Autism and Life Hiding in Plain Sight

 

Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in the 1988 film “Rain Man”

Much value is placed on being part of a victim class today. A whole political party has banked its future on creating a hierarchy of social status based on separating people into groups and judging them on their misfortunes relative to each other, and superficial characteristics are emphasized and manipulated to entice people to use them as a crutch preventing upward societal mobility. Conversely, it is traditionally a conservative notion that people be measured by their individual ability, merit, character, and ethic — both work and moral. That is why we should be celebrating and encouraging the movement to liberate autistic and mentally affected people from a negative stigma and open the doors of opportunity and independence of which they rightly want access.

Although we don’t fully understand the causes of Autism or other cognitive disabilities (tip: it’s not vaccines) we do know that diagnosis has risen in recent years from an expansion of the medical definition of Autism and now it’s time to look ahead to how we as a society value people most often seen for their disability than for their unique abilities.

In a leap of awareness in which many people associated autism or neurodiverse people (such as those with Asperger’s Syndrome) with Dustin Hoffman’s character in the film “Rain Man” or the famed professor and autism advocate Temple Grandin, to likely having first-hand interaction with someone on the Autism spectrum, the employment rate for these same individuals has not kept pace. With an estimated employment rate of 37 percent according to the Disability Statistics Compendium released by the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire, there is a large pool of hidden talent ready and willing to unleash their potential — they are just waiting for an opportunity.

One unintended consequence of the burgeoning economy is that companies are creating opportunities: they are widening employee searches and accepting of less traditional job applicants, (which for the purpose of this commentary are neurotypical) and are taking job seekers on the autism spectrum. Major companies are recruiting, hiring, and supporting them. Microsoft, Deloitte, Dell, JPMorgan Chase, and EY are working with non-profit organizations to help identify needs within their companies and pairing them with skill sets of Autistic individuals who are then hired and become invaluable assets. In turn, the newly hired employees gain confidence, an opportunity to thrive and create, and most importantly a life of independence previously closed to them. Some companies have gone further, developing internal neurodiversity programs. In a May 7 Yahoo Finance article, an EY program director described a recent hire: “The young man had been living at home, supported by his parents. When his father passed away recently, he was able to buy his own home and move his mother in with him to take care of her.”

This is the exact definition of valuing every life based on his inherent worth as a person. We should continue to champion an environment of opportunity and unlimited potential. When we meet someone on the autism spectrum are we merely seeing the superficial characteristics – maybe the different speech patterns, the aloofness and averting gaze – or are we assessing them based on skill, merit, or work ethic?

We are near a precipice in our culture where we must decide what value we place on life. Do we nurture and cherish it as a gift? Is a disability, however defined, a curse or death-sentence or part of a life worthy of every ounce of love and opportunity as any other person? Or do we look at those who are perceived as a burden as just that: an obstacle to be worked around, to shutter away and place in the “dependent” bin and treated as a piece of broken furniture that has outlived its usefulness? A November 27, 2018, New York Post article reported doctors in Belgium under investigation for the 2010 death of Tine Nys, a 38-year-old woman diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, who was “improperly euthanized” according to the criminal complaint filed by her family. According to the article: “[In Belgium] It is legal for doctors to euthanize patients who have psychiatric problems that cause ‘unbearable and untreatable’ suffering. Among Belgians put to death for mental health reasons, the most common conditions are depression, personality disorder and Asperger’s.”

Contrast that culture of death to how Israel embraced neurodiversity: The Israel Defense Force has a “Visual Intelligence Unit” known as Unit 9900 consisting of an inspiring and highly intelligent group of soldiers diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Unit 9900 is dedicated to geography, mapping, interpreting aerial and satellite photographs, and space research. The soldiers in this group are lauded for their ability to successfully detect small details that go undetectable to most people because they have high visual and analytic capabilities. Further, they are now included in a sort of rite of passage for Israelis from which they previously were excluded: service to country and protection of homeland, and they are doing a spectacular job.

As we look at the current debate on when life begins, I hope we keep in mind that it isn’t just about babies or court decisions, but families and adults and the chance to break free from a world of isolation and forgotten dependence. Everyone deserves the opportunity to pursue happiness and live a life of liberty. By chance, I happened on a television show on A&E titled “The Employables.” It’s a miniseries in which each episode follows two neurodiverse people on a journey to employment. At the end of one episode, after hearing his adult autistic son received a job offer at a computer software company, his mother said with tears in her eyes, “For the first time, I am not afraid. I think he’ll be okay.” We should never be afraid of embracing life and giving every opportunity for it to thrive.

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  1. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    @eugenekriegsmann

    This reminds me of Trayvon Martin. If he had gotten into serious trouble for committing theft early in his life he might not have ended up dead while being high on lean. Punishing people for being destructive and stupid is actually one of the most merciful things you can do. By refusing to come to terms with that autistic kid’s violent outbursts, the school is making it much more likely that he will end up dead or in jail. 

