Monday, 02 April 2012
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10 Autism Myths
Today is the 5th annual World Autism Awareness Day, celebrated worldwide with the hope of getting the attention of as many as possible. One part of that is Light It Up Blue, a united act of lighting up famous landmarks, such as the Empire State Building and the Sydney Opera House, with a blue light on this very day. On Twitter, there will be a storm of tweets using the hashtag #WorldAutismDay to support the cause. I’ve decided to dedicate this post to correcting 10 myths of autism that many people still believe to be true. Please share this with as many people as possible to help raise autism awareness.
Myth #1: Autistic people are all alike
There are a lot of wrong assumptions out there about autism. Many believe all autistic people are incapable of social interaction, can’t speak, or are locked away in their own world with no possibility of getting through to them. This is far from right. Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning its characteristics vary significantly from one person to another. You have all heard the saying: “We are all unique”. Well, that goes for autistic people as well!
Myth #2: Autistic people are intellectually disabled (or plainly put, stupid)
Many seem to believe that autistic people are cognitively impaired and in some cases, this may be true. But more often than not, people with autism have typical or high IQs and some have indeed extraordinary intelligence. However, autistic individuals are often underestimated due to their problems of expressing their intellect – something entirely different from being intellectually disabled.
Myth #3: All autistic people have some extraordinary skills (like the Rain Man)
Many people tend to believe that all autistic people have some extraordinary skill in, e.g. math, music or visual arts, similar to that of Dustin Hoffman’s autistic character in the movie Rain Man (who has extraordinary mathematic skills). But like already explained, the autism spectrum is a wide one and, although some individuals have indeed some extraordinary talent (called splinter skills), this is more the exception rather than the norm.
Myth #4: Autistic people are incapable of social interaction
It is true that autistic people tend to have unusual difficulties with social communication. However, this varies substantially between autistic individuals. While some autistic people are quite weak socially, others’ difficulties mainly consist of little eye contact, closing out the environment while focusing on something else, having trouble understanding irony or double meaning, etc. Thus, the social impairment does not have to be too extensive.
As an example, our Jon August is considered unusually strong socially for an autistically diagnosed individual and although he has his weak points, he loves being around other people, both adults and children, and is such a happy boy with an easy smile, that he is rather popular among other kids.
Myth #5: Autistic people do not have feelings and do not understand the feelings of others
Sometimes, due to the social difficulties, autistic people are considered to be “cold” because they do not seem to express love or show empathy. However, most autistic people are extremely capable of feeling and expressing love though sometimes in unusual ways. Moreover, many autistic people are far more empathetic than the average person, though they may express their empathy in different ways than others.
Myth #6: Autistic people cannot build solid relationships with others
Although it is unlikely that an autistic person will be the most popular kid in school, autistic people are very likely to have solid relationships with at least their closest family members. Further, many autistic people do build strong friendships through shared passionate interests. In addition, although that does not apply for everyone, there are plenty of autistic people who marry and have satisfying romantic relationships.
Myth #7: Autistic people cannot learn or improveThis is dead wrong. Often, autistic people are behind their age mates and reach the developmental milestones later than normal. But when they get appropriate support, particularly with early intervention (when autism is discovered early, e.g. under the age of 3) autistic people can make incredible improvement and often keep up with their age mates in school.
Myth #8: Autistic people have no language skills
One common misconception about autism is that most of them are non-verbal or at least very close to being non-verbal. This is dead wrong. Yes, some individuals diagnosed with classic autism are sometimes non-verbal or close to it but the autism spectrum also includes extremely verbal individuals with very high reading and writing skills. In fact, many autistic people are poems or authors. Moreover, there are some autistic people who are unusually good with languages and are quick to learn how to speak, read and write in a foreign language – sometimes mastering languages in a very short amount of time.
Myth #9: Autism is not a real disability but simply a set of odd characteristics that people will grow out of
Autism stems from biological conditions that affect brain development and is, for most autistic individuals, a lifelong condition.
Myth #10: Autism is not a disability but simply due to bad parenting
Parents of autistic children sometimes meet disapproving eyes of people who think their children’s behavior is simply due to bad parenting. This has long since been disproved. Fortunately, increased autism awareness has decreased such misconception.
References: About.com and Autism Speaks
Please share this post to help raise autism awareness! Thank you
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Article from http://familyandautism.com - author: Ragga
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Comments (8)
I rec'd this and I'll make this comment public so people will read this post. Thank you for compiling this list.
Comment rec!
The misconception that Autistic people are stupid drives me crazy.
