Chapter 4

Many people get confused about autism.
There’s a lot of wrong information about autism out there.
In this chapter, we will talk about some wrong ideas people have about autism.
We will show you how autism actually works.

VaccinesShots you get to help you not get sick. For example, the flu shot is a vaccine. are shots you get to help you not get sick.
For example, the flu shot is a vaccine.
It keeps you from getting sick with the flu.

In 1997, a scientist said that vaccines caused autism.
His name was Andrew Wakefield.
He was lying.
Lots of scientists proved him wrong.
They showed that autism is not caused by vaccines.
But some people still believe vaccines cause autism.
They don’t give their kids vaccines.
They think it is better for their kids to get sick than to be autistic.
It hurts autistic people to hear that other people are so scared of us.

It is safe to get vaccines.
Vaccines keep people from getting sick.
If people weren’t so scared of autism, they would be calm about vaccines.
That would be better for everyone.

We don’t always know what makes people autistic.
We know that autism is mostly genetic.
That means you get it before you are born. It comes from your family.
Autistic people sometimes have a lot of autistic family members.

In the end, what causes autism doesn’t matter very much.
What matters is supporting autistic people.
We should be able to have good lives no matter what.

A disease is something that makes you sick.
Diseases can really hurt or even kill people.
When someone has a disease, they need to see a doctor.
They want to “get better” from their disease.

Autism is not a disease.
Autism is just how our brain works.
Autism doesn’t make you sick.
You can’t die from autism.
Doctors can’t stop us from being autistic.
We don’t “get better” by not being autistic.
We are autistic our whole lives, and that is just how we are!

People usually want a cure for diseases.
Most autistic people don’t want a cure for autism.
The goal of a cure is to ‘fix’ something.
Autistic people don’t need to be fixed.

Some people don’t care what we want.
They want a cure for autism.
They spend a lot of time and money looking for it.
This is bad for autistic people.
People should spend time and money helping us live good lives.

Some people talk about autism like it is not part of who we are.
They think there is secretly a “normal” person inside us.
They say autism keeps us from being normal.
They want to get rid of our autism so we can be normal.

But you can’t make us normal by getting rid of our autism.
Autistic people are autistic all the way through.
There is no normal person trapped inside an autistic person.
Autism is just part of who we are.
We are autistic, and that’s good.

People say that there are more autistic people now than there used to be.
This is not true.
Doctors are just getting better at finding us.

In the year 2000, doctors said that about 1 in 150 people were autistic.
Right now, they think 1 in 59 people are autistic.
This isn’t because more autistic people are being born.
It’s because doctors are getting better.

Doctors still aren’t perfect.
They miss some autistic people, like girls and people of colorPeople who are not white. For example, black people are people of color..
Doctors are trying to get better at figuring out who is autistic.
That means the number of diagnosed autistic people might keep going up.
This is good! It means more autistic people can get the help we need.

Autism is just a way some brains work.
Autistic people have things that are hard for us.
All people do.
We also have strengths!

There are things about autism that make life harder.
That does not mean that autism is sad.

A lot of the things that are hard for autistic people aren’t hard because of autism.
They are hard because of other people.
For example, people might treat us badly because we are autistic.
They might not understand autism.
They might try to keep us separate from non-autistic people.
None of this means that autism is bad.
It means that other people are being unfair.
We need to make the world a better place for autistic people.

Some people talk about something called “mental age”.
People use mental age when they talk about developmental disabilities.
Adults with developmental disabilities need help with a lot of things.
Some of those are things that most kids can do by themselves.
So, people say that in our minds, we are like kids.

Some autistic people have interests that usually only kids have.
We might also talk like kids do.
We might play in the same ways that kids play.
So people say we are like kids.

But these people are wrong.

For example:

Beth is 36 and has an intellectual disability.
She does not know left from right.
She really likes Blue’s Clues.
A doctor says that Beth is like a 5-year-old.
He says she is “mentally 5.”
This doesn’t make sense.
Beth has been alive for 36 years. Her brain is not like a 5-year-old’s brain.
It is rude to say that she is like a child.

Being a kid isn’t about what you can and can’t do.
It isn’t about how you talk or play.
Neither is being an adult.
You learn and grow every year you are alive.

People are the age they are.
Mental ages aren’t real.
Autistic adults don’t have the minds of kids.
We have the minds of autistic adults.
Autistic adults with intellectual disabilitiesDisabilities that affect how you learn and think. People with intellectual disabilities might learn more slowly. are still adults.

Autistic people can do anything that any other adult can do.
Autistic people can have sex.
We can get married.
We can have kids.
We can make our own choices.
We can live our own lives.
We might do things differently than non-autistic people. We might need more help.
But we are still adults.

Autistic people are born autistic.
But all babies look the same.
We don’t know a lot about how babies will turn out until they get older.
We usually don’t know if a baby is autistic until they are a toddler.
That doesn’t mean the baby became autistic when they became a toddler.
They were autistic before, but people could not tell.

Autistic people grow up to be adults.
We don’t stop being autistic.
You can’t grow out of autism.
If you are autistic now, you have been autistic since you were born.
You will be autistic when you die.

Adults and kids look and act different.
This is true for everyone.
Autistic adults look and act differently than autistic kids.
We learn new skills, get new hobbies, and make new friends.
Things that were hard when we were kids might get easier.

Most movies, books, and stories focus on autistic kids.
So, many people do not think there are autistic adults.
But there are autistic adults! We just look different.

Some autistic people get taught to pretend they aren’t autistic.
People might punish us if we act autistic.
But we are still autistic inside.
Pretending not to be autistic is really hard. It hurts us.

We might get better at pretending as we become adults.
People might see us and think we are not autistic.
That’s not true, though. We are still autistic.
We’re just pretending not to be. And pretending hurts us.

Autistic kids grow up into autistic adults.
We shouldn’t have to pretend that we are not autistic.
People should know autistic adults exist.

Some people think that autistic people can’t talk.
These people are wrong.
Most autistic people can talk.
Some autistic people talked when we were little kids.
Some of us took longer to learn how to talk.
Some of us can talk, but it is hard.

It’s true that some autistic people can’t talk at all.
That’s okay!
There are lots of different ways to communicate.
All autistic people communicate.
It doesn’t matter if we can talk or not.
We can still communicate.

Autism and intellectual disability have some parts that are the same.
But, they are different disabilities.
You can have both, or only one, or neither.

Intellectual disabilitiesDisabilities that affect how you learn and think. People with intellectual disabilities might learn more slowly. affect how you learn and think.
People with intellectual disabilities might learn more slowly.
They might need more help with everyday life.
People with intellectual disabilities do learn and think.
They just learn and think differently.

Some autistic people also have intellectual disabilities.
Most autistic people don’t.
There are a lot of different ways to be autistic!