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Neurodiversity is the movement being driven mainly by  the people who are now adults, but who grew up as autistic children in a world not designed to accommodate them.

While as parents we may seek to investigate and research into ways to alleviate distress for our children it is important to understand why neurodiverse people are so against research which seeks to eliminate Autism.

Such approaches threaten their very existence, so of course this is seen as a fight for survival. Just as say a person with blonde hair who likes how they look would fight against research that was seeking to eliminate blondes.  In the main the neurodiverse see autism as their whole being rather than a part of them.

They may prefer to be called Autistic rather than someone ‘with Autism’ for that very point

This issue is separate from the parents agenda that is mostly a well-meaning approach driven by trying to help their children have a better or more stress free comfortable life. However, the two approaches are often at loggerheads. We have those who have grown up Autistic who have carved out a life for themselves often by trial and error of what works for them, and the parents of newly diagnosed children seeing their children in great distress and searching for ways to help them which leads them to organisations researching treatments and elimination. Any parent seeing their child in distress would seek to eliminate that distress, however as parents of Autistic children we have to learn where the line is between helping our children with their diverse nature to eliminate obstacles while not eliminating the essence of what makes them individuals. In that vein we need to define the terminology and phraseology which is acceptable to use in the neurodiversity sphere.

This is an ongoing debate and one that is paving out new paths for neurodiversity acceptance so do feel free to comment and your comments may be added to the post to further understanding.