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2:39pm January 27, 2012

➸ People with milder forms of autism struggle as adults

Some of the article is bunk. And it comes as no surprise to me – someone who follows the research (this is not new) and runs a mailing list for adults with daily living skills problems. (And no it’s not the social skills that cause these problems. It’s the sensory, cognitive, and motor things that cause these problems, that cause also social stuff. Get it right people.) But at least they’re noticing.

And no it’s not that they didn’t get enough early intervention. It’s that the whole standard classification model of severe and mild is total bullshit. If you count severity by actual number of autistic traits, those the most severe do at least a bit better, all other things being equal. What this study says is not that we need to force all autistic toddlers into programs that push them past their limits as far as possible (which may make for worse adult outcomes if you understand what that actually means). It means that we need to open adult DD services to adults with every form of autism based on need rather than IQ or type of autism or so called severity. I get services under the label severe autism that some people labeled Asperger’s need equally much but can’t get.

Basically this is one study that demands the answer, no shit Sherlock. Actually listening to adults rather than treating us like slime could get people to understand much better.