Sandbox / Autism Spectrum

Broadly speaking, the Autism Spectrum is a range of mental conditions characterized by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, as well as the presence of repetitive behaviour and restricted interests.

Note: In this article, the word "autism" is generally defined in the same way as defined as "autism spectrum disorder" in the DSM-5, using it as an umbrella term for several separate classifications in previous versions: autism (we will thereafter refer to it as Kanner's autism) and Asperger's disorder (thereafter, "Asperger's autism"), as well as some lesser-known conditions^note Such as childhood disintegrative disorder and pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) This is different from the WHO's International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which continues to classify the conditions as separate and used for the rest of the world. The choice of this definition has nothing to do with Americo-centrism but due to it being the favoured definition by the neurodiversity movement worldwide due to several reasons, partly due to Science Marches On, partly due to the questionable actions of one of the two people listed in this paragraph.^note And no luck for those believing China Takes Over the World—because China's health system used to take more emphasis on public health, the issue of mental health only surfaced in the 1990s. As a result, while the Kanner/Asperger division remains on paper there, the term "autism" covers both.

A Brief History on the Understanding of the Autism Spectrum

The condition now known as autism is independently reported by two psychiatrists: Leo Kanner of Baltimore and Hans Asperger of Vienna. The historical division of the autism spectrum into Kanner's and Asperger's autisms was first caused by the lack of communication between Allied and Axis countries during World War II, and exacerbated by the differences between Dr. Kanner's and Dr. Asperger's clients.

Kanner's and Asperger's reports on autism

The rise of the term "autism spectrum"

Traits related to the autism spectrum

Sociocultural aspects of the autism spectrum

Autistic and allistic views of autism

Common stereotypes associated with the autism spectrum

What's in a term? It's controversial

1. Since the 1990s, disability rights advocates have been advocating the use of person-first language to refer to people with disabilities ("people with disabilities" being an example of person-first language), so as to indicate they are people who happen to have a particular condition, rather than limited (or "qualified" for the linguistic nerd) by it. It has since been considered the proper way to refer to people with disabilities—autistics being the notable exception. Among the autistics themselves, while certainly recognizing they should also not be stereotyped, they also see the traits as part of their own identity, in some ways akin to a personality trait. Because of this, autistics hate using person-first language to refer to themselves. To them, person-first language treats part of themselves as something external to them, and thus not unlike "It" Is Dehumanizing.
2. While the Kanner/Asperger division continues to exist in most countries, there has been certain pushback for using "Asperger disorder", mainly due to two things. First, as described above, the conditions described by Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger converged to the point their only difference is the total IQ score (something considered to be devoid of any clinical utility in modern behavioural science) and speech delay (which is important but not essential). Second, after Hans Asperger's death in 1980, his involvement in Aktion T4, or the less-than-voluntary euthanasia of disabled people by the Nazi Germany, has been discovered, and thus many consider the continued use of his name to be distasteful.
3. And even in regions where there's no longer a Kanner/Asperger division such as the US, there's an ongoing controversy on how to refer to people on different places of the spectrum. Older versions of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the prevalent psychiatric diagnosis guide in the US, would divide (Kanner's) autism into several subtypes, the better-known ones being the high-functioning and low-functioning subtypes, which are based on (several?) factors, but the major factor is, again, the total IQ score, which is why the ongoing use of these so-called functional labels by some people is considered inappropriate by many neurodivergent people; since the autism spectrum is generally agreed to be a multi-dimensional spectrum, and the total IQ score is not only a hardly valid axis of it^note the subpart scores are more useful in this, since they measure the cognitive abilities in different areas, not to mention some of the better-known features of autism (such as things like social skills or emotional control) are not remotely measured in a test of cognitive abilities.

The current preference is just "autistic person," with individual profiles and challenges not part of their official diagnoses (but kept in their clinical files).

Tropes related to how the autism spectrum

• Autism in Media
• Creators on the Autism Spectrum
• Hollywood Autism, a trope about autistic stereotypes presented in the media.