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Autism theory

Published on February 28, 2019   48 min

A selection of talks on Neuroscience

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Hi, my name is Nick Chown and this is a presentation on autism theory. I will tell you a little bit about myself in a moment. This presentation is based on lectures given to the National Autistic Society sponsored Sheffield Hallam University postgraduate certificate in autism and Asperger's syndrome. It's a combination of generally available information and received opinion about autism theory together with some of my own views. I will make it very clear to you where something is my own opinion. Before I tell you what I'm going to be speaking about, I need to say something regarding my use of terminology. Some people hold very strong views on certain aspects of autism terminology so, I need to assure you that it is not my intention to upset anyone with my use of terms. I generally use identity first language, such as autistic person rather than person-first language, such as person with autism because the majority of autistic people who express a view prefer the identity-first version. This is because the person-first version implies that there is a real person hidden under the autism and thereby, devalues them as not being a real person. Now, the second terminology point I need to mention is my use of autism as a generic term covering all the different diagnoses and there are so many on the autism spectrum disorder, Asperger's syndrome and so on. I refer to non-autistic people as either neurotypical or typically developing. I should also add that much of this talk, if not all of it, will be an oversimplification of the subject matter. Autism theory is complex; I didn't think you would want to listen to me for a whole week.