Sociological and cultural aspects of autism
Encyclopedia
Sociological and cultural aspects of autism come into play with recognition of autism
, approaches to its support services and therapies, and how autism affects how we define personhood. The autism rights movement
is based on a belief that autism is a different way of being and not a disorder to be cured. In contrast, many parents argue for a cure.
The autistic community has developed abbreviations for commonly used terms, such as:
society, but the very nature of autism makes self-promotion difficult for autistic people.
The autism rights movement
encourages autistic people to "embrace their neurodiversity" and encourages society to accept autistics as they are. They advocate giving children more tools to cope with the non-autistic world instead of trying to change them into neurotypicals. They say society should learn to tolerate harmless behaviours such as tic
s and stims
like hand flapping or humming. Autism rights activists say that "tics, like repetitive rocking and violent outbursts" can be managed if others make an effort to understand autistic people, while other autistic traits, "like difficulty with eye contact, with grasping humor or with breaking from routines", wouldn't require corrective efforts if others were more tolerant.
Many people disagree with the aims of the autism rights movement, saying that the movement overstates the gifts associated with autism, which could jeopardize funding for research and treatment. Many parents of children with autism say that the notion of "positive living with autism" has little relevance to them, and that autism rights are for "the high-functioning autistics and Aspies who make up the bulk of the movement". Many parents say that behavioral therapy
provides help in caring for children who are sometimes aggressive and that autism exacts a toll on the entire family.
Autistic pride asserts that autistic people are not sick; rather, they have a unique set of characteristics that provide them many rewards and challenges, not unlike their non-autistic peers.
Curing autism
is a controversial and politicized issue
. The "autistic community" can be divided into several groups. Some seek a cure for autism—sometimes dubbed as pro-cure, others consider a cure unnecessary or unethical, or feel that autism is not a disease.
(AS) and high functioning autism (HFA), and can be linked to three historical trends: the emergence of AS and HFA as labels, the emergence of the disability rights movement
, and the rise of the Internet
. Autistic communities exist both online and offline; many people use these for support and communication with others like themselves, as the social limitations of autism make it difficult to make friends, to establish support within general society, and to construct an identity within society.
Because many autistics find it easier to communicate online than in person, a large number of online resources are available. Some individuals with autism learn sign language
, participate in online chat room
s, discussion boards, and websites, or use communication devices at autism-community social events such as Autreat. The Internet helps bypass non-verbal cues and emotional sharing that autistics find so hard to interact with. It gives autistic individuals a way to communicate and form online communities. Conducting work, conversation and interviews online in chat rooms, rather than via phone calls or personal contact, helps level the playing field for autistics. A New York Times article said "the impact of the Internet on autistics may one day be compared in magnitude to the spread of sign language among the deaf" because it opens new opportunities for communication by filtering out "sensory overload that impedes communication among autistics".
Online interaction has disadvantages. Overreliance on the Internet for social interaction can lead to reduction in already-limited human contact. Much misinformation and fraud is available online. Because people with ASD often interpret sources literally, it may be particularly difficult for them to tell whether an online correspondent is lying. Based on unreliable information, people diagnose themselves with Asperger syndrome and related conditions, and then present themselves as individuals with genuine ASD.
, is marked on April 2. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly
at the end of 2007. On April 2, 2009, activists left 150 strollers near Central Park
in New York City to raise awareness that autism is estimated to affect one in 150 children.
There are many celebration activities all over the world on April 2 - World Autism Day. “Autism knows no geographic boundaries — it affects individuals and families on every continent and in every country,” said Suzanne Wright, co-founder of Autism Speaks. “The celebration of World Autism Awareness Day is an important way to help the world better understand the scope of this health crisis and the need for compassion and acceptance for those living with autism. This remarkable day — the first of many to come — promises to be a time of great hope and happiness as we work to build a global autism community.”
launched the Light It Up Blue
initiative. Light It Up Blue sees prominent buildings across North America and the world – including the Empire State Building
in New York City and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada – turn their lights blue to raise awareness for autism and to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day.
—this idea was initiated by Ivan and Charika Corea, parents of a child with autism, Charin. Autism Awareness Year was led by the British Institute of Brain Injured Children, Disabilities Trust, The Shirley Foundation, National Autistic Society
, Autism London and 800 organizations in the United Kingdom. It had the personal backing of British Prime Minister Tony Blair
. This was the first ever occasion of partnership working on autism on such a huge scale. 2002 Autism Awareness Year helped raise awareness of the serious issues concerning autism and Asperger's Syndrome across the United Kingdom. A major conference, Autism 2002 was held at the King's Fund in London with debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords
in Westminster. Autism awareness ribbons were worn to mark the year.
British autism advocates want autistic people acknowledged as a minority rather than as disabled, because they say that "disability discrimination laws don't protect those who are not disabled but who 'still have something that makes them look or act differently from other people'." But the autism community is split over this issue, and some view this notion as radical.
is an Aspies for Freedom
initiative, celebrated on June 18 each year. It is a day of celebration of the neurodiversity
of people on the autism spectrum
, compared by autism rights advocates to the civil rights
and gay rights movements
and even modeled after the Gay pride
movement.
