Group claims minister pressed them for positive quote on new autism program

 

Top 10 Famous People With Autism

We are not alone!

Autism may not be a spectrum but may be better understood as several interrelated spectra, suggests a new Stony Brook University-led study.

According to the lead researchers – Stony Brook University Professor Matthew Lerner and graduate student Hyunsik Kim – their findings may have vast implications with the way professionals classify autism and better understand and map the array of experiences of autistic people.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, compared two large independent samples of children and adolescents totaling about 6,000 people with and without diagnosed autism.

Kim explained that the results indicate autism combines of three related domains of atypical behavior – social interaction difficulties, interpersonal communications difficulties, and repetitive or restrictive thoughts or actions. And each of these domains can range in severity from very mild to severe.

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People First Language is great, but did they slip up with folks on the spectrum?

Yes, I am on the spectrum. I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at age forty-six and thus think very logically.

These next couple paragraphs are going to be some facts just to establish what we’re talking about, so if you’re not on the spectrum, A.K.A. Neurotypical (NT), bear with me a moment, it gets better.

I do autism advocacy work and until a week ago had never heard of People First. I had no idea who they were, what they did, or why they did it. I’ve done a little research, and what I do know is positive. They are all about self-advocacy for the disabled and really seem to want to connect people.

But there’s something known as People First Language and I want to be clear that in all my research People First the organization and the state chapters have nothing to do with People First Language.

This surprised me.

Autism is a developmental disorder and not a disease, illness or sickness. This will be a key point to remember…

I was at this event recently for those with developmental disabilities, some of whom had caregivers and there were also parents of children with developmental disabilities in the group. During the presentation we were viewing, the presenter mentioned People First Language and the example on her slide was autism.

CORRECT:

I have autism.

 

INCORRECT:

I’m autistic.

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How to plan for the future when you have an autistic child

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