This article is a very mixed bag, as you pointed out. The author clearly went down his brother's rabbit hole - very narrowly focussed and coming to a set of con

This article is a very mixed bag, as you pointed out. The author clearly went down his brother's rabbit hole - very narrowly focussed and coming to a set of conclusions. I did a similar thing with my child and probably still do. I consider my child to be an Aspergers. Very bright (98th and 99th percentile in almost all areas measured under WISC, or the Weschler Scale). Along with it came violence and a lack of empathy and poor social skills. I was at (or called by) the school almost 5 days a week for behaviour issues before diagnosis. Like the author of the article, most people I spoke to left me feeling they knew nothing, until I found an Occupational Therapist (someone who considers environmental factors that impact an individual). We've ended up with a reasonable success story after 3 years of intense focus. It could be time, management or both that made the difference. There are too many things to rebut in this article. Yes, it's an industry where the overwhelming majority seem clueless beyond diagnosis. Spectrum is used elsewhere to describe one attribute varying: get over it - here, it describes a variation of behaviours and symptoms, a simple model to aid discussions. I am sure many types of autism can not be cured. It's not a disease because in many cases, it requires management/therapy to lead a normal life (as per my child). I would not call that political correctness, just common sense. I'm not going to reread the article to critique on more detail as it was too fragmented and too negative. However, if you are starting out as a family member of someone with autism, I do not recommend this article in the early days. Find someone who can do more than diagnose symptoms: you need someone with suggestions. Most experts will bamboozle with double speak of promises and uncertainty. The ones that I found who knew their stuff pinpointed solutions in 1 session. I found 2 experts that I had confidence in.