The Semantics of Autism - how the meaning has changed over time
A couple of weeks ago I took Monty, aged 18 with ASD, for his Covid booster injection. Since I was accompanying an adult and filling in his paperwork, I thought I should explain why I was needed there. I just said he has autism and prefers to speak English. Where we live, autism still means severe autism and I for one would be very wary about trying to stick a needle in an unknown person with that diagnosis. Monty is no problem at all at the doctor or dentist, he has figured all this out. Moves are afoot to reintroduce the term “profound autism” to describe older children and adults who are severely disabled. The Lancet Commission on the future of care and clinical research in autism (free to access full paper) Awareness of autism has grown monumentally over the past 20 years. Yet, this increased awareness has not been accompanied by improvements in services to support autistic individuals and their families. Many fundamental questions remain about the care of people...