Autism Acceptance Month 💙
LISTEN + SUBSCRIBE HERE
Description
Has the Biden administration achieved its goal to vaccinate 200-million Americans against Covid-19 during the president's first 100 days in office? 🥐 What did animal rescuers find in Poland when they responded to a call of a mysterious animal in a tree? 💙 We explore the world of Autism Spectrum Disorder, and learn how it affects everyone in different ways. 🍫 Then, we speak with with Maisie Soetantyo, founder of the non-profit Autism Career Pathways and her daughter Emma to learn more about living with Autism and how we can support the Autistic community. 🤗 Plus! The Trivia Question of the Day!
Links
✍️ Visit our website for a list of sources used for this episode and a full episode transcript
📝 Sign up for The Ten News-letter!
📸 Join us on Instagram
Sources for this episode
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/21/biden-businesses-covid-vaccines-484030
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mystery-animal-croissant-krakow-poland_n_6079d643e4b001abc4dc27f9
https://www.autism-society.org/what-is/
https://the-art-of-autism.com/how-satoshi-tajiris-autism-helped-create-pokemon/
https://www.autism-society.org/get-involved/national-autism-awareness-month/
https://www.templegrandin.com/
TRANSCRIPT:
Various Voices 0:00
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Bethany Van Delft 0:06
It's April 27. I'm Bethany Van Delft. And this is The Ten News, where we get the lowdown on what's up in the world. President Biden's administration has achieved its goal of vaccinating 200 million Americans against COVID-19 within his first 100 days in office, animal rescuers in Poland responded to a call from a woman frightened by what looked like a strange, mysterious animal in a tree. What they discovered was in fact, a croissant. And April is autism acceptance month. In today's episode, we'll find out more about this effort to promote awareness and understanding. And to celebrate our differences. Let's get into The Ten.
Autism Spectrum Disorder affects one in about every 54 kids in the United States. But the thing about autism is, it can affect each of those kids in very different ways. In fact, a simple way to explain Autism is a difference in the way a kid's brain develops. So people with autism may do things a little differently, like communicating, making friends, or coping with things like changes, loud noises, or crowds. But because Autism is a spectrum, meaning it can vary within a range, it doesn't always look the same. Sometimes these differences can lead people to do things that change the world. Like Satoshi Tajiri, who's autism played a role in his passion for collecting bugs and playing video games as a kid, which later helped him create Pokemon. Can you even imagine a world without Pikachu? The theme of this year's autism acceptance month is celebrate differences. And yeah, we should, because none of us is exactly the same. And that is a beautiful thing. To learn more about living with autism, and how to support the autistic community, I spoke with Maisie Soetanyo, founder of the nonprofit autism career pathways, and her daughter, Emma. Hi, Maisie. Hi, Emma, thank you so much for hanging out with us. It sounds like you're the coolest family.
Maisie Soetanyo 2:33
While we think so.
Emma Soetanyo 2:34
Yeah, I think our family's epic.
Maisie Soetanyo 2:38
We really like to hang out with each other, I suppose.
Bethany Van Delft 2:41
So I was wondering, could you explain the word neurodivergent?
Maisie Soetanyo 2:47
Okay, this is a good question for Emma in your own words.
Emma Soetanyo 2:51
In my own words, I think to be neurodivergent is to have a way of interpreting the world differently than most other people that from neurotypical people. And it's just a different way of perceiving the world.
Maisie Soetanyo 3:07
An easy way to explain on a neurodivergent mind is that you have a different information processing system. The way you perceive and process sensory input is different. Do you have an autistic mom? It's like apples and oranges or a Samsung iPhone versus an Apple phone like that.
Bethany Van Delft 3:35
Different operating system?
Maisie Soetanyo 3:36
Yes, different operating system.
Bethany Van Delft 3:39
What a nice way, what a clarifying way to explain it. That's fantastic. Can we find out what is masking? I know a little bit about it. But what is masking?
Emma Soetanyo 3:50
So masking is kind of a neurodiverse people seeing the behavior of like other like neurotypical people and mimicking it to try and fit in it often takes the form of a lot of people. They'll just watch what other kids are doing.
Maisie Soetanyo 4:11
Yeah, mimic. Right. We're very observant. And a lot of us really want to be social, but it's we our mind just can't figure out how to do that. We're always one step behind when it comes to understanding social chatter and conversation, especially when it's outdoor. And by the time words come out of my mouth, the moment has passed. So that's very, very common if you're autistic. So then the way we compensate as by mimicking and transforming ourselves, but the problem is that it's just really exhausting. So if I talk to I want to hang out with Emma, I put on this mask if I want to hang out with someone else I put on a different mask.
Bethany Van Delft 5:02
So it sounds like it's exhausting. It sounds really exhausting. It sounds like there's got to be a way for, for people to be able to accept neurodivergent people without their masks.
Maisie Soetanyo 5:16
One thing that Emma does a really good job is to help her neurodivergent friends unmask. So when they're around her, they just hang out and do certain things that they just like doing and they can be themselves. That's really important. You know, very, very important.
Bethany Van Delft 5:36
Emma, it sounds like you have the coolest group of friends.
