Nine Misconceptions About Autism
AUTISTIC SELF-ADVOCATE JEANETTEPURKIS ADDRESSES NINE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT AUTISM:
Watch Jeanette's TEDx Talk about Disability, Resilience and Achieving the Supposedly Impossible: HERE
“You don't seem very Autistic to me...”
While Autistic people often share a number of general characteristics, we are all individuals. Two Autistic people can be vastly different from one another. Autism is not a determinant of character or what path through life we may take. It is a different neurology, or a different way the brain is ‘wired’ to non-autistic people’s. Suggesting that someone is ‘not Autistic enough’ is highly insulting. Autistic people may have significant challenges which they manage well with strategies or they may keep their struggles hidden. Unless you are that person or live closely with them, you can’t really assess what their Autism means for them. And I really don’t enjoy having to justify ‘how Autistic I am’ to somebody I barely know!
“Are you high functioning?”
Levels of ‘high’ or ‘low’ functioning Autism can be fraught and very unhelpful. The functioning label is often seen as a life-long thing. However this can be inaccurate and misleading. An Autistic someone who works full-time might have a meltdown. So while they are working their functioning is doing one thing but during the meltdown their level of functioning is different. A functioning label fails to describe the frequent changes in ability to cope that can occur in an Autistic person’s life.
People described as ‘low functioning’ are often non-verbal. The low functioning label is often used as a shorthand for intellectual disability but that is a separate condition from Autism and nonverbal people often do not have any intellectual disability. In fact many nonverbal Autistic people are highly intelligent. The functioning label can also become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy for Autistic young people with the ‘low functioning’ ones being given negative messaging and low expectations fir their life and their ‘high functioning’ peers often having unrealistically high expectations put on them and their issues ignored because they come across as articulate. I try not to use functioning labels around Autism at all.
“Are all Autistic people geniuses / computer ‘nerds’ / like Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory?"
Many Autistic people respond well to technology. Some of us are certainly highly proficient at IT-related tasks. However Autism covers the full range of cognitive and intellectual abilities, learning styles and interests. Some people on the Autism spectrum are excellent at art and writing, some are good at maths and some others are great at sports. We are all different.
To assume all of us are highly intelligent is often quite unhelpful. Intellect is not much of a measure of someone’s value and for people on the autism spectrum who are not highly proficient with intellectual or technical tasks, assuming we are all computer geniuses can be exclusionary and can cause feelings of inadequacy.
“Autistic people don’t have relationships or sex”
Many Autistic people are sexual beings in the same way that anyone else is a sexual being. They have relationships, marriages, casual sex and all other sorts of sexual interactions. A lot of Autistic people identify as being queer or gender diverse. While some Autistic people identify as asexual this is not the reality for everyone on the spectrum. Just because Autistic people might not fit the stereotype of who should be having sex and relationships, it doesn’t mean we don’t – or for that matter, that we shouldn’t – do it.
“Autistic people shouldn’t have children”
As with many other disabilities, there is a lot of prejudice around Autistic people raising children. On a personal level I will say that my mum is diagnosed on the Autism spectrum, like me, and she has always been the perfect parent for me. Moving past my own experience and there are a good many Autistic parents in the world. Some evidence suggests that Autistic parents can be a better fit as parents of an Autistic child as they understand their child better than a non-autistic parent would. Autistic parents tend to do some things worse than typical parents and other things better. Autism certain doesn’t preclude someone from parenting or from being a good parent.
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