Thank you for an honest and raw piece on autism. As the mother of a 32 year old on the spectrum who can’t keep a job and stopped trying before the pandemic, I appreciate it. I am so tired of the autism is cute crowd and specials like Love on the Spectrum who make it appear as though this is a lovable and easily manageable problem for most people. My heart goes out to you and your family.

My autistic son, another Jonathan, is 28, and I agree completely about the autism is cute image. 10 years ago, the DSM eliminated Aspergers Syndrome as a diagnosis and folded it into Autism Spectrum Disorder. This gave the public a distorted image of what autism actually looks like for the overwhelming majority of families. And it created the identity politics neurodiversity movement. Because people with Aspergers can speak for themselves and people with more profound autism cannot, this spread…

Agree. I am thankful that the Asperger's term is being used again. It might be on the same spectrum, but the symptoms display very differently

Exactly. I'm actually not certain my boys would qualify (doesn't language delay exclude Aspergers's) but they are closer to that than to Jill's kids described in this piece and I feel weirdly guilty about even using the same words to describe such different levels of impairment and need.

I agree, Pippi and Charlie G. My sons has an ASD diagnosis but he is more "Good Doctor" version but without the savant situation. And even so, it isn't cute or any sort of identity to celebrate.

To me, I believe the intention is to bring awareness rather than to "cutify." I have an Aspie son and I welcome educating people on how to identify the characteristics so people can think "he's on the spectrum" rather than "he's a weirdo."

I’m all for efforts that increase opportunities and acceptance for those disabled by autism — I put my heart into many such efforts, at all ends of the spectrum. My primary concern however is with the research and policy spheres increasingly sugar coating autism.