Metro Article on Autism

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So I was sitting on a train in the Tube today and I noticed that the man sitting across from me was reading the second page of a newspaper article on Autism, and he was holding it in such away that I could read the first page. Once he noticed me reading the first page he handed the newspaper over and got another one. I feel so autistic.

Anyway the article appeared to be focusing Cohen's systemizing theory, particularly on the hereditary element. Unlike most articles on Autism I've seen it portrayed Autism in relatively posistive light and had a bit of focus on AS rather than the lower functioning versions (it gave five famous, historic scientists and artists and their symptoms of Aspergers). However I did have a few problems. One is that it only acknowledged Cohen's theories; the closest it got to acknowledging other theories was noting that while Cohen suggests Autism comes from parents of high intelligence with jobs in systemizing fields other research suggests it comes from highly educated parents (not sure how that is even really contrary). Also it only listed certain aspects of Autism, namely the deficent social skills, repetitive behavior, and high intelligence occurring frequently in AS, as well as a one line mention of "lack of empathy", which bothers me as they neglect to explain the "empathy" part of Cohen's system, making us look like sociopaths to readers who know of sociopathy but little about autism. There is nothing on sensory issues or obsessions.

Has anyone else seen this article? If so what are your opinions on it?

sounds like another one of those articles... in america our beloved washington post spends most of its time reporting on every criminal who happens to have autism so your newspaper ain't too bad. Gawd bless the washington post. bringing us self-riteous bigotry in easy to read one liners every day to the doorstep. what would we do without modern journalism?

oh. too bad this aint a larger newspaper. at least bored english won't be so bigoted as english who have better things to to

Metro is a free newspaper distributed in the major urban centres of Britain (so all except NI).

I saw the article, they often do two-page spreads on a science / health theme. It was ok as a filler piece, but as the OP said it leaned a lot on the SBC 'lack of empathy' angle.

I thought it was mainly an excuse to print pics of famous people from history who may have had ASD & do it's job of mildly 'infotaining' the commuter audience.
Oh well at least it wasn't a negative article.

I like the Metro. My Step-dad gets them in London (he works there). It is free and contains puzzles as well as articles.

I especially like it's ability to soak up rabbit urine in my rabbits' hutch!

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I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

I saw the article. I thought it was mostly positive (linking us with Einstein, Newton,Darwin,Warholl,Van Gohg), however I did not like the bit about empathy and I explained to my mother that we do have empathy and the "experts" keep getting it wrong by saying we don't.

On the whole I thought it was good because the Metro is well read by a broad section of society. I was hoping HR people had read the article and think it may educate a lot of the commutors going to work.

I would like to see a BBC or Channel 4 documentary on Aspergers Syndrome and Autism. That would be very beneficial (presuming they get it right)

I don't see the metro on the bus quite as often as I wish to, I wish I had seen that article

From what you say it seems that they did their homework and researched it pretty well, however you are only as good a researcher as your sources, if one psychologist doesn't understand we can emphasise with people then it will tend to make it into the newspaper saying we cannot.

It is certainly a lot better than the Daily Sh*tstain that doesn't even try to get a single fact correct and has us all pegged down as murdering, raping sociopaths.

I can emphasise with people, the issue is that I tend not to be able to put this into words...so for the most part I may seem like I cannot emphasise.