Autistically Scott

There remains a pervasive and deeply worrying use of pejorative language in society when discussing Autistic people. Of course, this has originated from the early observations of Autistic people almost a century ago, where clinicians made observations of young children displaying distress and judged how they measured against non-autistic people. Despite how much time has passed since then, the assessments we have today are still influenced by this flawed observational model, which lacks genuine insight as to what Autistic experience truly is.

For many years, Autistic people have been described through dehumanising language. When reading through the DSM-5 (American
Psychological Association, 2013) criteria for Autistic people, it is rife with terms such as ‘abnormal’, ‘impairments’, ‘lack’. The majority of websites providing information about Autistic people over the years also prominently feature medical model based language (Leatherland and Chown, 2015).

I felt compelled to write this piece after coming across a poster produced by a council in the lead up to “Autism Month” (sigh). This poster advertised a new support group for parents that are “concerned” their child “exhibits Autistic traits”. Firstly, what kind of message does this give to families that they are to be “concerned” about their child being Autistic?

Seeing this poster reminded me of how common it is for families to seek a referral for an assessment (which schools may have some influence over) only to be told that their child’s teachers ‘don’t have any concerns’ and thus the school would not refer them. Again, what is there to be concerned about? Being Autistic is not equated to being a problematic human being. It is neurological, not behavioural, and the internal processes of Autistic people remains overlooked.

Despite this, the narrative of ‘behaviour’ and presenting ‘problems’ continues to be perpetuated. The formal assessment criteria positions Autistic people as lesser human beings and usually requires a person to display significant distress or be in crisis before they can be referred or recognised.

Furthermore, such pejorative views are exacerbated when being Autistic is ‘diagnosed’, feeding the implication that there is something fundamentally wrong with the person. What beliefs and messages does that send to children and adults when told they are ‘diagnosed’ as Autistic? I much prefer the use of ‘identification’ (Beardon, 2023) as this is value-neutral and does not medicalise the community.

There is even evidence from studies suggesting that Autistic people who associate with the pathology paradigm (Walker & Raymaker, 2021) – the notion that to be Autistic or Neurodivergent is wrong – leads to poorer well-being outcomes. (Walker, 2023)

Instead of fears over children expressing themselves Autistically, where is the concern over the high rates of suicidality in the Autistic community? (Cassidy et al. 2018) Or the huge prevalence of distress that Autistic and otherwise Neurodivergent pupils experience in schools? (Connolly et al. 2023) These are the concerns that need to be addressed and fixed. However, for one to naturally “exhibit Autistic traits” is nothing to fear or worry about.

Rather than spreading messages that incite parents to feel “concerned” about their child being Autistic, there needs to be support and resources put into place which actively avoids such fearmongering. Examples of this include the excellent COTHU course run by AUsome Training. This course guides parents towards accepting their Autistic young person for who they are, instead of treating them as a broken version of a human being.

It is meaningless of councils, organisations and society as a whole to join “awareness days” each year if they continue to remain ignorant about the community they claim to be supporting.

A better use of energy would be to focus on providing opportunities for Autistic children and adults to access their community, given the enormous benefits that meeting other Autistic people entails (Crompton et al. 2020). Additionally, support Autistic-led organisations and informed Autistic (and otherwise) professionals who understand the history of our community and the harm that aspects such as pejorative language inflicts on us.

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References:

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.

Beardon, L. (2023). What Works for Autistic Adults. Sheldon Press.

Cassidy, S., Bradley, L., Shaw, R., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2018). Risk markers for suicidality in autistic adults. Molecular autism, 9, 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-018-0226-4

COTHU. AUsome Training. (2022). Retrieved from https://ausometraining.com/train-the-trainer-parents-autism-program/

Connolly, S. E., Constable, H. L., & Mullally, S. L. (2023). School distress and the school attendance crisis: a story dominated by neurodivergence and unmet need. Frontiers in psychiatry, 14, 1237052. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1237052

Crompton, C. J., Hallett, S., Ropar, D., Flynn, E., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2020). ‘I never realised everybody felt as happy as I do when I am around autistic people’: A thematic analysis of autistic adults’ relationships with autistic and neurotypical friends and family. Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 24(6), 1438–1448. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361320908976

Leatherland, J. and Chown, N. (2015) What is autism? A content analysis of online autism information. Good Autism Practice, 16(1), 26-41.

Walker, N., & Raymaker, D. M. (2021). Toward a Neuroqueer Future: An Interview with Nick Walker. Autism in adulthood : challenges and management, 3(1), 5–10. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2020.29014.njw

Walker, L. (2023). Autism Paradigms and Mental Well-Being Among Autistic Adults: A Quantitative Exploration. https://aura.antioch.edu/etds/907

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