What is Autism?
Autism is difficult to define because there are many misconceptions surrounding it. There are many people or websites who claim that autism is a disorder or a disease. They argue that autism is a problem that needs a cure. This site believes that autism is not a disease or a syndrome. Autism is merely a difference in neurodevelopment characterized by similar behaviors. Listed below are a few definitions by different people or organizations. Although these are respected definitions, it is clear that there is great diversity in these definitions as there is great diversity in autism itself.
According to the Autism National Committee: autism is the common term for a range of disabilities medically classified as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD). Autism/PDD is characterized by qualitative differences in the development of cognitive, language, social or motor skills, and these are usually apparent before age three. Research evidence suggests that autism may result from an underlying difficulty with expressive movement and its regulation, severely challenging the individual to keep body movements, including sensory responses, in control. These sensorimotor problems can make it difficult to respond consistently and productively to other individuals and to the environment.
Autism/PDD is not an illness or a “thing” a person “has.” It is a collection of responses which must be viewed in context, and observation is always more productive than labeling. Across the wide spectrum of the autism/PDD syndrome, individual variations on several key features can be recognized. Reciprocal social interactions, both verbal and nonverbal, are unusual in quality and generally difficult to synchronize and to carry out. Impairments of the central nervous system typically result in over-reactions, under-reactions, or inconsistent responses to various sensory stimuli. Because sensory input is difficult to organize and control, the individual’s activities and interests may appear restricted in their nature and repertoire, frequently involving significant repetition and a need for predictability rather than change. It is important to view the behavior of people with autism/PDD as meaningful adaptations and to take a positive, respectful approach to them, forgoing the common tendency to judge their competence and capacity on the basis of their sensorimotor challenges.
(http://www.autcom.org/about.html)
Jane Meyerding states: I think the problem is that the actual experience of individuals will never fit neatly into any scheme of categorization. No matter how many of your friends fit into your understanding of a difference between AS and HFA, someone else always will come along who does not fit. Plus, it’s all too easy, once we’ve bought into a particular categorization plan, to “trim” descriptions of people (unconsciously) in an effort to make them fit, so that we can preserve our intellectual structures.
It makes much more sense to say it’s all autism. The differences are all individual, although obviously some people have more in common. For example, some autistics do not start to speak when their parents have been told it is the normal age for kids to start speaking, while other autistics do start speaking at a “normal” age (but may have atypical “prosody” or tone of voice). In the past, the non-early speakers would be labeled HFA and the others AS. But I see no reason (based on the people I’ve “met” online) to believe that early-non speaking is a sufficient predictor of a person’s future. Some non-early-speakers go on to function in a way that parodies “normality” well enough that they will be given the “AS” (i.e., “mild autism”) label, while some who did speak on a “normal” schedule will never “grow up” to fulfill the expectations held for them by parents/doctors who believe they aren’t “really” autistic (”merely AS”) because if they were “really autistic” they wouldn’t have been speaking at the age of two.
Autistic individuals are individuals. Our lives cannot be reduced to neat categories. The challenge is to provide the support each person needs (from earliest childhood), not to craft categories of support and withhold support from anyone who can’t prove his/her life looks like the list in the textbook.
(http://mjane.zolaweb.com/snipframe.html)
Larry Arnold describes his form of autism found on the autistic spectrum: Asperger’s Syndrome. Asperger’s Syndrome is a form of high functioning Autism. There are certain characteristics like avoiding eye contact, and being hypersensitive to touch, and hearing, which I have always suffered from, even if I was not aware that they fitted into a broader pattern.
Part of the pattern of Asperger’s, is not being able to read or reciprocate non verbal communication, in fact I do not seem to understand it, nor do I fit in well with conventional social structures. At school I was described as a lone wolf, and very inward looking. Today I am more outward looking but not well comprehending of a lot of the social subtleties that go to make up normal interaction.
Apparently people with Asperger’s also have obsessive and narrow interests which they will pursue to absurd lengths regardless of whether anyone else shares their interest. This fits me too I am afraid, some people would call this the ultimate geek/anorak train spotter syndrome. but I would beg to disagree as nobody likes to recognise this in themself, You may think I am as guilty as the Ancient Mariner in Coleridge’s poem of boring a captive audience to tears with my specialist interests however obsessiveness can be useful as well, take computers for instance most people just use them, I can strip down and rebuild mine. I will leave you decide whether my various past obsessions qualify as such when you read my autobiographical pages, however I do have a second to none knowledge of my special subjects, because I pursue everything with an exacting purpose, and commit everything to a long term memory database you would not believe. I have an amazing ability to remember facts that I squirreled away as long as thirty five years ago, once I have committed a visual image to memory I never forget it.
(http://www.larry-arnold.info/Neurodiversity/index.htm)
Lastly, I have complied a collective definition from college students in an exploring autism class:
First, it is important to note that there are differences between autistic and non-autistic people. Not only are there differences between people who have autism and those that don’t, but there are many differences in each autistic person; no two autistic individuals are alike. Autism is found along a spectrum of developmental conditions that are based on the central nervous system. Autistic individuals have difficulty regulating input, which explains similar characteristics that autistic people show such as difficulty communicating, interpreting and showing emotion, and heightened or dulled senses, or both. Autistics take pride in doing things their own way. They stress the distinction that they experience the world in a way very different from non-autistics. Certain smells, tastes, touches, or sensations can have adverse effects for an autistic individual. Due to these sometimes unpleasant effects, autistics can occasionally become overwhelmed in social situations because numerous sensory stimulations are occurring at once. This overload can explain some of the common behaviors autistic people demonstrate such as, rocking, spinning, and detaching themselves from these situations. While many autistics experience difficulties in their environment, they are also capable of incredible achievements that those who are not autistic would be unable to do. Autism is not a disorder, but rather, a different way of interpreting the world.
