What Is the Autism Spectrum?

as an autism, im just happy y'all didnt use the puzzle peice for the thumbnail

That is incorrect. The autism spectrum is actually what blasts out of my eyes whenever someone says, "You're not autistic, I know someone who is and they don't act like you." And then they go blind and grow hair on their palms.

Regarding ABA (applied behavioural analysis): you glossed over an important caveat to its "success" rate, which is that it measures "success" in terms of conformity to neurotypical behaviours — rather than in terms of improving the subjective experience of the autist, like by teaching them ways to reduce the effects of overstimulation, explicit emotion reading skills, explicit social scripts, differences between them and allists which help understand problems in interactions, etc. That is the crux of autistic criticism of ABA: that it looks at behavioural conformity (like operant conditioning) to improve life for allists around the autist, rather than at improving life for the autist (and as a byproduct giving them the skills needed to better integrate with allists).

Hank. Imagine if someone zapped you everytime you failed to do something that your body wasnt designed to be able to do as a child with no escape until you were tortured into doing it to avoid being zapped again. That is ABA therapy.

As a person on the spectrum, my favorite analogy is that autism is not a computer bug; it's a different operating system.

The side camera for “it’s not vaccines” was gold

I love this new calm, sat down version of SciShow. The high energy shouting at the camera in front of a green screen was difficult to sit through at times.

I really loved the video. I would just add something to the critique of ABA, from the POV of a diagnosed autistic with sensory challenges: for many autistic individuals, is not just discomfort, but actual pain (it's my case). The extreme focus on behaviour caters to parents who want 'a normal child', ignoring the child's feelings and experience. Since alexithymia is very present on the spectrum, the child is not equipped to understand and express the pain of being conditioned to accept being constantly uncomfortable and suffering. So the behaviour may change (and that is seen as a 'positive result'), but at the cost of making the child get used to being in pain or discomfort for the rest of their life, resulting in a worse quality of life and, obviously, added trauma - just because the individual needs were treated as a problem, instead of a difference. A very commom term on autistic communities today is 'masking', and is exactly what ABA and similar treatments incentivize. Masking is the "skill" of pretending you are comfortable and not making extreme efforts to appeal acceptable for others. It's a very sad skill that many of us develop to a point where we start thinking we are just incompetent for being constantly exausted and depressed while everyone else is just "living life", all just to be looked at as a 'normal person'. Imagine being forced to burn your hand everyday until you learn to not express pain any longer, and being taught that the right answer is to pretend that pain is not present and you should continue your life ignoring it. That is what exposure therapy is, almost literally - the difference being your pain is not physically visible as it would be with a burn, but it is real and present, and not going away just because you learned to act as if you feel nothing. I dived into a deep depression in my late twenties/early thirties thanks, in part (because depression is multi-fatorial) , to ignoring all my sensory and social issues my whole life, leaning into the idea that I was being weak and that everyone faced the same issues as me and were capable of surpassing then, when in reality my issues were almost in a completely different world as the rest of the prople around me. That's an inhuman way of life to encourage, specially when it's done just to make someone 'look normal', instead of helping them have a more functioning and fulfilling life. And that is the actual problem with ABA, exposure therapy and others that focus on controlling behaviour instead of trying to help the individual understand their own needs and find creative ways of coping and functioning on their daily life. (I'm sorry if there are multiple spelling or grammatical errors, I'm Brazilian and writing in english is not something I do frequently)

Another reason for Autism being more common for people whos dads are older may be that their dads are also autistic and have taken longer to form relationships and have children because of this. This would therefore make them more likely to have autistic children as it is often inherited.

I lucked out growing up. My Mom picked out right away that I was Autistic and dove HARD into the research about how to raise me right. She informed me that I had Asbergers, and encouraged me to say that proudly; it was part of my personality. She taught me how to approximate eye contact ("Look at the bridge of their nose.") Whenever we went to parties, the first thing she did was ask the host about a quiet room, and showed me where to go if I ever felt "overstimulated." She was very attentive to routines and surprises. She made sure I always had earplugs on hand. I wore them with pride and would sass the other kids if they made comments. People called me "precocious" lol. Mom prepared me so well that we all assumed I'd outgrown my Asbergers. Then I graduated college and took on a socially-intense job traveling the country. For the first time, I was having regular public meltdowns. Massively embarrassing, completely uncontrollable. I would push myself until I broke. I wondered what the hell was wrong with me. Why couldnt I do things like my coworkers? Was was noise so loud, lights so bright? Things that bothered me did not bother them... And why did I have such a hard time connecting with people? My coworkers called me an odd bird (lovingly). I'd always been an odd bird. But now I could really, REALLY see it on full, unsheltered display. Theb I looked up Autism in adult women and.... holy cow, it was me. Just knowing that I wasn't alone, that the strange things I experienced were experienced by others... it cut my stress immensely. I realized all those "coping strategies" Mom taught me as a kid had a purpose. So I gave myself permission to use them again: Leaving social gatherings early; making space for alone time; bringing earplugs everywhere; and letting my coworkers know when I need a break or other accommodations; proudly claiming my differences and working with them.

