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Emily Paige Ballou

@epballou.bsky.social

570 followers 410 following 670 posts

AEA stage manager, Old Millennial, stationery junkie, hiking, X-Files. Co-editor, "Sincerely, Your Autistic Child" from Beacon Press. chavisory.wordpress.com

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · Nov 26

Things I'm constantly trying to get people to talk to me about: A thread.

If any of this is up your alley, this is your invitation to completely go off at me about it. 🧵

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Reposted by Emily Paige Ballou

Ingrid Burrington @lifewinning.com · 13h

the Muppets have been real quiet since the Louvre heist

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 13h

Oh, thank you for catching that!

Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 3d

I wish we had more effective ways of cracking down on noise complaints, but it's a bigger problem than the 311 system.

Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 3d

Okay, I'm feeling the need to defend @nyc311.bsky.social a little bit here.

Obviously I've got frustrations with the system, but I have always been treated courteously and professionally by 311 dispatchers, who seem to care about their jobs.

Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 3d

The ASL interpreter of this debate is a real champ. 😳

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 11d

Josh Ritter, Tyler Lyle.

Reposted by Emily Paige Ballou

Rebecca Thompson 🦋 @rebalynn.bsky.social · 12d

Chicago Presbyterian Minister is fired upon by ICE and hit 7 times with pellets containing a chemical agent.

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Reposted by Emily Paige Ballou

Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 14d

I’m telling you: ridicule works. These guys are supposed to intimidate the citizenry and it’s very hard to do that when a guy in a frog suit is just staring you down and daring you to do something that makes it look like you’re afraid of a cartoon

dan sinker @dansinker.com · 14d

Portland never stops being Portland.

competentposter @competentposter.bsky.social · 15d

wizard frog is insane

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 14d

Yes, and yes!

(Literally. There's research that says that giving non-autistic kids training about how to interact with autistic classmates improved outcomes for the autistic classmates.)

web.archive.org/web/20160104...

Training peers improves social outcomes for some kids with ASD

NIH-funded study finds engaging peers in social skills intervention may be more helpful than training children with ASD directly.

web.archive.org

Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 15d

www.voicesforvaccines.org/well-never-m...

This is one of those things that just makes me aghast at the way many Covid safety advocates have minimized what the flu is.

Covid is serious, with a risk of serious complications.
But there's no such thing as "just" the flu.

We’ll Never Miss a Flu Shot Again

I typically stay on top of vaccines. But in 2023 we were late with flu shots–a mistake I will never make again.

www.voicesforvaccines.org

Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 15d

Incredible.

Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 15d

I'm worried therapies are inculcating modes of interaction that are inauthentic to autistic ways of interacting, but don't ring true to non-autistic people, either.

Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 15d

And this is part of why I have BIG concerns about the ethics of using robots in social skills coaching for autistic kids.

A robot fundamentally can't give naturalistic feedback about genuine human interaction, whether autistic or non-autistic.

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 15d

Something I've suspected is that certain kinds of social skills training that teach mechanistic or formulaic modes of interaction actually worsen autistic rigidity or awkwardness, rather than in any way helping ameliorate it...

Thinking Person's Guide to Autism @thinkingautism.com · Sep 14

If you've spent any time in SpecEd or MH services, you've probably observed a noticeable "uncanny valley" effect in people who've had extended social skills training. But social skills don't have those kinds of rigid rules in practice. They also erode personal boundaries. #neurodiversity #SNS25

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 16d

Oh, what in the entire fuck.

Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

RIGHT.

Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

And that is why I won't just quietly acquiesce to this arbitrary and nonsensical division of the autism spectrum.

I'm not the one who's refusing to listen.

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

You're telling ME and a lot of other people to deny our own disabilities, and not to bother seeing ourselves in kids like yours, and frankly, MY life would be worse and less sustainable if I did that.

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

...but you're trying to cut US off from the knowledge and experiences of kids like yours.

And I have learned AT LEAST as much about my own disability from autistic people w/ support needs much higher than mine, as I have from people whose lives look more like mine superficially.

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

And partly it's because, when you segregate autistic people from each other according to support needs or functioning level or intellectual disability or whatever, you're not only cutting yourself and your family off from valuable knowledge and experience of other autistic people...

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

I've seen their kids grow up and I've seen them improve their families' quality of life BECAUSE of their relationships with the autistic self-advocate community.

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

And partly it's because I DO listen to the parents and families of those kids, who work really hard to make their lives good but love their kids the way they are.

This isn't because I don't listen to these people. It's because I've had relationships w/ some of these families for many years now.

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

...or why we can't admit that *obviously* "profound autism" is something fundamentally different from the autism of people like me.

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

I still see people ask why autistic people like me can't admit to the hell that parenting an autistic kid with higher support needs or "profound" autism supposedly is...

Thinking Person's Guide to Autism @thinkingautism.com · 17d

When parents get info about their autistic kids from the autistic and disability communities, they will find people who think that their kids are awesome, and want their parents to feel the same way.

They will NOT find this love via #ProfoundAutism groups.

thinkingautismguide.com/2025/04/crea...

A "Profound Autism" Category Is Segregation—Not Progress

RFK Jr. went full "useless eaters" on autistics—& Profound Autism parents are thrilled. Here's why "profound autism" is harmful, not helpful.

thinkingautismguide.com

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Emily Paige Ballou @epballou.bsky.social · 17d

Oh no, it does not sound minor at all.