Autism is a Gift

I grew up watching and reading X-men.  In that world, humans had "evolved", via mutation, to another level.  Normal, unevolved humans considered the mutants to be freaks and disabled.  Because of their superhuman abilities the mutants often had a very difficult time functioning in the real world.

Sound familiar?

In that world, our children would be taken in by Dr. Charles Xavier and their abilities would be honed and they would be taught how to use them to change the world.  Their "sensory integration disorder" would be superhuman hearing and sight and touch and taste.  Their way of thinking in pictures or patterns would be such an assett and we'd see neat little montages of how their brains worked. 

Autism is not a punishment, a curse, a disability, a disease.  It is a neurobiological change to the human body and brain that results in a different or better set of abilities.  Our children don't think like us, they don't experience the world in the same way we do.  Because of this, we label them as "disabled" and give them therapy.  How can we take the knowledge that these children are different and possibly BETTER and instead of trying to change them and make them more like us, help them to take advantage of the way they see and think and feel?  The differences they could make in this world could be profound. 

Where would we be today with Mozart, Van Gogh, Einstein, Newton, Tesla?  They would likely be diagnosed with some Autism Spectrum Disorder today.  Perhaps that label should lose the word "disorder" and find another word that still sets them apart, just not in a negative way.  I'm not saying we shouldn't teach our ASD children differently - we obviously should! Just like we offer different opportunities to a child who is phenomenal at sports, and we put a child who is extremely gifted in the advanced classes, we need to make sure we're not trying to change our children to make them more like us.  Maybe we should be trying to be more like them?  Maybe we should change the world to fit them, instead of telling them they should change to fit the world.