Autism and violence










About Joanne


  1. Crimson Wife says:

    My autistic child can be “aggressive” but what that means is she hits, kicks, or bites when she gets frustrated and she’s past the age when most kids have outgrown that sort of behavior. 90+% of the time, the aggression is directed towards me and it doesn’t seem malicious but rather reflecting a deficit in impulse control. It’s something that her various therapist, teachers, and I are working on curbing.

    The sort of cold, calculated attack Adam Lanza carried out is not the kind of aggression that is reflected in that 30% statistic. Fortunately, that kind of violence is very, very rare.

  2. Stacy in NJ says:

    According to some media reports Lanza was taking Fanapt which is an anti-psychotic most commonly prescribed to schizophrenics. He had a whole lot more going on than just Autism.

    I have a 14 year old aspie who has never had a violent action/reaction or even what could be called a temper tantrum. A tearful argument, sharp word or fresh comment? Yes.

  3. Would Ido’s book be appropriate for the Common Core non-fiction list? I think it’d be fascinating to share a work like that with students.

  4. Stacy in NJ says:

    Everything we think we know about autism is wrong because the autism diagnosis is an incredibly crude tool. All kinds of folks with differing developmental, intellectual, emotional, and physical disabilities get dumped into this category when they’re very young – usually around 3 years. Many, many of those kids have symptoms or behaviors that are superficially alike (stimming, lack of eye contact, slow or precocious verbal development, physical awkwardness, sensitivity to noise/sounds/smells). Intellectual and/or emotional development are incredibly hard to measure in young children, especially those with “symptoms”.

  5. I wouldn’t put the book that Ido has supposedly written on any nonfiction list. If you look at the clip of him using a letter board, it’s clear that the person holding the board is moving it. And you have to wonder why, if Ido is actually able to spell out words, is it necessary for anyone to hold the board at all. Facilitated communication such as this has been debunked long ago.

  6. How many “normal” people are aggressive? Look at how people drive. Look at how people act when they have to stand in line for more than three minutes. We are in a culture of anger and me-first. And a culture of death where life is considered to be worth less and less.