I was just this morning reading an article on another blog that I follow, a post relating to autism, the upcoming movie Spellers, and the success of “Spelling to Communicate”:
I started to comment in that post, but then decided to bring what I was writing over to my own blog, since it answered a question I had been asking all weekend, “what should I write about this week?” Following is my response, which assumes you have already read the above article.
I am glad to see these things — autism and its causes, how severely affected children can learn to communicate, and Spelling to Communicate — receiving more attention. For Dr. Toby, above, it is a matter of study. For me, it has been a lifetime pursuit.
The autistic spectrum is broad, and I am at the “upper end” of it myself, functioning-wise. I don’t really see it as a linear spectrum with a simple upper end, but I am somewhat at a loss for words to describe the situation that I and others like me are in. Fortunately I came across this article that does a good job of clarifying (I do like clarifications):
Is There Really a Single Spectrum for Autism?1
… The psychiatrist and autism researcher Lorna Wing, who coined the term and added it to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, never meant for it to be seen as a linear progression from low to high function, but rather a “triad” of three different “spectra” including social interaction, communication, and imagination.
Another common misconception is that autism is obvious. In fact, a 2020 study noted that likely a quarter of children with autism spectrum disorder are undiagnosed…
Clear or not, that triad is what I have been dealing with all my life. It has made my life what it is, and while it has been a long, difficult struggle, I am rather glad that it turned out this way, although I do sometimes wish that Lorna Wing had somehow come along sooner. As it happened, I didn’t learn about her work until my 50’s, because I did most of my early library research in my 20’s (early 1970’s, way pre-Internet).
Returning to the first post above, I can imagine what some of these children are going through, and especially the frustration. I can see the value of keyboards. I wasn't able to learn to properly print or to write cursive, the latter being much more difficult, and for that I was berated and downgraded by teachers. Somewhere around 12-13 years old (c. 1963) I was given a typewriter, which I would eventually wear out. It solved a number of problems.
I reached 20 wpm on my own in middle school (on typing paper, slower for the times I tried typing on aluminum foil), and in high school (typing class) I exceeded 60, although with difficulty at avoiding errors. In high school, in class, I went back to printing, which was a huge help. I was surprised that teachers didn't object, but perhaps they were glad not to have to decipher my handwriting.
It almost goes without saying that I think “Spelling to Communicate” is a good idea. I think it is even more important, however, not to label these kids in such a way that they feel inferior or stuck with that label for life. In the 1950s and 60s I encountered a different sort of labeling -- uncooperative and lazy -- because of the difficulties I had in school. Strangely -- weirdly, really -- this proved beneficial. I knew I wasn't those things, and I knew there was something wrong, and I just kept driving toward solving what problems I could. Looking back, I believe there was divine help too; I don't mean to take all the credit but it sure was a lot of extra work. And anxiety.
I received a diagnosis in 1969, at 19 years old, not of autism -- because Lorna Wing and her "autistic spectrum" wouldn't come along until the 1980s -- but in one of the other buckets in use at the time. I failed at that time to connect it with the problems I was having and that, again, was helpful because I saw no particular limit to what was possible. I attributed my social difficulties to other causes for many years, making a terrible mess of my life in the process.
Being an asocial (among other "a's") creature can be a huge annoyance, hindrance, and worse, but it has value. I am part of the population, but not particularly a part of the culture. I can hardly believe my eyes seeing how people sometimes treat each other. I see things that others don't, and I miss things that are obvious to everyone else. I don't want to be part of the culture. I want the culture to wake up and live up to its own notion of "humanity".
Again from the second article:
Symptoms Or Traits?2
For an autistic person who has a low need for services and support (as opposed to a high need, and this can and often does change throughout the life of an autistic person) all of the symptoms in the DSM-5 listed under Autism Spectrum Disorder can also be experienced as strengths or simply preferences and personality traits as opposed to disabilities.
While autism can be and certainly is debilitating for a fraction of people, many who do not need a high level of support see themselves as a minority group with a shared set of traits and characteristics, as opposed to sufferers of a mental disorder, and more and more of the 5 million autistic people in the United States are challenging and questioning that DSM characterization.
Autistic traits such as narrow interests, repetitive actions, heightened reactions to sensory stimuli, vivid imagination, and enjoyment of spending time alone can be beneficial in professional environments that require a high level of focus and specialization or thinking outside of the box, such as coding and engineering.
I can especially affirm that last paragraph, as one who has spent my adult life in professional environments. I was encouraged to go into an engineering field because of my aptitudes, but I switched my major to computer science when it became available, taking altogether 10 years to graduate because of the academic difficulties I encountered, for which no help was being offered at that time (c. 1970).
I will differ with that author slightly in one point, the matter of “can also be experienced as strengths or simply preferences and personality traits as opposed to disabilities“. It might be true for some, but I had to deal with a specific situation, hidden disabilities in the workplace, for more than 40 years. And I made sure to keep them as hidden as I could. (And there was more physical dysfunction involved than just autism.)
I do not now believe that humanity, of its own means, is even capable of resolving its own problems. I have been observing our "progress" through my special ("impaired", supposedly, but not really) worldview for most of my 72 years, and things are not going in a good direction. We are in a very critical situation, and the efforts to avert the worst scenarios, while noble and heroic and well intentioned, are never enough to overcome our inherent limitations.
I have been wanting to go much deeper into this problem of our inherent limitations and what to do about them. It’s going to take time to do that, and I am going to break off here and resume in another post which is already started but far from finished. If you would like to be notified when it publishes…
It’s free, and it is unlikely that I will flood your inbox.
Ibid.
Thank you for sharing your journey. You home sounds very healthy. It's nearly impossible to get rid of all toxins. Being obsessed about 'everything' reduces quality of life. We want to be educated and cautious, but we have to find balance somewhere too, or what is the point? ~sigh
There's new scalar energy type 'healing' therapies, and prayer.
https://www.unifydhealing.com/
https://rumble.com/v2969p6-supernatural-saturday-february-11-2023-question-and-answer.html
Thank you for your post on Toby's substack, and for your in-depth reply/post here. A person on the spectrum - who functions well, sounds similar to a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) as defined by Dr Elaine Aron. https://hsperson.com/ What a richly diverse bunch of humans we are!