Could it be that these people like your son are simply not designed for a post modern society? Hunters, gatherers, high intuitive ones, broken things fixers, bakers, community mood creators / maintainers..?
I can’t help thinking about all these important human roles that got abandoned in a post industrial society.
Could it be that these people like your son are simply not designed for a post modern society? Hunters, gatherers, high intuitive ones, broken things fixers, bakers, community mood creators / maintainers..?
I can’t help thinking about all these important human roles that got abandoned in a post industrial society.
For some. If I'd been caught a lot earlier.... Not a lot of help though if you are Classical/Kanners. For every idiot-savant who gets to be a media darling or whose particular whizz can be monetised, there will be 99 who never get out of the Terrible Twos and worse. I'd pretty much alienated my Mum and all my siblings long before I found out what was actually going on. I think we'll have to catch the train pretty much as, if not before, it derails. Once those neural pathways are set it is going to be very uphill even if it becomes possible.
I see why some disagree with you but I agree to the extent that getting jobs in the corporate world in large businesses is a lot harder for some than if they just grew up and did whatever dad did, as kids may have done pre 19th century. I work as a programmer and remember when my old (smaller) company hired this autistic guy who was very quirky and people had this attitude of "we took a chance on him" and I always wondered if it was hard for him to get a job elsewhere because he'd probably bomb the interviews. But he was very verbal, unlike the focus of the kids and young adults of this article.
In pre-modern societies, children who were deemed incapable of contributing to the tribe and/or a burden on resources were left for dead. Now we force parents to care for them but provide them with inadequate resources & institutional support. Both are brutal, but I think the former practice was more humane than what we have now.
I can relate to that. But that sounds like a relatively small group. And I m thinking more about all the severe cases that you described vs people who are relatively functional and could do with simple, down to earth jobs and an overall support that comes naturally with a tighter community.. it’s the latter, described as “high functioning” by the modern language, whom I m wondering about.
Whether they could lead a normal life in a more traditional society, with simple jobs and tighter community?
I grew up on the other side of the pond in a waaaaayyy more traditional community. And I know of someone who is in her 40s now and she has seriously deteriorated way into her 20s, after she gave birth. Now, her daughter, who is 18 now has deteriorated much earlier, in her teens. Her daughter came into a drastically different society, born in the early 2000. Her mom was born in 1970s and she was able to keep it together for much longer..
And because my 1970s happened in the USSR, those were some very different 1970s, than what you know in the US.
Ours were much earthier and basic and tribe like environment. All of us, Soviet kids of the 1970s still picked berries and mushrooms in the woods and canned them with our parents in our kitchens so that we could make it through the winter with the variety of foods. Not to mention tons of other survival skills that we all thought of as a daily routine. So, how come I now know of only a one or two severely disabled cases back in the old country and nothing about the so called “high functioning on the spectrum..?”
I do not think these “high functioners” are fake. No. I think they are the high risk group who suffered because of all the post-industrial changes.
Could it be that these people like your son are simply not designed for a post modern society? Hunters, gatherers, high intuitive ones, broken things fixers, bakers, community mood creators / maintainers..?
I can’t help thinking about all these important human roles that got abandoned in a post industrial society.
Could this be an answer..?
For some. If I'd been caught a lot earlier.... Not a lot of help though if you are Classical/Kanners. For every idiot-savant who gets to be a media darling or whose particular whizz can be monetised, there will be 99 who never get out of the Terrible Twos and worse. I'd pretty much alienated my Mum and all my siblings long before I found out what was actually going on. I think we'll have to catch the train pretty much as, if not before, it derails. Once those neural pathways are set it is going to be very uphill even if it becomes possible.
I see why some disagree with you but I agree to the extent that getting jobs in the corporate world in large businesses is a lot harder for some than if they just grew up and did whatever dad did, as kids may have done pre 19th century. I work as a programmer and remember when my old (smaller) company hired this autistic guy who was very quirky and people had this attitude of "we took a chance on him" and I always wondered if it was hard for him to get a job elsewhere because he'd probably bomb the interviews. But he was very verbal, unlike the focus of the kids and young adults of this article.
yes, I wouldn't want to take attention further away from those who are in most dire circumstances and need so much support and help..
No offense meant, but no.
Any ideas what, then?
None taken.
In pre-modern societies, children who were deemed incapable of contributing to the tribe and/or a burden on resources were left for dead. Now we force parents to care for them but provide them with inadequate resources & institutional support. Both are brutal, but I think the former practice was more humane than what we have now.
I can relate to that. But that sounds like a relatively small group. And I m thinking more about all the severe cases that you described vs people who are relatively functional and could do with simple, down to earth jobs and an overall support that comes naturally with a tighter community.. it’s the latter, described as “high functioning” by the modern language, whom I m wondering about.
Whether they could lead a normal life in a more traditional society, with simple jobs and tighter community?
I grew up on the other side of the pond in a waaaaayyy more traditional community. And I know of someone who is in her 40s now and she has seriously deteriorated way into her 20s, after she gave birth. Now, her daughter, who is 18 now has deteriorated much earlier, in her teens. Her daughter came into a drastically different society, born in the early 2000. Her mom was born in 1970s and she was able to keep it together for much longer..
And because my 1970s happened in the USSR, those were some very different 1970s, than what you know in the US.
Ours were much earthier and basic and tribe like environment. All of us, Soviet kids of the 1970s still picked berries and mushrooms in the woods and canned them with our parents in our kitchens so that we could make it through the winter with the variety of foods. Not to mention tons of other survival skills that we all thought of as a daily routine. So, how come I now know of only a one or two severely disabled cases back in the old country and nothing about the so called “high functioning on the spectrum..?”
I do not think these “high functioners” are fake. No. I think they are the high risk group who suffered because of all the post-industrial changes.
No ideas. I've been puzzling on this since my son was four. I'm out of ideas.
A 🫂