From The New York Times' Motherlode blog, a post by Emily Willingham is science editor at the Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, manages the Double X Science blog, and blogs at Forbes.
The Asperger’s stereotype before the shootings in Newtown, Conn., was relatively harmless if inaccurate – that of a quirky, brilliant male
unable to read subtle social cues or navigate the world of non-autistic
people. Think Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory” or Abed on “Community.”
The
reality, like any reality disconnected from network television, is
quite different. People with Asperger’s have a highly variable set of
skills and capacities, most of them unrelated to brilliance or
prepossessing eccentricities. Average intelligence, very real struggles
with social navigation, and joblessness are far more prevalent among
those with Asperger’s than cute personality quirks like wearing
unmatched socks or exhibiting an endless fascination with trains.
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