Reviews

Autism: A Very Short Introduction by Uta Frith

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thequeenofsheba3's review

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challenging informative slow-paced

2.5

mrlister's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

0.25

Outdated and harmful information

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maierlaier's review against another edition

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Very outdated information and language, uses terms like "pathetic" to describe autistic children's behaviour

Lots of misinformation here. The way autistic people are spoken about in parts of this book are just horrendous and condescending, as well as the author's attitudes towards it. The worst part is, the author is aware of the neurodiversity movement and DISAGREES with it.

ABA, a type of treatment autistic people have condemned as unethical because it tries to stop them stimming, was even mentioned. I would recommend following actual autistic people online and getting your info firsthand from people who actually experience it rather than this book. (Neurodivergent Rebel is a great place to start if you're looking for names.)

bpag314's review

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informative medium-paced

0.25

I really didn't like this book. To be fair it was written in 2003 so that's definitely part of why it feels so out of date. However a lot of the language the author uses about autistic people is very disparaging and dehumanising.

The author clearly has very entrenched views of autistic people's place in the world and was even somewhat mocking to any autistic people who challenged those view.

I would recommend reading a much more up to date book on the topic.

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