#children's books with neurodivergent characters

[a-soft-fluffy-girl]

Callout post for Seanan McGuire, author of the hit book series, Wayward Children-- I mean criminal mastermind

As you can see by this very official and very clearly cited and sourced and verified claim with no basis, my adorable and precious and sweet cat has been THIEFED and SCRUNKLED and SMARTENED by none other than @seananmcguire , author of the recently published Lost in the Moment and Found, part of the Wayward Children series (which is quite good-- I mean a fiendish ploy to catnap my baby girl).

Pictured above, is the DESCRIPTION of what they had DONE to my BABY by my best friend ACE RESEARCHER.

SUCH EVIL.

Here is my poor little baby who has done no wrong ever in her whole life and is just a little creature.

Look at her. Sleek. Commanding. Pristine. Orange and therefore dumb as a bag of rocks.

How daaaare you take my baby and un-himbo her. How daaaare you scrunkle such a sleek child. This needs to be dealt with promptly with the fullest extent of my power!

MORE CAT PICTURES.

So yeah anyways if you could spread this around that'd be great because everyone needs to see my child-- I mean get more eyes on this series-- I mean BRING SEANAN TO JUSTICE.

[zagreuses-toast]

I see you have fallen down the Gregor Fandom Rabbit Hole! I did the same thing like two weeks back and it's amazing to see the posts back on my dash <3 God what a good series

I picked up a copy of Gregor at a yard sale out of nostalgia and I'm now chewing through the entire series again through the library, And it's crazy how fast I can get through one of the books now compared to when I read them when I was like 8 or so. I forgot how good it was! My heart breaks for Gregor and his family, but Collins wrote the like, trauma responses and complicated feelings about all of it so well. I have a lot more appreciation for Gregor's mom too, god how does she do it. AND LUXA!!! AUGH!!! LUXA "I decide that every day is my last day alive" the underlander. And ripred. And twitch tip! Fav character as a kid fav character again. Man this series is just chockablock with trauma

[once-upon-an-idiom]

Ok so unfortunately I’m having some trouble exporting the photos from my iPad to my phone! I ended up just taking pictures of the screen for now, but I’ll try to find a way to actually export the images. in the meantime here’s a few details about the story! (And the title, which how have I not mentioned that??)

And now, without further ado,

The Legend of April Showers and May Flowers!

A fairytale take on a classic English idiom! Welcome to a magical world, where words come to life! (These are VERY early sketches, and I will elaborate more in future posts!)

Everyone in Sunny Valley knows that April Showers and May Flowers are the best of friends. Why, the two girls were practically inseparable! But, it wasn’t always this way! This the story of how one worst day ever, ended in best friends forever!

[theluckyfishy]

February Reads

I’m not sure what happened in February. I did not read nearly as much as I expected to.Several reading challenged this year had both “Read a book published the year you were born” AND “Read a book that has it’s 50th anniversary this year”. How nice that these are both the same thing for me! Many of the books published in 1973 make me go “Oof, what was happening in the world I was born into?”I do…

[yourdandelionofthedeathknell]

The Theraprism: Good or bad?

Ya know, i've never been sure how to feel on the Theraprism, as shown in the Book of Bill. This is in large part because we get very little info on it, from any perspective other then BIll's own at least (and he is...Not a reliable narrator). Personally, I see three possible interpretations and I don't know which one is correct. To be clear, I think all of these are fairly valid: 1. Their methods seem insipid, but are actually quite effective. They seem to have been effective in the past (one of Bill's fellow patients is slated for release in the near-future apparently), and the Axolotl (who, while not exactly rich characterization himself, has, generally, been portrayed as wise and benevolent) referred to it as "what [Bill] needs the most", which would be weird if it doesn't have SOME merit. I, myself, honestly prefer this one, because I think it works better with the narrative of the Book of Bill (a book which, generally, does not encourage the reader to sympathize with Bill's plight. Pity, maybe, but the framing is very clearly that he kinda deserves this) and the schadenfreude the reader is encouraged to feel if Bill's hellish afterlife is, largely if not entirely, a self-inflicted one: That it wouldn't be particularly bad if not for his own combo of being unable to accept that he lost, that he shouldn't be allowed to do whatever he wants whenever he wants to anyone he wants, inability to form meaningful bonds with others, and, most of all, his total inability to admit to being wrong. He COULD leave at any time, if he would just actually repent, but...He's Bill, so...He won't. It just works best for me if his hell is largely self-inflicted. 2. They are harmful, possibly deliberately. This does have a fair bit of support textually. Mandatory therapy is already a pretty major ethical grey area at best (a major tenant of modern psychotherapy is that you can't make someone change unless they take the first step), they definitely engage in toxic positivity, and, of course, the "Solitary Wellness Void" is...Solitary confinement, which is a practice most modern medical institutions oppose and consider to be psychological torture. So, fair bit of support for this. 3. This is what I think was probably Alex's intent: They're a bunch of oblivious obnoxiously happy morons (as Bill himself would probably describe them) whose attempts to treat eons-old eldritch horror bad guys with puppet shows and arts and crafts is meant to be amusingly-inept rather then actively malicious, and whose effectiveness (such as it is) is down to having literally eternity to try. Kinda like what Mabel might do to rehabilitate someone. To use an analogy, think Charlie Morningstar from Hazbin, at least in the first couple episodes, where the fact that she's treating adult criminals like misbehaving children is the joke and is meant to indicate incompetence rather than malice. I get that isn't that much different from the proceeding (except in terms of "how seriously are we supposed to take this"), but still. I think all three of these have support, and, to be clear, I go with the first one not because I think it's the most supported (might be the least), but because it jives most with how I think about BIll's narrative IE as a character we're meant to, at best, pity, but not really sympathize with. I think the intent is "Bill is suffering a karmic self-inflicted punishment after all the pain and suffering he's caused", not "Bill is being medically abused and we should feel bad for him". The Book of Bill does invite readers to sympathize with Bill occasionally, but mostly past Bill, not current Bill. All viewpoints are valid, this is just trying to organized some thoughts on the subject. I sincerely hope I haven't said anything harmful here. Uh, cards on the table, I am neurodivergent, but i've never had therapy, forcefully or otherwise (although I did have an irrational fear of the possibility of institutionalization for a bit), so i'm sorta going off vibes here, sorry to say. If I said anything insensitive here, I apologize.

