It’s so often said that
If you’ve met one person/child with autism, you’ve met one person/child with autism.
And of course this is true. It’s why, for one thing, I (like many others parents) emphasize the “I” in “IEP”—”Individual Education Plan.” Many’s the time that Jim and I have sat at the table with the Child Study Team and insisted that Charlie needs to be taught as he needs to be taught, not as “autistic children in general.” It takes awhile—weeks, months—for teachers and therapists, for anyone—to get to know Charlie’s patterns of speech and his way of doing things; to know …read more

The claim that vaccines can be linked to autism suggests that a child became autistic and was somehow “damaged” by a vaccine. According to such a view, not only is autism something that happened to a child; it is something bad that happened—-a recent CBC News special feature, Positively Autistic, says that “since the early 90’s, an autistic rights movement has sprung up, challenging the official view of autism and working to change how the world sees autism.” Interviewed are: Amanda Baggs, Estée Klar-Wolfond of The Autism Acceptance Project, Michael Moon, Michelle Dawson, Dr. Laurent Motron, and Ari Ne’eman and …read more