Reply to Where are the autistic adults?

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Reply to "Where are the autistic adults?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If your autistic co-workers are alive and well, functioning as independent members of society, I hardly see how it compares to non-verbal children who are wandering off into the wilderness and dying because they don't answer to their names.

Just wondering...how many of THEM do you work with in your law firm?  How many of them are your neighbors?  How many of them are your aunts or uncles?[/quote]

There are many researchers that have studied and written about this topic.  Before the 1980s, most kids that were non-verbal, low IQ, and/or violent were labeled as having childhood schizophrenia, emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded.  This is well documented (researchers look at old records of patients for symptoms and compare diagnoses).  Where are they now as adults, in mental institutions, adult homes, etc.  As ASD diagnoses went up after the 1980s, mentally retarded, childhood schizophrenia diagnoses went down.  High-functioning kids with Asperger's for example, were not labeled and ended up at the law firm or science lab as PPs have mentioned, considered "quirky" or lacking social skills, but smart.  I just read a study that kids with average to high IQs that are diagnosed on the autism spectrum as a child will probably grow out of many of the traits that labeled them in the first place, without intervention as they grow up.  Unfortunately, IQ is highly correlated to diagnostic outcomes within ASD.[/quote]

Thought of this thread when I heard a radio story today from the radio show The State We're In--a story called "Where's Molly" about an adult man who rediscovered his younger sister, institutionalized since childhood for mental retardation. (Link from this page: http://www.rnw.nl/english/radioshow/still-here)

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