[jaidenk-nox]

Elizabeth midford

Shitty 2AM rant on the Misogyny that Lizzy has faced since the very start but it's the perspective of someone who has witnessed the horrors of Misogyny in Spanish speaking fandom

I should mention that English is not my first language and I'm not very good with it either, so most of this was done with Google Translate and I tried to correct what I could, I hope it's at least readable

I've never seen enough people point out the fact that Elizabeth midford character also defies the "Girlboss" archetype, she is definitely physically strong and can protect herself, but she is A 15 YEAR OLD GIRL, who manages her emotions like someone her age would and also exhibits many neurodivergent traits. I have always been bothered by the way physical strength is misunderstood as a "girlboss" trait, the simplest example I can think of is Ran Mao, she possesses brutal and superhuman strength. but it doesn't make her a girlboss, in case anyone forgets Ran is a girl who barely reaches 18 years old and is exploited by an opium trader who also seems to be involved in human trafficking (implied in the manga). Is she really a girlboss? girlboss when her physical strength is more of a requirement to SURVIVE while working as an assassin and sometimes seductress (which u can tell she doesn't enjoy much)? Obviously Ranmao's social reality is very different as she is a woman of color from the underworld, unlike Elizabeth, who is a white woman from the nobility. However, her physical strength has always been a double-edged sword for herself. Lizzy longs to get married, like any other girl her age, she longs to be protected but says goodbye to it the moment Ociel returns.

I may seem a bit exaggerated, but the way your sociocultural background affects the way you perceive and treat a character has me slightly traumatized, I wish I could give proof of the horrible and degrading treatment that Lizzy has received from the Spanish-speaking fandom.

I am a trans boy of color who grew up watching my female relatives being encouraged to rip their hearts out of their chest from the moment they turned 8yo for the simple goal of caring for and protecting my cis male relatives. household chores, cooking for them, washing their clothes, taking accountability for their actions. Their freedom and childhood as little girls were taken away from them. but none of that was ever valued, I never saw anyone recognize it as sacrifice.

Elizabeth is not a woman of color, nor does she have those demands as a woman of nobility, but she SACRIFICED stuff to try to protect Ciel on her own way, I have seen many people underestimate her backstory in book of Atlantic because "High heeled shoes aren't reason to cry." Everything Lizzy has done for Ciel is devalued, all her suffering has been minimized. losing so many family members in such a short time, losing the boy you were raised to marry your entire life. People truly forget that lizzy is still just a child, that she has the right to mourn everything she lost that day. She had to mourn publicly as a noble girl,she probably heard that she would never be able to get married or would never achieve happiness, I've never seen any adult to stop and think about how heartbreaking and soul shattering that must have been as a 11yo

I have seen how EVERY thing Lizzy does is judged. how her behavior, personality and temperament are criticized. but other characters like Soma just get a pass while doing the same stuff, but this does not just stop at gender, but also at age. people HATE girls and afabs who act like children when they are literally CHILDREN.

How is it possible that Lizzy has faced such harsh judgment from the fandom when there are other characters like Maam red, Lau, Grell, Undertaker who are universally ADORED or atleast respected in the fandom.

I love u Elizabeth midford but ur character makes me violently ill omfg

[qbdatabase]

Book bans are on the rise across the US, but even if you want to go read and buy as many books with LGBT+ representation as you can get your greedy little hands on--it's hard to know what you don't know :/

The Queer Books Database lists over 3,500+ fiction and non-fiction titles in a google docs spreadsheet that lets you search by representation, or just by age, genre, year published, and more. It doesn't just track LGBT+ rep but also tags for people of color, disability, mental health, neurodivergence, fat rep, older characters, and religion!

You can use the database to search for:

multiple identities at once--find rep for a schizophrenic asexual lesbian, an autistic black boy, or a non-binary soldier with tinnitus

age appropriate books--search for children's books, junior chapter books, teen titles, and YA

non-fiction education--this includes biographies and memoirs, self-help, mental health, sexual education, LGBT+ history, legal resources, and affirming spiritual texts

trope/setting/time period--get a list of ghostly paranormals, queer fiction set in africa, gay regency romances, enemies-to-lovers, dark academia, and tons more!

