Common Misconceptions about Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder

MYTH: Autism is a single, well-defined category of disability.

FACT:   Autism comprises a wide spectrum of disorders and ranges from very severe to very mild.

MYTH: People living with autism spectrum disorders are intellectually disabled and can't be involved in higher education professions.

FACT:   Autism spectrum disorders include people from full range of intellectual capacity. Although a high percentage do have intellectual disabilities, many with milder forms, such as Asperger syndrome, are highly intelligent, earn graduate degrees, and are successful professionals.

MYTH: All people living with autism are impaired in some cognitive are highly intelligent or geniuses in other areas.

FACT:   Only a few people with autism have extraordinary skills. Called autistic savants, these individuals are not geniuses in the traditional senses, but they possess very highly developed splinter skills - skills that are in isolation from functional skills.

MYTH: There is an autism epidemic that must be due to something dangerous in our environment, such as toxin or virus.

FACT: The number of diagnosed cases of autism has undoubtedly increased. Most authorities assert that this can be accounted for by three things: a widening of criteria used to diagnose autism, including the recognition of milder forms such as Asperger syndrome; greater awareness and diagnosing people as autistic who previously would have received a different diagnosis, e.g., intellectual disability (mentally retarded).

MYTH: The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism.

FACT:   The institute of Medicine of the National Academies commissioned a review of available evidence and concluded that the evidence favors rejection of causal relationship between MMR vaccine and autism.

MYTH: Bad parenting, especially cold, non responsive mothering ("refrigerator moms") can cause autism.

FACT:   No evidence indicates that bad parenting can cause autism. Furthermore, even if parent is relatively unresponsive, this might be in reaction to the infant's low  level of arousal or because of parental stress regarding the child's abnormal behavior.

Source: Hallahan, D.P.., Kauffman, J.M., & Pullen, P.C. (2012). Exceptional learners: An introduction to special education. (Ed.12). Pearson.