 
Support Wrong Planet Awareness!
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Woodpeace
Sea Gull
Joined: Mar 27, 2008
Posts: 209
Location: Lancashire, England
|
 Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:28 am Post subject: Advocacy by autistics in the 1970s |
 |
|
Jack Dewey was one of the autistic adults who participated in a panel chaired by Margaret Dewey, his mother, at the San Diego conference of the National Society for Autistic Children in 1975. Among the things he said was the following: | Quote: | | It is very important that an autistic person be able to talk to somebody when he is troubled, someone who doesn't immediately assume that all the trouble is in his head. We get pretty upset when we can't figure out what went wrong, when somebody misunderstood us and we don't know how to set it straight. That is a real problem whether we are misunderstood by a policeman or a friend. If the trouble is in our imagination, we have to be helped with that too. |
Taken from Emerging Language in Autistic Children, by Warren H. Fay and Adriana Luce Schuler. Baltimore: University Park Press (1980). Originally published in Dewey, M., and Everard, M. 1975. The autistic adult in the community. Proceedings of the National Society for Autistic Children Annual Conference, June, San Diego, Cal.
In Emerging Language in Autistic Children, Jack Dewey is described as being age 29, self-supporting as a piano tuner and living in his own home. The same book mentions that he gave a recorded interview and "answered questions too extensive in number to include here." Part of what he said is summarized here: | Quote: | | Although he has healthy awareness of his personal talents and verbal accomplishments, Jack realizes that he has problems in self-expression and, to an even greater extent, comprehension. He seemed almost to plead for an appreciation on the part of teachers and others that message-receipt difficulties be not interpreted as hearing, listening, or attentional failures. Such accusations, he recalled, "were more humiliating than anything else, because I was trying to undrestand....It was not wilful...I was anxious to please, but not pleasing." |
Also the article The near-normal autistic adolescent by M. Dewey and M. Everard was published in the Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 1974, #4, pp.348-355.
I had thought that the first autism conference adult at which an autistic person had spoken was in the late 1980s.
The dominant impression I receive from reading books and studies about autism published in the 1960s and 1970s is that almost all autistics were then classified as being mentally retarded. |
|
| Back to top |
|
The_Cucumber
Phoenix
Joined: May 05, 2007
Posts: 524
|
| Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:19 pm Post subject: Re: Advocacy by autistics in the 1970s |
|
|
| Woodpeace wrote: |
The dominant impression I receive from reading books and studies about autism published in the 1960s and 1970s is that almost all autistics were then classified as being mentally retarded. |
Well you have to remember that this was before Asperger's Syndrome was officially recognized, and HFA was probably being diagnosed as other disorders. Effectivly the definition for autism has actually expanded to include more people of average and gifted IQs since the 60s and 70s.
_________________
The improbable goal: Fear nothing, hate nothing, and let nothing anger you. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Postperson
The Daughter of Indifference
Joined: Jul 10, 2004
Age: 51
Posts: 2904
Location: Uz
|
| Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Interesting subject. I wonder if that article is still around (the near normal autistic) |
|
| Back to top |
|
Danielismyname
Troglodyte descended
Joined: Apr 03, 2007
Posts: 5926
|
| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:51 am Post subject: |
|
|
Back then, it was still 1/4 with a normal or above IQ for Autism.
Of note, someone in the 1/4 can be quite far from "normal" in appearance (no speech and frequent repetitive behaviours for example), but still have a normal or above IQ. IQ doesn't determine too much, unless the MR is really profound (rather than just a false score as the person couldn't read the test). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
You can post new topics in this forum
You can reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
|
