Autism is scary in large part because we don’t understand it. As a parent, it’s the kind of thing that we all fear. This is a great article about new ideas in autism study. It focuses on Amanda Baggs.
This movement is being fueled by a small but growing cadre of neuropsychological researchers who are taking a fresh look at the nature of autism itself. The condition, they say, shouldn’t be thought of as a disease to be eradicated. It may be that the autistic brain is not defective but simply different an example of the variety of human development. These researchers assert that the focus on finding a cure for autism the disease model has kept science from asking fundamental questions about how autistic brains function.
A cornerstone of this new approach call it the difference model is that past research about autistic intelligence is flawed, perhaps catastrophically so, because the instruments used to measure intelligence are bogus. “If Amanda Baggs had walked into my clinic five years ago,” says Massachusetts General Hospital neuroscientist Thomas Zeffiro, one of the leading proponents of the difference model, “I would have said she was a low-functioning autistic with significant cognitive impairment. And I would have been totally wrong.”
There’s some great links on that page, including YouTube stuff. Check it out.