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Autism Argumentatory Essay

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Autism is like a puzzle where all the pieces do not fit perfectly, it’s still a puzzle but because it’s not perfect people think it’s broken. Scientist used to think that being autistic was just another form of mental retardation and that autistic people are incapable of doing most tasks. When Amanda Baggs’ video came out scientists realized that they may have been wrong about Autistic people. Baggs’ video was a stepping stone in the right direction for Autism awareness and understanding. In the article The Truth about Autism: Scientists reconsider What They Think They Know, the writer, David Wolman tells Amanda, “I asked one of the world’s leading authorities on autism to check out the video.”(Wolman 693) then he tells her that the expert thinks she had to have a caregiver help her make …show more content…

The apparent percent of autistic people with mental retardation is seventy-five percent. According to Mike Merzenich, in The Truth about Autism: Scientists reconsider What They Think They Know, the idea that seventy-five percent of autistic people are retarded is, “‘incredibly wrong and destructive.’” (qtd in Wolman 695). The main reason people believe all autistic people are retarded is because mental retardation and autism share a lot of traits. That's not accurate, however, having similar traits does not mean you have that disease, cats and dogs have similar traits, but they are not the same animal. People are quick to call names, though, in the article, Is “Autistic” The New “Retarded” by Wendy Baskin, Baskin says, “But why “autistic”? If you’re wanting to refer to someone as mentally slow, unintelligent, or ignorant, why not use those terms instead? Is it so necessary that we need to have a go-to derogatory word at our disposal?” (1). Baskin is asking the question, why? Why have we wrongfully dubbed every mentally slow, unintelligent, or ignorant person as

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