What is neurodiversity? - Depends who you ask
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ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,668
Location: Long Island, New York
01 Aug 2023, 8:28 am
Autism could be seen as part of personality for some diagnosed, experts say
Quote:
With a seven-fold rise in diagnoses of autism in the past 20 years in the UK, studies showing one in 36 children could be on the spectrum and waiting lists for help and support at record highs, awareness of neurodiversity has never been so high.
Now, key voices are arguing that some autistic people could no longer be considered as having a disability at all. Instead, their autism could be regarded as part of their personality.
Judy Singer, known as the “mother of neurodiversity”, said: “The definition of what constitutes ‘autism’ is fiercely contested and by no means settled. The definition is so confusingly multilayered that it suggests that ‘autism’ is not a unitary condition at all.”
“Some people who have received what is essentially a confusing medical diagnosis of autism consider themselves as being ‘different’, while some prefer to identify as disabled,” she added.
For some people, Singer said, the medical label of autism could be “atomistic and dehumanising”, because it looked at “everything that’s wrong with an individual and not what is wrong with a society that has tunnel vision about the visible Other and creates all sorts of obstacles in their path”.
She compared the issue to the consciousness-raising efforts of the black American civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay movement and the disability rights movement.
The Australian sociologist also said “neurodiversity”, the term she coined in the late 1990s to describe “the virtually infinite neuro-cognitive variability within Earth’s human population”, had become widely misunderstood and misused.
Prof Sir Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, said: “We should see autism through the lenses of both the medical model and the social model of disability. Some differences of autism are strengths and talents … such as excellent attention to and memory for detail, and excellent pattern recognition skills and a preference for depth over breadth.”
According to a 2021 study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, there has been a 700% rise in autism diagnoses in the past 20 years, and this year a release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US estimated one in 36 children aged eight years old are autistic: a vast increase on the one in 100 figure that had previously been thought to be the case.
As diagnoses have increased, researchers have found that just one in four of those with the condition have a learning disability, a significant decrease. Until recently, it was thought that as many as three in four autistic people had an intellectual disability.
Despite the prevalence of the condition and the changing nature of its presentation, autism is often still seen as a purely medical condition.
Singer believes this is why her famous term has become increasingly misused. “It is being used to mean ‘neurodisability’ when my idea was precisely to avoid dividing humanity into ‘us’ and ‘them’,” she said. “Neurodiversity simply refers to the limitless variability of human minds.”
Singer said her intention had been for “neurodiversity” to be used for advocacy purposes. “I wanted to suggest a banner term for a human rights movement for neurological minorities,” she said. “I wanted to augment the ‘disability’ category, which in the 90s was inadequately limited to physical and intellectual with ‘mental illness’ as the grab-bag for everything else.”
Steve Silberman, whose influential book Neurotribes discusses autism rights and the neurodiversity movements, agreed that autism was both a disability and a difference. But, he said: “I don’t believe it’s helpful to sort groups of autistic people into those for whom the medical model is appropriate and those for whom the social model of disability is appropriate.”
He is particularly cautious about “adopting labels like ‘profound autism’ to segregate non-speaking autistic people from allegedly ‘high-functioning’ autistics”.
He said: “Firstly, people with autism in all its guises require adaptation and change to mainstream society to fit in. Secondly, autistic people without learning difficulties can still need a lot of help with the significant challenges they face in their lives, and we don’t want to cut them off from being able to access that help.
“Thirdly, even autistic people who can’t speak should have the dignity to be able to determine the course of their own lives as much as they’re able to. If they’re trapped inside a medical model of disability, then they risk losing that dignity.”
Silberman is particularly concerned by the high rate of suicide among autistic people who do not have an intellectual disability: nine times higher than the general population. This, he said, was largely due to society not acknowledging and accommodating their social and emotional needs.
“Autistic people who don’t have learning disabilities are very sensitive to their social exclusion,” he said. “If we were able to create better environments for them, fewer would commit suicide.”
