Martha Herbert, Time to get a Grip

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http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/eh_get_a_grip.pdf?

docID=4821

And if environment is involved in

autism, what do we do about it?

These are challenging questions.

Because our available information

is complicated in many ways, each

of us answers these questions based

on our own judgment and deeply

held worldviews.

We already know enough to take the

environmental role in autism seriously. To say

that the environment is involved in causing and

triggering autism means that we believe that there

have been new and different things going on in

recent years, and that these developments have

impact upon us. This is an easy claim to defend,

and I will do that in this article.

To say that environmental factors can cause or

trigger autism means that we have to look at the

whole person and whole body, since environmental

toxins and stressors will affect the whole body.

This involves shifting from an older model that

considers autism as a genetically determined " brain

disorder " to a newer and more inclusive model that

considers autistic behaviors as one of many effects

of both genetic and environmental impacts on the

whole person, including but not limited to the

brain.9

This newer model of autism (or really, autisms,

since there are many kinds of autism) implies

that we have great opportunities to do constructive

things about this challenge. To say that there

are environmental causes and triggers of autism

implies both that we can prevent the impairments

associated with at least some kinds of autism, and

that the suffering associated with at least some

kinds of autism can be treated.

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