A study has shown that children from more affluent areas are 80% more likely to receive an autism diagnosis than from those from more disadvantaged ones. I agree with you with that such patterns are unlikely to reflect genetic tendencies but instead are very largely caused by differences in awareness and leverage. I think it is highly likely that autism diagnosis rates are much higher among those whose parents work in caring and welfare professions such as healthcare, teaching and social work but that is mainly due to those in such professions being far more aware of autism and also having a more supportive attitude towards it, less coloured by the negative attitudes elsewhere in the population. They also have much more leverage to get their child an autism diagnosis and to contest opposition if they meet it from clinicians. Working class kids do get diagnosed with conditions such as autism and ADHD but the impetus there often comes from outside the family and instead from professionals such as teachers and educational psychologists who are often concerned by behavioural problems, lack of achievement and other educational difficulties. In short in the middle classes autism diagnoses are chosen, in the working classes they are often imposed and used as a negative label.
I really like the way you explained it . I agree completely and I can also relate to your experience. My OCD began in childhood but got gradually worse over time, and during primary school and even most of secondary school it wasn't my main problem. Yes I have adhd, but the way I see it, adhd is an executive functioning disorder and most autistic people have some sort of executive functioning problem with perhaps over half of us having enough to meet the criteria for adhd, so I regard my adhd as the executive impairments caused by autism itself. That aside my education was basically destroyed by autism; from my restricted interests and routines interfering with my schooling - especially homework for example, or my repetitive behaviours attracting the attention of bullies (one behaviour which I'm ashamed to admit to was that I used a dummy until I was 18 years old - needless to say that was one of the things that kept me from ever staying over at someones house). My social issues meant that I had no friends which impacted my self esteem and left me vulnerable to the bullies and so much more. My autism was what prevented me from meeting milestones such as going on school trips, learning to drive, going to university, getting a job and was primarily responsible for my not having moved out of my parents home until I was 35 years old. I consider myself lucky in that I've had my parents and then also my husband to support me, and also because I live so intensely in my own little world, I've never gotten too down about my limitations and until recently I never really had to be honest with myself about the potential consequences of losing my support, which if it were to vanish I would be in very serious trouble indeed. I think clinicians like Happé care a lot about autistic people and as such they have a lot to lose if the autism 'community' were to turn on them. Not only would it damage their ability to do research but also to provide care for autistic people and their families. I'm quite shocked at how nasty some (not all of course) in the NDM can be towards people that don't share their dogmas. I think it is really important that autistic people who disagree with some or all of the NDM paradigm speak up, so that the public, clinicians and autistic people ourselves, know that the very loud and vitriolic voice of the NDM doesn't represent us all.
Oops the above comment was meant to be for the previous video. I really like your point about class that you made in this video, it makes a great deal of sense.