Using the database, supporting my patreon, or buying me a ko-fi also really helps out the autistic transgender librarian who put this all together during the pandemic! Please share and reblog if you can~

[thesunfyre4446]

the way that some people talk about helaena is just disgusting.

you have the people that straight up say that they're looking forward to b&c & don't care about her at all. which is fine i mean at least you're honest (though can't understand why anyone would be looking forward to seeing a 6yo kid get brutally murdered but ok)

then you have the people who try and "claim" helaena as TB. they say that helaena hates her family & her mom & her family is the reason that her life was ruined - and not b&c and maelor's death caused by rhaenyra and daemon. and it's so obvs they're just using that as an excuse to justify their favs horrible actions.

helaena's family did not ruin her life.

in the book it was viserys that arranged her marriage to aegon. so don't go crying in the comments about "the book", in the show the alternative is jace - and alicent was not about to let her daughter become rhaenyra's unofficial hostage. the twins are obvs not 6 and were aged down so show!helaena gave birth prob at 17. (these kids are not 6) by marrying aegon, helaena gets to stay at home with her family.

helaena is not suicidal. there is nothing in the show or the book to indicate that she is suicidal or depressed. she's described as a happy girl in the book and in the show we don't really get a lot of scenes with her but there's 0 indication to her being depressed. helaena committed suicide because of her children's death. the greens did not kill her children.

helaena does not hate her children. literally stfu. you can claim that because she's a teen mom (rhaenyra was also a teen mom but i digress) motherhood is prob not easy for her. but the fact that some people say that she hated her kids as a way to justify b&c is disgusting.

helaena being portrayed as neurodivergent & sensitive to touch does not mean that she can't or doesn't love her family. this take makes me want to scream. one of my best friends is also extremely sensitive to touch. she rarely lets her mom hug her and that's OK. everyone has different boundaries.

stop infantilizing helaena!!!!!!!!!!!!! she's an adult!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and all of these excuses are somehow supposed to make b&c and maelor's death look less bad & daemyra less guilty. oh, daemon had her child brutally murdered before her eye? nah, she hated her children anyway lol rhaenyra drove her to suicide? well, she was always depressed and suicidal so it's not that big of a deal... (and don't even get me started on the "why didn't she just go to rhaenyra on dragonstone" as if she'd ever betray her family & like her own sons weren't also at risk if rhaenyra became queen)

i really can't. mind you, these are the people that scream and cry misogyny but are willing to use another female character in such a cynical and sinister way to justify their favs action. and yes, i'm calling it sinister because it feels VERY sinister. the discourse about helaena makes me so uncomfortable. (and the discourse around jaehaera is also disturbing af)

sorry about the rant.

[willthespy]

SHORT SOLANGELO ANALYSIS FROM MY NOTES APP

(except it’s mostly in response to fandom)

Honestly, I’ve heard some reasons why people hate Solangelo. And don’t get me wrong; I don’t care that you don’t like a ship, but some of you are ignorant (and biased) and trying to find reasons to hate it.

One i’ve seen is that «they have no shared interests» etc, etc. Since when was that an issue? It wasn’t an issue with any other ship, so why is that an issue with the one canon/main mlm ship we have. And even if that wasn’t said with homophobic intentions, which it definitely doesn’t have to be, it still is odd that it is fine with your ship to have them not share common interests, but when it’s the ‘same case’ with Solangelo or some other canon ship it’s not?

Besides, nobody said they didn’t have any shared interests and nobody said they need to have shared interests. «Nico doesn’t like Star Wars. He hated it.» Oh, sweet gods. He watched all those movies for a reason, first of all. You’re saying he doesn’t like Will even after doing all that??? You’re using that as reasoning??? And even if he didn’t like it at all (gods forbid someone has an opinion not based around/biased by their relationship) that is okay. Especially for neurodivergent people I’ll say that it is okay to be in relationships and still have different interests than your significant other. Same interests ≠ madly in love whatsoever.

In fact, from a sociological/psychological/WHATEVER perspective, a lot of neurodivergent people tend to prefer it if someone doesn’t have the same interests. Yes, this depends per person, but that’s something I’ve noticed happens a lot.

The «they hate each other» argument is used, referring to their banter, and I love (read: hate) how those same people still like Percabeth. Like, okay, now give me the real reasons you don’t like it, without grasping for fake ones that don’t actually match up with your idea of a relationship. The bias is biasing.

I think the most important part of Solangelo is the fact that they can let their guards down around one another. They always have those walls up around others - though in different ways - and they don’t always have to be like that in front of each other. They’re also there to protect and care for the other, much unlike the fanon idea where Will often only cares for Nico. They aren’t there to fix one another, they’re there for each other.

Note that they still both have some walls up in TSATS! That doesn’t make their relationship any less real, but I think that is also very much to be expected from characters who have actively had to deal with trauma. And even then, even without knowing everything, they still care and are there for each other, no matter how frustrating it may be to be out of the know.

