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Autism from an Anthropologist’s Perspective

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Acedia
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25 Apr 2014, 3:03 pm

Quote:
Roy Richard Grinker, Ph.D., delivers the keynote address at the 7th Annual Promising Pathways Conference addressing autism spectrum disorders April 12 at Florida Gulf Coast University. Grinker, who is a professor at George Washington University, authored the book “Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism.”

His own daughter was diagnosed with autism at 2 years old in 1994. At that time autism was believed to occur in about one in every 10,000 children compared to today when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's Autism and Disabilities Monitoring Network estimates that about one in every 68 children is diagnosed with autism. WGCU’s John Davis spoke with Grinker about why autism seems so much more prevalent today and about what he’s discovered studying autism across cultures through the lens of an anthropologist.


http://news.wgcu.org/post/autism-anthro ... erspective



Kraichgauer
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26 Apr 2014, 1:40 am

Just as long as we're past that idea that autism comes from Neanderthal genes.


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26 Apr 2014, 2:42 pm

My psychologist was telling me that people with brains like mine were more likely to have made the major discoveries,like fire and flint knapping,and since we were more observant,less likely to be eaten by a saber tooth tiger. :D Maybe we are just more curious.


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26 Apr 2014, 2:53 pm

Misslizard wrote:
My psychologist was telling me that people with brains like mine were more likely to have made the major discoveries,like fire and flint knapping,and since we were more observant,less likely to be eaten by a saber tooth tiger. :D Maybe we are just more curious.


I suspect the shamans who had painted their visions on cave walls probably would have been diagnosed with Asperger's had they lived today.


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26 Apr 2014, 4:50 pm

I would think so,they had to have an incredible memory of the plants that were medical and spiritual,the dosage,and,before the written word,the ability to memorize and pass on knowledge.


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cyberdad
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27 Apr 2014, 1:37 am

Interesting that Prof Grinker's daughter Isabella started communicating more when exposed to animated books. This is why I like WP, so many useful bits of information in unlikely places :)