Kids With Severe Autism Often Overlooked In Research

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It may be that fewer severely autistic kids are institutionalized these days, making them harder for researchers to gain access for research purposes.

I was once reading a book written by someone who grew up with a brother with severe autism. But anyway, the family decided it was time they put him in a home but unfortunately all the good homes and places they could find wouldn't take him because he was too severe and they were not equipped for his needs and his aggression. Those homes were for people who were less severe and none violent and the places they could find that could handle him were brutal because they used abusive forces on violent patients. So the parents were trapped. They had no safe environment and no life but yet they couldn't just have him get mistreated. The sad ending is he ended up being the ward of the state and he had gotten worse in a institution.

So sad because no one knows what to do with violent patients with severe disabilities. If I remember correctly, the autistic brother was always spending his time in a straight jacket to keep from attacking staff workers and he was basically treated like a wild animal in a cage. The NT brother also blamed it on him saying he refused to get better when he was given treatment as a child but always refused. It was pretty clear in the book he didn't want to get better and he was in control of his actions because the moment he found out he was going to be sent away, he was on his best behavior so he wasn't violent anymore. Mmmm?

Yes but you can't have it both ways.

The loud/vocal parents of high functioning kids (classified as Aspergers) wanted to access/share in funding that was previously earmarked to children on the low end of the spectrum (classic Kanner's autism).

So the lumping together in DSMV was largely driven by increasing access to funding. So these parents who previously didn't want their children associated with the intellectually disabled are now happy to carry the label to get financial and educational support (which of course they need).

It's like the "artist formerly known as Prince". Aspies are now "autistic people formerly known as Aspergers"

No, the opposite was true. Aspergers was subsumed because it was felt the Aspergers was driving Autism over diagnoses and this over diagnoses needed to stop in order to cut costs.
Why Claim Asperger's is Overdiagnosed?


Bolding mine

Yes I see what you mean, getting a diagnosis of autism now requires problems in early childhood which effectively excludes diagnosis for adults.

How this decision process was fairly multifarious in terms of those agitating for change coming from different sections of the autistic community.

Parents of children with Asperger type traits still want services for their kids whether it be OT, learning assistance or social skills