Published on 12, July, 2020
This might be one for the Moderators to look into, but I wonder if others have insight on this.
I've had several conversations recently with professionals dealing with adults on the spectrum who've just spouted the triad of impairments, or who've said its all in the triad of impairments.
With all the literature on theories about autism and various interpretations, and approaches to treatment, I could quite understand professionals looking for the easiest synthesis to hand. But what is to hand? Is it just too easy to read up on the triad and related summaries? Or is there nothing else to hand for professionals to use.
The Triad of Impairments, as far as I can see, is of no more value than for diagnosing children. It has little relevance to the everyday lives and experiences of adults, and is hardly appropriate to helping professionals understand adult needs.
It doesn't explain a lot of issues facing adults.
But just what are the main texts used by professionals? And how useful are these texts for supporting adults?
Longman, I've been re-reading your original post and I wonder whether the problem is that autism has only been recognized as a condition for such a short while - and for most of that time it was believed that only children were affected by it. As a result many 'professionals' remain in the mindset that it's a childhood condition and contact with adults puzzles and confuses them, since many (most) of the adults asking for a diagnosis have learned to cope with life in the NT world and don't - on the surface - appear any different.
My own experience was that my GP initially refused to believe that I might be on the spectrum and seemed to find it impossible to accept that while one can cope/fake doing so all the time can be extrmely stressful and results in various mental and physical problems. Children, of course, don't do this.
A poster on another board wrote about his yearly assessment interview with his manager, who said that while his cheerful and helpful attitude was appreciated by his colleagues there were times when he showed quite a different side of himself. However, these colleagues realised that this wasn't the "real" him and made allowances. The poster said he wondered what the reaction would have been if he'd said that the "different" side of him was the 'real' him and the apparently 'normal' behaviour was a skillful veneer he applied in order to succeed at his job.