Take Me There to Disneyland

"All that said, however, I freely admit to never going out of my way to learn about autism. Self-fulfilling prophecies kinda scare me. I did do a quick lookup between my previous ask and this one, though, and found that "Asberger's Syndrome" is a medical term listed on the National Institute of Health website as a specific ASD. Looking further shows that there are actually several names for different points on that spectrum. A couple of others include "PDD-NOS" and "autistic disorder"."

Considering I encountered the use of "Asperger's" in almost all of the articles I read while researching, I gather that it is still used, but it's simply a term that has enough unpleasant insinuations that it has become antiquated. It reminds me of how the phrase "hearing-impaired" (which was used a lot when I was a kid) is being phased out for the kinder "hard of hearing," and I'd say in both cases it makes complete sense, given the context. I'm glad to have received the context, definitely!

( 2) truth, there is no such thing as high-functioning autism/ low functioning autism and no one of us is "more" or "less" autistic. We just present different traits ( thats what the spectrum part refers, which variety of traits we show not how 'severe' they are) This is something that a lot of people outside the ASD community are unaware of so I don't think you were bein mean or anything but can you refer to Chaya as autistic from now on? Since aspergers is kinda alienating/hurtful/innacurate"

Thank you so much for letting me know! I did do research online before writing about Chaaya so I could write her believably, but all of the pages I'd found still used the term, so I was unaware that it had that history and was considered hurtful. I apologize for using the term in my comments, and I'm really glad you let me know so that I can be more sensitive in the future.

Aww, thanks, honey! I’m so glad that Chaaya resonated with you at all as, I must confess, I haven’t had any close friends with Asperger’s (as Chaaya does) that I could ask for guidance from, so I had to rely largely on research and articles written by people with the condition. I completely understand what you mean about people assuming that you are less capable because of your disorder, though – my step-grandfather used to verbally abuse my dad, calling him stupid and lazy, because of his ADHD, and my stepbrother was sometimes treated as slow by his teachers thanks to his dyslexia. My stepmother silently struggled with mild schizophrenia for years, yet she was the most academically brilliant woman I’ve ever known. Even in my research I found a few unpleasant articles that tried to claim that one couldn’t be a good parent while having Asperger’s, and it upset me quite a bit, as I’d always imagined Chaaya, Rohan, and Arjuna being a very happy family and Chaaya in particular being a perfect genius in her own right. (Plus I’m sorry, I don’t see how there can’t be more than one way to express love for one’s child.) Fortunately I found several testimonials by parents with Asperger’s debunking that awful preconception, and I was very happy to follow their example.