“”We label them as retarded because they can’t express what they know”
February 25, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Disability Rights, Intelligence, Neuroscience, Psychiatry
Go here to read Wired’s article, The Truth About Autism: Scientists Reconsider What They Think They Know. The article closely profiles Amanda Baggs—-who notes that “‘I don’t fit the stereotype of autism. But who does?’”— and Michelle Dawson—-who says “‘There’s such a variety of human behavior. Why is my kind wrong?”‘.
And some words by Mike Merzenich, a professor of neuroscience at UC San Francisco:
Mike Merzenich…….says the notion that 75 percent of autistic people are mentally retarded is “incredibly wrong and destructive.” He has worked with a number of autistic children, many of whom are nonverbal and would have been plunked into the low-functioning category. “We label them as retarded because they can’t express what they know,” and then, as they grow older, we accept that they “can’t do much beyond sit in the back of a warehouse somewhere and stuff letters in envelopes.”
And I know one boy who struggles to talk and to read and to answer the question “who many crackers?” after he’s just counted out what’s on his plate: He’s a boy who, too, has been learning the A and D strings on the cello, and who—pointing out the window and calling out “this way, this way”—shows he knows his way up and down New Jersey highways. People might call him retarded and he has a lot of challenges and impairments, and a lot more smarts than you or I can tell.
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield
People should be aware that one of the videos referenced in the article (the one with “Under Pressure”) is by ChristSchool, and the quote about “treated with respect” was actually something that happened during a conversation with the reporter about D.J. Savarese and what he told a reporter on CNN. In both cases, I gave the names of the people the quotes originated with, but in both cases for whatever reason the article ended up without either of them mentioned.
So I just want to note this for anyone who happens across this and mistakenly thinks that I made the “Under Pressure” video or that I said the “treated with respect” thing.
Incredible article; so nice to see a positive article for a change! This ought to be required reading for educators and service providers who want to lump all autistics into the MR category without even attempting to discern the inherent intelligences within the individual.
We were told “MR” about both our twins, and I really think it’s a useless description. I am leaning more and more toward the neuro-diversity camp every day. Charlie does sound to me like he has a lot of smarts. So do my boys, whether it’s immediately obvious to evaluators or not.
Just a personal vent on this theme.
When Eleanor was not quite 3, and I would say that is significant, one of her lead teachers persisted in calling her “low functioning” and treated her in accord. I observed that attitude carrying over to the others that worked with her, even though in the visual skills Eleanor was not only on par for her age cohort, but was advanced. Even on demonstration they refused to believe that she could perform at this level and kept insisting that there was some “trick” involved. It was extremely frustrating.
The basis for this assessment was that she was non-vocal.
It is not uncommon for children who are first diagnosed as low-functioning to jump to high-functioning as they develop their language skills. Indeed this is one way HFA kids are differentiated from Asperger’s kids.
Measures of intelligence are not restricted to verbal areas. Many autistics who score low in verbal intelligence score high on the non-verbal side. There are however a large number who score low in both areas. These are the children who make painfully slow progress. They are quickly passed by other children on the spectrum who are able to make the LFA, HFA leap.
It is highly likely these children will not be self-sufficient as adults. They do however continue to develop, and may show surprising abilities. No, not ’savant’ abilities, but abilities we take for granted in NT children but seem out-of-place when compared to their state of development
Niksmom: Hear hear. Especially on the service provider end.
I am a teacher, and discussed this very thing last year when our school psychologist wanted to give one of my students a label of “moderate to severe MR” and emphasized she was “closer to ’severe.’”
(In familiar situations, the girl could add, subtract, count by 5s, learn 4 to 6 spelling words a week…I could go on and on.)
She used verbal-based intelligence tests, and I argued vehemently that this was unfair to E.
I think, too, people should realize that psychological testing also involves new people, new situations, novel tasks, sometimes new requests and cues, new materials, and unfamiliar language all around.
