Natri, H.M. et al. (2023) Anti-ableist language is fully compatible with high-quality autism research: Response to Singer et al. Autism Research, 16: 673-676. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2928
Singer et al. (2023) argue that the current lexical shift within autism research towards more neutral terminology hinders accurate scientific description of the wide range of autistic experiences, particularly within clinical and medical contexts. We disagree with these claims. This letter is authored and co-signed by a diverse group of autistic researchers, scholars, clinicians, and selfadvocates with a wide range of clinical presentation and support needs, as well as nonautistic researchers, scholars, clinicians, and loved ones of autistic people.
Wachholtz, D., Vidal, V., Latimer, O., Jiménez, M. (2023). Meaningful Social Interactions as a Foundation for Affection and Learning for Autistic Individuals. In: Fossa, P., Cortés-Rivera, C. (eds) Affectivity and Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31709-5_33
Social interactions are postulated as a crucial part of socioemotional development and significant outcomes in life (Bauminger et al., 2003; Healy et al., 2013). There are different types of social interactions that we experience during our life, like caregiver-child, peer, and teacher-student interactions. Historically, social interactions have been promoted from an ableist perspective in autistic populations (Nario-Redmond, 2020). These modes of interactions expect individuals to conform to neurotypical social exchanges creating a great source of negative experiences for autistic individuals, which translates into stigma and mental health issues due to the impact on affectivity capabilities. […]
Reassessing Autistic Development: Integrating the Divergent Minds Framework within the Research Domain Criteria
In progress
Neurodiversity has gained increasing recognition over the past three decades. While advancements have been made in our understanding of autism, autistic traits and characteristics are still defined within a behavioral model. Various disciplines, including therapy, education, and healthcare, have called for more neurodiversity-affirming approaches, yet no unified framework exists to measure autistic development using cognitive assessments. This paper explores how the Divergent Minds framework can be integrated into the Research Domain Criteria model to provide a structured, transdiagnostic approach that aligns with neurodiversity principles while supporting research and clinical applications.
Navigating college: A handbook on self advocacy written for autistic students from autistic adults. (2013). Autistic Press.
Navigating College is an introduction to the college experience from those of us who’ve been there. The writers and contributors are Autistic adults, and we’re giving you the advice that we wish someone could have given us when we headed off to college. We wish we could sit down and have a chat with each of you, to share our experiences and answer your questions. But since we can’t teleport, and some of us have trouble meeting new people, this book is the next best thing. So as you go back to school, check out a copy of Navigating College for yourself or your loved one. We’ve done this all before–let us help you out.
