The ostensibly showing that some small percentage of people with autism can 鈥渙utgrow鈥� their symptoms. The story was oddly unsatisfying, claiming in one paragraph that the study, published in , will alter the way parents 鈥渢hink and talk about autism鈥� but also cautioning against false hope.
The writer seems only dimly aware how this half-hearted message will set off a bomb in the world where lives 鈥� that she will turn on that wicked grin and brandish this study to launch another 40 years of vicious debate over whether autism is caused by environmental factors, namely vaccines, and thus can be cured by brave and dedicated parents like her, or whether it鈥檚 just a condition people are born with.
Thankfully, science writer to show us what it really finds, which is not much that鈥檚 new and certainly nothing that will change our thinking about the progress of autism or make us believe in the McCarthy miracle cure. As Willingham points out, the people who seem to have 鈥済rown out鈥� of their autism had higher cognitive functioning and milder symptoms in the first place, and 鈥渕any of them had behavioral interventions in childhood鈥�.
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One measure the researchers used to evaluate progress was 鈥渢ypically developing friends鈥�, which people with autism sometimes have anyway. Seven of the 34 had some impairment in 鈥渘on verbal social interactions鈥� which the researchers decided, somewhat arbitrarily, was due to other factors such as anxiety or depression.
Anyone who has read a single memoir by someone with Asperger鈥檚 or known someone well with the condition can intuit what鈥檚 going on. At the moment, I happen to be reading by John Elder Robison. Over the course of his life, Robison learns to compensate for his social limitations. As a child he teaches himself to say appropriate things to children and not just foist on them his own obsessive interests. As an adult he learns that blurting out the truth 鈥� 鈥測ou look fatter鈥� 鈥� is not always the right thing to do.
Working around autism
He doesn鈥檛 鈥渙utgrow鈥� his autism, he just learns to work around it. Even later in his life he writes that he wishes his disability were more obvious; when we see someone in a wheelchair we know they can鈥檛 walk, so we help them across the street. There is no way to 鈥渟ee鈥� Asperger鈥檚 so people just assume he鈥檚 a jerk.
Willingham makes the comparison to diabetes, which I have. I have learned how to control my blood sugar pretty well, but I still have diabetes. Autism for high-functioning kids works something like that, even more so these days.
When Robison was a kid, no one understood him at all. They just thought he was odd and would grow up to be a failure. But now there is a well-developed understanding of Asperger鈥檚 and its symptoms, and many behavioural therapies that can help people, especially if they are smart enough to absorb them. So it stands to reason that as time goes on, more people with Asperger鈥檚 or autism will look, to all the world, as if they are 鈥渃ured鈥� without actually being so.
