This is the state of autism teaching in neuroscience in 2020. Note the check box that says all autistics of all ages can’t pass false/belief tasks and have no theory of mind. https://twitter.com/anomalapropos/status/1232774058896478210

In reality 80% of autistic people have average or ABOVE AVERAGE functioning when it comes to ToM with only the 20% minority showing any deficit.

THIS IS DEFAMATION.
THIS IS SCIENTIFIC FRAUD.

I’ve sat in on one of these tests being performed with an autistic child. When the child was asked “where does sally think the ball is?” Correct answer- “in her own basket” the child said “I don’t know”. The clinician marked this down as a fail.

When I pressed the child with a simple further question - “why did you say that?” The child said, “Sally might not be very clever. She might not remember where she put it. Or maybe she is suspicious and thinks someone stole it....

The problem with this narrative is that the next generation of clinicians and researchers graduate believing that autism strips a person of a fundamental aspect of their humanity - autistic people are less than fully human, and must be treated and cured.

Lots of non-autistic people struggle with mentalising too. Schizophrenia, grief, depression, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, alcoholism, deaf children born to parents who do not sign, new mothers who are sleep deprived - LOTS and LOTS of people show reduced functioning on ToM tests.

The logic goes like this-

Premise 1 -

Humans are the only species that can mentalise: mentalising is what makes us human.

Premise 2 -

Autistics cannot mentalise.

Unavoidable logical consequence -

Autistics are not fully human. Autistic people need treatment/control.

SOME autistic people struggle to pass ToM tests. The reasons for this are complex and don’t always involve an inability to take another’s perspective as is often assumed.

Hi all, anyone interested in this discussion should check out my letter to King’s College London available as of today on The Autistic Advocate @KieranRose blog



https://theautisticadvocate.com/2020/02/regarding-the-use-of-dehumanising-rhetoric.html