Autistic Hedgehog

Ugh, you’re gonna make me look at it? Yay.

The first thing that jumps out at me is this:

Not many children with autism live independently after reaching adulthood, though some become successful.

I know for a fact that there are a number of independent and successful autistics adults right here on Tumblr. What really bothers me about this, though, is that it adds to a pervasive rhetoric on autism that make parents, siblings, and others react to an autism diagnosis with “OMG my child/brother/cousin/whatever will never be independent they’ll be like this their whole lives what a tragedy what a burden OMG!" 

Here’s an entire paragraph that makes me want to barf:

There are many anecdotal reports, but few systematic studies, of aggression and violence in individuals with ASD. The limited data suggest that, in children with mental retardation, autism is associated with aggression, destruction of property, and tantrums. A 2007 study interviewed parents of 67 children with ASD and reported that about two-thirds of the children had periods of severe tantrums and about one-third had a history of aggression, with tantrums significantly more common than in non-autistic children with language impairments.

The connection of autism to violence, aggression and tantrums. Those of us who are autistic recognize meltdowns for what they are, but you’ll see the word isn’t used here. It’s true that it’s important to teach autistic children as much as possible that violence and aggression are not okay, but there is no understanding or acknowledgement of what causes these incidences in autistic children to begin with. It just links autism to aggression and tantrums as if autistics fly off the handle for no reason whatsoever, and we know that’s not true.

Think about the Sandy Hook shooting. How many people, in the aftermath, might have gone running off to Wikipedia to find out more about autism and saw that? Looks pretty stigmatizing to me. 

But the thing is, I’m not the one who made that meme. The person who did make it is more than welcome to do a write up on it and send it to Autistic Hedgehog if they’d like, but that’s all I care to stomach of the article myself.