I always cringe a bit when I hear talk of “curing” autism. I don’t think we need to, or can, cure autism. I think what we need to do is understand autism.
I also struggle with the labeling of those on the spectrum as having a “disorder” – especially as we see the incidence of diagnosed autism in society magnify exponentially. The more I know and the more I learn, the more I recognize that characterizing those on the spectrum as having a “disorder” evidences a misunderstanding of what “order” is.
I maintain that autism (to include all the different individual and differently labeled boxes that folks have created on the spectrum) is evolutionary in nature. By that I mean we have been increasingly moving toward the spectrum as a species for many centuries. Living on the spectrum is nothing new. Some of the greatest and most creative minds this world has known are believed to have lived their lives on the spectrum. Folks like Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Mozart, Michelangelo, Charles Darwin, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Edison, Beethoven and Van Gogh – all are spectulated to have been on the spectrum. As a greater awareness of the spectrum has occurred, more adults (often parents or relatives of kids on the spectrum) have come to the realization that they too are on the spectrum. The spectrum didn’t just come about because we recognized it – it has been there all along in varying degrees. It just wasn’t labeled as such.
Look at that list above again – which is just a sampling of the many amazing people the spectrum has given us. Before hearing they were on the spectrum wouldn’t you have labeled them as brilliant or gifted? You wouldn’t want to cure them would you? You may have thought them eccentric or absorbed in their creative enterprise, but you would have accepted it as part of the balance for their brilliance. Just like you accept my oddities because I am lovable (go with it people…just go with it). 😉
I think many of us know or have known folks who have danced on the spectrum…indeed, I suspect many of us are a part of this evolutionary step. Something has either always been in us or has evolved in us as a species to allow for this level of complicated but beautiful brilliance. This is the new normal of our species – the new extraordinary.
The key to this evolutionary step is understanding what it is to be on the spectrum and what it means to the way we teach, learn, and function in society. We will have to let go of the pigeonhole comfort of the “normal” label and come to appreciate the immense diversity that is offered on the spectrum.
When you think of a spectrum you likely think of the beautiful distribution of colors produced when light hits a prism…like the colors of a rainbow. I think of those who live on the spectrum like that. The beauty and intensity of the colors is there in varying displays waiting to be seen and understood…embraced and celebrated.
Learn more about the spectrum and you will come to see the brilliance that exists there. It is time to embrace the spectrum for what it is and to stop trying to cure it or label it as a disorder – these are the colors of our rainbow and it is time that society takes a vantage point that soaks in the beauty as it is.
Day nine hundred and thirteen of the new forty – obla di obla da
Ms. C
THE NEW FORTY 
I have a couple of extra-ordinary children now in their twenties who are just a half bubble of plum, great math and computer skills but also can be social. I wouldn’t be surprised to find they were part of the spectrum.
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I have two boys on the spectrum and wouldn’t trade our experiences. My oldest is ten and wants to be a scientist or an engineer. My family continues to learn through our boys and seek ways to continuing challenging them. Now if I could only get the school on board…it’s been three years since the diagnosis and, although things have been better through the development of coping skills on my son’s part, the school could be doing a LOT more!
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I am SO excited about the direction that this kind of thinking–no, enlightenment–is taking us! I shudder to think of what we’d have lost if those on the Who’s Who list of probable autistics had been “cured”. I have nothing whatsoever to do with livestock and yet I have been mesmerized for years by the magic of Temple Grandin. I find the entire topic of autism to be exciting–enchanting in fact.
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P.S. LOVE the photo with all the sweeping and soaring colors!
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While some forms of Autism are functional these are far fewer then those who are so dysfunctional that they are not able to take care of themselves let alone survive. Beyond that one should also look at the survival rates of those who are classified as autistic past their 30’s and even 40’s. I have looked and unfortunately it goes like this; care giver(typically mother or father) is no longer able to care for their child as they themselves need assistance; child(adult) is lost to social services or worse is no longer cared for; That is the problem with medicine and social morals, the isn’t a place for our elderly disabled to go. I digress.
While I applaud those who care for and love those with Autism I find it very hard to believe with out fact or data that Autism is part of the Human Evolution instead I would place it in the same category as cancer.
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