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Category: All Ages

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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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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Context, Group Size, and Social Demands

Context, Group Size, and Social Demands

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All else being equal, how many other people would you like to interact with at any given time?  Would you rather be in a one-on-one conversation, in a small social group, or in front of a giant hall giving a lecture? I’ve discussed this with a few autistic people, and most of us agree that the group situations are the worst.[1] Not all neurotypicals seem to understand the difficulty of group interactions until it is explicitly pointed out to them,…

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The Misrepresentation of Neurodiversity

The Misrepresentation of Neurodiversity

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I’ve previously argued that the pathology paradigm is in crisis and that the neurodiversity paradigm is ready to replace the obsolete pathology paradigm.  I’ve argued that we’re in a period of paradigm shift.  And I stand by those words.  However, there one more thing that we have to do before the paradigms can shift: we have to agree on what the pathology and neurodiversity paradigms are. Paradigms are grand theories that dictate the fundamental assumptions we use to approach some…

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Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Why Do Some People Believe?

Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Why Do Some People Believe?

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There are still people who believe in the most bizarre “cures” for autism.  We see stories about the continued use of chelation (which reportedly has the rather nasty side-effect of occasionally killing people) and bleach “MMS” (ditto).  Some of these complementary and alternative treatment approaches seem so utterly bizarre as to be completely devoid of any vestiges of logic, reason, or science: I once had a parent earnestly tell me that giant magnets under her autistic child’s bed were essential…

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The Autism Epidemic – Why Now?

The Autism Epidemic – Why Now?

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I’ve previously written about the “autism epidemic” and why I think it all just reflects better diagnosis rather than an actual increase in the true incidence of autism.  However, this still leaves us with an interesting question: what exactly happened to increase rates of diagnosis? The diagnosed prevalence of autism has been increasing for a long time, but one big change was the emergence of the idea of so-called “high functioning” autism in the 1980s.  Before then, autism had been…

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On Biomarkers

On Biomarkers

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The research world seems to love “biomarkers.”  Not only does “biomarker” appear to be a very fashionable buzzword in certain circles, but it seems like projects that aim to find biomarkers are very attractive to agencies that fund research.[1]  Among researchers, biomarkers are in the vogue. What is a “biomarker,” exactly? Well, properly speaking, it refers to some kind of biological marker – something like a physiological, functional, chemical, or molecular signal.  This biological marker might tell us that a…

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