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My name is Niko Boskovic, and I am so very pleased to be able to share my thoughts and experiences living as an autistic person.
First, about me: I live in North Portland, and graduated in 2019 with an Oregon high school diploma. I take credit classes at PCC in writing and history, and enjoy writing poetry.
I’ve been autistic all my life. My earliest memory of being different was when I started kindergarten. The teacher was not welcoming or at all accommodating of my needs. She acted like I was the biggest pain in the history of her teaching experience. I didn’t know how to handle her hostility, so I would stim to comfort myself. That seemed to make matters worse – she would get so frustrated that she would ignore me and tell my aide to deal with me. She was awful to my mom too. She would talk about her to others in front of me as if I couldn’t understand. I really hated her and how she made me feel.
June 2019 Blog Post
Right now, I don’t think I could be happier. I graduated from high school, my family threw me a huge party, and I finished my PCC [Portland Community College] poetry class yesterday. I have been sleeping in, and my mom hired two awesome PSW’s [personal support...
May 2019 Blog Post
Having a disability like autism means it comes with a lot of preconceived ideas about what someone like me is capable of. For example, since I can’t talk well, people may assume that I have nothing to say. Around the time I learned to communicate, I made a decision...
April 2019 Blog Post
It should come as no surprise that I am a big fan of self-determination. I have the same hopes for the future that most people my age do, except my right to fulfill them is at risk because I have a disability. I mostly worry that I won’t be able to live on my own...
March 2019 Blog Post
Recently I read an article about a family that made a pretty radical decision to put their three neurotypical children in a boarding school and live at home with their autistic son. I should clarify that their son is a teenager with some hardcore behaviors that made...
February 2019 Blog Post
How I Letterboard I want to write about my letterboarding and really explain how it works for me. When I first started letterboarding, it was so hard to stay focused. I think I could stay engaged for at most fifteen minutes before my body needed a break. That was...
January 2019 Blog Post
Changing a Belief System There is nothing I would rather change than our healthcare system because it is the driving force behind the skewed attitudes about disabled people and what they can achieve. It is dominating the conversation about perceptions of disability...
December 2018 Blog Post
Why It’s Important for Parents of Kids with Disabilities to Learn from/interact with Adults with Disabilities It’s long been my belief that people would shift their perceptions about disability if they only got to know someone with one. I think this is especially true...
November 2018 Blog Post
I may only be seventeen, but I’m already thinking about where I’m going to live when I’m old enough. It’s not exactly my fantasy to live with my parents forever, you know? I also know my parents might try to build an ADU [accessory dwelling unit] in the backyard so...
October 2018 Blog Post
My experience at the September APSE conference was one of those experiences you don’t forget anytime soon. For one thing, it was in Seaside, and I absolutely love the Oregon coast. For another, I had the surreal understanding of watching my mom get really...
September 2018 Blog Post
It is to my dismay that the American Speech Language and Hearing Association [ASHA] recently issued two guidelines that repudiate the use of letterboards for communication for people like me. It appears that it charges itself with the authority to state that it...
August 2018 Blog Post
My name is Niko Boskovic, and I am so very pleased to be able to share my thoughts and experiences living as an autistic teen. First, about me: I live in North Portland with my parents and sister, and am about to start my senior year in high school. I work part time...
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