Comments on: Neurodiversity in New York Magazine

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:39:02 +0000

Maybe resigning herself to her son’s condition and finding the good in it was the answer for the author, but I think it’s nice to see genuine autism cured when it can be done.
“Even if he could talk easily and at the same level as children his age, and even if his academic and cognitive skills were grade level, I think he’d still be ‘different.’” That’s called personality. Some people have different personalities and they’re entitled to that as long as there aren’t moral or ethical issues. We as a society portray people who are different as disadvantaged and tell them how to feel about it and that’s just not right. Society used to be honest about being conformist. Now we as a society have subtle ways of promoting and enforcing conformity. I’d rather be criticized for not looking a certain way or owning the right stuff than be hassled for not thinking in what the so-called experts deem the “right” way.
Real autism should be cured, but suggesting that a loner who has the periodic table memorized has something to cure is insulting. Bill Gates is not autistic, and furthermore, he throws himself into a practical and productive job and doesn’t waste his time pathologizing himself and doing this “Asperger’s awareness” stuff. (Occasionally there’s a legitimate case out there, so my apologies to those few people.)
As for the vaccine thing, someone commenting on another site told me that they include a bunch of other stuff with real autism such as the nerdy stuff they label autistic and even so-called ADHD to skew the results. It would be interesting to include just autism and see what the real numbers are, but I won’t believe that not a single case of autism in the world was caused by a vaccine.

By: Debunking (neuro)Diversity Myths « Spectrum Siblings

Debunking (neuro)Diversity Myths « Spectrum Siblings — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:52:24 +0000

[...] more information, you may be interested in Autism Today, a post at Leftbrainrightbrain, this post at autism vox, or this article by Jim Sinclair (mentioned [...]

By: Be Careful What You Label Toxic

Be Careful What You Label Toxic — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:28:36 +0000

[...] scrutiny. Seidel is also featured in Dr. Offit’s new book, and was featured as well in a New York magazine article on neurodiversity. She’s indeed been rather “toxic” (in a figurative sense) to the vaccine-autism [...]

By: farmwifetwo

farmwifetwo — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:46:42 +0000

After reading the article I feel I probably sit in the middle btwn cure and neurodiverse. You will find this house very “normal”. We live with Autism, we don’t live for it…. and they get nagged to pick up after themselves like every other child out there or sit at the table to eat. There’s flapping, hand wringing, vocal noises and a SLP that comes every other week…. but that’s just the extras that come along for the ride.

As I mentioned before I do not think that Asperger’s and NVLD should be mixed in with PDD and autism. Living with both… they are not the same… overlap – Yes. Same – no. All are disabilities of varying degrees, within those degrees people have different strengths and weaknesses. But Aspergers and NVLD are very different than PDD especially as one ages and matures.

But then again my boys sit on opposite ends of the scale… so I should be entitled to that view.

I thought the article was very interesting and well written.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:59:47 +0000

Yes—-wonder where he might appear next—

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:34:19 +0000

Did you catch Ari Ne’eman’s interview with NPR? I thought it was pretty good.

By: An Argument about “Difference” and “Deviance”

An Argument about “Difference” and “Deviance” — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:13:26 +0000

[...] is not critiquing the notion of “neurodiversity” in particular. The main business of his article is to note a pervasive similarity in how all [...]

By: Synesthesia

Synesthesia — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:43:04 +0000

I agree totally with Ari Ne’eman’s point of view. Pink Floyd’s the wall and that giant meat grinder comes to mind.
I just like the neurodiversity point of view a lot better. I feel pretty diverse in terms of how I think and how my brain works.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:01:12 +0000

I think I prefer not have the word “ghastly” applied to my son, but that’s me.

NPR has a story on Ari Ne’eman and autistic self-advocacy.

By: Synesthesia

Synesthesia — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:05:29 +0000

Yes, that would suckm since such a thing would mean people of my complexion would not exist.

I kind of have trouble, and do not be offended, viewing autism as a “ghastly condition.”