Autism researchers face off over negative terminology and attitudes

'According to some autism researchers, the field still too often defaults to terms with negative connotations. In a recent survey of 195 autism researchers, 60% of responses included views about autistic people the study authors deemed dehumanising, objectifying, or stigmatising. Some responses described autistic people as “shut down from the outside world” or “completely inexpressive and apparently without emotions,” according to the Frontiers in Psychology study. “What is worse than I thought," says psychologist Monique Botha, "was how blatant a lot of the content was; which shows that, for a large proportion of participants, they did not consider the things they were saying to be problematic at all."' 

More:

www.science.org/.../disorder-or-difference-autism-researchers-face-over-field-s-terminology

Parents
  • Yes.  I'm really glad that Monique and others are speaking out as otherwise it feels as though non autistic voices will continue to prevail.  They only have an outsider perspective that tends to be negative and pathologising, without much understanding of the real, internal drivers for what they're observing and leading to lots of stigmatising and stereotypical views more generally.  :(

Reply
  • Yes.  I'm really glad that Monique and others are speaking out as otherwise it feels as though non autistic voices will continue to prevail.  They only have an outsider perspective that tends to be negative and pathologising, without much understanding of the real, internal drivers for what they're observing and leading to lots of stigmatising and stereotypical views more generally.  :(

Children
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