24 August 2013

Seven Myths About Autism

The Autism Support Network recently wrote an article combating seven common myths about autism.  These myths are:

  1. Autistic people are all alike
  2. Autistic people don't have any feelings
  3. Autistic people don't build relationships
  4. Autistic people are a danger to society
  5. Autistic people are all savants
  6. Autistic people have no language skills
  7. Autistic people can't do much of anything
I agree with the author that these myths need to be blown away. For me, all of these boil down to not treating someone who is autistic as an individual person, or as a human being, period. If we would get to know someone with autism, and I mean truly get to know them, you would see they are an individual, who has feelings, who wants relationships, who can communicate and can accomplish a lot of things.