All of which, of course, are difficult for many children with a variety of disabilities.
(The label stuck, by the way, but I was “allowed” to add an addendum to the report saying what E could do in class under what circumstances.)
And then there are those of us who make the so-called leap, and then can’t sustain such a leap for long periods. (Although I don’t want this statement to be taken as agreement on my part with the labels normally used to describe this.)
If we’re lucky, someone knows or figures out what’s going on with us. If we’re not, we end up either ignored completely, or passed around by various systems that aren’t equipped to support us or even understand us.
Because, the assorted appearances that people believe mean will somehow result in “independence” as we get older… don’t necessarily have anything to do with it, and not all of us can keep up. And for some reason, even if the skills are obviously not developing, people don’t get what that’s going to mean later on.
(I just made this post about some of this stuff, because I’d been discussing it lately.)
The assumption that autism means mental retardation is really one of my pet peeves. A lot of so-called experts in testing really believe that intelligence is pretty muchthe same thing as auditory processing. While they are willing to make accommodations for, say, a physical condition like deafness, do they want to accommodate a hyperlexic? No! I’ve also had supposed experts in IQ testing say that my son’s IQ tests scores must be “invalid” because his non-verbal IQ is about 50 points higher than his verbal IQ.
Got to check out the Wired story. Here is a link to an excellent article on this subject by a professor at Willamette University, called “Are the Majority of Children With Autism Mentally Retarded? A Systematic Evaluation of the Data”:
http://www.willamette.edu/dept/comm/reprint/edelson/
Thanks for mentioning that article—-I wrote on it as Autism an MR wrongly linked in the past. I can certainly see my son’s limits and impairments in some areas, but there are clearly significant strengths—he observes plenty.
It’s a wonderful article. I totally skipped the science part (science makes me go to sleep), but the rest sounded excellent. I’m really encouraged by the progress that’s being made.
There are so many methods used by scientists that need to be question big time.
For instance scientists used carbon dating to claim Earth is 5 Billion years old, but did any of them ever do the math to think of how many thousands go into Million and how many Millions go into Billion? I myself do not believe this Planet is aged in the Millions or Billions at all, but in the Thousands, plus the carbon dating used on volcanic rocks from Mt. St. Helens claimed those rocks were Billions of years old when those rocks are really only nearly 28 years old, so that should question carbon dating right there.
Likewise, as an individual with Autism who has taken the time to research my own disorder and other disorders as well (i’ll use the term disorder or disability, but I don’t use illness or disease as it’s not killing me), I have noticed that stats claim 75% of auties are retarded, but I have to ask myself, where do the scientists come up with these figures?
Now I am not anti-science itself, good things have come out of science of course, Albert Einstein who was probably on the autism spectrum himself, had come up with the Theory of Relativity, and he was actually upset when his theories were used for anti-God purposes (Einstein believed in God, as do I myself).
Autism use to be referenced as Childhood Schizophrenia, although it is known that Autism is not even a form of Schizophrenia at all.
Bruno Bettleheim claimed that bad parenting caused Autism, but guess what, this man was proven wrong and he commited suicide (gee I wonder why).
I hate it when ignorant idiots claim Autism is a form of Mental Retardation, I remember a few years ago some Doctor I chatted with tried to tell me Autism is a form of ADHD, and I said “no it’s not.” then he proceeded to tell me he has a Degree, and I think I told him I don’t care.
Ok I do also have ADHD as well but I know that Autism is not a form of ADHD itself as I have a friend who also has Autism but he does not have ADHD at all.
I also have Seasonal Affective Disorder but Autism certainly is not a form of Seasonal Affective Disorder.
I read the article just today and watched the video. Very impressive.
Because my son has asperger’s, I struggle with how I can relate that article to him. I guess it’s because he’s on the cusp of NT.
I loved hearing this woman’s voice on her video. I’m so thankful that I got to hear it because BA (before asperger’s) I would never have thought about it or considered her language.