10:48pm June 10, 2014

Autistic History: In Response to Lenny Schafer

Lenny Schafer was, as usual, attacking autistic people again, in 2004. This was Larry Foard’s response (anyone remember him?):

It is time for some people with apparent Asperger’s to stop dishonestly misrepresenting themselves as typical examples of people with autism.

The vast majority of autistic adults look like us, so no it is not dishonest. Whats dishonest is pretending:

A) That there is an epidemic of autism.
B) That todays autistic children are all doomed without drastic therapy.

That said there are and have always been individuals with very severe autism. There are people who do need serious help, however the help offered seems quite questionable.

Autism is not a behaviour problem, its a set of neurological conditions which often lead to stress and frustration which then leads to behaviour problems. No one would complain if all autistics where offered an effective treatment without excessive side effects for sensory issues!

We do complain when people see only the actions and ‘treat’ them as the problem without looking at the cause. What if you had kidney stones and the doctor prescribe behaviour modification instead of morphine for your screaming? Kidney stones won’t kill you, its just pain, an internal experience which according to behaviourist theory is totally irrelevant. Thats how autistics are often being treated!

Michelle Dawson’s apparent high functioning autism looks nothing like my son’s low functioning autism.

1) Michelle Dawson is a lot older than your son.

2) Autism is a spectrum, the majority of autistics are at least eventually what you’d consider high functioning. Remember autistics often write better than we speak, and you’ve never seen the personal struggles of anyone your talking about.

What may be appropriate treatment and care for someone with one kind of autism just may be a form of abuse to another.

This is of course true of any condition. But when it comes down to ABA, if anything applying a behavioural model of autism to low functioning autistics is even more abusive than it is to high functioning autistics. They will have more capacity to develop PTSD, they will have less chance of understanding what hoops they have to jump through to satisfy the demands placed on them.

I’m not saying that no behavioural approachs should ever be used. There may be forms of destructive behaviour where there is no choice. But behaviour is not the root issues in autism.

Instead of fighting with and insulting adult autistics, why don’t you take advantage of this resource to understand your son better? Many parents on alt.support.autism have found input from autistics very useful in dealing with there own children.

it is about time people with Asperger’s stop painting themselves as representative autistics.

1) In some countries there is no such distinction. There is high functioning autism. I can tell if a 50 year old is on the spectrum, I can’t tell if they had a speech delay.

2) Again high functioning autistics represent the vast majority of autistics. So in a technical sense we are the most representative, not that it matters, everyone is an individual, and its silly to say someone is representitave of a broad spectrum.

3) The gap between high and low functioning is one of quantity not quality. We experience the same symptoms, just in reduced severity.

There is a valid reason for there being a separate name of Aspergers to distinquish it from the rest of autism.

Let me see you pick out the people out of a group of 50 year old autistics, which ones had the speech delay. Basically you’re trying to define Asperger’s as anyone who at any point in their life can disagree with you. You then presume to speak for all the 'real autistics’ who are unable to disagree with you in writing.