It’s hardly ‘invented’.
And it’s not just ‘bad parenting’ or kids who need to be spanked.
I had a great aunt who was ‘retarded’ in the vernacular of the 1940’s. She made eye contact, was verbal, social, affectionate. she was potty trained. She just had the abilities of a 5yr old.
Anyone who sees the head banging, drooling diaper wearing severe autistics would never confuse them with ‘retarded’ kids from the past.
We’ve got friends with a severely autistic son. He’s in diapers at the age of 15. He can also read anything you put in front of him and communicate via ipad. He’s never spoken a word. But he’s very very aware of what’s going on around him.
I don’t think that, at age 15, he’s wearing a diaper to get attention. I don’t think spanking him would serve to potty train him either.
“And it’s not just ‘bad parenting’ or kids who need to be spanked.”
I think some cases are true autism but some are not and just kids who need to be spanked.
I’ve often wondered how they diagnose autism. I know here lately a test was made but in the past how was it done? I was out somewhere onetime when a mother, with a relative said doctors thought her baby daughter had autism. She told me the baby does not make eye contact and does not respond to people. I walk right over to the baby (about 1 1/2 or 2 years of age) and the child looked me right in the eyes and smiled. Not only that when I played with the child it interacted with me. That child had autism? Really? Kid seemed normal to me.
actually, back in the good old days, we had entire wards in the long term care institutions for the retarded full of such kids.
The gentle ones could be cared for at home.
I guess you have answered my question about autism. There's a boy in our church who is autistic, he's about 14 years old and the only problem I have observed that he has, is that he cannot stay still. When seated, his head is constantly moving in a manner as if he is shaking his head no, sometimes his whole upper body is swaying. When standing he is prone to turn his whole body in circles, I get dizzy just looking at him and don't understand how he can maintain his balance. Seems like a nice kid and nobody thinks his actions are disruptive at all.