Others were prodigies who were failing in school because their teachers interpreted their pedantic mannerisms and failure to obey instructions as willful insurrection. The most severely disabled children had been branded as feebleminded and warehoused in asylums. They also saw a number of teenagers and adults who fit the same profile. Over the course of a decade, Asperger and his staff examined more than two hundred children who displayed a similarly striking cluster of social awkwardness, precocious abilities, and fascination with rules, laws, and schedules. But it had been forgotten, along with the story of a brave clinician who tried to rescue the children in his care from the darkest social engineering experiment in human history. In fact, it was the oldest idea in autism research. In the shadow of the rising numbers, making peace with autism-by viewing it as a lifelong disability that deserves support, rather than as a disease of children that can be cured-seemed like a new and radical idea. I’ve posted some of my favorite quotes below I just finished the book Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman.
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