Contrary to Popular Belief and Stereotype, Autistic People Are Smart — Not Stupid
Based on real experience and evidence
Smartness resulting in disability?
Here’s an article from 2016 about how Autism could be thought of as a disorder of high intelligence. It talks about how (theoretically) Autism might be caused by the brain overdeveloping early on in life, causing overall imbalances.
This is diametrically opposite to how Autism used to be viewed. If you flash back to the story of Hans Asperger, it was only the most apparently promising cases that he saved from the clutches of Nazi euthanasia. Many others were tragically killed or imprisoned, seen as a burden to humanity.
Yet Leo Kanner, who focused on a different population, found a high rate of special intellectual abilities in those he identified. And between him, Asperger, and all the others who were not diagnosed, there must’ve been a great deal of intelligence gone unrecognized.
Retarded, or accelerated?
It’s not right to think of Autistic people as stupid. Mentally “retarded” was the other term (often pejoratively) in common use for a long time, which is maybe relevant in some ways — because it does reference various apparent delays of…
