Autism, “Recovery (to Normalcy),” and the Politics of Hope

Broderick, Alicia A.

doi:10.1352/1934-9556-47.4.263

Cited by 31 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Thus, the value of an effective "treatment" was initially cast as a way to help the children of desperate parents who had the means to find and fund new approaches. The apparent hope of a dramatic retreat into "indistinguishability" would target and train the male elite of society, recruit white working mothers back into the home as adjunct therapists (Douglas, 2016), and burnish the glory of the researcher/clinician (Broderick, 2009). This sharp edge of autistic hopefulness/hopelessness opened up the possibility of testing and eventually disseminating radically different -even extreme or unethical -approaches, justifying treatment by any means.…”

Section: -8)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Disturbing Behaviours: Ole Ivar Lovaas and the Queer History of Autism Science

Gibson

Douglas

2018

Catalyst

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This paper “queers” the history of autism science through an examination of the overlap between the regulation of autism with that of gender and sexuality in the work of Ole Ivar Lovaas. Lovaas is the founder of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), the most commonly used and funded autism intervention today that seeks to extinguish autistic behaviors, primarily among children. Less commonly recognized is Lovaas’ involvement in the Feminine Boy Project, where he developed interventions into the gender identities and behaviors of young people. Turning to Lovaas’ published works, we perform a “history of the present” and argue that a queer disability studies lens opens up the richness of autism as a cultural nexus, and deepens understandings of intersecting and contested histories of science, professional scopes of practice, and dominant futurities. The article makes a significant and timely contribution to understanding the disabling material effects of autism science in the lives of autistic persons. In particular, this case study highlights the need for feminist science studies to further investigate the historical and contemporary links between dominant scientific constructions of disability, gender, and sexuality.

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Section: -8)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Disturbing Behaviours: Ole Ivar Lovaas and the Queer History of Autism Science

Gibson

Douglas

2018

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“…This allocation of resources may also reflect uncertainty about the process of supporting the child outside that context. This may have resulted in a narrow view of how to relate to the child, which under-recognised his agency and ability to learn through participation in the community Broderick, 2009). An additional challenge for these teachers was the amount of time devoted to unstructured activity in the Forest Kindergarten ethos.…”

Section: Summary Of Teachers' Sayings In Kindergartenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping inclusion of a child with autism in a mainstream kindergarten: how can we move towards more inclusive practices?

Olsen

Croydon

Olson

et al. 2018

International Journal of Inclusive Education

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“…In classrooms, disabilities can be silenced in ways similar to class/race silencing; however, at the same time interventions necessarily involve pointing out autism (Smagorinsky, 2014). While some teachers do recognize the stigmatization involved in “fixing” students (Valle, 2014), graduating from formalized IEPs is still an important goal for children with mild autism and their families (Broderick, 2009). At the pre-kindergarten level, while some children with mild forms of autism have not (yet) been labeled, those highlighted in this study began to receive services as toddlers and are seeking an eventual release from “special education” toward co-equal membership in general education classrooms.…”

Section: Autism Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges to goals of “Recovery”: A narrative analysis of neoliberal/ableist policy effects on two mothers of young children with autism

Sherfinski

2018

Journal of Early Childhood Research

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This narrative inquiry shows the barriers and possibilities that the current US education context poses for two mothers of pre-kindergarten sons with autism. Specifically, this work is contextualized within the growing universal pre-kindergarten reform which provides a mixed delivery (public and private) implementation. Presented with the context of choice among school sites and the expectation of mothers to provide energy for the reform through their involvement in the universal pre-kindergarten "machine," mothers of children with autism experienced unique challenges. An in-depth Bakhtinian analysis examining the mothers' uses of heteroglossia and polyphony shows the complexities of how they presented an oscillating "doubleconsciousness," working between machine expectations and narratives of "recovery," meaning desiring normalization in line with the expectations of early childhood experts, children, and local policies. Neither the machine metaphor nor the narrative of recovery was sufficient to negotiate the challenges of education for the families, and mothers used strategies of recycling, resisting, and re-appropriating discourses to navigate. While universal pre-kindergarten was effective in improving the academic performance of children with mild autism, it did not always support the goals of inclusive and democratic education. Therefore, mothers began to question their choice of public school context and began to consider private universal pre-kindergarten sites, even though this might jeopardize the Individualized Education Plans that they worried their children needed, particularly for social purposes. The implications address both the mechanism for shifts from public to private choice in the current US education context, and the need for a reparative project that critically addresses relationships between homes and schools.

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Autism, “Recovery (to Normalcy),” and the Politics of Hope

Abstract: This article draws on the traditions of critical discourse analysis (N.

Cited by 31 publications

References 25 publications

Disturbing Behaviours: Ole Ivar Lovaas and the Queer History of Autism Science

Disturbing Behaviours: Ole Ivar Lovaas and the Queer History of Autism Science

Mapping inclusion of a child with autism in a mainstream kindergarten: how can we move towards more inclusive practices?

Challenges to goals of “Recovery”: A narrative analysis of neoliberal/ableist policy effects on two mothers of young children with autism

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