(AS) may develop problems in their abilities to engage successfully in interpersonal relationships.
with peers. These problems can be severe or mild depending on the individual. Children with AS are often the target of bullying at school due to their idiosyncratic behavior, precise language, unusual interests, and impaired ability to perceive and respond in socially expected ways to nonverbal
cues, particularly in interpersonal conflict. Children with AS may be overly literal, and may have difficulty interpreting and responding to sarcasm
, banter, or metaphor
ical speech. Difficulties with social interaction may also be manifest in a lack of play with other children.
The above problems can even arise in the family; given an unfavorable family environment, the child may be subject to emotional abuse. A child or teen with AS is often puzzled by this mistreatment, unaware of what has been done incorrectly. Unlike other pervasive development disorders
, most children with AS want to be social, but fail to socialize successfully, which can lead to later withdrawal and asocial behavior, especially in adolescence. At this stage of life especially, they risk being drawn into unsuitable and inappropriate friendships and social groups. People with AS often interact better with those considerably older or younger than themselves, rather than those within their own age group.
Children with AS often display advanced abilities for their age in language, reading, mathematics, spatial skills
, and/or music—sometimes into the "gifted" range—but this may be counterbalanced by considerable delays in other developmental areas. This combination of traits can lead to problems with teachers and other authority figures. A child with AS might be regarded by teachers as a "problem child" or a "poor performer." The child’s extremely low tolerance for what they perceive to be ordinary and mundane tasks, such as typical homework assignments, can easily become frustrating; a teacher may well consider the child arrogant
, spiteful, and insubordinate
. Lack of support and understanding, in combination with the child's anxieties, can result in problematic behavior (such as severe tantrums, violent and angry outbursts, and withdrawal).
(the inability to predict the beliefs and intentions of others) and alexithymia
(the inability to identify and interpret emotional signals in oneself or others), which reduce the ability to be empathetically attuned to others. Alexithymia in AS functions as an independent variable relying on different neural networks than those implicated in theory of mind
. In fact, lack of Theory of Mind in AS may be a result of a lack of information available to the mind due to the operation of the alexithymic deficit.
A second issue related to alexithymia involves the inability to identify and modulate strong emotions such as sadness or anger, which leaves the individual prone to "sudden affective outbursts such as crying or rage" According to Tony Attwood
, the inability to express feelings using words may also predispose the individual to use physical acts to articulate the mood and release the emotional energy.
People with AS report a feeling of being detached against their will from the world around them ("on the outside looking in"). They may have difficulty finding a life partner or getting married due to poor social skills. The complexity and inconsistency of the social world can pose an extreme challenge for individuals with AS. In the UK Asperger's is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act; those with AS who get treated badly because of it may have some redress. The first case was Hewett v Motorola 2004 (sometimes referred to as Hewitt) and the second was Isles v Ealing Council. The same applies in the United States with the Americans with Disabilities Act, amended in 2008
to include autism spectrum disorders.
The intense focus and tendency to work things out logically often grants people with AS a high level of ability in their field of interest. When these special interests coincide with a materially or socially useful task, the person with AS can lead a profitable career and a fulfilled life. The child obsessed with a specific area may succeed in employment related to that area.
; some drugs used to treat anxiety
or hyperactivity
that may accompany autism are rarely tested on females with autism. Autism may express differently in the sexes. Females may be more concerned with how they are viewed by peers and the failure to connect with people outside of their immediate family could lead to severe anxiety or clinical depression
. Females with autism who have normal intelligence may be more socially disadvantaged than males because of the "rising level of social interaction that comes in middle school," when females' "friendships often hinge on attention to feelings and lots of rapid and nuanced communication." Females may suffer additionally by being placed in specialized educational programs, where they will be surrounded by males and further isolated from female social contacts. Although sample sizes are too small to draw firm conclusions, one study suggests that females are less likely than males over the long-term to marry, have families, go to college, have a job, and live on their own. Females may also be different from males in terms of interests; females with autism rarely have interests in numbers or have stores of specialized knowledge. The profile of autism may change as more is understood about females, whose autism may go undiagnosed.
A much smaller proportion of adult autistics marry than the general population. It has been hypothesized that people with autism are subject to assortative mating
; they tend to mate with each other and produce autistic offspring. This hypothesis has been publicized in the popular press, but has not been empirically tested.
Baron-Cohen
said that an increasing technological society has opened up niches for people with Asperger syndrome, who may choose fields that are "highly systematised and predictable." People with AS could do well in workplace roles that are "system-centered, and connect with the nitty-gritty detail of the product or the system."