Now, key voices are arguing that some autistic people could no longer be considered as having a disability at all. Instead, their autism could be regarded as part of their personality.
Judy Singer, known as the “mother of neurodiversity”, said: “The definition of what constitutes ‘autism’ is fiercely contested and by no means settled. The definition is so confusingly multilayered that it suggests that ‘autism’ is not a unitary condition at all.”
“Some people who have received what is essentially a confusing medical diagnosis of autism consider themselves as being ‘different’, while some prefer to identify as disabled,” she added.
For some people, Singer said, the medical label of autism could be “atomistic and dehumanising”, because it looked at “everything that’s wrong with an individual and not what is wrong with a society that has tunnel vision about the visible Other and creates all sorts of obstacles in their path”.
She compared the issue to the consciousness-raising efforts of the black American civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay movement and the disability rights movement.
The Australian sociologist also said “neurodiversity”, the term she coined in the late 1990s to describe “the virtually infinite neuro-cognitive variability within Earth’s human population”, had become widely misunderstood and misused.
Prof Sir Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, said: “We should see autism through the lenses of both the medical model and the social model of disability. Some differences of autism are strengths and talents … such as excellent attention to and memory for detail, and excellent pattern recognition skills and a preference for depth over breadth.”
According to a 2021 study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, there has been a 700% rise in autism diagnoses in the past 20 years, and this year a release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US estimated one in 36 children aged eight years old are autistic: a vast increase on the one in 100 figure that had previously been thought to be the case.
As diagnoses have increased, researchers have found that just one in four of those with the condition have a learning disability, a significant decrease. Until recently, it was thought that as many as three in four autistic people had an intellectual disability.
Despite the prevalence of the condition and the changing nature of its presentation, autism is often still seen as a purely medical condition.
Singer believes this is why her famous term has become increasingly misused. “It is being used to mean ‘neurodisability’ when my idea was precisely to avoid dividing humanity into ‘us’ and ‘them’,” she said. “Neurodiversity simply refers to the limitless variability of human minds.”
Singer said her intention had been for “neurodiversity” to be used for advocacy purposes. “I wanted to suggest a banner term for a human rights movement for neurological minorities,” she said. “I wanted to augment the ‘disability’ category, which in the 90s was inadequately limited to physical and intellectual with ‘mental illness’ as the grab-bag for everything else.”
Steve Silberman, whose influential book Neurotribes discusses autism rights and the neurodiversity movements, agreed that autism was both a disability and a difference. But, he said: “I don’t believe it’s helpful to sort groups of autistic people into those for whom the medical model is appropriate and those for whom the social model of disability is appropriate.”
He is particularly cautious about “adopting labels like ‘profound autism’ to segregate non-speaking autistic people from allegedly ‘high-functioning’ autistics”.
He said: “Firstly, people with autism in all its guises require adaptation and change to mainstream society to fit in. Secondly, autistic people without learning difficulties can still need a lot of help with the significant challenges they face in their lives, and we don’t want to cut them off from being able to access that help.
“Thirdly, even autistic people who can’t speak should have the dignity to be able to determine the course of their own lives as much as they’re able to. If they’re trapped inside a medical model of disability, then they risk losing that dignity.”
Silberman is particularly concerned by the high rate of suicide among autistic people who do not have an intellectual disability: nine times higher than the general population. This, he said, was largely due to society not acknowledging and accommodating their social and emotional needs.
“Autistic people who don’t have learning disabilities are very sensitive to their social exclusion,” he said. “If we were able to create better environments for them, fewer would commit suicide.”
The overall tone of the article is implicitly suggesting an Autism treatment triage of sorts. In other words there is too many people being diagnosed for our resources to handle so those with non medical “Autistic Personality” while needing civil rights do not need treatments.
Silberman fortunately does not go there but oversimplifies causation. While I agree the framing of autism as purely things one can not do is an important factor in the horrific rates of depression, suicide ideation, and suicide among “non profound” autistics there are probably other factors.
