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Why do people call being autistic "on the spectrum" now?

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alcockell
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09 Jun 2018, 4:14 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
Because calling myself "aspie" is wrong now, even though I still say I am, and if I say I'm autistic people will be stupid and say "But you don't look autistic". Being aspie is like, I'm not really NT, but I'm not really autistic either. I don't relate well to people with "classic" autism, but I also don't relate well to NTs. I don't relate to anyone.


Lorna wing and Judith Gould developed the autism spectrum as a wider diagnostic definition in as you said the 90s.



Glflegolas
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09 Jun 2018, 5:20 pm

B19 wrote:
A spectrum, in science, is a line between two points. All AS people are theoretically at some point on that spectrum, so as long as AS is seen as a spectrum - as it currently is described, by science, society and those on it - the term "on the spectrum" is valid and useful, it has nothing whatsoever to do with political correctness.

I don't happen to believe that the spectrum is an accurate representation, and think a Bell Curve distribution would be far more accurate to describe the AS population. However until that change occurs - if ever it does - then "on the spectrum" is accurate meantime.


I'm not so sure a normal distribution curve would be appropriate. If you ask me, the distribution probably follows that of a Reyleigh distribution:

Image

Replace "wave height" with "degree of autism" and you'd probably get a pretty accurate picture of the spectrum and the number of those on the spectrum having that particular kind of ASD. HFA would be towards the left side, and Kanner ASD towards the right.


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B19
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09 Jun 2018, 6:37 pm

That's another format that is interesting as an alternative. Thanks for adding it to the discussion.