I have friends on both sides of the issue of the autism divide. I read both arguments (cure vs. acceptance) and I am moved by things both say. I am very frustrated with the heat around this issue. It is a great, yawning chasm that promises devastation to any who fall in. <\/p>\n
So, here I go!<\/p>\n
Why is this such an acrimonious issue? Why does the idea of autism being curable rankle some so much? And why do the curebies see red when the neurodiversities disagree with them? <\/p>\n
I think that for the neuro’s it is an insult to imply that autism is something that should be cured. They want to be who they are. That is understandable. But they are so often high-functioning, no wonder!<\/p>\n
My question for them is: What if PECs and FC and all the other modes don’t really work for a very severely autistic person? What if that person really does want to “come out?” What if neurodiversity is really only applicable to very high-functioning, i.e., communicative, people?<\/p>\n
For the curebies, it is sick not to want to help a struggling child “get better.” They have anecdote after anecdote supporting biomedical interventions. They have found DAN! doctors whom they trust. They have found traditional pediatricians whom they cannot trust because they dropped the ball on their kids. They feel that the CDC, et al., have lied to them about mercury and poisons in the well. <\/p>\n
My question for them is: What if you are wrong? What if the treatment you are giving your child is doing nothing or actually hurting? What if, by implication, you are giving your child the message that he is not okay as he is? What about your family life? Is it completely consumed with autism and eradicating it? How do you have any fun?<\/p>\n
The big question is: Is it possible for us all to drop our anger at the other side and focus on what we believe is best for our own kids?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have friends on both sides of the issue of the autism divide. I read both arguments (cure vs. acceptance) and I am moved by things both say. I am very frustrated with the heat around this issue. It is a great, yawning chasm that promises devastation to any who fall in. So, here I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-nY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}