, autistic designer of cattle handling systems, said that one reason she can easily figure out how a cow would react is because autistic people can easily "think the way that animals think." According to Grandin, animals do not have "complex emotions such as shame or guilt" and they do not think in language. She says that, although not everything about animals is like a person with autism, the similarity is that they think visually and without language. She says people do not make this connection because the study of autism and the study of animal behavior are parallel disciplines involving different individuals. Despite these similarities, the degree to which autistic individuals can be said to think like animals remains undetermined; non-human animals as well as humans have evolved cognitive specializations that may or may not share characteristics with other species.
Dawn Prince-Hughes
, diagnosed with Asperger's, describes her observations of gorillas in Songs of the Gorilla Nation.
and autism (an association made popular by the 1988 film Rain Man
), most autistic people are not savants and savantism is not unique to autistic people, though there does seem to be some relation. One in ten autistic people may have notable abilities, but prodigious savants
like Stephen Wiltshire
are very rare; only about 100 such people have been described in the century since savants were first identified, and there are only about 25 living prodigious savants worldwide.
(2005), the opening scene gives four clues that a leading character has Asperger syndrome, and two of these clues are extraordinary savant skills. The savant skills are not needed in the film, but in the movies savant skills have become a stereotype for the autism spectrum, regardless of the fact that most autistic people are not savants.
Some works from the 1970s have autistic characters, who are rarely labeled.
Autistic characters also appear in many works by non-autistic authors. Mark Haddon
's 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
, has been celebrated for its immersion into the world of its teenage autistic narrator. The Speed of Dark
, by Elizabeth Moon
, explores the possibility of a cure for autism and its effect on autistics. Margaret Atwood
's novel Oryx and Crake
has a university labeled Asperger's U, where almost every student appears to have Asperger Syndrome or autism in varying degrees of severity and form. People in the university refer to non-autists as neurotypicals and seem to view them as something altogether different (and perhaps inferior) to themselves.
Children of the Stars
is an award-winning documentary about children with autism in China.
My Name Is Khan
is a 2010 Bollywood
film which shows the lead character played by Shahrukh Khan
(Rizwan Khan) suffering from Asperger's syndrome. The movie garnered critical acclaim and shed light on Asperger's syndrome in India.
Alphas
features an autistic character, Gary Bell (Ryan Cartwright) as one of its main characters.
, a Fields Medal
winner, Temple Grandin
, a food animal handling systems designer and author, Tim Page
, a Pulitzer Prize
-winning critic and author and Vernon L. Smith
, a Nobel Laureate in economics, also have autism spectrum disorders.
There are many published speculative claims about historical figures
who may have had autism spectrum disorders. Henry Cavendish
, one of history's foremost scientists, may have been autistic. George Wilson
, a notable chemist and physician, wrote a book about Cavendish entitled, The Life of the Honourable Henry Cavendish, published in 1851. From Wilson's detailed description it seems that Cavendish may have exhibited many classic signs of autism. Fred Volkmar, a psychiatrist and autism expert at the Yale Child Study Center
is skeptical; he says, "There is unfortunately a sort of cottage industry of finding that everyone has Asperger's."
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
, approaches to its support services and therapies, and how autism affects how we define personhood. The autism rights movement
Autism rights movement
The autism rights movement is a social movement that encourages autistic people, their caregivers and society to adopt a position of neurodiversity, accepting autism as a variation in functioning rather than a mental disorder to be cured...
is based on a belief that autism is a different way of being and not a disorder to be cured. In contrast, many parents argue for a cure.
Terminology
Although some prefer to use the person-first terminology person with autism, some members of the autistic community prefer autistic person or autistic in formal English, to stress that autism is a part of their identity rather than a disease they have. In addition, phrases like suffers from autism are objectionable to some people.The autistic community has developed abbreviations for commonly used terms, such as:
- Aspie – a person with Asperger syndromeAsperger syndromeAsperger's syndrome that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development...
. - Autie – an autistic person. It can be contrasted with aspie to refer to those specifically diagnosed with classic autismAutismAutism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
. - Autistics and Cousins (AC) — a cover term including aspies, auties, and their "cousins", i.e. people with some autistic traits but no formal diagnosis.
- Curebie – a person with the desire to cure autism. This term is highly derogatory.
- NeurodiversityNeurodiversityNeurodiversity is a "controversial concept [that] ... regards atypical neurologicaldevelopment as a normal human difference". According to Jaarsma and Welin , the "neurodiversity movement was developed in the 1990s by online groups of autistic persons...
– tolerance of people regardless of neurological wiring. - NeurotypicalNeurotypicalNeurotypical is a term that was coined in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum: specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to...
(NT) – an individual who is not on the autism spectrum.
Autism rights movement
There is some work in the autism community on raising awareness among neurotypicalNeurotypical
Neurotypical is a term that was coined in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum: specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to...
society, but the very nature of autism makes self-promotion difficult for autistic people.