Emma Soetanyo 5:39
We have an understanding that, you know, I would never judge you for the things that you like, or the things that you do. And I know that they they'll never judge me. And I think that's just a really great friendship, kind of friendship to have like, I'm really, really glad that I have them.
Maisie Soetanyo 5:54
Yeah. Well, one thing that autistic people often hide is their need to stim. So that's, I think, an important topic for to talk about.
Bethany Van Delft 6:07
Yes, tell us what stim is first. So we know what stim is. And then and then yeah, let's talk about this.
Maisie Soetanyo 6:13
So stimming it's actually, it's not specific to autistic people. Stimming is a comment from an outsider, it looks like a repetitive action. So you'll see little autistic kids hand claps, or do toe walking, or running in circles or run a certain way, scripting, or just repeating words. So these are all the different kinds of stims. So stimming is really our native language, you want to call it that, is our natural urge to do it. So for me to be able to sit still I need beforehand, I have to do my rituals like to just stand up and walk. So stimming serves a very important function for neurodivergent people, it helps us to reset and to self regulate. So a lot of autistic kids, they're being told to have hands down because neurotypical teachers think, well, if you can't focus when you you're doing this, that's actually the opposite. You allow autistic kids to stim first, as much as they want, and they, you know, then they can focus better.
Bethany Van Delft 7:33
This month is known as Autism Awareness Month. But I understand that members of the autism community want it to be Autism Acceptance month, and why this is such an important difference. I believe it's one word, but I believe that the essence of of it is such an important difference.
Emma Soetanyo 7:52
So it's one thing to be aware of it, because I think that autistic people are everywhere, and you know, you're gonna be aware of it at some point. But that is completely different to accepting who they are. And you know, being who they are and accepting them for that, like being okay, and not being weirded out by it and thinking, oh, wow, they're, you know, strange for doing that. Yeah.
Maisie Soetanyo 8:15
And then that they are part of your life, actually. Yeah, yeah. Right, that your friends are your friends, regardless of you know, how they express themselves.
Bethany Van Delft 8:26
So what a great way to segue into how can neurotypical people be good allies?
Emma Soetanyo 8:32
I think one of the most important, like, first steps it takes is, as I said, accepting them. But also, I think, great tips for like, people who are younger, if you're in school, like I think it's really great that if you maybe see people who have like these things, and maybe not being weirded out by them, and just, you know, not thinking, Oh, I don't really know how to interact with these people. And so I just won't, I think that is a fear that alert like a lot of uncomfortableness that comes with my generation or just being younger, where you don't you know that they have autism, but you don't, or neurodiverse, and you don't really know how to interact with them. I think that's something we push through and think, okay, maybe I'll ask them, "Hey."
Maisie Soetanyo 9:21
And I think for me as a mom, I need to have more conversations with as a family, about one noticing. When you don't understand something, I really want to hopefully show my kids that a small gesture can mean a world of difference to neuroaverage of people, you know, who may not know how to say come and say hi to you, but you can take that first step to come to them and give them a smile over fist bump, you know.
Emma Soetanyo 9:58
if you have questions, then ask them. There's no harm in asking, "Hey, like, what do you think about this?"
Maisie Soetanyo 10:04
That's the difference between being aware and accepting it, meaning that if it feels awkward to you ask questions, and then we can learn together. Thank you so much.
Bethany Van Delft 10:23
Maisie and Emma are like the coolest mother-daughter duo. And did you know that Mother's Day is coming up? Whoa, that's right. And we're preparing a really fun episode to celebrate mom's a mother figures in our lives. Do you have a story to share? Or would you like to give a mom a shout out on the show? Submit on our website at thetennews.com and click on the share story link or you can email us at hello@thetennews.com. We can't wait to hear from you Ten'ners.
It's what, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 11:03
Trivia on The Ten. Scientists and activist Temple Grandin is famous for developing humane systems for handling livestock. She has said that her autism helped her to understand what stress feels like for the animals while she was still in high school. Which of the following stress relieving devices the Temple Grandin create? A) an automatic foot massager, B) a hug machine or C) a robotic yoga teacher?
Did you guess it? The answer is B.
Grandin invented a squeeze machine to help her with their own sensory issues due to her autism. Later versions of it were used in schools as a way to help soothe autistic students. Temple Grandin has been very outspoken about autism and even gave a TED talk called "The world needs all kinds of minds."
Temple Grandin 12:08
I'm passionate about that the things I do are going to make the world a better place. When I have a mother of an autistic child say my kid went to college because of your book or one of your lectures, that makes me happy.
Bethany Van Delft 12:19
You can find a link to it at thetennews.com. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and extras on Saturdays. And you can go deeper into today's stories by visiting thetennews.com. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is made up of some croissant lovers, including Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Jenna Pascua, Stephen Tompkins, and Sarah Olender. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle, and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan, and a special shout out to Jody Murphy from geek club books for connecting us to Macy. Check out all the amazing ways Jody is lifting up autistic voices at the website geekclubbooks.com. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The 10 News. I gotta go catch a Squirtle. See you later.