It is time to prioritize research into causation of why clinical depression is at such high levels among “non profound” autistics. We need to go beyond “It’s the autism, stupid”,”It’s NT privilege, stupid” ways of thinking. While there are some autistics in both camps based on my reading here and elsewhere most are somewhere in between. Yet too many in the autism community be it researchers or advocates are trying to help us without us.
_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
01 Aug 2023, 3:37 pm
ASPartOfMe wrote:
Autism could be seen as part of personality for some diagnosed, experts say
The overall tone of the article is implicitly suggesting an Autism treatment triage of sorts. In other words there is too many people being diagnosed for our resources to handle so those with non medical “Autistic Personality” while needing civil rights do not need treatments.
Silberman fortunately does not go there but oversimplifies causation. While I agree the framing of autism as purely things one can not do is an important factor in the horrific rates of depression, suicide ideation, and suicide among “non profound” autistics there are probably other factors.
It is time to prioritize research into causation of why clinical depression is at such high levels among “non profound” autistics. We need to go beyond “It’s the autism, stupid”,”It’s NT privilege, stupid” ways of thinking. While there are some autistics in both camps based on my reading here and elsewhere most are somewhere in between. Yet too many in the autism community be it researchers or advocates are trying to help us without us.
Quote:
With a seven-fold rise in diagnoses of autism in the past 20 years in the UK, studies showing one in 36 children could be on the spectrum and waiting lists for help and support at record highs, awareness of neurodiversity has never been so high.
Now, key voices are arguing that some autistic people could no longer be considered as having a disability at all. Instead, their autism could be regarded as part of their personality.
Judy Singer, known as the “mother of neurodiversity”, said: “The definition of what constitutes ‘autism’ is fiercely contested and by no means settled. The definition is so confusingly multilayered that it suggests that ‘autism’ is not a unitary condition at all.”
“Some people who have received what is essentially a confusing medical diagnosis of autism consider themselves as being ‘different’, while some prefer to identify as disabled,” she added.
For some people, Singer said, the medical label of autism could be “atomistic and dehumanising”, because it looked at “everything that’s wrong with an individual and not what is wrong with a society that has tunnel vision about the visible Other and creates all sorts of obstacles in their path”.
She compared the issue to the consciousness-raising efforts of the black American civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay movement and the disability rights movement.
The Australian sociologist also said “neurodiversity”, the term she coined in the late 1990s to describe “the virtually infinite neuro-cognitive variability within Earth’s human population”, had become widely misunderstood and misused.
Prof Sir Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, said: “We should see autism through the lenses of both the medical model and the social model of disability. Some differences of autism are strengths and talents … such as excellent attention to and memory for detail, and excellent pattern recognition skills and a preference for depth over breadth.”
According to a 2021 study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, there has been a 700% rise in autism diagnoses in the past 20 years, and this year a release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US estimated one in 36 children aged eight years old are autistic: a vast increase on the one in 100 figure that had previously been thought to be the case.
As diagnoses have increased, researchers have found that just one in four of those with the condition have a learning disability, a significant decrease. Until recently, it was thought that as many as three in four autistic people had an intellectual disability.
Despite the prevalence of the condition and the changing nature of its presentation, autism is often still seen as a purely medical condition.
Singer believes this is why her famous term has become increasingly misused. “It is being used to mean ‘neurodisability’ when my idea was precisely to avoid dividing humanity into ‘us’ and ‘them’,” she said. “Neurodiversity simply refers to the limitless variability of human minds.”
Singer said her intention had been for “neurodiversity” to be used for advocacy purposes. “I wanted to suggest a banner term for a human rights movement for neurological minorities,” she said. “I wanted to augment the ‘disability’ category, which in the 90s was inadequately limited to physical and intellectual with ‘mental illness’ as the grab-bag for everything else.”
