Autism Is A Pervasive Developmental Disorder - 1631 Words

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder which many people claim to understand, but few fully do. The extent of most people’s knowledge about autism is seven-year-old white boys who will only talk about cars, Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory, or â€Å"Rain-man†. These people claim to understand the condition and believe that fighting to â€Å"cure† these people of their autism is the right thing to do. They believe they are good people for speaking for the people â€Å"who can’t speak for themselves† (see Autism Speaks, the autism â€Å"charity† widely considered in the autistic community to be a hate group). However, autistic individuals are capable of â€Å"speaking†, for themselves and their community, groups and people like Autism Speaks just are not†¦show more content†¦They claim that using language this way â€Å"puts the person before the disability or the condition, and emphasizes the value and worth of the individual by recognizing them as a person instead of a condition.† (Brown) However, most autistic individuals, and the autistic community as a whole, prefer to be called just that, â€Å"autistic individuals†, which is identity-first language. This is because when â€Å"person with autism† is said instead of â€Å"autistic person† â€Å"[i]t suggests that the person can be separated from autism, which simply isn’t true† (Brown). Another phrase to be addressed is â€Å"cure culture†. â€Å"Cure culture† is the focus on finding the potential causes or a cure for autism. This pervasive attitude is far reaching, including everything from the anti-vaccination movement to Autism Speaks’ â€Å"Walk to Cure Autism†. A domain-specific word to autism is â€Å"allistic†. â€Å"Allistic† simply means â€Å"not autistic† and refers to everyone outside of the autism spectrum. â€Å"Allistic† was fi rst coined for the satirical article â€Å"Allism: an introduction to a little-known condition† but has stuck in autistic vocabulary (Main). This may seem overly complicated, but it is important for the dichotomy to be between â€Å"autistic† and â€Å"allistic,† not â€Å"autistic† and â€Å"not autistic† because by saying â€Å"not autistic,† â€Å"autistic† is set up as the othering factor. The last important term is â€Å"neurodiversity†. â€Å"Neurodiversity† is the idea that people with developmental differences such as autism