AUTISM AMBASSADORS CORPS’ GOAL #4: Help Autistics to develop effective self-management skills that will allow them to function with as little special assistance as possible

The building and preserving of basic human dignity is essential for the emotional well being of everybody.  Help someone obtain and maintain the greatest level of possible is key in that endeavor.  Personal independence is as necessary for an eighty year old as it is for someone with a developmental disability.

When discussing the possibility of autistic self development, it is important to note the fact that I did progress in my development in spite of not being diagnosed as autistic until I was forty years old.  How did I do so?  Through working a Twelve Step program for codependency.  Why was this able to help me?  Because in spite of my neurological differences, I am still a human being.  The struggles I have as an autistic is the same struggles that I other human beings have.  My struggles may be more severe, but that just means that I have to do what all humans should do anyways: develop effective skills in stress management, conflict resolution, organizational, etc.  Some neurotypicals may be able to get away with using dysfunctional alterative to developing effective skills in these areas for quite some time, but they would be better off developing them anyways.  As for autistics, developing these skills are a matter of life and death.

I am very aware that not all autistics develop neurologically the same way I have.  Therefore, there is no guarantee that every autistic can be taught to function entirely on their own without any special assistance.  Nevertheless, all autistics should be given the benefit of the doubt and the opportunity to try to develop beyond what they are.  Yes, they should use whatever special assistance is available to them for as long as they need it, but an effort should be made to help them learn what we can do so we will not need to use them anymore then absolutely necessary.