A Happy Day for Autism
The Globe and Mail today put on its front page, an article with Michelle Dawson and Dr. Laurent Mottron from Montreal. They are colleagues "The Postie and the Prof" who have pooled together to dispel all myths about autism. There is a scientific community who believe in the intelligence of the autistic population! "The problem is that autistic intelligence is not measured accurately," Dr Mottron said..."In much of the autistic community -- support groups dominated by parents of autistic children ... is public enemy number one. They want autism to be a sickness that needs to be cured," she said. "They say horrible disgusting things so they can get more money for their lobby groups. They make me sick," Dawson said.
Bravo. Read the Globe and Mail link for full story above.
Bravo. Read the Globe and Mail link for full story above.
4 Comments:
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At the same conference, Professor Morton Gernsbacher criticized the notion among autism researchers that autistic individuals lack a theory of mind.
"I think we as a society fall prey to a slippery slope when we begin talking about members of our society as not appreciating that they or others have a mind," says Gernsbacher. "An uncritical acceptance of the hypothesis that autistic individuals lack a theory of mind can seriously compromise how autistic individuals are treated in the workplace, the community and society in general."
Full story here
Michelle Dawson is truly a remarkable woman and not because she is so different than many people with autism. i've never doubted the intelligence of those with ASD. never. it doesn't surprise me that she is sharp as a tac--both in her manner and mental acuity. would she be any less brilliant if she had a chance to move through the develpmental stages she missed? i don't think so. would she be less caustic? less abrasive? maybe. would it make her happier? who knows.
i imagine what i am doing with regards to my son's AS would make Ms. Dawson sick. that saddens me. i have nothing but admiration and respect for her.
Cool article. I have never believed in IQ tests which do little but test the ability to do IQ tests.
I have posted about this article on the mailing list of the Autistic GNU/Linux User Group (http://autisticlug.org) after reading about it on the AutAdvo mailing list.
kudos, as always, for spreading the word.
sparkes
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