Does your loved one have Aspergers Syndrome? (ASD Level 1)

This checklist provides general indicators of the behaviours observed in children, young people and adults with Asperger’s Syndrome. Each person is different and very few will exhibit all of these characteristics. Challenges to unusual functioning ability may be present in the following areas:

Social & Emotional Developmental Skills

Communication Skills

Cognitive Skills

Specific Interest

Movement Skills

Traits of Aspergers Syndrome (Autism, Level 1)

Feel 'different' from their peers
May struggle in social situations, often operate by acting in accordance to learned rules rather than intuitively.
Much better in 'one on one' - increasing the number of people increases stress.
Often have Central Auditory Processing problems, may take extra time to take in and understand another's speech
Not so good at "small talk"
Lose Train of thought if interrupted while speaking
Tend to use sophisticated language from their peers
Often better at formulating ideas in written form than in speech.
Find solitude restorative
Value intelligence and logic — need to have a reason for doing things in a particular way
Do not value or find emotions informative
Are natural specialists - become expert in their areas in which they have interest, retaining details easy but have difficulty memorising general information in which they have little interest in.
Can speak knowledgeably and at length about topics in which they have an interest but are not good at picking up cues their audience might give that they are no longer interested.
Make good accountants, engineers, IT and computer specialists. * Tend to perform at the extremes of cognitive ability - hyperlexic, dyslexic
Appreciate order - tend to create systems to manage information and items.
Are able to notice connections that others overlook, so can be very creative e.g designing equipment.
Often have above average visual reasoning skills
Find multi-tasking difficult
Learn best through self-tuition
Are easily distracted, but can be 'hyper focused'
Are perfectionists - dislike making mistakes
Can be pedantic about others complying with the 'rules' (manners & grammar)
Notice details — make very good proofreaders
Struggle with everyday organisation
Tend to be slow and thorough workers and are not good at assessing how long a task will take, so are often late for deadlines
Are better at solo sports than team sports, especially if skill can be perfected by dedicated practice * often have poor handwriting
Often very good with animals
Very musical and sometimes pitch perfect.
Often very good at drama
Are often night owls
Are often really good in a crisis situation.

Traits of "Classic" Autism Spectrum Disorder (Level 2 & 3)

Symptoms typically occur after a period of normal development, usually between the ages of 2 and 10.
Restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests, such as hand flapping, toe walking, or repeating vocalisations
Unusual reactions to what they see, hear, smell, touch, or taste
Difficulty with verbal and nonverbal communication, or limited speech
Extremely sensitive or indifferent to sensations
Preferences for routines and disliking change
Difficulty initiating and maintaining social interactions, forming friendships, and joining in imaginative pla
Different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention
Noticeable stress when dealing with change.
Varying levels of intellectual abilities, ranging from intellectual disability to average or above-average intelligence
Uneven development of skills, with some areas of strength and others of significant challenge
Often miss or misinterpret social cues, facial expressions, and gestures.
Aggression, self-injury, and severe tantrums
Requires substantial support in daily living and may need constant supervision
People with level 3 autism often need 24-hour-a-day care and are typically unable to live independently.

An assessment of what Hans Asperger knew about child euthanasia in Vienna during the Nazi occupation

Ernst Tatzer 1, Werner Maleczek 2, Franz Waldhauser 3

Affiliations Expand

PMID: 36239413
DOI: 10.1111/apa.16571

Hans Asperger is probably best known for Asperger syndrome. However, he has been accused of knowingly and willingly participating in the National Socialist Child Euthanasia programme by referring patients to the Am Spiegelgrund children's home in Vienna. This later became notorious for euthanising disabled children. We investigated those allegations.

Asperger referred 13 children to Am Spiegelgrund. Eleven survived and apparently received adequate care that allowed them to achieve positive developments, but two girls died. Asperger referred these two girls during June and October 1941, before most of the deaths at Am Spiegelgrund occurred and before its euthanasia programme became public knowledge. Our detailed investigation of the medical records, Unit referral practices and Am Spiegelgrund provided no evidence that Asperger knew about the euthanasia programme at the time of the referrals. One death was probably due to euthanasia, but the other was less clear.