Steve Silberman, whose influential book Neurotribes discusses autism rights and the neurodiversity movements, agreed that autism was both a disability and a difference. But, he said: “I don’t believe it’s helpful to sort groups of autistic people into those for whom the medical model is appropriate and those for whom the social model of disability is appropriate.”
He is particularly cautious about “adopting labels like ‘profound autism’ to segregate non-speaking autistic people from allegedly ‘high-functioning’ autistics”.
He said: “Firstly, people with autism in all its guises require adaptation and change to mainstream society to fit in. Secondly, autistic people without learning difficulties can still need a lot of help with the significant challenges they face in their lives, and we don’t want to cut them off from being able to access that help.
“Thirdly, even autistic people who can’t speak should have the dignity to be able to determine the course of their own lives as much as they’re able to. If they’re trapped inside a medical model of disability, then they risk losing that dignity.”
Silberman is particularly concerned by the high rate of suicide among autistic people who do not have an intellectual disability: nine times higher than the general population. This, he said, was largely due to society not acknowledging and accommodating their social and emotional needs.
“Autistic people who don’t have learning disabilities are very sensitive to their social exclusion,” he said. “If we were able to create better environments for them, fewer would commit suicide.”
Now, key voices are arguing that some autistic people could no longer be considered as having a disability at all. Instead, their autism could be regarded as part of their personality.
Judy Singer, known as the “mother of neurodiversity”, said: “The definition of what constitutes ‘autism’ is fiercely contested and by no means settled. The definition is so confusingly multilayered that it suggests that ‘autism’ is not a unitary condition at all.”
“Some people who have received what is essentially a confusing medical diagnosis of autism consider themselves as being ‘different’, while some prefer to identify as disabled,” she added.
For some people, Singer said, the medical label of autism could be “atomistic and dehumanising”, because it looked at “everything that’s wrong with an individual and not what is wrong with a society that has tunnel vision about the visible Other and creates all sorts of obstacles in their path”.
She compared the issue to the consciousness-raising efforts of the black American civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay movement and the disability rights movement.
The Australian sociologist also said “neurodiversity”, the term she coined in the late 1990s to describe “the virtually infinite neuro-cognitive variability within Earth’s human population”, had become widely misunderstood and misused.
Prof Sir Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, said: “We should see autism through the lenses of both the medical model and the social model of disability. Some differences of autism are strengths and talents … such as excellent attention to and memory for detail, and excellent pattern recognition skills and a preference for depth over breadth.”
According to a 2021 study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, there has been a 700% rise in autism diagnoses in the past 20 years, and this year a release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US estimated one in 36 children aged eight years old are autistic: a vast increase on the one in 100 figure that had previously been thought to be the case.
As diagnoses have increased, researchers have found that just one in four of those with the condition have a learning disability, a significant decrease. Until recently, it was thought that as many as three in four autistic people had an intellectual disability.
Despite the prevalence of the condition and the changing nature of its presentation, autism is often still seen as a purely medical condition.
Singer believes this is why her famous term has become increasingly misused. “It is being used to mean ‘neurodisability’ when my idea was precisely to avoid dividing humanity into ‘us’ and ‘them’,” she said. “Neurodiversity simply refers to the limitless variability of human minds.”
Singer said her intention had been for “neurodiversity” to be used for advocacy purposes. “I wanted to suggest a banner term for a human rights movement for neurological minorities,” she said. “I wanted to augment the ‘disability’ category, which in the 90s was inadequately limited to physical and intellectual with ‘mental illness’ as the grab-bag for everything else.”
Steve Silberman, whose influential book Neurotribes discusses autism rights and the neurodiversity movements, agreed that autism was both a disability and a difference. But, he said: “I don’t believe it’s helpful to sort groups of autistic people into those for whom the medical model is appropriate and those for whom the social model of disability is appropriate.”
He is particularly cautious about “adopting labels like ‘profound autism’ to segregate non-speaking autistic people from allegedly ‘high-functioning’ autistics”.
