If you aren’t following this blog yet, you really should consider it. The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism is a group blog, and a big and diverse group it is. Some of my old favorite bloggers are there (e.g. Corina Lynn Becker, Kristina Chew, Clay, Emily Willingham, Liz Ditz…) and many people I haven’t read before the TPGTA.
Kev wrote about the blog last June when it was fairly new. They are definitely living up to the hope that Kev expressed then.
The blog allows submissions and has a book coming out as well.
The mission statement lays it all out:
The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism (the website and the book) exists to help people with autism and their families make sense of the bewildering array of available autism treatments and options, and determine which are worth their time, money, and energy. We also want to encourage respectful attitudes towards autistics and people with autism.
Why We Are Doing This
The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism (TPGA) is the book and website we wish had been available when our loved ones with autism were first diagnosed.Autism misinformation clouds and is perpetuated by the Internet. We want to make accurate information about autism causation and therapies visible, accessible, and centralized.
We also want to help new autism community members develop a positive yet realistic attitude, to appreciate the strengths while supporting the struggles of our loved ones with autism.
Our attitude is cautionary yet loving — we are interested in strong opinions, but not in negativity. Our families need their energies for evidence-based optimism!
How We See Ourselves
Think of us as a little bit of Snopes for the autism community — trusted, accurate, and friendly. Our essays will cover informed approaches to autism and autism treatments, as well as the personal experiences of people with autism and their families. Our authors are parents, professionals, and people with autism.Our writers have defined opinions, and may not always agree with each other. That is both acceptable, and realistic, because autism means something different for every person with a diagnosis. We are not here to tell you what to do; we are here to give you tools and information so you can make informed decisions for yourself, your child, or your family.
Process and Submissions
We’d like TPGA to be a transparent, community-based effort. It helps that our community contains so many prominent and experienced voices.Feel free to pitch us an essay topic. We also don’t mind if you submit an essay you’ve previously published. We want TPGA be comprehensive, not proprietary.
Please review our submission guidelines before sending in your essay.
You can also help us improve our Autism Resources page by leaving a comment about useful autism websites, books, movies, communities, and organizations.
Timelines
The submission deadline for our book was August 16. We’ll continue publishing essays online. The book will be published in Winter, 2010 through Deadwood City Publishing, and will be sold through Amazon.com.
Seriously, a blog well worth following. Professional, good content, broad spectrum of ideas. An excellent voice.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Dear Sullivan,
Two points:
Thanks so much for the props to me and to Emily Willingham, but we are only a minority of the editorial team.
The majority:
Shannon des Roches Rosa — you can read more at Squidalicious and BlogHer. Shan is also arguably the foremost “the iPad is a game-changer for kids with autism & other disabilities” proponent.
Jennifer Bede Myers — you can read more at Into the Woods and Have Autism, Will Travel
Carol Greenburg — you can read more at AspieAdvocate. She is the East Coast Regional Director of Autism Women’s Network http://www.autismwomensnetwork.com and her professional site, Brooklyn Special Needs Consulting.
The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism doesn’t just “allow” submissions, we are actively seeking submissions from people with autism, parents of people with autism, and professionals assisting people with autism to live the fullest, most rewarding life possible.
One of the first blogs I happened across in my search for information soon after my sons recent dx. It was and remains a source of wisdom and comfort for me.
Thanks for featuring TPGA and our mission. We’re big fans of LBRB, for breaking autism news — and breaking down autism BS.
We see ourselves as an evidence-based autism information and perspectives nexus, and work very hard to include a variety of voices from autistics, professionals, and parents of kids with autism. We especially value the conversations that emerge.
One update: The book is coming out in 2011.
Again, thanks.
Diverse? I don’t think so.
Not if you are talking about Autism generally. If you are talking about the Neurodiversity segment of the autism “community” maybe. A lot of autism bloggers are parents who recognize autism disorders as what they are … disorders. That is not the perspective of many of the bloggers your list above most of whom subscribe to the “joy of autism” Neurodiversity ideology.
Harold,
If you take the time to peruse the site, or even the contributors list, you’ll find that our authors do indeed represent a diverse range of perspectives from the autism community. Our writers are honest about their experience and their or their loved ones’ challenges, but we do not feature writing that perpetuates stigma or negativity. Instead we focus on positive supports and evidence-based approaches.
-Shannon
Harold’s definition of ‘diverse’ is that which means ‘those that agree with me’.
Shannon,
just so you know, you are in the “…” of “Some of my old favorite bloggers are there (e.g. Corina Lynn Becker, Kristina Chew, Clay, Emily Willingham, Liz Ditz…) ”
Hmmm. First step in getting out a hole is to stop digging….
I stand by the “diverse” statement. Autistics, parents, scientists, I see that Holly Robinson Peete has a post. Show me another blog with the diversity of people and topics, while still focused on autism. I contend there isn’t one, but I would love to be corrected.
“Diverse? I don’t think so.”
When making a statement of opinion such as the one one above, it would generally be considered a good idea to not make the statement below:
“A lot of autism bloggers are parents who recognize autism disorders as what they are … disorders.”
, which implies that one is comparing the first group to the second group.
I’m not even a third of the way down the page, yet I’ve come across more diversity than is present in the entirety of the group Harold implies a comparison too.
I can only assume I’ve misread Harold, as the alternative is that he’s rather stupid or hopelessly biased.
I can only contend that Harolds constantly inaccurate misdescriptions of the neurodiversity bloggers comes from having no effective functional knowledge. The only alternative is that he’s knowingly misrepresenting a group of fellow advocates for his own gain.
Please watch the video that is posted on our website on thursday the 17th. We try to put it with English subtitle. We’ve done a discovery this year that can help people.
If you are interested in helping us implementating Viki’s View internationally, please contact us. The method is not expensive and the possitive effect on adults and children with autism is amazing.
With kind regards from the Netherlands,
Paula
The website is http://www.vikisview.com
It’s important that we share the knowledge. In the Netherlands we have become visible and taken serious. Our goal is to reach other countries too and teach it to professionals and parents.
Paula
Since this post comes up as #6 in a search for “The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism” I thought I’d drop the publishing information in here:
CreateSpace Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism
Amazon: Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism.
The book features an essay by LB/RB founder Kev Leitch.
The Kindle edition will be available in a few days.