Monday, October 22, 2012

Temple Grandin: Autism Is Not My Identity

Temple Grandin on autism as an identity -

I am a scientist and college professor first and a person with autism second. Autism is an important part of me, and I do not want to change, but my career is my identity, not autism.
I get concerned when young kids come up to me and all they want to talk about is “their autism.” I would rather talk about their interest in animals, science, or history. They are becoming their label.

Go read the full article, there are many good points in it.

1 comment:

  1. I really, really, really, detest the entire concept that people are "autistic" and that people require that dx to belong. I find it happens the most in the "passing for normal" crowd and IMO very, very wrong.

    Which is why I am currently trying to give my eldest non-autism language to explain his "quirks" since IMO it is a disability (his younger bro) and he is no longer disabled. BUT, at this time he does still hit enough spots on the IV to keep the HFA dx and since we're moving to highschool... we need that to keep the supports... the extra "flags", the IEP, the extra visites to the highschool etc.

    It's an issue... if help was given just because it was needed, not because of a label... if....

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