Why autism education needs to change

Thanks JimV-Mod for clarifying. As someone inclined to get pedantic, dogmatic and fanatical at times, I'm not without awareness that I can go too far, or unable to restrain myself, so heartfelt apologies to Zoe for any aspersions (not intentional) on her child rearing or her best intentions.

My concern is that we do not lose sight of the pragmatics issue. I have seen too much, and read too much, and heard too much at conferences about adults or post-transition youngsters being told they are cured by drug treatment or therapy, and that its down to them if they now cannot make it in the world. The fact, which seems not to go away, is that face to face reading and replication of expressions and understandings is a major barrier for people on the spectrum.

The non-verbal communication barriers cause negative experiences to recur, undermine confidence and undermine previous therapy.

Therefore what I would ask is that people do not imply that there is a cure for this, whether inculcated or self addressed via counselling, unless there really is some certainty of achieving this laudible objective.

I don't want to present a depressing picture of my own upbringing. Its just some of my parents ideas created more problems than they solved. Fifty years on I was hopeful that we had perhaps moved forward somewhat from making things harder by reiterating learning tasks.

I do feel that much of the time we are still not understanding enough to be effective enough. Do we talk to late diagniosed adults enough I wonder, in order to find out how they coped (or didn't cope)?

The important point I was making is to be able to distinguish between real progress and children chosing the path of least resistance - doing what the parent/carer/councillor wants just to get through the nightmare of the councilling, or becoming overly reserved as in the example of stimming, to avoid doing anything that draws attention.

And I remain perplexed by 'social stories' as to whether children respond to these by learning what to expect rather than actually resolving their pragmatics issues and ability to receive and transmit social informatiion that depends on this.

Thanks JimV-Mod for clarifying. As someone inclined to get pedantic, dogmatic and fanatical at times, I'm not without awareness that I can go too far, or unable to restrain myself, so heartfelt apologies to Zoe for any aspersions (not intentional) on her child rearing or her best intentions.

My concern is that we do not lose sight of the pragmatics issue. I have seen too much, and read too much, and heard too much at conferences about adults or post-transition youngsters being told they are cured by drug treatment or therapy, and that its down to them if they now cannot make it in the world. The fact, which seems not to go away, is that face to face reading and replication of expressions and understandings is a major barrier for people on the spectrum.

The non-verbal communication barriers cause negative experiences to recur, undermine confidence and undermine previous therapy.

Therefore what I would ask is that people do not imply that there is a cure for this, whether inculcated or self addressed via counselling, unless there really is some certainty of achieving this laudible objective.

I don't want to present a depressing picture of my own upbringing. Its just some of my parents ideas created more problems than they solved. Fifty years on I was hopeful that we had perhaps moved forward somewhat from making things harder by reiterating learning tasks.

I do feel that much of the time we are still not understanding enough to be effective enough. Do we talk to late diagniosed adults enough I wonder, in order to find out how they coped (or didn't cope)?

The important point I was making is to be able to distinguish between real progress and children chosing the path of least resistance - doing what the parent/carer/councillor wants just to get through the nightmare of the councilling, or becoming overly reserved as in the example of stimming, to avoid doing anything that draws attention.

And I remain perplexed by 'social stories' as to whether children respond to these by learning what to expect rather than actually resolving their pragmatics issues and ability to receive and transmit social informatiion that depends on this.