There are tons of incredibly successful, amazing people who have autism. Authors, actors, scientists, musicians, and the list goes on. I recently read a book called "Neurotribes" that explained autism very well. I'd highly recommend it.
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman. The author goes through the history of autism and discusses not only how history impacted autism research but also talks about the controversial idea of neurodiversity and the idea that maybe autism is less of a 'thing to be fixed' but maybe more of a different way of thinking and analyzing the world. Fascinating read.
https://www.amazon.com/NeuroTribes-Legacy-Autism-Future-Neurodiversity-ebook/dp/B00L9AY254
Here's the list my therapist recommended, plus anything by Temple Grandin. I've only read Aspergirls so far, it was pretty good.
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman and Oliver Sacks
Aspergirls - by Rudy Simone
The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder): Revised Edition by Tony Attwood
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison
Adult Asperger's Syndrome: The Essential Guide by Kenneth Roberson
Very Late Diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome: Autism Spectrum Disorder by Philip Wylie
wait till you learn what they did to the autistic kids.
Hi, You linked NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, but there's also NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently, with an equivalent description but different price (and different title, of course).
I'm about to do a huge infodump so I apologize in advance. I've tried to remain as objective as possible and refer to credible sources rather than splurge out my opinion. An awesome person guided me to the Autistics and Allies for More Ethical ABA facebook group, it's definitely worth checking out! That's sort of my main point but I delve into some history and medical ethics if you're interested in reading about that.
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman goes more into depth about autism and its history, it's as important of a read as books on ethnic studies and social justice issues today. https://www.amazon.com/NeuroTribes-Legacy-Autism-Future-Neurodiversity-ebook/dp/B00L9AY254
Disability history is crucial and not taught enough in school, nor are doctors trained how to serve disabled people in the first place. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/05/17/313015089/doctors-ignorance-stands-in-the-way-of-care-for-the-disabled
Worth noting that doctors often mix up autism with having an intellectual disability. Here's some quotes from an article that puts it together nicely and notable quotes https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/the-blurred-line-between-autism-and-intellectual-disability/#:~:text=Doctors%20often%20conflate%20autism%20and,conditions%20intersect%20%E2%80%94%20and%20part%20ways
"The medical establishment once considered <strong>autism and intellectual disability</strong> to be virtually inseparable. In the 1980s, <strong>as much as 69 percent</strong> of people with an autism diagnosis also had a diagnosis of mental retardation. By 2014, the figure for a dual diagnosis — with mental retardation now called intellectual disability — had declined to <strong>30 percent</strong>, as researchers had sharpened the diagnostic criteria for autism."
In summary, there have been cases like Ido Kedar, Carly Fleishmann, Naoki Higashida, and other nonverbal advocates who turned out to not be intellectually disabled as their treatment assumed. I feel like half of the autism wars online are because it's hard to tease out this distinction. Ability can be so incredibly varied. Stephen Hawking was an AAC user and brilliant scientist, but we would never have been aware of it if he didn't have access to means of communicating his thoughts. There's been a bit of a revolution since the introduction of alternative and augmentative communication devices, here's some quotes by an SLP on a blog post: <strong>https://www.speakforyourself.org/uncategorized/accept-behavior-towards-non-autistic-child/</strong>
My school textbook actually goes into some history for AAC and autism explaining that in the past, kids on the spectrum were not considered good candidates for AAC, but later it was discovered that this was seriously not the case. Long story short, people who needed some way to communicate were deprived of it (and can still be deprived), resulting in psychological trauma.
The National Institute of Health has published a paper over concerns over how little training RBTs have to go through in order to work with vulnerable children: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5459762/ More information on low standards for ABA treatment here: https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/low-standards-corrode-quality-popular-autism-therapy/
ABA's origins were unethical (read Neurotribes) and the autistic community is still impacted by the stigma of disability and relatively recent history, much like how the history of gynecology was unethical, and can still be used unethically to this day.
Important to note evidence that having Black doctors attend the births of Black families reduced the rates of infant mortality. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/913718630 This sort of parallels with personal experience of finding the recommendations I received after my diagnosis being unhelpful in bettering my life because they were written by neurotypical people, once I fond the resources written by fellow autistic people did I finally have the psychoeducation under my belt to get my life together. Autistic perspectives are valid to have in the workforce, and if autistic people don't want to work in fields assigned to autism, that is a sign that gaps still need to be bridged.
Much like how the deaf community doesn't view being deaf as a deficit and rather part of one's identity, the autistic community also tends to trend towards this model of disability. https://autisticnotweird.com/2018survey/ While those with intellectual disability truly prefer person first language as it's humanizing, autistic people generally prefer to be called autistic, viewing it as important to identity as race and gender.
Hope I gave you some direction, I completely get if this information is overwhelming but it's an important topic to openly and candidly discuss to work towards a better future for everyone. Just one more paper because I can't help it on what we can learn about the neurodiveristy movement to inform medical practice: https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/what-can-physicians-learn-neurodiversity-movement/2012-06
UC Davis recently released this paper detailing how 15 hours of therapy were just as effective as 25 for toddlers on the spectrum: https://health.ucdavis.edu/health-news/research/for-toddlers-with-autism-more-intervention-hours-are-not-necessarily-better-/2020/10 Meanwhile, this mother was told her children would need 35 hours of intervention per week https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU9etq4Cgyc Note: While this video is about her ceasing ABA therapy, she is continuing with speech therapy and occupational therapy for her children.
According to Mary Barbera, BCBA, there are inconsistencies in how much therapy is prescribed. https://www.marybarbera.com/aba-therapy-how-many-hours/#:~:text=It%20basically%20says%20that%20research,least%202%20years%20or%20more.
The disability community, understandably, has issues trusting the medical establishment, as doctors aren't trained how to serve them. the Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education is working on bridging this gap. https://autismandhealth.org/
The way this sort of works is that modern medicine doesn't have the best reputation of doing things ethically for minority groups, and rebuilding trust is important for optimal healthcare outcomes. Luckily, there are autistic researchers leading the charge. https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/meet-the-autistic-scientists-redefining-autism-research/
Furthermore, today there's a much better understanding of autistic behavior than there was in the past. https://childmind.org/article/autism-and-stimming/ We are also able to hear the inner voices of autistic people more easily through the magic of AAC. Bridging the gap is crucially valuable, much like how having female doctors can improve the healthcare women receive, so can having disabled people put in the room where it happens better healthcare outcomes.