They’re also not «complete opposites». In TSATS we literally read that they have more similarities than meets the eye (which can be read as the light-darkness symbolism.) They balance each other out and they’re ALLOWED to argue. Did you guys know that? It’s important to me that you know that.

Did you know characters/people can argue and then solve the situation/argument using healthy communication? Shocking, I know.

I do think the start of Solangelo wasn’t smoothly written whatsoever. Will was kind of used as a puppet and obviously put there ‘for Nico.’ Do I think Will should get more character separate from his relationship/his father? Yes. Do I think he has no character at all? No. But also… It’s a children’s book. You can’t expect the best written character in history from a book written for middle schoolers.

They wouldn’t be the first canon ship with a bad start, so I’m not too fed up about that. If I would ask for anything, I’d like a book/short story about Will as a character (his backstory/just anything) or just a story in which they grow more in their relationship and as separate characters (though not broken up).

My point mostly is this; if you really don’t like it, you don’t have to interact or read or do anything, really. (Yay!) Don’t use the Solangelo tag for your hatred. Especially not if it’s an unproblematic ship.

[wings-of-fire-confessions]

I personally think the wof mental health rep is a lot better than it seems at first glance.

I should say upfront that I'm not a professional, though one of my biggest interests is psychology and majority of the conditions I talk in this post I either have or have traits of (and I'll clarify which I don't).

Whiteout is the only canonical neurodivergent character as far as I know, having associative synesthesia, but many headcanoning her to be autistic. I haven't read the books in a long while, but from what I remember I can agree, though I'm not autistic (despite meeting criteria... long story) so I won't for sure say if I think her traits are enough for a diagnosis or not (again, haven't read the books recently), but everyone seems to think they are so I'll agree.

Hawthorn has psychotic symptoms, which I think is important to represent since people with psychosis (whether that be from being on the schizophrenia spectrum or some other reason) are very often put in a bad light. Hawthorn is too, to an extent, but that's more so due to the Breath of Evil and not due to his psychotic symptoms, or from what I can remember, at least. I don't think Hawthorn has a mental disorder like schizophrenia since symptoms of psychosis can be caused by isolation (I'm not actually 100% sure if this is true, this is just something my psychologist told me), but I think the representation is still important either way. I relate to him a lot due to his symptoms.

Darkstalker very clearly shows symptoms of NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder), I don't think you can even argue that (sorry, narcissism anon from a month or so ago). I myself fit the criteria for NPD, and I definitely see myself in him. I doubt he can be diagnosed since he is still a child, but his symptoms might be extreme enough to warrant one, I'm not sure (coming from a minor who's doctors referred them for a personality disorder screening themself). Of the nine (9) criteria for NPD, just off memory he fit basically all of them. I won't go into all of it but I will definitely mention his splitting, seeing how he goes from loving Clearsight to thinking he can kill her if she doesn't meet his expectations. He also has the aspect of how it develops too, that being trauma (I recall Arctic being abusive to him which is definitely enough to warrant trauma), and being spoiled as a child (this could be my brain making things up but I swear this happened, or at least he was overly praised or something). So yeah, fairly sure he would have been diagnosed with NPD if he didn't eat the strawberry.

Moonwatcher seems to have social and separation anxiety. I like this, since I am diagnosed with both and they are both very difficult to live with, and I like seeing another character having it that I can relate to in that way. She also has symptoms of AVPD (just from what I remember), but she's only like... twelve (12) so there's no way she could be diagnosed.

Anemone, while not having any mental disorders specifically, still had a rough mental health journey so I think it's important to bring up. She grew up with her mother, Queen Coral, who was a complete helicopter parent, and likely never met her Father, King Gill. She was praised and adorned all her life, so it makes sense that when she was eventually separated from Coral, she acted out what she thought she deserved. While I think Darkstalker has NPD, I can't say the same for Anemone, since she was so young and it's normal for young children to have narcissistic traits. When she met Darkstalker, they clicked well due to both being animi and having... less than positive thoughts on the dragons around them. Darkstalker ended up lovebombing her, and telling her to leave when she got mad at Moon. She lashed out at Turtle afterwards, before they reconciled later. I thought this would be important to mention.

Peril likely has a few personality disorders as well, the most likely ones in my opinion being BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) and DPD (Dependent Personality Disorder), which isn't surprising given her situation. She likely has tons of trauma so it's only natural for her to develop a traumagenic disorder. I say those in particular because of her rapidly changing thoughts and emotions and her over attachment to Clay, which I can definitely relate to given how I act with my DP (Dependent Person). I don't have BPD though I show traits (not sure if enough for a diagnosis or not) and I remember Peril showing traits too.

There's also a lot of dragons that probably have PTSD in some way, Fathom, Peril, and Jerboa III being the first ones that come to mind specifically.

I seriously think this is an important topic and I might make a video on it at some point. Like I said, I love psychology and I think it's interesting how it impacts characters from my favourite book series.

.

[what-shitfuckery-is-this-ew]

A Critique of Riordan's: Neurodivergency

tldr: Rick made ADHD and dyslexia superpowers in the books which fit the time he wrote the books, but it's not accepted now cause it diminishes neurodivergent struggle. At the same time he made autism coded characters the 'annoying' ones and had a very racist thing of having the only neurotypical be Frank.