    • #31
  2. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):

    I would agree with @SusanQuinn and @aaronmiller. Hiding truth helps no one. I worked with kids who had your ideas and intelligence, Aaron. Channeling and redirecting not disciplining worked with them, and I am sure with you as well. The problem with so much of what is done is schools is that that idealistic, leftist teachers and administrators fail to differentiate between those who can be redirected and those who are irreparably damaged or simply sociopathic. Unfortunately, there are an awful lot of the latter cases in the schools. In my early career I had far more of the former in my classes and they were joy to work with. In later years the largest number of students I got were of the latter type. When I worked in Seattle Childrens Home the policy there was to not accept kids diagnosed with Conduct Disorder for the simple reason that they did not respond to therapeutic treatment. Those students ended up in special education classes in the regular schools. After five year at SCH, I spent a year teaching in Juvenile Correction in Seattle and then returned to a public middle school where I had far more of the kids who simply had nowhere else to go. Those few who really had potential did not get as much as I wanted to give because so much of my time and energy was spent dealing with the far more serious behavioral problems, those far less likely to be resolved.

    This reminds me that good special ed teachers, who spent kid-hours by the thousands in a demanding real-world social environment, must know as much or in some ways more about the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of kids with psychiatric problems on this spectrum (or with other disorders) than the people who write the DSM. 

    I just read part of the agenda of papers being read at a recent APA convention, which covers the gamut of the hot topics consuming the minds of psychiatrists,  from

    • disorders caused by Climate Change, to
    • the challenges shrinks face in identifying the sex of their patients in an era where the number of discovered sexes is exploding, to
    • disorders caused by having Trump as President.

    This sounds like satire.  I am sorry to say that it is not. These were actually, literally among the common subjects, and if you saw the whole list, you’d know that I’m making the APA sound far more connected to reality than it is.

    An institution rots from the head down, and I conclude that psychiatrists as a group can now be considered functionally insane.

    • #32
  3. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):

    I would agree with @SusanQuinn and @aaronmiller. Hiding truth helps no one. I worked with kids who had your ideas and intelligence, Aaron. Channeling and redirecting not disciplining worked with them, and I am sure with you as well. The problem with so much of what is done is schools is that that idealistic, leftist teachers and administrators fail to differentiate between those who can be redirected and those who are irreparably damaged or simply sociopathic. Unfortunately, there are an awful lot of the latter cases in the schools. In my early career I had far more of the former in my classes and they were joy to work with. In later years the largest number of students I got were of the latter type. When I worked in Seattle Childrens Home the policy there was to not accept kids diagnosed with Conduct Disorder for the simple reason that they did not respond to therapeutic treatment. Those students ended up in special education classes in the regular schools. After five year at SCH, I spent a year teaching in Juvenile Correction in Seattle and then returned to a public middle school where I had far more of the kids who simply had nowhere else to go. Those few who really had potential did not get as much as I wanted to give because so much of my time and energy was spent dealing with the far more serious behavioral problems, those far less likely to be resolved.

    This reminds me that good special ed teachers, who spent kid-hours by the thousands in a demanding real-world social environment, must know as much or in some ways more about the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of kids with psychiatric problems on this spectrum (or with other disorders) than the people who write the DSM.

    I just read part of the agenda of papers being read at a recent APA convention, which covers the gamut of the hot topics consuming the minds of psychiatrists, from

    • disorders caused by Climate Change, to
    • the challenges shrinks face in identifying the sex of their patients in an era where the number of discovered sexes is exploding, to
    • disorders caused by having Trump as President.

    This sounds like satire. I am sorry to say that it is not. These were actually, literally among the common subjects, and if you saw the whole list, you’d know that I’m making the APA sound far more connected to reality than it is.

    An institution rots from the head down, and I conclude that psychiatrists as a group can now be considered functionally insane.

    I am sure there are many decent people trying to improve the capabilities of people who didn’t too well in the genetic lottery. But the elites are always, white social justice warriors who aren’t connected to people truly in need. Look at journalism. It’s all garbage now for the same reason. 

    • #33
  4. Eugene Kriegsmann Member
    Eugene Kriegsmann
    @EugeneKriegsmann

    I have two copies of the DSM, III and IV. I am not sure what happened to it after those were published, but I suspect that they aren’t of much value. When I worked at Seattle Childrens Home I was considered to be an excellent diagnostician. Years of experience with writing treatment plans and exercising them in real world circumstances unquestionably keeps you grounded in reality. At that time, the late 1980s into the early 1990s, there wasn’t a spectrum in Autism. there was just the diagnosis of Autism. I worked with young man who had not been diagnosed with Autism. However, over a period of several months of watching his behavior in class, his inability to relate to other students, and his need to be somewhat isolated in the classroom, I suggested at a staffing conference that he displayed behaviors which seemed to be close to what I had seen in kids with fully developed Autism. The psychiatrist on our team who had spent some time with the student smiled and said that it hadn’t occurred to him, but that he felt it was an excellent diagnosis.  In light of this experience, I believe that the reason that we are seeing such a rise in the number of children diagnosed with Autism is that a very large number went undiagnosed for many years until the concept of the spectrum evolved. My first wife was a professor of Speech Pathology at the University of Washington. She introduced me to Autism very early in my teaching career in the late 1960s when she was doing therapy with children at the Child Development and Retardation Center at University Hospital in Seattle. At that time only the most severe cases had the diagnosis. These were kids with severe language delays and an inability to relate to others, echolalic language, and perseverative rocking. Many evolved into what was known as “idiot savants”, a term that I don’t believe anyone uses anymore. It is hard to believe that the science around this enigmatic disorder is really so recently evolved. However, the problem of political correctness has evolved simultaneously, and the unwillingness  to clearly state the nature of the disorder and what is required to deal with it along with a desire to create a new victim class to be protected has more than complicated the situation for schools and hospitals alike.

