For one thing, I have a hard time believing that something that affects 1 out of every 60 in a group is anything that remotely qualifies as a "disorder." We are dealing with something whose very name (Autism Spectrum Disorder) suggests an inherent vagueness and lack of clarity in diagnosis. As a result, there's no question in my mind that lot of what has been diagnosed as a "disorder" is really nothing more than normal variations in human behavior and psychological makeup.
Flame away, if you will!
I think the key here is simply being respectful ... :-) ...
Agreed. A goal in science is to classify everything in order for it to be modeled. Clusters of data points must indicate something. And those clusters farther away from what is decided to be the normal, need to be “fixed”, when in fact the act of “fixing” may do more harm then natural progression through life stages. Simply because one child may behave a little differently, e.g., is more quiet, does not mean there is a problem. So now it seems that the ASD “spectrum” can be expanded to cover far too many behavioral “oddities”. This is not to say that some behaviors shouldn’t be monitored, but let’s not be so quick to pull kids into the ASD class.
Of course, there's no money in that...