The autism rights movement
Autism rights movement
The autism rights movement is a social movement that encourages autistic people, their caregivers and society to adopt a position of neurodiversity, accepting autism as a variation in functioning rather than a mental disorder to be cured...
encourages autistic people to "embrace their neurodiversity" and encourages society to accept autistics as they are. They advocate giving children more tools to cope with the non-autistic world instead of trying to change them into neurotypicals. They say society should learn to tolerate harmless behaviours such as tic
Tic
A tic is a sudden, repetitive, nonrhythmic, stereotyped motor movement or vocalization involving discrete muscle groups. Tics can be invisible to the observer, such as abdominal tensing or toe crunching. Common motor and phonic tics are, respectively, eye blinking and throat clearing...
s and stims
Stimming
Stimming is a repetitive body movement, such as hand flapping, that is hypothesized to stimulate one or more senses. The term is shorthand for self-stimulation. Repetitive movement, or stereotypy, is often referred to as stimming under the hypothesis that it has a function related to sensory input....
like hand flapping or humming. Autism rights activists say that "tics, like repetitive rocking and violent outbursts" can be managed if others make an effort to understand autistic people, while other autistic traits, "like difficulty with eye contact, with grasping humor or with breaking from routines", wouldn't require corrective efforts if others were more tolerant.
Many people disagree with the aims of the autism rights movement, saying that the movement overstates the gifts associated with autism, which could jeopardize funding for research and treatment. Many parents of children with autism say that the notion of "positive living with autism" has little relevance to them, and that autism rights are for "the high-functioning autistics and Aspies who make up the bulk of the movement". Many parents say that behavioral therapy
Autism therapies
Autism therapies attempt to lessen the deficits and abnormal behaviours associated with autism and other autism spectrum disorders , and to increase the quality of life and functional independence of autistic individuals, especially children. Treatment is typically tailored to the child's needs...
provides help in caring for children who are sometimes aggressive and that autism exacts a toll on the entire family.
Autistic pride
Autistic pride refers to pride in autism and shifting views of autism from "disease" to "difference". Autistic pride emphasizes the innate potential in all human phenotypic expressions and celebrates the diversity various neurological types express.Autistic pride asserts that autistic people are not sick; rather, they have a unique set of characteristics that provide them many rewards and challenges, not unlike their non-autistic peers.
Curing autism
Autism therapies
Autism therapies attempt to lessen the deficits and abnormal behaviours associated with autism and other autism spectrum disorders , and to increase the quality of life and functional independence of autistic individuals, especially children. Treatment is typically tailored to the child's needs...
is a controversial and politicized issue
Politicized issue
A politicized issue or hot-button issue is a social, economic, theological, spiritual, scientific or legal issue which has become a political issue, as a result of deliberate action or otherwise, whereby people become politically active over that issue....
. The "autistic community" can be divided into several groups. Some seek a cure for autism—sometimes dubbed as pro-cure, others consider a cure unnecessary or unethical, or feel that autism is not a disease.
Community and culture
With the recent increases in autism recognition and new approaches to educating and socializing autistics, an autistic culture has begun to develop. Autistic culture is based on a belief that autism is a unique way of being and not a disorder to be cured. The Aspie world, as it is sometimes called, contains people with Asperger syndromeAsperger syndrome
Asperger's syndrome that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development...
(AS) and high functioning autism (HFA), and can be linked to three historical trends: the emergence of AS and HFA as labels, the emergence of the disability rights movement
Disability rights movement
The disability rights movement is the movement to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for people with disabilities. The specific goals and demands of the movement are: accessibility and safety in transportation, architecture, and the physical environment, equal opportunities in independent...
, and the rise of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Autistic communities exist both online and offline; many people use these for support and communication with others like themselves, as the social limitations of autism make it difficult to make friends, to establish support within general society, and to construct an identity within society.
Because many autistics find it easier to communicate online than in person, a large number of online resources are available. Some individuals with autism learn sign language
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
, participate in online chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
s, discussion boards, and websites, or use communication devices at autism-community social events such as Autreat. The Internet helps bypass non-verbal cues and emotional sharing that autistics find so hard to interact with. It gives autistic individuals a way to communicate and form online communities. Conducting work, conversation and interviews online in chat rooms, rather than via phone calls or personal contact, helps level the playing field for autistics. A New York Times article said "the impact of the Internet on autistics may one day be compared in magnitude to the spread of sign language among the deaf" because it opens new opportunities for communication by filtering out "sensory overload that impedes communication among autistics".
Online interaction has disadvantages. Overreliance on the Internet for social interaction can lead to reduction in already-limited human contact. Much misinformation and fraud is available online. Because people with ASD often interpret sources literally, it may be particularly difficult for them to tell whether an online correspondent is lying. Based on unreliable information, people diagnose themselves with Asperger syndrome and related conditions, and then present themselves as individuals with genuine ASD.
World Autism Day
World Autism Day, also called World Autism Awareness DayWorld Autism Awareness Day
World Autism Awareness Day has been held every year since September 09, 1989. It was designated under by the United Nations General Assembly resolution "62/139...
, is marked on April 2. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly
United Nations General Assembly
For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
at the end of 2007. On April 2, 2009, activists left 150 strollers near Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
in New York City to raise awareness that autism is estimated to affect one in 150 children.