He tried to fix it in the show. It worked for about 3 seconds.

TW: Ableism, Autism speaks mention, r slur, anti-schizo stuff.

This paragraph is useless so don't read if you don't want to: Sitting in my drafts are 3 different 'A critique of Riordan's' posts i made as i tried to redo my full critique of the Riordanverse with a little more positive feedback and a little less Rick Riordan is the devil spawn. I have decided to not do it in order because because i watched the show and i noticed some things which were iffy and others which were great. So yeah neurodivergency first. Enjoy and think Critically.

Books

Research and Diversity

The books were written in the early 2000s for Rick's son who has ADHD and dyslexia

As a result, it takes on a very "your ADHD and dyslexia is a superpower" message which were popular during the time, but we recognise now has delegitimised neurodivergent struggles

Also as a result, the books were very focused on his son's symptoms, and represented ADHD as a monolith which quickly turned into stereotypes (e.g jumpy, impatient and fast reflexes becoming the connecting feature of half-bloods)

It got so unresearched that at one point he said:

He also talks about coffee in a similar way, despite sugar and coffee not making us more hyperactive and instead making us sleepy. Unless all the scientists and people with ADHD are wrong i really don't know this works.

and also said this: "Leo was extremely ADHD even by demigod standards" Like what

But the worst part about the PJO books was that the neurodivergency was limited to the first book. Percy's ADHD and dyslexia magically vanish and honestly it's only really brought back up in HOO every now and then (not very well might i add)

Ways he could have improved:

He could have given other characters, like Annabeth, more diverse symptoms of ADHD. It wasn't that hard, For Annabeth recognise that she as a 'gifted kid' is more likely to have undiagnosed and so have to face the issues related to being undiagnosed and/or being both a gifted kid and having ADHD, and then also give her more symptoms common to girls like being really chatty or frequently daydreaming.

Continuing having ADHD (and dyslexia) as constant parts of the novels rather than throwaway lines. Build it into the characters actions and persona rather than add it on like an accessory

Research. Never stop researching. Always reach out to people with the disorders and ask them to help. Writing is nothing without research.

Get sensitivity readers

Grammar

This is really minor, but he keeps say ____ was ADHD, and like gramattically that's a no. I am not a disorder i am a person with a disorder . Note for autism, the prefered grammer is Autistic person (aka turn into adjective and describe, something we can't do with ADHD)

Nico and Leo

Making Leo and Nico the 2 characters who were annoying and unlikeable (to everyone else not to fans) was really weird cause these 2 characters were the autistic coded ones.

NOTE: I did see a post explaining it better in the past, and i will link it when/if i find it again.

Tyson and the R Slur

I genuinely think he tried to make the r-slur scene show that it was bad, but the way Percy reacted to it wasn't quite right. Especially for childrens books these things need to be really clear. So it was good to make a bad bully character who was hated say it, but he could have made it better by skipping Percy saying "He’s not r*tarded" and go straight to "I had to try really, really hard not to punch Sloan the face."

The scene was ok, it could have been better, but again these were written in the 2000s, we have to acknowledge that.

Percy and School

Now this is interesting because this is more recent. Percy tried really hard in school and was smart, it was part of his characterisation. But he never did well in school, because that's how his disability affected him (especially since it was the American school system which we all know is shit and even more shit for people with learning disabilities).

The problem stems from TSATS, where Percy is made out to skip school, and not try at all (feeds into people with ADHD do bad cause they don't try/are lazy)

credits to @aroaceleovaldez

Racism: Frank Zhang

Frank Zhang the only Asian member of the 7 has no form of neurodivergency, despite the rest of them all having. It must be a just coincidence that there's a stereotype that asians are really smart and good at maths and the fact that the rest of the Romans have dyscalculia/s.

It's not weird at all that the character instead has lactose intolerance, which is really common in East Asia unlike dyslexia, ADHD or dyscalculia, which has such a low rate of diagnosis because there is a large stigma behind the disorders and because white people don't think Asians can have learning disabilities/s. No not weird at all that the dude is described with symptoms of dyspraxia but Rick refuses to recognise he is not neurotypical/s

I'm stepping out of sarcasm speak to remind you that Asians with learning disabilities are significantly less likely to get diagnosed with anything because:

because their parents won't let them until they have no other choice (glares at my parents) because there's a massive stigma behind intellectual/learning/development disorders in these communities

When we do try to get diagnosed our claims are diminished because of racist stereotypes and the belief that booksmarts/giftedness = no learning disability. It means most psychologists and psychiatrists (who are usually white) think that all Asians are smart so they don't ever have any form of neurodivergency and we're left to struggle.

Schizo Rep

Octavian. Villain. Schizo. Again.

Do i even need to explain this?

Show

Not actually a specific disorder - Percy just has a learning disability

Interestly Percy's dyslexia is just never talked about, And even his ADHD is never mentioned by name. He's got a random learning disorder which isn't specified. At first i assumed it was still ADHD cause the books, but watching more, you realise they aren't actually focusing on what learning disorder he has and what he has to deal with as a result of that. It's just a generic learning disorder.

