Episode 48: “What is Autism?” (Part 1): Understanding Autistic Communication

“What is autism?” This is a question that comes up a lot in more recent times, and the conversations around autism are extremely nuanced, making it hard to pinpoint one right way of looking at it, so let’s explore autism from what it means historically and clinically to how it represents an identity, and all the things in between.

In this episode, Patrick Casale and Dr. Megan Anna Neff, two AuDHD mental health professionals, start the conversation around autism with an honest and insightful discussion about “what is autism” and the intricacies of social interactions as experienced by those on the spectrum.

Top 3 reasons to listen to the entire episode:

1. Gain insights into the realities of social motivation and its challenges as our hosts reveal their personal struggles with engaging in conversations, especially when they're not “interesting” enough to fuel the interaction.
2. Understand the profound impact of autistic culture on communication forms, with Dr. Neff and Patrick Casale breaking down the DSM-5 criteria of reciprocity, and offering their own thoughts on the criteria including a counterview of how care can be expressed in unique, meaningful ways for Autistic people.
3. Delve into the transforming neurodiversity landscape and consider how our language choices and the metaphors we use to understand autism can influence identity and self-perception, potentially shifting away from deficit-focused narratives.

To start to answer a part of the question of “what is autism,” it’s important to consider the layers of effort and adaptation that accompany social encounters and reflect on your own communication style.

Resources:

For this conversation, we are using Is This Autism By Donna Hendreson, Sarah Wayland, and Jamell White. You can find it here. But wait...

• The publisher is giving our listeners a special coupon during this series! Use Code: NDI24 to get 30% off and free shipping Valid through 6-Jul 2024 (must purchase using this link)

Also, we’ll be reading this book together for our book club in June in the Neurodivergent Learning Nook. You can learn more about our community here.

DISCLAIMER: We're using the DSM-5 criteria as a framework for this conversation, and this is not our endorsement of the DSM. There have been a lot of very thoughtful critiques of the DSM in the last several years, and more specifically, how autism is presented in the DSM is very deficit-based. So, we are not in alignment with that view, but we did use that as a framework to walk through our experience of autism and to unpack the many ways that those criteria could show up in a person. We chose to do this because we believe in the power of transparency and demystifying the process of diagnosis, which has historically been very, obscure and hard to understand. And so this is our effort for those who perhaps are interested in pursuing a diagnosis or who have gone through the process and want to understand it better. This is our attempt to help demystify that experience. It is not our endorsement of the DSM. Thank you for understanding that.

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