There are many celebration activities all over the world on April 2 - World Autism Day. “Autism knows no geographic boundaries — it affects individuals and families on every continent and in every country,” said Suzanne Wright, co-founder of Autism Speaks. “The celebration of World Autism Awareness Day is an important way to help the world better understand the scope of this health crisis and the need for compassion and acceptance for those living with autism. This remarkable day — the first of many to come — promises to be a time of great hope and happiness as we work to build a global autism community.”
Light It Up Blue
In 2010, Autism SpeaksAutism Speaks
Autism Speaks is the world's largest autism advocacy organization that sponsors autism research and conducts awareness and outreach activities aimed at families, governments, and the public. It was founded in February 2005 by Bob Wright, vice chairman of General Electric, and by his wife Suzanne, a...
launched the Light It Up Blue
Light It Up Blue
Light It Up Blue, observed April 1 and 2 each year in North America, is dedicated to raising awareness of autism. Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization, announced the launch of the inaugural Light It Up Blue campaign in 2010...
initiative. Light It Up Blue sees prominent buildings across North America and the world – including the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
in New York City and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada – turn their lights blue to raise awareness for autism and to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day.
Autism Sunday
Autism Sunday, also known as the International Day of Prayer for Autism and Asperger Syndrome, is observed on the second Sunday of February. It is supported by church leaders around the world.Autism Awareness Year
The year 2002 was declared Autism Awareness Year in the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
—this idea was initiated by Ivan and Charika Corea, parents of a child with autism, Charin. Autism Awareness Year was led by the British Institute of Brain Injured Children, Disabilities Trust, The Shirley Foundation, National Autistic Society
National Autistic Society
The National Autistic Society is a British charity for people with autistic spectrum disorders , including autism and Asperger's Syndrome. The purpose of the organisation is primarily to improve of the lives of people with Autism in the United Kingdom.Founded in 1962 as the Autistic Children's Aid...
, Autism London and 800 organizations in the United Kingdom. It had the personal backing of British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
. This was the first ever occasion of partnership working on autism on such a huge scale. 2002 Autism Awareness Year helped raise awareness of the serious issues concerning autism and Asperger's Syndrome across the United Kingdom. A major conference, Autism 2002 was held at the King's Fund in London with debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
in Westminster. Autism awareness ribbons were worn to mark the year.
British autism advocates want autistic people acknowledged as a minority rather than as disabled, because they say that "disability discrimination laws don't protect those who are not disabled but who 'still have something that makes them look or act differently from other people'." But the autism community is split over this issue, and some view this notion as radical.
Autistic Pride Day
Autistic Pride DayAutistic Pride Day
Autistic Pride Day is a celebration of the neurodiversity of people on the autism spectrum on June 18 each year. Autistic pride is pride in autism, about shifting views of autism from "disease" to "difference"...
is an Aspies for Freedom
Aspies For Freedom
Aspies For Freedom is a solidarity and campaigning group which aims at raising public awareness of the autism rights movement. The term "Aspies" refers to people who have been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, but the group also welcomes anyone on the autism spectrum.-Aims:The aim of Aspies For...
initiative, celebrated on June 18 each year. It is a day of celebration of the neurodiversity
Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity is a "controversial concept [that] ... regards atypical neurologicaldevelopment as a normal human difference". According to Jaarsma and Welin , the "neurodiversity movement was developed in the 1990s by online groups of autistic persons...
of people on the autism spectrum
Autism spectrum
The term "autism spectrum" is often used to describe disorders that are currently classified as pervasive developmental disorders. Pervasive developmental disorders include autism, Asperger syndrome, Childhood disintegrative disorder, Rett syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise...
, compared by autism rights advocates to the civil rights
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
and gay rights movements
LGBT social movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements share inter-related goals of social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights, also called gay...
and even modeled after the Gay pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
movement.
Autreat
At Autreat—an annual autistic gathering—participants compared their movement to gay rights activists, or the Deaf culture, where sign language is preferred over surgery that might restore hearing. Other local organizations have also arisen: for example, a European counterpart, Autscape, was created about 2005.Asperger syndrome and interpersonal relationships
Individuals with Asperger syndromeAsperger syndrome
Asperger's syndrome that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development...
(AS) may develop problems in their abilities to engage successfully in interpersonal relationships.
Social impact
Asperger syndrome may lead to problems in social interactionSocial skills
A social skill is any skill facilitating interaction and communication with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning such skills is called socialization...
with peers. These problems can be severe or mild depending on the individual. Children with AS are often the target of bullying at school due to their idiosyncratic behavior, precise language, unusual interests, and impaired ability to perceive and respond in socially expected ways to nonverbal
Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. Messages can be communicated through gestures and touch , by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact...
cues, particularly in interpersonal conflict. Children with AS may be overly literal, and may have difficulty interpreting and responding to sarcasm
Sarcasm
Sarcasm is “a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt.” Though irony and understatement is usually the immediate context, most authorities distinguish sarcasm from irony; however, others argue that sarcasm may or often does involve irony or employs...