10:43 "and there's a mutual lack of understanding when we're trying to communicate with people outside of our group". This is what I wanted to express all these years. That's all I've ever wanted to tell anyone. I feel like I've come full circle. Thank you, Hank and Scishow!

Autistic biologist here. Im glad yall are trying to cover this, but as you put it, the science is still very early in terms of understanding. Id encourage you guys to look into the research beyond the largely problematic approach taken by the DSM5. Id recommend a part two looking at the research and evidence produced by trying to understand what the autistic experience is, rather than trying to study it from a neurotypical perspective, the latter of which is what the majority of historic research has consisted of. Some good educational channels on youtube, like Autism from the inside and yosamdysam have a lot of good info, and i can soeak from experience that the information they give can be extremely useful to help learn to live with autism. Much better than ABA in some (likely many) cases.

I knew I was autistic as a kid, and I live independently now. It is not easy. There is so much discrimination. I've had people yell that I should have been left to rot in an institution. I've had people spray down my workplace with perfume because it overstimulates me. I've had to leave gyms because people see an autistic person walking weird and the owner tried to get rid of me. If you are autistic, you need to know your legal rights, it is covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, you are part of a protected class and you can get help.

The guy who came up with ABA originally used it for "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ people. It's disgusting and causes PTSD in us autistics. Hoping one day insurance companies will cover therapies that actually work without harming us - and there are others out there. Thanks for covering this Hank, and loved the anti-vax side-eye! 💜

The most important part is that autism is an experience. Even if someone doesn't show any "symptoms" doesn't mean they're not struggling. I'm self diagnosed and my main issue is when I run out of "spoons", I get slammed with general anxiety. Feels like a mortal threat against my life and I just need to get away from everyone. It's much less of a struggle now with better coping mechanisms. Sometimes I even forget that I have a limit. But when I reach that limit, it's like slamming into a wall. And none of this is external to anyone. They just seem me being quiet, when inside I'm screaming. My mind is racing, I can't stop it, goes into a catastrophic thinking mode that can't be stopped. My pulse will shoot up above 130, I'll get dizzy, start to lose feeling in my limbs. Mind will be racing so fast I have multiple overlapping thoughts. I can left exhausted from social interactions for months. On the outside, I'm calm, and people wonder why I'm not social anymore. They just think I'm a "normal" person, but an avoidant and that I "don't want to be" with others. That is not the case. I can't be around others too much.

17:52 I appreciate that you didn't mention the name of the person who came up with ABA, because in my humble autistic opinion, he deserves to be so forgotten that the last memory of him crumbles into dust-- and soon. He said about us: "You see, you start pretty much from scratch when you work with an autistic child. You have a person in the physical sense – they have hair, a nose and a mouth – but they are not people in the psychological sense. One way to look at the job of helping autistic kids is to see it as a matter of constructing a person. You have the raw materials, but you have to build the person." He also worked on the "Feminine Boy Project," which has strong connections to what we call conversion therapy today, something which was built on his techniques and theories from ABA. That strong connection there should not be downplayed. Rhetorical question-- why would we find those techniques acceptable-- if not PREFERABLE-- for a difference in brain styles but unacceptable and cruel for another form of identity?

This video strongly undersells the negative reputation of ABA in the autism community. It is widely regarded as abusive, unresponsive to the needs of the child and mostly focused on making the child easier to handle for the caregivers. Especially when encouraging people to seek out intervention for their children, it seems irresponsible to not place a stronger focus on the criticisms and opinions of the people most affected by the method.

reminds me of when my sister went to volunteer to help "high functioning" (that's what they called it back then) people with autism spectrum and was met with the existential crisis that the people she was volunteering to help were struggling with the exact same stuff she did! Not only that, she was with her classmates and they commented how similar her idiosyncrasies were to them. She got diagnosed shortly after. Goes to show how varied the autism spectrum can be that a person with it might have no clue!

As someone with ASD, THANK YOU for treating this topic with the respect and technical clarity it deserves. We appreciate you, Hank.

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again- i ADORE the new video style! the new green screen, standing background, the SITTING background, the multi camera set up with ASIDES!!! i really appreciate this change- not that it was necessary, but that it’s to provide a mild refresh to the channel. i love it. thanks scishow.