Ep. 98 Neurodiversity & the Autism Cure Debate
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What is the main focus of the episode and why does the autism‑cure debate matter?
What's up everyone and welcome to Making the Shift for Autistic Kids.
We're an SLP couple from California with four boys. And we're here every week to bring you neuroaffirming tips, tricks, and tools. Are you ready to make the shift?
Let's do this! Hello, hello, and welcome back to this episode. You're gonna love it. You're gonna love this show. It's just me today. I'm Flying Solo. Because Jesse is at home taking care of the baby, because you know, someone has to keep that tiny little human fed. It's not me. You're gonna love this episode. In case you were wondering, also, yes, Jesse is with the four other boys to our four other children. So if at any point I sound sleep deprived, or if I sound slightly unhinged, it's because I'm running purely on three cups of. Coffee and willpower. That's right, baby. Hey, who needs sleep when you have neuroscience, when you have spicy debates and topics like this, and you have a deep passion for dismantling outdated autism narratives?
All right, let's get into it. So, today's episode, we are talking about autism. We are talking about syndromes and I'm gonna have to cough on this one, the cure conversation, because it pops up, but I promise you you're gonna find some value in this value in this. You're gonna find some information and alternative ways and different viewpoints. You know how my brain works. I go down different pathways and see things a little bit different. So we're gonna talk about that. All right. Not lately, but gosh, for quite some time now, when I post on social media, some folks, not all folks, they lurk in the shadows of those comments, like they're about ready to drop some top secret classified intel. And this is what they do.
They challenge me when I talk about autism. This is what they say. They say, hey, but what about the autistic people who suffer greatly? The ones who require 24-7 care and they have Лифлонг нед. What if they want An intervention to remove their autistic traits. What if they want to cure? What if their family wants a cure for them? So I think that's a very fair and valid discussion. And I want to break it down on thoughts for you and how we can reshape that narrative so everybody can get some valuable information. So the cure debate. Where does this cure debate get messy? All right. So I want to first start off by saying that most autistic people do not want a cure or intervention to erase their neurotype.
Again, I'm going to repeat that. Most autistic people don't want a cure. They don't want an intervention to erase their neurotype. The reason is because autism is not a disease. It's not something that needs to be fixed. But I do understand there's a population of people. People that are speaking about wanting a cure or wanting some type of intervention to get rid of the autistic traits. And I am going to share why those select people might feel a little bit differently. Okay, here's number one. Internalized ableism is a real thing. If society constantly tells you over and over, whether it's directly to you or indirectly, that being autistic is wrong or that it's less than. What's gonna happen? You're gonna start to believe it.
Just ask left-handed folks who were once forced to write with the right hand. That was that was a thing. Yeah, talk to them. This isn't just unique to autism. It's for other marginalized communities as well who go through struggles with internalized negative messaging. Okay, so that's the first thing. The second thing, and this is super important. This episode honestly is worth listening to more than once. Sync this stuff in. So, number two, co-occurring conditions. This has to be a discussions because co-occurring conditions complicate the picture. Some individuals who wish for a cure are often dealing with co-occurring conditions. Some with intellectual disabilities, complex medical issues, and these can cause significant daily struggles.
Why do most autistic people reject the idea of a cure or trait‑erasing intervention?
I did a poll on social media as well as through emails to those who have had been maybe received a diagnosis. Now I'm not a fan of using levels, but
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Chapters
3 chaptersSpeakers
1 identifiedMore from The NeuroAffirm Podcast
Ep. 125 How to Run Successful Social Groups
Ep. 124 Building Rapport Isn’t Enough...How Therapists Become Part of the Intervention
Ep. 123 Not Seeing Progress in Speech Therapy? Start Here.
Ep. 122 Screen Time Considerations for Autistic Kids
Ep. 121 The Biggest Sensory Mistakes SLPs Make
Ep. 120 Why Anxiety is So Common in Autism (And What Actually Helps)