There was no evidence that Asperger knew about the euthanasia programme when he referred two patients who died at Am Spiegelgrund.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36239413/

Here at Time 2 Train we value and perceive all individuals as "Neurodivergent" for we as humans are "all different" and unique in our characteristics, personalities to our experiences.

In reality, there are no two distinct populations such as neurotypical and neurodivergent. These are constructed and not specific to any type of group. As part of the human condition and experience is a continued effort to learn and respect one another in diverse ways of thinking, processing experiences to navigating through life.

Terms such as Neurodiversity and neurodivergent have been misused, linguistically hijacked by social community groups, movements, organisations even businesses to create new biases for significance and even profitability.

It is important for society to understand, educate and re-learn, use said terms in their original context.

We are all living under the same human umbrella.

5 Lies the Neurodiversity Movement Gaslights You With

This year I've been around many truly autistic, disabled, and mentally unwell people in real life. I have seen and interacted with these people – including autists with a wide range of support needs – in reality in a range of different settings. These individuals include those with co-occurring intellectual disability, vocal stims and/or Tourette's, co-occurring other disabilities, medium or high support needs, and loud and obvious self-stimulation behaviours.

I’ve seen in real life the clearly inherently disabled autistic individuals that people sometimes say you don’t look like if you have the privilege of being a higher functioning autist with no or very low support needs. I’ve spoken with, worked alongside, and observed these individuals in my real life.

So, to follow up on previous writing, published last year on International Day for People with Disability (December 3rd), I’d like to address certain misconceptions that I noticed to be quite common within the online autistic community (especially on popular social media platforms) whilst I was a part of it last year. The following beliefs are often spread online amongst those who haven’t necessarily seen many disabled autistic people in real life. As I said in this piece, it’s okay if you disagree with some or all of my writing.

1. Autism is just a difference and not a disorder

The neurodiversity movement (a sociopolitical ideology, literally coined by a sociologist) promotes the idea that autism is just a “neurotype”, or a natural, neutral variation in human neurological functioning. Similarly, it claims that other debilitating medical conditions – such as OCD, bipolar, or schizophrenia – that require intervention, therapy, help, and oftentimes medication, are merely neurotypes that do not require intervention, therapy, help, or medication.

The ND ideology gaslights autistic people – who are sometimes socially naïve and thus vulnerable – into thinking that autism is a mere difference that is only disabling because of society. Whilst this may be somewhat true for autists with no or very low support needs, it is certainly not true for all autistic people.

When the medical professionals who wrote the DSM – the DSM and the ICD are used globally to diagnose ASD – invented the level system, they knew very well that some autistic/disabled people require far more support than others. It’s called a spectrum disorder for a reason. Whilst the ICD system does not have levels, the professionals who wrote the ICD knew that some autistic people require far greater support. Someone with higher support needs (aka level 3 ASD in DSM lingo) requires far more support than someone at level 1 or level 0 (aka subclinical autism).

Without support, many autistic people would sink to the bottom of society, which is sadly what does happen in reality for many autistic individuals who did not have access to the required help for their permanent, lifelong disability.

2. Self-identification is as valid as formal diagnosis

One reason many truly disabled autistic people are frustrated at the neurodiversity movement is because it claims that casual self-identification as autistic is as valid as being formally assessed and diagnosed by an autism specialist.

Social media platforms are a breeding ground for various ideologies, performative activism, and identity politics that are detached from reality. Many of the loudest voices have never truly spent time with actually visibly, obviously disabled autistic people in real life. Their privileged lives are detached from the lived experience of moderate, severe, and profound disability.

Nowadays, at least in the Western world, many people are casually identifying as autistic based on subclinical quirks, preferences, personality tendencies, or behaviours which do not necessarily meet the DSM or ICD criteria for autism spectrum disorder. As many individuals use social media now, their content – with millions of views – can easily skew public discourse and beliefs surrounding autism and other disabilities. This makes it even harder for truly disabled autistic people to be taken seriously and to access the support they need for their serious, lifelong, neurodevelopmental, medical disability.

A casual remark from your therapist, or a 15-minute conversation with your general practitioner (GP) or primary health physician, is not the same as undergoing a comprehensive, hours-long evaluation by an autism specialist.