    • #34
  5. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):
    Many evolved into what was known as “idiot savants”, a term that I don’t believe anyone uses anymore.

    “Idiot” like “moron”, “retard”, and so many other synonyms of “dumb” or “mentally challenged” was a clinical term until teenagers made it an insult and professional idiots thought they could get around human nature with another word.

    “That’s gay” has prompted similar word searching since homosexuality became trendy. It’s not cool to be “black” anymore either.

    We have so many words for “crap” because of similar desire to avoid mention of it. For people who place high value on intelligence, idiocy is a revolting thing. For people who don’t equate the mind with the soul, it’s okay to be dumb by nature.

    • #35
  6. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):
    Punishing people for being destructive and stupid is actually one of the most merciful things you can do. By refusing to come to terms with that autistic kid’s violent outbursts, the school is making it much more likely that he will end up dead or in jail. 

    How about that kid who killed those kids at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida?

    He was not expelled and no disciplinary action was taken for numerous offenses.

     

    • #36
  7. Eugene Kriegsmann Member
    Eugene Kriegsmann
    @EugeneKriegsmann

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):
    Punishing people for being destructive and stupid is actually one of the most merciful things you can do. By refusing to come to terms with that autistic kid’s violent outbursts, the school is making it much more likely that he will end up dead or in jail.

    How about that kid who killed those kids at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida?

    He was not expelled and no disciplinary action was taken for numerous offenses.

    I think I can answer that question. The young man was classified as a special education student. By federal law special education students can not be expelled or suspended for behaviors which fit within their disabling condition. Whenever there is an emergency situation a staffing conference needs to be held. The parent, teacher, school administrator, and special education department administrator at minimum need to be present. During this conference the student’s Individual Educational Program (IEP) is examined to determine if that precipitating behavior is part of the disability that originally qualified the student for Special Education services. If so, documentation showing efforts made to modify or extinguish that behavior and their results needs to be examined. A plan to modify that program to operate more effectively is supposed to be developed and documented. That is the law.

    What actually happens in many places is that the problem is simply swept under the rug. Nothing is documented, including the disciplinary problem. None of the potential members of the IEP committee want to go through the process since it is more than likely to yield nothing of value. In some cases, with the compliance of the parent, a kid is shuffled off to a different school or he is put on an undocumented suspension from school. In many cases it is to the advantage of the building administration to downplay the seriousness of the problem, as it tends to reflect on the competence of the adminstration when reports of these kind of events reach the school district superintendent. Maintaining a low profile and minimal disciplinary actions is always to the advantage of school building administrations. Groups like the Evergreen Freedom Foundation in Seattle monitor records of disciplinary actions taken by individual schools and the districts and file nuisance lawsuits whenever they feel justified.  Taking strong affirmative actions to protect the majority of students from feral or violent classmates becomes a very complicated process that most administrators would rather not get involved with it.

    • #37
  8. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):
    During this conference the student’s Individual Educational Program (IEP) is examined to determine if that precipitating behavior is part of the disability that originally qualified the student for Special Education services.

    An IEP is usually enough to get an applicant turned down for military enlistment.

    • #38
  9. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):
    During this conference the student’s Individual Educational Program (IEP) is examined to determine if that precipitating behavior is part of the disability that originally qualified the student for Special Education services.

    An IEP is usually enough to get an applicant turned down for military enlistment.

    Did you mean the existence of, or the contents of, an IEP?

    • #39
  10. Eugene Kriegsmann Member
    Eugene Kriegsmann
    @EugeneKriegsmann

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):
    During this conference the student’s Individual Educational Program (IEP) is examined to determine if that precipitating behavior is part of the disability that originally qualified the student for Special Education services.

    An IEP is usually enough to get an applicant turned down for military enlistment.

    Did you mean the existence of, or the contents of, an IEP?

    I have not heard of an IEP keeping someone from enlisting in the services. IEPs are developed for a whole host of special needs, many which should not keep a person from serving in the armed forces. I would imagine that a diagnosis of mental retardation, total hearing loss, or severely limited vision could possibly cause a candidate to be rejected, but emotional problems experienced during adolescence certainly shouldn’t be a restricting factor in a person 19 years or older. In my experience, many kids who had difficulty in school and ended up in special education classes were quite functional outside of the school environment. School performance was not indicative of their general adaptability.

    • #40
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