Which is weird because learning disorders are all different and we all face different things, even with the same disorder. So placing all learning disorders in the same group? not good. Don't know what i expected from disney, but it wasn't this.

Autism Speaks

So the show tried to acknowledge that Percy was constantly told he was special and heroic when he really wanted to have help for his issues and for people to recognise that he has problems and those are bad. It also represented less stereotypical adhd symptoms (though whether that's because the disorder is no longer adhd or whether they wanted more inattentive symptoms to be present, we'll never know)

but then it went ahead and used a broken puzzle metaphor for his neurodivergency?

Puzzle piece metaphors when talking about any form of neurodivergency are a no go because the creators of the metaphor literally want Autistic people dead.

I DON'T GIVE A SHIT THAT HE DOESN'T HAVE AUTISM, WE ARE NOT ALLIES TO THE AUTISM COMMUNITY IF WE USE THE LANGUAGE AUTISM SPEAKS CREATED

Not only that but a broken puzzle is not a good way to represent us anyways because NEURODIVERGENTS AREN'T BROKEN.

[pompadourpink]

It's a new beginning!

Hello children,

September is coming, school too for some of you - often a great moment for a bit of decluttering and a few new good resolutions. Here am I, offering myself as one of them!

As you hopefully know, I started this blog in 2016 and have been a private tutor since the beginning of the pandemic. I have room at the moment for several new students, so here is what I offer:

Classes, obviously - the typical schedule is one hour a week, sometimes one and a half, or one every two weeks, or two every two weeks; typically same day same time (I'm always happy to make adjustments if you work shifts)

Homework, if you can make the time for it. I typically prefer it to be finished by the middle of the week so that I have time to take a look and correct it, giving you the opportunity to give it a second try before class!

Depending on your preferences, either just a few activities so we can take our time, especially if you are a beginner, or something a bit more dynamic consisting in five to ten minute long activities to keep you motivated and alert (which seems to be a crowd's favourite as most of my students are neurodivergent).

Talking activities are typically answering series of questions I share from my Notion, talking about your week, summarising a book or a movie, making me guess a word or a person, or a concept I call "alien talk" where you explain something (like a vaccine or insurance) from scratch to a little red man.

Writing activities are often fictional (I have students create a little character on a website and we write an update about their life regularly), they can also be an overview of your month, a letter to quit your horrible job or convince Snoop Dog to marry you because you are a gold digger.

Transcribing activities, especially at the beginning, are either me reading very easy sentences so you can write them down and memorise the way things sound, then it's episodes from young children's shows, extracts from very famous movies, then we hit harder and turn to gameshows or podcasts.

Translating activities, from one language to another, are a written translation of the first page of a novel (I did the Secret History recently), or a newspapers article (we are working on this one at the moment); or an oral translation of songs lyrics, fairytales, children's books, muted captioned playthroughs of your favourite games on Youtube, etc.

Finally, a few games: silly quizzes, crosswords, Wordle and even Quordle, hangman, and sometimes we even sing if you're comfortable with that.

Here is the link of my website where you will find reviews and a list of what to send me to get the process started. A few things to know:

I try to make the activities fit your preferences: get me a list of what you like and that is what we will work on. If your first language is not English, I am happy to include it, I'm always eager to learn (I've been reviewing my Spanish this way!)

I work without cameras. I don't need to see your face, I just need a voice and a good Internet connection. All students are welcome, no matter if you have an accent, a stutter, or disabilities. Do not be afraid of being judged, there is none of that here.

I ask for your contact information to be able to do my billing, no one else sees it and no one will know if you give me the address of a building in your area if you feel more comfortable this way. If you prefer to have a lesson first and decide that you want to continue before sending me your info, that's also an option.

I have a student and a regular rate, depending on what you can afford, and we can make different arrangements if your country's rate makes it too difficult, I've done it before.

Please comment if you have a question!

Much love,

Rose

[punkeropercyjackson]

We've lost the plot when it comes to Percy Jackson.He's the personification of abused neurodivergent kids who got to grow up to live happy adult lives and to defy stereotypes.There's no ambiguity or alternative interpretations because that's what his author has always said he intended him as.When i say 'defy stereotypes',i'm also not limiting it to mental disabilities but GENDER too seeing as his plot in The Titan's Curse was proving himself as different from traditional men to Zoe and is said to be unlike other male characters countless times even in looks by a significant amount of the rest of the cast.Not to mention he's accidentally written as way more afrolatino-coded,specifically monoracial and darkskin,than white-coded considering all the straightup profiling he gets in the mortal world as a child and how many of his habits and traits are black and latino norms and tastes,including being from El Barrio and for the canon purists,Riordan has stated verbal approval of moc Percy

He was NEVER meant to be a normie,he was ALWAYS meant to be a minority and relatable to US,not white boylosers that let people bully them because they're self-proclaimed 'cringe but free' and pick me girls who flirt by being mean and treat woc like an entirely different species.And NEITHER of who challenge societal expectations or help out oppressed groups or try to fix the system or break cycles of abuse because they're too pissy to in any way that's not as aesthetic instead of a personality and a lifestyle.Percy.Jackson.Was.Never.For.You.He's a misfit because he's a minority since he's neurodivergent,poor and an abuse victim and he loves other minorities enough to be a bully beater nonstop no matter how many schools he got expelled out of

