The autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) is a complex neurobehavioral condition, which starts to be noticed since the first year of a kid’s life, and will last for as long as they live. The most recent data shared by the U.S. Center for Disease Control shows that 1 out of every 68 children are diagnosed with some type of autism, but even when this syndrome is more common than most people think, there’s still exist a lot of negative myths around it. Here we’re going to talk about 8 of those myth about the ASD.

True or false? Myths about autism

1) It only affects children

This is only half truth; the condition is usually diagnosed only on kids, but since it’s a lifetime condition, those kids grow up to be adults, and so, adults are affected by ASD too.

2) People with autism do not feel any kind of need for socializing with others

Not quite, although is truth that they do not have the same need that most of us have for socializing, they can enjoy time with others even when they don’t express their joy the same way we do.

3) People with autism do not feel any kind of emotion at all

This is false, it is truth that one of the most difficult things that someone with ASD can do, is to identify what they feel, but that doesn’t mean they are unable to feel any kind of feeling whatsoever, they all have Alexithymia, which is a personality construct characterized by the subclinical inability to identify and describe emotions in the self.

4) People with autism can’t express their feelings

Again, this is only half truth; they can’t express their feelings the same way we do, that is of course related to their alexithymia, meaning they can’t put in words what they feel because they don’t even know how they feel exactly. Nonetheless, they might express their feelings in particular ways, if we pay enough attention to their behavior, we should be able to find something unusual in the way they act, and so, try figure out what they feel.

5) The origin of autism is in a lack of affection

This is absolutely false, the ASD has nothing to do with lack of attention in any way, autism is just a neurobehavioral condition, a brain alteration, meaning that if you pay a lot of attention to a kid even before the autism’s syndrome can be noticed, the syndrome will still be there.

6) People with autism are geniuses

It depends on what you mean exactly. People with the syndrome shows different results when it comes about IQ, although, it is truth that a significant amount of them can show outstanding results, but it’s not something that always goes accompanied with being inside the ASD.

7) Kids with autism should not go to regular schools

Children with autism benefit greatly from integration into school life. Of course, there can be differences, but in most cases send them to school is a good thing; there they can learn about social skills, which is one of the hardest things to do for them. Although it’s truth that some kids can not face a classroom because of different reasons, and that sometimes their behavior can be harmful to other children, as noted before, this doesn’t tend to be the case.

8) They live in their own world

This is also false. A lot of times we hear those words, and though it can be just a manner of speech, it’s just not accurate; they live in the same world we all live in. Sure they can have unusual behaviors, but that doesn’t mean we should try to exclude them; the fact that they have a particular condition is not excuse for treating them as if they’re anything but people with rights and feelings. We should make things easier for them, not harder.

We hope that with this new knowledge, you have a more clear view about the autistic spectrum disorder, and remember, not everything we hear is true, sometimes the facts are a little more complicated.