Jill Smith (Educator)
Educator for The University of Sheffield MOOC Exploring Play.
My interest is telling stories about autistic children's embodied everyday lives.
@jcsmithshef
Location Sheffield, UK
Activity
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Jill Smith (Educator) made a comment
Hello everyone!
It's great to see the start you have all got off to this week and the enthusiasm that's already coming through in comments.It's really interesting to hear your definitions of disability - it is, and should be, a slippery and tricky thing to define. 'Normal' seems to be a word that is cropping up a lot with greater and lesser degrees of...
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Jill Smith (Educator) made a comment
So pleased to hear everyone's reflections on Rod's video and that so many of you have been as bowled-over by the power of his story as we were!
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I'd really recommend you do Heather. As you have seen, he's a wonderful story teller and his writing is just as thought provoking. Even just watching this video again (for the 10th+ time!) I'm still learning!
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Yes I agree Heather - I don't think the practitioner was interested in the health-aspect of the window licking!
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The stories were told with conclusions that were definitely on the side of 'black and white' for the purposes of demonstrating how often things are interpreted as 'black and white' or right/wrong for autistic children. Indeed there could be any number of reasons Susie licked that window - which we will never know (and she potentially doesn't either!)
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Same here Michele - I totally bought in to Susie's experience - it seemed a lot more enjoyable and rewarding than June would like us to think!
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I love the idea of Beach Schools - a new one to me, thanks Geoff!
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I think you and Geoff (comment above) could have a really interesting discussion based on both of your comments!
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Indeed it can Geoff but can we think about any occasions when labels have a positive purpose? It depends what the label is being 'used' for - sometimes it actually acts as a gatekeeper to resources (physical, financial, pastoral), particularly in education. So, perhaps in some cases labels can be useful?
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I think it very much depends on what you fundamentally believe play 'is'. If we think of play needing to be demonstrated by our behaviour then perhaps we don't always recognise when others are playing. If we believe play needs to be about having an 'ability' then again, perhaps we won't always recognise it. Play is highly personal and what might be playing for...
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That's the dream Diane!
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That's an interesting debate Krystel and thanks for bringing it in to the comments. In relation to autism it is a particularly slippery one - there is a social movement from within autistic self-advocacy communities called 'neurodiversity'. This is movement aimed at recognising autism as being an issue of identity rather than impairment (it takes a lot of its...
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Jill Smith (Educator) made a comment
What an interesting set of comments already! It seems from reading through that a lot of definitions rely on language of 'lacking' - inability, suffering, unable to etc. After all, that's the language we hear used in relation to disability so often...We'll be encouraging you to think about how some of this language effects the way we view the play of disabled...
