽  
Dorothy Vera Margaret Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Language Ability ◽  
Test Format ◽  
Cognitive Differences ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Cognitive Preference ◽  
Core Language ◽  
Implied Meaning ◽  
Cognitive Preferences ◽  
Explicit Communication ◽  
Selection Of

This study investigated cognitive differences between autistic and non-autistic people in understanding implied meaning in conversation using a novel computerized test, the Implicature Comprehension Test. Controlling for core language ability, autistic participants (N = 66) were over twice as likely to endorse a non-normative interpretation of an implied meaning and over five times as likely to select ‘don’t know’ when asked about the presence of an implied meaning, compared to non-autistic participants (N = 118). A further experiment suggested that the selection of ‘don’t know’ reflected a cognitive preference for certainty and explicit communication, and that the normative inference could often be made when the test format was more constrained. Our research supports the hypothesis that autistic individuals can find it challenging to process language in its pragmatic context, and that cognitive preferences play a role in this.

Camouflaging in non-autistic adults is associated with poorer mental health

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Somerville ◽  
Sarah E. MacPherson ◽  
Sue Fletcher-Watson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Autistic Adults ◽  
The Relationship

Camouflaging is a frequently reported behaviour in autistic people, which entails the use of strategies to compensate for and mask autistic traits in social situations. Camouflaging is associated with poor mental health in autistic people. This study examined the manifestation of camouflaging in a non-autistic sample, examining the relationship between autistic traits, camouflaging, and mental health. In addition, the role of executive functions as a mechanism underpinning camouflaging was explored. Sixty-three non-autistic adults completed standardised self-report questionnaires which measured: autistic traits, mental health symptoms, and camouflaging behaviours. In addition, a subset (n=51) completed three tests of executive function measuring inhibition, working memory, and set-shifting. Multiple linear regression models were used to analyse data. Results indicated that autistic traits are not associated with mental health symptoms when controlling for camouflaging, and camouflaging predicted increased mental health symptoms. Camouflaging did not correlate with any measure of executive function. These findings have implications for understanding the relationship between autistic traits and mental health in non-autistic people and add to the growing development of theory and knowledge about the mechanism and effects of camouflaging.

Initial Evidence for Increased Weather Salience in Autism Spectrum Conditions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Bolton ◽  
William G. Blumberg ◽  
Lara K. Ault ◽  
H. Michael Mogil ◽  
Stacie H. Hanes
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Physical Disability ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Weather Information ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Neurological Functioning ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Logical Rules ◽  
Attention To Detail

Weather is important to all people, including vulnerable populations (those whose circumstances include cognitive processing, hearing, or vision differences, physical disability, homelessness, and other scenarios and factors). Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect information-processing and areas of neurological functioning that potentially inhibit the reception of hazardous weather information, and is of particular concern for weather messengers. People on the autism spectrum tend to score highly in tests of systemizing, a psychological process that heavily entails attention to detail and revolves around the creation of logical rules to explain things that occur in the world. This article reports the results of three preliminary studies examining weather salience–psychological attention to weather–and its potential relationships with systemizing in autistic people. Initial findings suggest that enhanced weather salience exists among autistic individuals compared to those without the condition, and that this may be related to systemizing. These findings reveal some possible strategies for communicating weather to autistic populations and motivate future work on a conceptual model that blends systemizing and chaos theory to better understand weather salience.

Components of a model-based operation system for wastewater treatment plants

1999 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 103-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Obenaus ◽  
Karl-Heinz Rosenwinkel ◽  
Jens Alex ◽  
Ralf Tschepetzki ◽  
Ulrich Jumar
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Operation System ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Measuring Devices ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Simulation Calculation ◽  
On Line ◽  
Main Components

This report presents the main components of a system for the model-based control of aerobic biological wastewater treatment plants. The crucial component is a model which is linked to the actual processes via several interfaces and which contains a unit which can immediately follow up the current process state. The simulation calculation of the model is based on data which are yielded by on-line measuring devices. If the sensors should fail at times, there are available a number of alternative concepts, some of which are based on the calculations of artificial neural networks or linear methods.

The export world champion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Fratzscher
Keyword(s):  
International Competitiveness ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Dual Economy ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
World Champion

Germany’s international competitiveness, a significant part of which is due to its boom in exports, has been a crucial component in the transformation of Germany from the sick man of Europe to the continent’s apparent economic superstar. However, despite this remarkable success, it would be a mistake to ignore the fact that Germany has a dual economy, one wherein the services sectors have had and continue to have major problems, the most significant of which being that productivity, investment, and wages remain low. The present chapter discusses Germany’s dual economy and the flip side of Germany’s success as an exporter.

Cities-Before-Cities

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W. Berman
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
The West ◽  
Central Greece ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
South Italy ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
And Function ◽  
The City

Foundation myths are a crucial component of many Greek cities’ identities. But the mythic tradition also represents many cities and their spaces before they were cities at all. This study examines three of these ‘prefoundational’ narratives: stories of cities-before-cities that prepare, configure, or reconfigure, in a conceptual sense, the mythic ground for foundation. ‘Prefoundational’ myths vary in both form and function. Thebes, before it was Thebes, is represented as a trackless and unfortified backwater. Croton, like many Greek cities in south Italy, credited Heracles with a kind of ‘prefounding’, accomplished on his journey from the West back to central Greece. And the Athenian acropolis was the object of a quarrel between Athena and Poseidon, the results of which gave the city its name and permanently marked its topography. In each case, ‘prefoundational’ myth plays a crucial role in representing ideology, identity, and civic topography.

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