, banter, or metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ical speech. Difficulties with social interaction may also be manifest in a lack of play with other children.
The above problems can even arise in the family; given an unfavorable family environment, the child may be subject to emotional abuse. A child or teen with AS is often puzzled by this mistreatment, unaware of what has been done incorrectly. Unlike other pervasive development disorders
Pervasive developmental disorder
Pervasive developmental disorders is a diagnostic category refers to a group of disorders characterized by delays or impairments in communication, social behaviors, and cognitive development.Pervasive developmental disorders include Autism, Asperger's syndrome, Rett's syndrome, Childhood...
, most children with AS want to be social, but fail to socialize successfully, which can lead to later withdrawal and asocial behavior, especially in adolescence. At this stage of life especially, they risk being drawn into unsuitable and inappropriate friendships and social groups. People with AS often interact better with those considerably older or younger than themselves, rather than those within their own age group.
Children with AS often display advanced abilities for their age in language, reading, mathematics, spatial skills
Space
Space is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum...
, and/or music—sometimes into the "gifted" range—but this may be counterbalanced by considerable delays in other developmental areas. This combination of traits can lead to problems with teachers and other authority figures. A child with AS might be regarded by teachers as a "problem child" or a "poor performer." The child’s extremely low tolerance for what they perceive to be ordinary and mundane tasks, such as typical homework assignments, can easily become frustrating; a teacher may well consider the child arrogant
Arrogance
Arrogance or arrogant may refer to:*Overbearing*Hubris...
, spiteful, and insubordinate
Insubordination
Insubordination is the act of willfully disobeying an authority. Refusing to perform an action that is unethical or illegal is not insubordination; neither is refusing to perform an action that is not within the scope of authority of the person issuing the order.Insubordination is typically a...
. Lack of support and understanding, in combination with the child's anxieties, can result in problematic behavior (such as severe tantrums, violent and angry outbursts, and withdrawal).
Difficulties in relationships
Two traits sometimes found in AS individuals are mind-blindnessMind-blindness
Mind-blindness can be described as an inability to develop an awareness of what is in the mind of another human. It is not necessarily caused by an inability to imagine an answer, but is often due to not being able to gather enough information to work out which of the many possible answers is...
(the inability to predict the beliefs and intentions of others) and alexithymia
Alexithymia
Alexithymia from the Ancient Greek words λέξις and θυμός modified by an alpha-privative—literally "without words for emotions"—is a term coined by psychotherapist Peter Sifneos in 1973 to describe a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing...
(the inability to identify and interpret emotional signals in oneself or others), which reduce the ability to be empathetically attuned to others. Alexithymia in AS functions as an independent variable relying on different neural networks than those implicated in theory of mind
Theory of mind
Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own...
. In fact, lack of Theory of Mind in AS may be a result of a lack of information available to the mind due to the operation of the alexithymic deficit.
A second issue related to alexithymia involves the inability to identify and modulate strong emotions such as sadness or anger, which leaves the individual prone to "sudden affective outbursts such as crying or rage" According to Tony Attwood
Tony Attwood
Tony Attwood is an English psychologist who lives in Queensland, Australia and is an author of several books on Asperger's Syndrome....
, the inability to express feelings using words may also predispose the individual to use physical acts to articulate the mood and release the emotional energy.
People with AS report a feeling of being detached against their will from the world around them ("on the outside looking in"). They may have difficulty finding a life partner or getting married due to poor social skills. The complexity and inconsistency of the social world can pose an extreme challenge for individuals with AS. In the UK Asperger's is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act; those with AS who get treated badly because of it may have some redress. The first case was Hewett v Motorola 2004 (sometimes referred to as Hewitt) and the second was Isles v Ealing Council. The same applies in the United States with the Americans with Disabilities Act, amended in 2008
ADA Amendments Act of 2008
The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 is an Act of Congress, effective January 1, 2009, that amended the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and other disability nondiscrimination laws at the Federal level of the United States. Passed on September 17, 2008, and signed into law by President George W...
to include autism spectrum disorders.
The intense focus and tendency to work things out logically often grants people with AS a high level of ability in their field of interest. When these special interests coincide with a materially or socially useful task, the person with AS can lead a profitable career and a fulfilled life. The child obsessed with a specific area may succeed in employment related to that area.
Gender aspects
Autism is thought of as a condition mostly affecting males, with males up to four times more likely than females to be diagnosed with autism or Asperger syndrome. Females with autism spectrum disorders are "research orphans" according to Yale's Ami KlinAmi Klin
Ami Klin, PhD, born in Brazil to Holocaust survivors, is the first chief of autism and related disorders at the Marcus Autism Center, a wholly owned subsidiary of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta...
