Research on the internet.

I began to search the internet to find out more regarding older people and started searching for professional papers regarding diagnosis over 60… there is very little out there. I did find a huge category of books about autism, most aimed at people with kids and how to tell if they might need a diagnosis… explaining childhood traits, etc. I came across some pages which were questionable, and soon learned that autism, like everything else dealing with human beings, has its political side. Did you know you could “take a stand” on autism and the issues surrounding it… diagnosis, treatment, origins , name and classification of the condition, etc. ???

The world of blogging autistic folks is fascinating to me because there is nothing ‘between’ the stories we tell and the person who reads the blog. No analysis by professionals regarding traits and behaviors, how we see things, how we feel about things. The stereotype perception of many uninformed people is that autistic traits are static and can not go through changes as a person ages, or that new skills to cope with challenges can not be learned. There seems to be a stereotype that autistic persons are never able to be sympathetic or caring. Another stereotype is that most autistic people never fully function in the world, as workers in all strata of employment, as partners, as parents… and reading personal blogs destroys all of these assumptions.