In this video I emphasize the importance for neurodivergent individuals of creating positive and ”rich” social networks (which consists of all the relationships we have with friends, family, teachers, therapists, counselors, and others). Once we understand our network (and we can draw a ”sociogram” to give us a picture of it) we can ”tweak” so...Read More

In this video (#33 in my series ”The Power of Neurodiversity’’), I focus on the issue of employment for people with intellectual disabilities.  Only 19% of those with intellectual disabilities work, compared with 61% for neurotypicals. This isn’t right.  Many of those who do work, end up in sheltered workshops doing menial tasks like assembling...Read More

In this video (#32 in my series on The Power of Neurodiversity) I talk about the stereotypes that neurotypical people have about those with Down syndrome, which holds that they’re limited in what they can accomplish, that perhaps they can work at a sheltered workshop assembling cardboard boxes or bussing dishes at a fast food...Read More

In this video I discuss the strengths associated with intellectual disabilities. It is especially important to do this because people with intellectual disabilities have been denegrated for over a century because of the dark history of I.Q. testing in America, wherein eugenically-minded psychologists used words like ”moron” and ”imbecile” to describe these individuals, and where...Read More

In November, 2015, President Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in South Carolina when he began to criticize a New York Times journalist, Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition affecting his joints. Trump’s beef was that the man had allegedly disclaimed having reported that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the 911 attacks...Read More