; some drugs used to treat anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
or hyperactivity
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
that may accompany autism are rarely tested on females with autism. Autism may express differently in the sexes. Females may be more concerned with how they are viewed by peers and the failure to connect with people outside of their immediate family could lead to severe anxiety or clinical depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
. Females with autism who have normal intelligence may be more socially disadvantaged than males because of the "rising level of social interaction that comes in middle school," when females' "friendships often hinge on attention to feelings and lots of rapid and nuanced communication." Females may suffer additionally by being placed in specialized educational programs, where they will be surrounded by males and further isolated from female social contacts. Although sample sizes are too small to draw firm conclusions, one study suggests that females are less likely than males over the long-term to marry, have families, go to college, have a job, and live on their own. Females may also be different from males in terms of interests; females with autism rarely have interests in numbers or have stores of specialized knowledge. The profile of autism may change as more is understood about females, whose autism may go undiagnosed.
Autistic adults
Communication and social problems often cause difficulties in many areas of an autistic adult's life. A 2008 study found that adults with ASD commonly experience difficulty starting social interactions, longing for greater intimacy, a profound sense of isolation, and effort to develop greater social or self awareness.A much smaller proportion of adult autistics marry than the general population. It has been hypothesized that people with autism are subject to assortative mating
Assortative mating
Assortative mating , and the related concept Disassortative mating, is the phenomenon where a sexually reproducing organism chooses to mate with individuals that are similar or dissimilar to itself in some specific manner...
; they tend to mate with each other and produce autistic offspring. This hypothesis has been publicized in the popular press, but has not been empirically tested.
Baron-Cohen
Simon Baron-Cohen
Simon Baron-Cohen FBA is professor of Developmental Psychopathology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He is the Director of the University's Autism Research Centre, and a Fellow of Trinity College...
said that an increasing technological society has opened up niches for people with Asperger syndrome, who may choose fields that are "highly systematised and predictable." People with AS could do well in workplace roles that are "system-centered, and connect with the nitty-gritty detail of the product or the system."
Relationships with animals
Temple GrandinTemple Grandin
Temple Grandin is an American doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior...
, autistic designer of cattle handling systems, said that one reason she can easily figure out how a cow would react is because autistic people can easily "think the way that animals think." According to Grandin, animals do not have "complex emotions such as shame or guilt" and they do not think in language. She says that, although not everything about animals is like a person with autism, the similarity is that they think visually and without language. She says people do not make this connection because the study of autism and the study of animal behavior are parallel disciplines involving different individuals. Despite these similarities, the degree to which autistic individuals can be said to think like animals remains undetermined; non-human animals as well as humans have evolved cognitive specializations that may or may not share characteristics with other species.
Dawn Prince-Hughes
Dawn Prince-Hughes
Dawn Prince-Hughes, is an anthropologist, primatologist, and ethologist who received her M.A. and PhD in interdisciplinary anthropology from the Universität Herisau in Switzerland...
, diagnosed with Asperger's, describes her observations of gorillas in Songs of the Gorilla Nation.
Autistic savant
An autistic savant is an autistic person with extreme talent in one or more areas of study. Although there is a common association between savant syndromeSavant syndrome
Savant syndrome , sometimes referred to as savantism, is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations...
and autism (an association made popular by the 1988 film Rain Man
Rain Man
Rain Man is a 1988 drama film written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass and directed by Barry Levinson. It tells the story of an abrasive and selfish yuppie, Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son,...
), most autistic people are not savants and savantism is not unique to autistic people, though there does seem to be some relation. One in ten autistic people may have notable abilities, but prodigious savants
Savant syndrome
Savant syndrome , sometimes referred to as savantism, is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations...
like Stephen Wiltshire
Stephen Wiltshire
Stephen Wiltshire MBE, is an architectural artist who has been diagnosed with autism. Wiltshire was born in London, England, to West Indian parents. He is known for his ability to draw a landscape after seeing it just once. He studied Fine Art at City & Guilds Art College.-Early life:Wiltshire was...
are very rare; only about 100 such people have been described in the century since savants were first identified, and there are only about 25 living prodigious savants worldwide.
Scholarship
Autism spectrum disorders received increasing attention from social-science scholars in the early 2000s, with the goals of improving support services and therapies, arguing that autism should be tolerated as a difference not a disorder, and by how autism affects the definition of personhood and identity. Sociological research has also investigated how social institutions, particularly families, cope with the challenges associated with autism.Media portrayals
Much of the public perception of autism is based on its portrayals in novels, biographies, movies, and TV series. Many of these portrayals have been inaccurate, and have contributed to a harmful divergence between public perception and the clinical reality of autism. For example, in the movie Mozart and the WhaleMozart and the Whale
Mozart and the Whale is a 2005 romantic comedy-drama film starring Josh Hartnett and Radha Mitchell, and directed by Petter Næss.-Plot:...
(2005), the opening scene gives four clues that a leading character has Asperger syndrome, and two of these clues are extraordinary savant skills. The savant skills are not needed in the film, but in the movies savant skills have become a stereotype for the autism spectrum, regardless of the fact that most autistic people are not savants.
Some works from the 1970s have autistic characters, who are rarely labeled.
Autistic characters also appear in many works by non-autistic authors. Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon is an English novelist and poet, best known for his 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.- Life and work :...
