Neurodiversity: The Autism Spectrum - Part 1

Tune in to our second episode into the first part of our Autism Spectrum episode! In this episode, Farah Abdulrahman shares some of her experience of what it's like to be autistic and gives us insight into some of the history of autism, and the ongoing discourse within the autistic community.

She is joined by her co-host, Sara Rizzo, and in this part, they talk about what autism is (and isn't), the strength-based approach, different subtypes and comorbidities, whether people need a diagnosis to identify as autistic, and masking and meltdowns.

Next week, they'll talk about the neurobiology and physiology of autism, the labels and language people use to describe the autistic community (and why a lot is problematic), bust some myths, and talk about ableism to wrap things up.

Other Researchers: Mariya Athar and Esha Mahendran

References

Social Media:

o   Autistamatic: https://www.youtube.com/c/Autistamatic/featured

o   Paige Layle: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFd9e6W-saUSwje3-B2lCVg/featured

o   Purple Ella: https://www.youtube.com/c/PurpleElla/videos 

o   @emlensage on Tik Tok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSJgH5KJj/

Recommended Reading:

·         Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate by Cynthia Kim

·         Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

·         Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg

·         The Autism Journal: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/aut#focusLatestArticles

·         Autism, A new Introduction to Psychological Theory and Current Debate by Fletcher-Watson and Happé

·         Communal Definition of Autism and more: https://autcollab.org/projects/a-communal-definition-of-autism/

·         About the history of ‘Asperger’:

o   https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/news-and-press-releases/revelations-about-hans-asperger-are-we-now-going-get-rid-asperger-label

o   https://time.com/5255779/asperger-syndrome-nazi-germany-history/