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Understanding Autism Resources: Insights, Information, and Support
Autism is a complex and multifaceted condition that affects individuals uniquely, shaping how they experience and interact with the world. Gaining a deeper understanding of autism is the first step toward building empathy, fostering inclusion, and providing effective support. This resource collection is dedicated to exploring the fundamentals of autism. Whether you’re a loved one of an autistic adult, an educator, a therapist, or simply someone looking to learn more, these articles offer valuable insights and perspectives to help you better understand autism and its impact on individuals.
Recent Articles
Navigating Autism and Grief: Understanding and Supporting Unique Emotional Journeys
Grief is an intense and inevitable facet of life. Though the process is distressing for everyone, neurotypical people (people without autism) and autistic individuals will likely experience grief differently. Adults with autism spectrum disorder often have delayed and unexpected reactions to grief. Because of this, it is important for loved ones to recognize the signs of autistic grief and the unique support required for autistic adults during the grieving process.
Advocating for Inclusion: The Role of the Social Model in Disability Empowerment
Most people know someone who has a disability––or they have a disability themselves. According to the census, 13.4% of the total population in the U.S. is disabled. This means 44.1 million people live with various challenges, from ambulatory to cognitive to visual.
Disabilities can be visible or invisible, such as autism or mental health conditions. In addition to the great variations in disability, there’s also more than one way to view the concept of being disabled.
Many autistic folks have engaged in discussion at one point or another about whether being autistic is a difference or a disability. This answer can change depending on which model through which we see autism. In the medical model, autism itself is the cause of a disability, but in the social model, autism is a difference, and it is the environment that disables us.
Read on to explore the differences between the medical and social models of disability.
What Are The Levels of Autism Support
Autism is a condition that can be characterized by social and communication differences and a preference for sameness and repetition. There’s a common saying that “if you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person” because there is tremendous variability in how autistic traits present. The level of support each autistic person needs can also vary greatly. Each person diagnosed with autism will also be assigned a ‘level’ meant to reflect their support needs, but what exactly does this mean?
These support levels are outlined by the DSM, or The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is the U.S. handbook for mental health diagnoses. The DSM is updated every few decades, and the DSM-5, released in 2013, marked a big shift in the classification and description of autism.
The DSM-5 combined the older diagnoses of Asperger’s syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and autistic disorder into one: autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
