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Author: Patrick Dwyer

Animal Models and Cognitive Models

Animal Models and Cognitive Models

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I’ve previously written a post to complain about the behavioural assays that are used in research with mouse models of autism.  I’m seriously concerned that these tests just aren’t tapping into autistic behaviours, and that autistic development might be so complex and social in nature that animals like mice can’t really simulate it.  I therefore suggested that autism research with mouse models might be better limited to the molecular level. I think it’s possible to broaden this criticism a little. …

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Stages of Social Practice

Stages of Social Practice

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I’ve previously written a post about the need to learn social skills through practice until they become automatic.  I recently had some very interesting conversations with two other autistic graduate students, both of whom research autism, in which I was able to refine some of my thinking about this topic. Furthermore, I’ve realized that my previous post didn’t address the important concern that deliberate attempts to look more neurotypical – to “camouflage” our autistic selves – might adversely affect our…

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Neurodiversity and Genetics Research

Neurodiversity and Genetics Research

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I’ve previously posted a description of how I see the neurodiversity paradigm, as well as a post contrasting the neurodiversity paradigm and the social model of disability.  (We often conflate the neurodiversity paradigm and the social model, but they’re really not the same thing.) Basically, I see the neurodiversity paradigm as a way of shifting our focus.  Instead of looking solely at the neurodivergent person, we can use the neurodiversity paradigm to look at both the individual and society.  We…

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Revealing the Diagnosis to an Autistic Child

Revealing the Diagnosis to an Autistic Child

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Parents, I know that learning about your child’s autism can be a stressful experience, to say the least.  Maybe you’ve told doctors and professionals about your concerns, only to have them dismissed.  Or maybe your doctor sent you straight along the correct path to a diagnosis, but still you found yourself having to sit through a series of questions and assessments you didn’t understand, before being briefly issued a label with only a little bit of explanation – leaving you…

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The Social Model and the Mainstream School

The Social Model and the Mainstream School

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Anyone who reads this blog regularly has probably noticed by now that I spend a lot of time talking about educational placement.  It is a very important topic, because the suitability of an educational placement is going to have a major influence on an individual’s future.  I certainly believe that my successful placement in a distance-learning high school program is responsible for many of my own achievements in adulthood. Basically, my opinion about educational placement is that we need choices. …

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Mental Health and Adult Outcomes

Mental Health and Adult Outcomes

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Today, the community of autistic adults is in a state of crisis.  Many of us are unemployed.  Moreover, those of us who do have jobs tend to have marginal, precarious experiences of employment: we are often hired in under-paying jobs for which we are probably over-qualified, and many of us go from one such job to another in a continuous, revolving door.  Many of us are only able to secure part-time work. Nor are our challenges limited to the domain…

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Neurodiversity and “Levels of Functioning”

Neurodiversity and “Levels of Functioning”

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Many people seem to have adopted a curious middle-ground in the neurodiversity debate: many of us will readily concede that so-called “high-functioning” autistic people should be considered within the neurodiversity paradigm, but will still argue that the pathology paradigm should be applied to so-called “low-functioning” people.  We’ll concede that “high-functioning” autistics represent a valuable form of human diversity and that they should be accepted for who they are, but we’ll keep looking for a “cure” to so-called “low-functioning” autism. I…

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Interoception and Introspection

Interoception and Introspection

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There’s an interesting tension in the autism world between research on interoception and on autistic people’s self-reports, on our introspections. Interoception is our ability to be aware of our own bodies, and some research suggests that interoceptive abilities are reduced in autism (Mul et al., 2018; Palser et al., 2018).  Interoception is believed to be related to alexithymia (Mul et al., 2018; Shah et al., 2016), awareness of one’s own emotional states, which also appears to be reduced in autism…

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Do We Spend Enough Time Thinking About Independence?

Do We Spend Enough Time Thinking About Independence?

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Sometimes, the things we don’t talk about can be very revealing. I’ve previously written about my fear that many autistic people are becoming dependent on supports and failing to surpass the low expectations that others have of us.  While this usually doesn’t cause too many problems in childhood, it can be disastrous in adulthood.  Not only does the adult transition take autistic people into new and unfamiliar environments, with greater demands, but our society strips away most supports just as…

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How Not to Treat Sensory Anxiety

How Not to Treat Sensory Anxiety

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Autistic sensory sensitivities are closely related to anxiety.  I hope this isn’t a terribly controversial point.  There are now several studies showing the existence of an association between sensory symptoms and anxiety (e.g., Mazurek et al., 2013; Uljarević et al., 2016).  Furthermore, it just makes sense that sensory sensitivities would be associated with anxiety.  When my sensory sensitivities were really bad, they caused genuine distress.  Naturally, I didn’t enjoy being overwhelmed by my environment and experiencing sensory distress.  Therefore, I…

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