A big issue many people have with is the idea that autism needs to be cured. Let me remind you, autism itself is a social, communicative neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosed purely through behavioural symptoms such as repetitive and ritualistic behaviours that are quite easy to accept in an open-minded society. It is the co-morbid symptoms that really affect their ability to be seen as typical. These symptoms include epilepsy, depression, anxiety, sleeping abnormalities, sensory issues, Fragile X syndrome, ADHD and intellectual deficits. Do many of these sound familiar? Are there “cures” for them? Yes and yes. Therefore, we’re not trying to cure their autism but merely the negative co-morbid symptoms!
After reading many posts on autism online, there is evidently a great public dissonance between the idea of accepting their child for who they are and their attempts at trying to improve their behavioural symptoms. It’s not one or the other; you can be both accepting of your child’s autism and also be working hard to find ways to help their symptoms. On the one hand, by improving the negative co-morbid symptoms, you’re also attempting to make them more typical and on the other, you’re trying to soothe their discomfort and show them how much you accept their unique personalities. Remember that weird kid in class? Did you accept them for who they were? That’s great if you did! How about the other kid who always self-harmed? Did you try to help cease their self-destructive behaviour? If it was your own kid you would! Letting them have their own personality is completely different from trying to stop their self-destructive behaviour.
Is it degrading to call someone low or high functioning?
For me, when I say low functioning, I refer to autistic people who cannot live independently, constantly self-harm, have intellectual deficits and cannot communicate well with others. There is no name calling here, just a way to communicate the necessary level of support needed. My family refers to Chris as low functioning, due to his inability to live independently, read and write, and communicate efficiently with us. The fact that Chris can spell and read and few words makes me think that even though he is 22 years old, with the right motivation, he can probably learn to read and write properly at some point. He is verbal although it is in broken English and I personally think he still has it in there. True, sometimes I think the label “low functioning” is unfair because I feel like he hasn’t been given the right interventions yet. But realistically, at this point in time, he is on the lower scale of the spectrum and needs a lot more support from us.
I’ve also seen many posts calling for Neurodiversity now, which is absolutely brilliant! However, there is no need to get so carried away with being politically correct all the time. It is difficult to be politically correct all the time. Everyone has opinions, whether they are right or wrong, it is up to all of us to politely educate them to look at broader perspectives. Autism is an incredibly heterogeneous disorder (and yes, some people don’t want it to be called a disorder… boy do I know…) and if I look at my brother it is anything but a disorder in clinical terms.
We have come a long way from calling autistics retarded, stupid and insane. While society has moved away from such name-calling, we still have a long way to go before everyone can actually feel included. For this to happen, it is important for everyone to get educated about Neurodiversity and learn how to engage with people with social and communicative difficulties.
#StopFightingStartEducating
elevatopher 