He said: “Firstly, people with autism in all its guises require adaptation and change to mainstream society to fit in. Secondly, autistic people without learning difficulties can still need a lot of help with the significant challenges they face in their lives, and we don’t want to cut them off from being able to access that help.
“Thirdly, even autistic people who can’t speak should have the dignity to be able to determine the course of their own lives as much as they’re able to. If they’re trapped inside a medical model of disability, then they risk losing that dignity.”
Silberman is particularly concerned by the high rate of suicide among autistic people who do not have an intellectual disability: nine times higher than the general population. This, he said, was largely due to society not acknowledging and accommodating their social and emotional needs.
“Autistic people who don’t have learning disabilities are very sensitive to their social exclusion,” he said. “If we were able to create better environments for them, fewer would commit suicide.”
The overall tone of the article is implicitly suggesting an Autism treatment triage of sorts. In other words there is too many people being diagnosed for our resources to handle so those with non medical “Autistic Personality” while needing civil rights do not need treatments.
Silberman fortunately does not go there but oversimplifies causation. While I agree the framing of autism as purely things one can not do is an important factor in the horrific rates of depression, suicide ideation, and suicide among “non profound” autistics there are probably other factors.
It is time to prioritize research into causation of why clinical depression is at such high levels among “non profound” autistics. We need to go beyond “It’s the autism, stupid”,”It’s NT privilege, stupid” ways of thinking. While there are some autistics in both camps based on my reading here and elsewhere most are somewhere in between. Yet too many in the autism community be it researchers or advocates are trying to help us without us.
Much of the article is rather vague some inaccurate, but the general points:
1. The creator of the social model of disability never meant for it to replace medical fact but run alongside it. Something always misunderstood or misquoted by some in the ND movement
2. The article is inaccurate on Intellectual Disability using the old trick of using 8 years olds knowing full well 25% or so are boardline on top, this has been discussed previously and the true figure is around 45% of autistic adults ID. With a further number % to be added between IQ 70-85 on top.
Type "iq in autism" into google & this will likely be shown at the top of the page (does mine) and says:-
Quote:
"31% of children with ASD have an intellectual disability (intelligence quotient [IQ] <70), 25% are in the borderline range (IQ 71–85), and 44% have IQ scores in the average to above average range (i.e., IQ >85). Autism affects all ethnic and socioeconomic groups."
Leaving 56% below average, so much for majority with non learning disability, in todays modern world anyone with an IQ sub 85 will struggle to learn. This stealthy fact goes a long way to explain why many autistics struggle
3. It quotes Steve Silberman, a writer with no medical qualifications or professional experience with autism, who wrote a one sided book that was later debunked for accuracy
https://www.ncsautism.org/blog//steve-s ... other-blow
https://kennethrobersonphd.com/silicon- ... -syndrome/
https://corticalchauvinism.com/2016/01/ ... pathizers/
His "great contribution" to those who suffer from their autism or severe disability was his following quote :-
Quote:
"This fact is agreed upon by Mr. Silberman himself who in a Forbes magazine interview stated that he had left out the diaper wearers and head bangers because, “If we live long enough, we all become ‘diaper wearers’ eventually…Disability is a part of the human experience"
4. The article seems to forget that autism is diagnosed on deficits alone. No matter how you spin it autism is where a human cannot do something humans should be able to do, all positive traits in a minority of autistics are also shown in NT people, its only Autistic people that cannot do the things NT people do, so not the other way round.
Its just a question of severity and the the importance of these deficits to individual, for some people the issues are less important so they don't see it as a disability which is fine for them. But these deficits are still real and can be a real problem sometimes.
5. People do and should be able to opt out of the medical model, its a free world and who cares if they do, they should be able to see it as an identity, again who cares what some people chose to do. The problems only emerges when people try to talk over or force their views on others, like try to interfere in medical research when they neither want treatment or a cure or attempt to trivialise those with more severe symptoms or bully others.
_________________
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends upon the unreasonable man."
- George Bernie Shaw
Page 1 of 1 [ 3 posts ]
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