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Is Autism too inclusive?!

Mads

I caught the tail end of a discussion on the radio last night. It was (I think) regarding Professor Dame Uta Frith.

“The spectrum has gone on being more and more accommodating, and I think now it has come to its collapse,” said Professor Dame Uta Frith (UCL Cognitive Neuroscience) on the widening autism spectrum and the growing challenges in diagnosis.

I haven't got a definitive reference but there are online newspapers that have the story (I just don't want to sign up to them to read the full article).

All thoughts welcome. 

Joey. 

Parents

  • https://www.tes.com/magazine/teaching-learning/general/uta-frith-interview-autism-not-spectrum
    (Found one that isn't paid.)

    Basically she wants to go back to autism is only diagnosed between 3-5, mostly males, and the rest are basically making it up. 

    "It’s understandable, because they listen to the lived experiences of people who say they’ve been masking, that they spend their time imitating what neurotypical people do, and they’re exhausted every day because of this. So, the harm is not the masking, but the exhaustion afterwards. I can’t quite understand that, because exhaustion could arise from lots of other causes.

    I expect we could say we are all masking, all the time, trying to adapt to our society’s norms. So, from this point of view, I’m very critical of this idea."

    She says there are too many later diagnosed people, so the answer for her is it's not real, and we should go back in time to when it was easier for them to understand.

  • in reply to Cinnabar_wing

    I forwarded the link to the TES article to my sister, a former primary school teacher. She emailed me her thoughts yesterday — she's skeptical, too, of Uta Frith's reasoning and motivation for her comments. She pointed out that removing the 'autism' label from some children, and/or giving them different labels, isn't really solving anything, particularly as there's no evidence of increased funding forthcoming from the government. In fact, it may be used to justify restricting funding to 'save money'. Slight frown

    This line from her email really struck me. "Supporting children with autism starts with kindness. In my experience training teachers in mainstream school to accept autism as a condition that needs accommodation is key." Alas, my sister had to leave teaching due to the workload plus internal politics, and several times now she has met children through private tuition who are in need of that kindness.

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  • in reply to Cinnabar_wing

    I forwarded the link to the TES article to my sister, a former primary school teacher. She emailed me her thoughts yesterday — she's skeptical, too, of Uta Frith's reasoning and motivation for her comments. She pointed out that removing the 'autism' label from some children, and/or giving them different labels, isn't really solving anything, particularly as there's no evidence of increased funding forthcoming from the government. In fact, it may be used to justify restricting funding to 'save money'. Slight frown

    This line from her email really struck me. "Supporting children with autism starts with kindness. In my experience training teachers in mainstream school to accept autism as a condition that needs accommodation is key." Alas, my sister had to leave teaching due to the workload plus internal politics, and several times now she has met children through private tuition who are in need of that kindness.

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