Yes, many of us have been overlooked by mental health professionals. But self-identification is not always valid as autism can resemble many other health conditions, for instance, obsessive compulsive disorder, personality disorders, anxiety and other mood disorders, ADHD, eating disorders, etc.

The ND ideology gaslights people into believing a formal diagnosis is only useful for validation when in reality many of us rely on a professional evaluation (a medical diagnosis of a serious medical disability) to access the support, help, and resources we need to have a decent quality of life.

3. The diagnostic criteria are ableist

Another lie the neurodiversity movement promotes is that the ASD diagnostic criteria are implicitly ableist, sexist, racist, etc. I would say that it’s not the criteria themselves that are these things but rather health practitioners who can be these things

What I find truly ablest is not the DSM or ICD diagnostic criteria but rather the ND movement’s lies that autism is simply a neurotype and not intrinsically disabling in itself. These beliefs can prevent autistic people from accessing the help they truly need for their serious disability in reality.

I understand that many autistic people do not like terms such as “deficits”, “abnormalities”, and so on. But personally, I’ve put the offence aside because I recognise that accessing the practical, real-life support I need is more important than the feelings of those with subclinical autism who can function extremely well without a formal diagnosis of a serious, neurodevelopmental disability.

4. Non-autistic caregivers are not a part of the autistic community

According to the DSM, diagnosable autistic people require support at a low, medium, or high level. Those of us with moderate or severe autism require support to complete our activities of daily living (ADLs). This support often comes from non-autistic, non-disabled people. We want them to be our friends and allies – not our enemies! They often have far greater capability to advocate for, protect, and support us.

Unfortunately, the ND movement can – but certainly does not always – encourage an “us versus them” mentality, which draws a strange line between “neurotypical” versus “neurodivergent” (whatever that means) individuals. This can lead to hostility toward neurotypical people. I would argue that this is deeply harmful, as the required support for people with ASD often comes from neurotypical people.

Non-autistic caregivers play an enormously important role – emotionally, physically, financially, mentally – in the wider autistic community. Simply because someone is not autistic themselves does not mean they do not have their own educated, informed understanding of autism. We should appreciate the enormous sacrifices non-autistic people have made to our understanding of the complete reality of ASD.

5. Certain language is forbidden

In order to maintain their ideological standing that autism is merely a neutral neurotype, zealot-like proponents of the neurodiversity movement engage in sophisticated mental gymnastics. You know you are part of a cult when language is heavily policed. Such is the case in the neurodiversity movement. As mentioned in this writing, the specific words you can and cannot use regarding autism, including your own experience of autism, are heavily policed. You are made to feel immoral if you breach these rules.

As one simple example, you can’t refer to subclinical, mild, moderate, severe, or profound autism, although these are useful descriptors often used by autistic people themselves and/or their caregivers.

If a carer uses terms such as “high support needs” or “level 3” autism, the vast majority of people won’t really understand what they mean. So, I’ve noticed that many caregivers use the term “severe autism,” so people in the general public (not involved in social media advocacy) can more quickly understand what they mean: This is a serious disability that can’t be reconciled with the neurodiversity movement’s ideology.

When you see these self-harming, visibly disabled individuals with serious challenging behaviours in reality, it’s difficult to reconcile the ND ideology’s stance with their lived reality and that of their often-lifelong caregivers.

Final thoughts

Whilst started with good intentions, the ND ideology, I would argue, has reached a point where it is actively harming truly disabled autistic people who require support. It does so through denial of inherent disability, allowing subclinical individuals who might not even be truly autistic to “identify” as autistic based on casual quirks, undermining both medical reality and lived experience of true disability, shunning non-autistic expertise and lived experience, and language-policing and tone-policing autistic individuals.

As a truly disabled autistic person, I find the ND ideology, in its current form, to be dangerous and harmful to not only myself but to thousands of other autistic people who truly meet the ASD diagnostic criteria. I am saying this not just as a disabled, autistic individual, but as one who has spent significant time with others with the same diagnosis in reality.

Monique Moate is a late-diagnosed autistic woman whose interest in psychology and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) stems from a lived-experience viewpoint.