My brother is a very low-functioning Autistic and even my parents don't realize how smart he is. He'll do something wrong that he knows damn well is wrong and I will get yelled at for yelling at him because "he didn't know" he was doing something wrong. He takes advantage of this. He knows he can get away with it.
This doesn't make him a bad person, by the way... and I'm not in any way saying that. I'm saying that my parents are being ridiculous by not enforcing their rules on him. The number one thing that I have learned in dealing with Autistic people is that there is no room for gray in the rulebook. It is best with any child to have black and white rules but it is even more so with my brother. While he does understand, for instance, that he's not allowed to go upstairs, if you let him go upstairs ONCE, he thinks he is now allowed to go there. He does not understand "just this once."
I am the only person with any authority over him in my household and that's because I am the only one who enforces any rules at all. It's wrong. It's a lot of unnecessary pressure and responsibility on me and it's ridiculous that my parents can't be parents to him.
My rules are there for a reason. In my SUV, he is not allowed to reach into the back seat. I am a horrible driver and the last thing I need is to be distracted. He is not allowed to reach in back, no matter what, because I can't simultaneously haul groceries and watch him. I need to have my eyes on the road, so he needs to face forward and "Sit right" in his seat. My mother argues that this rule is unnecessary and when she borrows my car, she will put his toys in the back of the truck and ask him to go back there to get them. This confuses and frustrates him becuase he knows he's not allowed back there. When I tell her not to, she replies "It's HIS toy!" That is not the point. The point is that the rules say he can't go into the back of the Jimmy and that is that. He is not allowed to. His toy should be back there because he shouldn't be back there.
He is not allowed to reach into the front seat in my car because he frequently pokes my mother or my grandparents while they're driving to ask them to change the CD or the radio station. He is not allowed to reach into the front in MY car because it is distracting and I do not have the driving skill to swap out a CD and drive at the same time. We need to wait until the car is stopped. My father does not tell him to sit back when he reaches up front because "He doesn't understand." No. He understands that I don't let him. That's why he grabs onto my father instead of me. It is still distracting and he should still not be allowed to do it.
In the grocery store, there is a rule that he has to stay with the cart at all times. Once, my father gave him candy and said he's a good boy after he walked away from the cart. I said he shouldn't do that because it's like rewarding him for being bad. He said "He didn't understand." EVERY WEEK he stays with the cart. He understands. He forgets, but he understands. He should not be rewarded for it. It is not something new to him.
Underestimating him is bad for us and it's bad for him. If we don't have expectations for him, he does not have anything to live up to and to improve with. That is unfair to him. If we don't enforce rules, life with him is much, much harder. That is unfair to us.
My father doesn't enforce keeping food in the kitchen because "he doesn't understand," so he spends hours and hours cleaning up after him. My mother doesn't enforce "No jumping in the house," so he wakes up the entire household at six AM and things fall off of our shelves becuase there is a heavy, grown man jumping up and down on our floor. It's ridiculous.
He is much better behaved at his residence. They enforce the rules.
I get when strangers don't understand that he is intelligent, but it drives me utterly insane that his own parents don't get it.
This may be unwelcome and probably bring me a lot of hatred from this blog - but I have to say this should make your list of top 10 myths about autism.
Myth #2: Autistic people are intellectually disabled (or plainly put, stupid)
If you spend some time with them , you'll discover that people with an intellectual disability aren't 'stupid' either. So let's just say that it is a myth that people with Autism are 'stupid', rather than make offensive connections between ID and stupidity.
Rec'd, and pretty good list...but I somewhat disagree with and dislike Myth #2, because often, it is true that autistic individuals ARE intellectually disabled or have learning disabilities....some don't, which is great, and even those that do usually display strengths in some areas, weaknesses in others. The use of the word "stupid" is, well, offensive. It is true that most autistic individuals require at least some degree of special education or other interventions for those with developmental, learning, cognitive or emotional disabilities. While they may not all be classified similarly to the old term of "mentally retarded", and they are not stupid, and they can understand many things, it doesn't mean that most have no degree of intellectual or cognitive disability. 25 years of living with and observing my Asperger son, who does not seem "autistic" to most, has made it evident that there are some things he is just never going to be able to learn, understand, or do, and he is "intellectually disabled" in some areas. Not verbally...except for his literal thinking...but in spatial, math, and common sense ways.
Great list. One I'd add: "Autistic people have no sense of humor." Completely untrue, but it seems like a lot of people believe this.
this is a GREAT list, and should be shared with EVERY teacher, school, education facility, school system, public and private in the US. even with Autism becoming a cause celebre' now, so many people are woefully ignorant and scared of autistic people. what a sad environment the US harbors for disabled individuals.