Hmm,would any of y'all have done that?I mean i've never been expelled but i DID stand up for other kids in addition to myself without a second thought all the way back to elementary school and i've shared a personality with Percy my whole life even besides that,including being afrolatino,bpdtistic and a trans femme and BECAUSE i'm all those things since Percy is also them.But if the books were about me,y'all never would've gotten into the series because the only weirdos to you are nerds,not the oppressed and you think we spit in the name of 'real' outcasts because we're 'too much'.Percy literally hates rich white people in-text and is implied to listen to The Ramones but when we say he means that shit and ain't just being quirky or tryna look cool,y'all forget yourselves and what happened in the books because that neo-liberalism in all the other books you read gave you brainrot and convinced you bookworms and fandomers are persecuted.Get better taste and social awareness,i'm not embarrased to be into super into children's media cause i have a life but i AM embarrased to have to share it with y'all.Especially those of y'all who think Luke was a radicalist instead of a fascist and insult greek people by using the bad parts of their history for your ships but never employ their actual culture

[aroaceleovaldez]

random question but i came across a post of yours where you talked about how mark oshiro sort of erased an aspect of nico's ADHD by making a joke about how he only liked mythomagic cards because he's gay and there are hot guys on the cards, and then TSATS also seemed to really downplay the themes of neurodivergence in the series. and it made me wonder if you have any thoughts on how the show has portrayed the demigods' ADHD and dyslexia so far? i've seen some people say that the show also downplayed it a lot, and i'm inclined to agree... which feels really weird considering that rick's own son's neurodivergence was specifically a major inspiration for him writing the series. but if i recall correctly a lot of scenes showcasing that in the first book were taken out of the show.

Oh absolutely, a lot of scenes and general discussion about adhd/dyslexia were removed in the show (and some of the disability-coding in general - i appreciate the change they made with making Chiron disabled based on his mythos rather than just using a wheelchair as a disguise, but i wish they had kept Grover's crutches in a similar manner honestly) - I've made a couple of posts discussing it: here, here, and this reblog is relevant to my opinions about the matter. There's probably some other stuff in my pjo tv crit tag.

I think the main sentiment i have regarding it - which i've seen a couple of other people mention as well - is how much the show ignores or outright removes and downplays Percy's personal struggles with his disabilities to instead emphasize Sally's experiences instead, particularly in manners of her taking out her stress on Percy - which alongside being completely antithetical to Sally's role in the books, is pretty ableist and why I continually compare show!Sally to Autism Speaks Parents. Autism Speaks tends to make an emphasis on the struggles of the parents of autistic children rather than treating autistic individuals like a person experiencing their own struggles. One of the major points of Sally's character (and later Paul) in the books is that she's an incredibly accommodating parent and works hard to make sure Percy is supported when he's struggling with his disabilities, because he's not been able to find that accommodation elsewhere. That's part of why Sally is such a great mom in particular, and is intentionally supposed to directly contrast Annabeth's home life struggles with her parents having difficulty navigating how to provide that same level of accommodation to help support her (and how Annabeth finds that accommodation at CHB instead, because that's the metaphor that CHB is supposed to represent - an appropriately accommodating system they can rely on, and then exploring how that's still a flawed system and looking at how disabled kids/demigods fall through the cracks and how to change the system to better support them).

The show also almost completely ignores Percy's ADHD/dyslexia experiences in general after the first episode. I was honestly really happy with, in the first episode, how clearly Percy's poor experiences in the American education system, particularly relating to his neurodivergence, have informed his reaction to situations such as people trying to tell him he's a demigod in coded language. It was essentially the perfect update to something i've discussed in the past here, about how the original "all demigods have adhd/dyslexia because it's secretly SUPERPOWERS" thing was presented as the basis for the series and why that teaching/parenting style fell out of favor. We see Percy in e1 acknowledge how dismissive of his struggles it is to constantly just be told he's "special" - and we even get explicit acknowledgement of how that description is used aggressively and for ostracization (from Nancy), which is extremely true to the experiences of kids who grew up with that teaching/parenting structure. But then we get to episode 2 and... all the acknowledgement of ADHD/dyslexia/etc is gone. We get at most a one-off acknowledgement from Luke that demigods are all neurodivergent and that's it. Pretty much nothing else for the entire rest of the season, save for flashback scenes that only emphasize Sally's experiences, not acknowledge Percy's. No further acknowledgement of Percy's dyslexia, or Annabeth's, or anything about their ADHD, or even Percy's completely removed PTSD (which we know for sure because of both writer commentary [see: that second post i linked about the LA Times article] and Percy's total lack of reaction to Mr. D). Nothing.

It was extremely disheartening to say the least, having such a strong start and it evaporating completely, and I fully agree with you.

