The Woo is the Same

January 14, 2013May 10, 2019 stuffwiththing

Woo, it has to be one of the more frustrating things as an autism advocate.

Woo comes in all shapes and sizes and can pop out in the most unlikely places.

At the park, a stranger offers you a handful of woo. Family gatherings come with a heaping side serve of woo. Parent-teacher interviews slip the woo in sideways. Woo just keeps creeping in, no matter how hard you shut the door on it.

The woo is usually offered with the best of intentions, but it is so constant, like nits it takes hours and weeks of patient persistence to remove it… from just one person and by the time they are woo-free, someone else has caught the woo.

From the Positive Partnerships Workshop:

“Autism can attract practitioners who make unrealistic and unproven claims about reducing the impact of the disorder, some even go so far as suggesting their approach can result in ‘cure’ or ‘recovery’. One of the most effective ways of dealing with these false claims is to ask the right questions.”

(aside, if you can attend a Positive Partnerships Workshop then make the time to do so, recaps here Day 1, Day 2)

What questions can you ask?

- Is it harmful
- What is the evidence (a video on YouTube is NOT evidence, check for reputable scientific studies)
- Costs
- Benefits

As with all things Autism what works for one child may not work for another but often as parents we see change because we are so wanting there to be change.

Talk to other Autism parents and autistic adults, therapists, educators, doctors before starting new therapies, research, research, research.

Document, before you start a therapy document what you are seeing, what you would like the outcome to be, then while you start and continue the therapy document what you do and what is happening.

Sad truth is there are snake oil salesmen out there, happy to take the money of anxious parents and give in return false hope, lies and buckets of Woo.

At the end of the day I remember that I want to give my children the tools for a happy life, not change who they are.