Psychological and social aspects of developmental disabilities - autism

In recent years, the condition known as “autism” had gone through not only a name change to “autism spectrum disorder” or ASD, but also a great deal of research the result of which was a more accurate name for the collection of early-onset communication deficits and repetitive sensory-motor behaviors experienced by those who are diagnosed with it. ASD has a strong genetic component, but the research that has been done has given hope to many who have a loved one diagnosed with the disorder. At one time, people who were diagnosed with the most severe types of ASD—a diagnosis that lands toward the more severe end of the spectrum of conditions that make up the spectrum—had little hope of ever living a normal life. Now, more and more, people with ASD are able to live in society and enjoy a full life. A good example is Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager with Asperger’s Syndrome, one of the conditions towards the milder end of the ASD spectrum, who is an internationally recognized global climate change activist and who recently gave a speech at the United Nations. She refers to the Asperger’s Syndrome as her superpower. However, many people with ASD will never be able to work full time as an adult or to live independently. A considerable amount more research must be done to find a cure for ASD, but parents with children on the spectrum should not give up hope because ASD gained great recognition in recent years. A small group of celebrities perpetuated myths about how vaccines were the cause of ASD. While research has clearly refuted that idea, that research also led to a great deal more understanding about ASD and that has led to better treatments and renewed hope.

Famous people often speak out about political issues, which is fine because it is their right to express an opinion. It causes a problem though when a celebrity tries to claim scientific evidence for an assertion such as vaccines cause autism. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, numerous studies have concluded that children with ASD did not receive greater volumes of materials from vaccines than children without ASD and none of the ingredients used in vaccines cause autism. “One vaccine ingredient that has been studied specifically is thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used to prevent contamination of multidose vials of vaccines.. . . . Since 2003, there have been nine CDC-funded or conducted studies that have found no link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and ASD (CDC). While these studies have been made public and widely disseminated, the negative connotation that was affixed to vaccinations in regard to ASD has caused many parents to forego getting their children vaccinated. That resulted in the largest measles outbreak in many years during the late winter and spring of 2019. This is why celebrities who are not scientists should keep their scientific opinions to themselves. However, in this case, the attention the anti-vaxxer claims got benefited those with ASD.

The word and concept of “autism” was first coined by a German psychiatrist, Eugen Bleuler, in 1911. Bleuler used the word to describe a symptom of severe schizophrenia, another concept and word that he had created according to Bonnie Evans of the History of the Human Sciences. Bleuler said autistic thinking was characterized by the infantile avoidance of unsatisfying realities and the replacement of those realities with fantasies and hallucinations (Evans 2). This was the accepted use of the word, “autism,” through the 1950s. In the 1960s, child psychologists challenged these ideas and came up with new epidemiological studies that helped to validate child psychology as a science. “Autism” was reformulated to be a descriptive term for children with a specific type of disorder with characteristics completely the opposite of what Bleuler had said. By the 1970s, “autism” referred to the complete lack of unconscious symbolic life (Evans 2). Once autism was no longer associated with hallucinations and fantasy, researchers turned to the study of language to find the cognitive deficit that causes the symptoms of ASD. Eventually, researchers came to be in agreement that ASD was not caused by emotional reactions or hallucinates, but by a deficit in linguistic thought (Evans 17). As more research was done, scientists discovered that there was a range of severity and affect of the condition referred to as autism. Some researchers wanted to categorize the children who had these symptoms and effects on a continuum with children who do not have them in an attempt to avoid stigmatizing those with autism. This is how the concept of an autism spectrum came about. Those with no symptoms are at one end of it; those with severe symptoms are at the other end.

While ASD is a blanket term for a number of conditions, these condit