Flummox and Friends – Pilot: The Party from Flummox and Friends on Vimeo.

Flummox and Friends is a new show designed to help kids who are a little different get along with the people around them:

Social and emotional development is more than just “good manners” or being well-behaved. It’s the fundamental ability to connect with and relate to others: seeing another person’s perspective, altering one’s behavior based on the situation, drawing inferences from cues and context, even managing the expression of one’s emotions.

Starting from the time we’re born, we begin to learn a set of unspoken rules about how to connect and relate to others. But these abilities don’t always come naturally - especially for those who have minds that develop differently because of autism, attention or sensory challenges, or differences that don’t necessarily have a label.

Flummox and Friends is designed to support elementary school children who experience social and emotional struggles. They may be already receiving support—inclusion, speech therapy, social skills groups—or simply fit the category of “smart but quirky” without an official diagnosis.

The show can be used either at home or in an educational setting. With curriculum goals (as well as supporting materials) developed by practicing professionals in the field of social communication, teachers and therapists can integrate episodes into their existing classroom activities or therapy sessions.

Watch the pilot above.  It includes an animated Dude I'm an Aspie short, featuring the voice of Dude creator Matt Friedman.  There are also two other animated shorts, a robot head, and dancing.

I liked it a lot. 

"Don't be sorry.  You're entitled to feel that way."

It's okay to wish that you or your child didn't have autism, or Asperger's syndrome.

Really.

You don't have to refuse that mythical cure.

You can both love yourself and wish your life were easier.

You can be who you are and feel what you feel.

And you can say it.

We need sunshiney rainbows, and I am grateful to those who try to bring them to us.

But they are not all we need.

Our lives are painful. 

Talking about them honestly is painful.

Listening to what we have to say when we tell the truth is painful.

We have to live, anyway.

And speak for ourselves, anyway.

And work on hearing each other, anyway.

Thank you, Matt.

A few days ago, Matt at Dude I'm an Aspie relayed the exciting news that a cartoon featuring Fuzzy  will be part of the pilot for the TV show Flummox and Friends.

Today he shares an illustrated poem about being square in a round world:

Square, you have useful functions,

But very little flair.

Always strive to be more well-Rounded.

Or stay in your corner. Prefer solitaire?
See if I care, Square. Suit yourself.

 

Square, you’re rough around the edges.

Round rolls with everything that comes his way.

Not to put you down,

For not bein’ Round.

You’ve got too many sides there, Square. Just sayin’.

An OWL is Drawn

Some funny autism comics for Sunday morning.

Dude I'm An Aspie shows us the the virtues of the scape sock. (Strongiish language)

And, bombarded with advertising, OWL invents a new form of therapy.

Autistic swimmer Hunter Devilice wins varsity letter.

There's been a facinating exchange at Liz Ditz between Kassiane and a representative from Autism Speaks about the fact that the organization has used her words without her permission and failed to completely remove them when asked.

Dude, I'm an Aspie on chat problems.

A boy's parents claim he has been denied communion because he has Down syndrome.

Todd Drezner talks about nickels, dimes, and autism:

Why does the autism community continue to obsess over categorizing people as high or low-functioning? It's true that the needs of one autistic person may be very different from the needs of another, but that doesn't mean that they have nothing in common.

As Justin Canha's story shows, the autistic person who needs a lot of support in one area may become a person who needs much less support in that same area. Justin barely spoke before age 10. Now he's verbal.

He didn't suddenly change from "low-functioning" to "high-functioning." Rather, he received the support he needed and developed his skills. It's nothing more than common sense to say that the story of how Justin did it is relevant to many other autistic people, even if they are currently at a much lower skill level.