's 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 novel by British writer Mark Haddon. It won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book...
, has been celebrated for its immersion into the world of its teenage autistic narrator. The Speed of Dark
The Speed of Dark
Speed of Dark is a near-future science fiction novel by American author Elizabeth Moon. The story is told from the first person viewpoint of an autistic process analyst. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2003, and was also an Arthur C...
, by Elizabeth Moon
Elizabeth Moon
Elizabeth Moon is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Her novel The Speed of Dark won the 2003 Nebula Award.-Biography:...
, explores the possibility of a cure for autism and its effect on autistics. Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
's novel Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake is a novel by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Atwood has at times disputed the novel being science fiction, preferring to label it speculative fiction and "adventure romance" because it does not deal with 'things that have not been invented yet' and goes beyond the realism she...
has a university labeled Asperger's U, where almost every student appears to have Asperger Syndrome or autism in varying degrees of severity and form. People in the university refer to non-autists as neurotypicals and seem to view them as something altogether different (and perhaps inferior) to themselves.
Children of the Stars
Children of the Stars
Children of the Stars is a 2007 documentary about children with autism in the People's Republic of China. It was produced by Alexander Haase and directed by Rob Aspey...
is an award-winning documentary about children with autism in China.
My Name Is Khan
My Name is Khan
My Name Is Khan ; commonly referred to as MNIK, is a 2010 Bollywood film directed by Karan Johar, with a screenplay by Shibani Bathija, produced by Hiroo Yash Johar and Gauri Khan, and starring Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, who reunite after nine years...
is a 2010 Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
film which shows the lead character played by Shahrukh Khan
Shahrukh Khan
Shahrukh Khan , often credited as Shah Rukh Khan, is an Indian film actor, as well as a film producer and television host. Often referred to as "the King of Bollywood", Khan has acted in over 70 Hindi films....
(Rizwan Khan) suffering from Asperger's syndrome. The movie garnered critical acclaim and shed light on Asperger's syndrome in India.
Alphas
Alphas
Alphas is an American science fiction dramatic television series created by Zak Penn and Michael Karnow. The series follows a group of people with superhuman abilities, known as "Alphas", as they work to prevent crimes committed by other Alphas....
features an autistic character, Gary Bell (Ryan Cartwright) as one of its main characters.
Notable individuals
Notable individuals with autism spectrum disorders represent diverse professions such as anthropology, video game design and television production. Some notable artists, authors and musicians and such figures as Richard BorcherdsRichard Borcherds
Richard Ewen Borcherds is a British mathematician specializing in lattices, number theory, group theory, and infinite-dimensional algebras. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1998.- Personal life :...
, a Fields Medal
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
winner, Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin is an American doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior...
, a food animal handling systems designer and author, Tim Page
Tim Page (music critic)
Tim Page is a writer, editor, music critic, producer and professor. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic for the Washington Post and also played an essential role in the revival of American author Dawn Powell.-Career:Page grew up in Storrs, Connecticut, where his father, Ellis B...
, a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning critic and author and Vernon L. Smith
Vernon L. Smith
Vernon Lomax Smith is professor of economics at Chapman University's Argyros School of Business and Economics and School of Law in Orange, California, a research scholar at George Mason University Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, and a Fellow of the Mercatus Center, all in Arlington,...
, a Nobel Laureate in economics, also have autism spectrum disorders.
There are many published speculative claims about historical figures
People speculated to have been autistic
Famous historical people have been speculated to have had autism or other autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger syndrome by journalists, academics and autism professionals. Such speculation is controversial and little of it is undisputed...
who may have had autism spectrum disorders. Henry Cavendish
Henry Cavendish
Henry Cavendish FRS was a British scientist noted for his discovery of hydrogen or what he called "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable air, which formed water on combustion, in a 1766 paper "On Factitious Airs". Antoine Lavoisier later reproduced Cavendish's experiment and...
, one of history's foremost scientists, may have been autistic. George Wilson
George Wilson (chemist)
George Wilson was Regius Professor of Technology at the University of Edinburgh, and the first Director of the Industrial Museum of Scotland....
, a notable chemist and physician, wrote a book about Cavendish entitled, The Life of the Honourable Henry Cavendish, published in 1851. From Wilson's detailed description it seems that Cavendish may have exhibited many classic signs of autism. Fred Volkmar, a psychiatrist and autism expert at the Yale Child Study Center
Yale Child Study Center
The Yale Child Study Center is a department at the Yale University School of Medicine. The center conducts research and provides clinical services and medical training related to children and families...
is skeptical; he says, "There is unfortunately a sort of cottage industry of finding that everyone has Asperger's."
External links
- Autism communities at the Open Directory ProjectOpen Directory ProjectThe Open Directory Project , also known as Dmoz , is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links. It is owned by Netscape but it is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.ODP uses a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings...
- John Elder Robison radio interview about life with Asperger's Syndrome
- Asperger’s Syndrome, on Screen and in Life, The New York Times, August 3, 2009