INJUSTICE!

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I feel that science has done most of us a great injustice by labeling us. Television and the movie industry did not help! My 13 year old son has been tortured so much by his classmates ever since he was mainstreamed 5 years ago. No matter what he says or does, he's seen as the boy who used to be in special ed. No matter what he achieves, no matter how many girls like him, no matter that he's in great physical shape, he's always "less than". They won't cut him a break. I see quite a bit of pathology in these kids and even in their parents. BUT because there's no label - they're "normal". IF THAT's "NORMAL", that what THE HECK IS ABNORMAL?
What horrible human beings. Some of the teachers are included in that they have stereotyped him before even getting to know him. One of the teachers once gave him an easier test than the rest of the class! I asked the school psychologist to give him the honors version of the class test. He aced it!! ! Doesn't the word "spectrum" make sense to people? Why do they so often have blanket opinions about students? Isn't that "prejudiced"? Assuming things about an individual because their neurological make-up differed from yours 10 years ago. People with developmental delay do catch up. Once they're caught up, it's time to stop saying they're delayed!! !! ! For God's sake, what does a person have to do?? Pass a licensing exam?! I now have a license to be treated like a functional human being! I had to go fight at his school because he was only "allowed" to talk to a speech teacher as opposed to talking to the guidance counselor when he had an emotional issue!! WTF?! I was livid! Better to keep your mouth shut about your AS because they dig a hole for you and keep you there. Get help "outside" of your current situation.

Thread moved from Random Discussion to General Autism Discussion.

Ah living in an NT world is great isn't it? ( Sarcasm heavily implied)

Science discovers; people label.

Were it not for science, you would never have known what issues were affecting your son. Likely, the people around him would have labelled him "slow" and "ret*d", and treated him like an imbecile with or without any science.

I don't think it's prejudice, I think it's simply not knowing anything much about autism. Before I knew I had AS a few years ago, I thought of autism as a horrible thing that caused profound problems, always. I always thought in terms of low functioning. I thought high functioning just meant that you could talk and were potty trained by your teen years. Raymond in "Rain Man" was what I thought was the best an autistic person could be. It wasn't because I had any bias against autism, it was because that's all I ever saw in the media.

I'm glad to know I have AS because it helps explain things to me about myself. It's not just those on the spectrum that get labeled. ADHD kids do as well. ODD kids do. Kids with anything that makes them different from others get labeled. Before I knew about my AS "label", I was just labeled as "wierd and unreasonable".

However, with all that being said, even though the general public can be somewhat excused for automatically thinking that autism equals low functioning (because of the media), I do think that teachers or other professionals should know a lot more about it and wouldn't label.

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By what rightgalaxy says it seems like people still do. Why do you have the assumption that science will always negate how he will be treated and labeled? I mean look at France for goodness sakes. I have another question. Why is psychology considered a science? Are there any objective tests for any of their disorders in their DSM? There are tests that can be performed if one has the HIV virus or cancer as far as I know. Thereare tests for fragile x disorder and rhetts disorder? Why don't autism, aspergers, bipolar, depression have any of these types of tests? Why don't borderline personality disorder or antisocial personality have any of these types of tests as well?

If france believes in one form of psychology and the rest of the world believes in another then how is psychology reliable?

By the way, science discovers nothing. It is people who use science who discovers.

Last edited by cubedemon6073 on 26 Jan 2012, 3:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.

And that is a fact of life - a sad, sad fact, but a fact of life nonetheless.

I added more to what I posted. I can agree with what you said here.