[boabel]

autism and neurodivergence in panem - an analysis

as an autistic person, i've always been intrigued by the experiences of people who are autistic or neurodivergent in other universes. after all, most "good" autistic representation in media comes from worlds that aren't our own (think the doctor from doctor who or luna lovegood from the harry potter franchise, although they aren't written as autistic, alot of autistic people see themselves in the characters through their traits and therefore take that as representation.)

in particular, the world of panem interests me because of its strict measures on people in the districts compared to the seemingly lavish lifestyle for those in the capitol. *by this im referring to katniss' time, not the ballad of songbirds and snakes, though that will be mentioned below.

in the entirety of the hunger games franchise, there is never a direct mention of autism or any other neurodivergences. this would be expected, since the world of panem is set three-hundred years into the future. there aren't any states anymore, just districts and the capitol. most if not all modern cultures have been eradicated. the conditions in the districts have worsened and with that, went decent healthcare.

we can assume from this that there is no knowledge of autism as a genuine disability and no proper means to diagnose it in the districts.

whereas, in the capitol, the healthcare is much better. in the ballad of songbirds and snakes, it's mentioned in passing that the academy has a school councillor, hippocrata lunt. so, no matter how small the hint is, it's implied that not only does the capitol have better physical healthcare than the districts, but mental healthcare too. it isn't a stretch to say it could be possible for autistic/neurodivergent people in the capitol to get a formal diagnosis.

so, how are autistic people treated in the districts? how does that compare to the capitol?

well, although there isn't an explicit reference to neurodivergence in thg, there is an implied one.

in the first hunger games book, when rue and katniss are talking about the night vision glasses, and how they're given to the children at night whilst they're working in district eleven, the topic of a boy called martin comes up.

"one time, this boy martin, he tried to keep his pair. hid it in his pants. they killed him on the spot."

"they killed a boy for taking these?" i say.

"yes, and everyone knew he was no danger. martin wasn't right in the head. i mean, he still acted like a three-year-old. he just wanted the glasses to play with," says rue.

although it's not explicitly stated, martin is clearly a neurodivergent child. with the "not right in the head" remark being used alot to refer to nd people in a derogatory manner, autistic people especially. it seems in the districts they know what autism presents as, and that people have it. they just don't really know what it actually is or how to diagnose/help accomodate it. on the next page, katniss also refers to a child who can be seen as neurodivergent.

-but i can't imagine peacekeepers murdering a simpleminded child. there's this girl, one of greasy sae's grandkids, who wanders around the hob. she's not quite right, but she's treated as a sort of pet. people toss her scraps and things.

again, the language used is indicative that the girl is perceived to be neurodivergent. the district people most likely pity neurodivergent children by calling them "simpleminded" or "not alright in the head", but simultaneously view them as waste because, in the districts mind, they become useless to their industry as they grow up. they could also be more susceptible to rigged reapings than their neurotypical/allistic counterparts, because the districts don't need extra mouths to feed that are "inefficient" in the working industry.

whereas peacekeepers would take the perceived inability in the work industry (which the district doesn't have the money to accommodate) as an excuse to give out more unnecessary beatings and/or killings like what they did with martin.

so what about the capitol?

assuming that there is an option for diagnosis, would there be any changes at all?

well, personally, i think there would be. the reason i believe this has to do with the way the capitol views the districts, particularly in the ballad of songbirds and snakes relating to reaper from district eleven.

reaper is described to be mentally unstable many times within the duration of the games. he is perceived to be childish and has a difficult time processing death (tbosas, 280) which are both indications that reaper could be autistic.

the capitol looks down on reaper for his mentality and paints him as mad, violent and dangerous, though he is evidently nothing of the sort. these are harmful stereotypes that can be projected onto disabled/neurodivergent people today, which have clearly been carried onto the capitol.

so, people in the capitol who are autistic could be looked down upon, like how poor people are, too. although they are capitol, they have an element of "otherness" which is associated with the districts (i.e neurodivergence which the capitol paints as madness) so they could be outcasted.

the capitol seems the type to pretend to care about the way their children feel, but don't. like coriolanus said, people's love of children is fickle (tbosas, 40). if a child in the capitol turned out to be autistic/neurodivergent, that inherent support could fizzle out, because of stereotypes and ingrained systemic hatred toward nd people, which is irrevocably linked to the hate of the districts.

tl;dr: the capitol views themselves as perfect, and any "imperfections" (ie a brain that doesn't function within the realms of societal expectations) are seen as lesser. this is associated with the districts because they are also seen as lesser, and any neurodivergent children in the districts are viewed as mad or violent by the capitol, whilst they are pitied and silently hated in the districts for not being able to contribute to the industry, as there aren't any accommodations to help them cope with the conditions (many elements of district industries would cause meltdowns/sensory overload).

obviously not every neurodivergent person is the same, so some would be able to cope with the working conditions, but live their whole life without knowing that they are autistic, which can lead to isolation and depression.

god this was a long post, please don't hesitate to give me ur opinions on this if you have any!!

[vulpisnocturna]

Right, I’m really curious. Do any other neurodivergent people (esp ADHD/autism) have weird dreams? I’m talking mostly negative ones, where nightmare scenarios happen, but mainly long and bizarre, often with fully fleshed out storylines, characters, and plot. I have found some studies linking ADHD to more negative dreams, but it was in children only, and didn’t talk about how bizarre and vivid they are. I’ve always been told my dreams are wacky or that I should write books from the storylines in my dreams. I’m wondering if anyone else has a similar experience?