I will use that language here in my remarks because that is what I am comfortable with, but please know that our organization respects all labels that are chosen by the people who must wear them.

I’m well aware that some people prefer person-first language, and use the phrase “people with autism” or even the more neutral euphemism, “on the spectrum.” I prefer identity-first language.

We’d like to have more.Ī word on language. I am not the first openly autistic person to serve on our Board, and I certainly won’t be the last. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Michael Forbes Wilcox, and I am the President of the Board of Autism Connections. Introductory Remarks for ApAnnual ConferenceĪ special welcome to those who are here for the first time. Here are my remarks, approximately as I delivered them. So I trimmed my comments, which undoubtedly made them better. I prepared remarks for the 15 minutes I thought I would have, until the organizers pointed out to me that they needed to make a few housekeeping announcements, and I should count on half that amount of time. I was privileged to introduce Steve to the Conference. To solve that medical mystery for his new book, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, due out in August 2015, Silberman went back to the first years of autism research, where he uncovered a series of events - some long forgotten, and others deliberately buried - that will require the history of autism to be rewritten.Ī former teaching assistant for the poet Allen Ginsberg, Silberman has won numerous awards over the years for his science coverage in the New Yorker, Nature and many other national and international magazines.Autism Connections was honored to have Steve Silberman keynote our 28th Annual Autism Conference on April 27.Īmong many other services, Autism Connections houses the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) Autism Resource Center for the western four counties of Massachusetts. This question has become particularly pressing in the face of a resurgence of measles, mumps, pertussis and other childhood diseases worldwide due to parental fears of vaccines, despite numerous studies debunking their alleged connection to autism. The article was praised by experts in the field like neurologist Oliver Sacks and author Temple Grandin, but as time went on, Silberman was haunted by the biggest question that he had left unanswered: Why have rates of autism diagnosis increased so steeply in the past 30 years? In 2001, he published 'The Geek Syndrome,' one of the first articles in the mainstream press to probe the complex relationship between autism and genius. Steve Silberman is a writer and contributing editor for Wired and other national magazines.

Silberman autism