My boy had a wow of a day

The Aspie teen has had a couple of minor meltdowns - and I do mean minor - with the yelling, swearing and aggro lasting all of 10 mins.
Yes, we thought it was such a lovely change from the hours on end of mental breakdowns he had to endure, too!
There's a couple of things we may be pointing the finger at - the gluten finally leaving and/or the build up of the fish, flaxseed and Evening primrose oils he's been taking.
He's calmer, he's making sense, he's almost back to his old self.
*sigh*
Took him in to see the Rupert Bunny exhibition at Fed Square; found some excellent homeschooling resources for it as it's had some education kits developed for use within schools. The downloads were for both primary and secondary students, very appealing, simple and easy but challenging to the student to use their observational skills in each painting.
He zipped through them without a complaint; fully focused and loving every minute of it, this is how I know he's getting better.
Then he chose some postcards of Rupert Bunny's and McCubbin's paintings, and quickly mentally calculated the cost (correctly), again showing that he's getting back on track.
Then we continued the homeschooling lesson up at the Melbourne Town Hall where they held a free organ concert;  twas fantabulous, the organist David MacFarlane brilliantly and wittily introduced each piece, explaining the strengths, the arguments within the music, who was influenced by what when it was created, etc.
The kid loved it so it was a great success.
The choice to homeschool him 4 years ago has not only paid off for him being able to spread his wings and explore both secondary and uni learning ahead of his peers but it's allowed him to have these hiccups along the way without putting more pressure on him with having to cope with mainstream school, too.

Aspergian sub-culture

Last night on the Alone in a Crowded Room doco there were comments and observations passed that I've noted myself but kept to myself as so many 'specialists' prattle the same mantra contrary to basic logic.
The fact that those on the Spectrum are forced into behaving like neurotypicals; we're torturing square pegs to fit into round holes that they will NEVER fit comfortably in.
Dr Wendy Lawson stated that it would be far easier and better for neurotypicals to make the effort to understand and accept the neuro-diversity offered by Auties/Aspies than it was for Auties/Aspies being made to conform to a false ideal of "normal".
And this other ideal, to separate those on the Spectrum from each other and to push them into socialising with neurotypicals to learn to mimic their 'socially acceptable' behaviour, is bizarre and cruel.
I was  listening to an interview on ABC radio recently where journo Paul Raffaele described how the African chimps and gorillas had different sub-cultures inside groups in the wild; how orphans were being saved from poachers but brought up in a vacuum without their family/tribe culture and knowing only the fear/terror and angry behaviour from witnessing their mothers being slaughtered in front of them.
Our Auties/Aspies aren't witnessing murders but they are growing up in a vacuum where they're frightened and scared, made to feel like the outsider, that they are the oddball in a group of neurotypicals when they are in fact part of one of the fastest growing groups in the Western world.
The odds have changed so quickly many media outlets aren't keeping up with the ratios anymore as Valerie pointed out in her post HERE; it's 1 in 90 in USA, here in Oz it's 1 in 100.
When Aspie teen was first diagnosed it was reported as being closer to 1 in 250+ only 11 years ago.
Either the kids are getting in on the fad early or it's no longer the last thing specialists consider.
So, if our ASD kids are in such numbers and they know the funding isn't there for early intervention/integration aide funding and they know the mainstream systems don't always work ...why isn't the whole thing turned on it's head and neurotypicals made to just accept someone as being different?
And embrace the neurodiversity on offer?
Cos without the Spectrum we'd all still be gnawing on a raw hunk of meat in a cave somewhere.