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Presenting on autism as an autistic

Just for the record...mental retardation was the medical diagnosis of what is now called intellectual disability. The terminology was not changed in the DSM (in the US) until 2013!

So, the correct medical term for someone with a low IQ and significant impairments in skills required to live independently is: Intellectual Disability or ID. (This is my field of specialty, btw.)

President Obama made the federal change in 2010 when he signed Rosa's Law. From google:

On October 5, 2010, President Obama signed federal legislation, titled “Rosa's Law,” which replaced in federal law the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” with the terms “intellectual disability” and “individual with an intellectual disability.”

THAT SAID, GOOD WORK AND GOOD LUCK ON YOUR PRESENTATION.

You might get asked if people with autism are "mentally retarded" or worse. If so, you can correct their terminology and then let them know many of us are "normal" intelligence or even significantly above normal.
 
Here is our rubric
What is it?
How does it affect the body?
How does someone get this?
Treatment?
Is there a cure?
Are there medicines?
Potential Problems?
Can it be prevented?
Are there any Stigmas?
Other names?
Other important facts
He said we can cover them in any order. I'm worried about how I'm going to do a lot of these topics though. I'm just really scared I'm going to screw up representation. I have to do this well.
 
Depending on how interested you are in educating your classmates:

BTW: I've been a professional presenter (I've done hundreds, and taught a lot of classes), so my thoughts below may be a minefields for you rather than useful suggestions. All that experience has made me much more efficient at preparing and presenting than I was at your age.

Don't over-commit based on my words.
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IMO several of those items don't really make sense.

A differently wired brain is part of you. It can't be "caught" like Covid, and it can't be "treated" in the usual medical sense. Some ASD's need support and care, and for some of us, early education and therapy would help, but there's nothing that can "make it go away", or directly mitigate inconvenient "symptoms".

There are other conditions that seem to be genetic but can be treated with medicines (I don't have one, but AFAIK depression and anxiety can be mitigated that way).

If it was me, I'd want to start with the "differently wired brain" description, point out that the details are not understood by anyone, and that it would be impossible to "re-wire" a human brain on this scale even if the details were understood.

I think the other "rubric points" could be covered naturally from there. I can give you the ideas I use if I feel like explaining my own nature to an NT, but they only work if you get away from the ideas that whatever we all share can be treated like an illness, so I won't do it yet.

Reminder - most of what I said implies a big investment in your time and energy compared to just "calling it in" for a pass. You'd need to rework the rubric, clear that with your teacher first, and it would lock you into being more-or-less forced to deliver a very good presentation.

Ignore my post of you don't want to do that.
It certainly won't pay off in terms of time for school credit. On the other hand, if you see this as an opportunity to communicate, it might be worth the effort.
 
Hypnalis made some very good points. Maybe even pointing out that the rubric offered to you is mostly inapplicable to autism:

Here is our rubric
What is it?

Autism is essentially a different type of brain to the average person. Autistic people have different sensitivities to sight sound and touch and our thought processes operate in a different manner to most people’s.

How does it affect the body?

In most cases it doesn’t.

How does someone get this?

We are born like this.

Treatment?

Kindness and consideration.

Is there a cure?

A cure for something that is not an illness? The idea that autism can be “cured” is part of the problem in our society. The idea that because someone is a little different there must be something “wrong” with them. I love the way my mind works and I feel sorry for neurotypical people that don’t have the same abilities as me. Many people have tried to “cure” me but as far as I can tell this means they just want me to be as dumb as they are.

Are there medicines?

For autism itself? No.

Potential Problems?

Slower social maturity, and often many mental health issues that stem from being misunderstood and mistreated by other people in the community.

Can it be prevented?

No.

Are there any Stigmas?

Many. The biggest one being that when I tell people that I’m autistic they automatically assume that I’m mentally ill.

Other names?

No.

Other important facts.

You could just about write a 3 volume compendium here. :)
 
After seeing your rubric, my first inclination would be to try to advise much as Hypnalis did, only he did it much better than I could have. Incorporating what you want to say in paragraphs that cover the questions in your rubric would be the more advanced and professional way to present. And should be more interesting if your audience is intelligent. (I am not a professional presenter, but have substantial teaching experience at the college level.)

The safe thing for your grade, would probably be to follow a guideline somewhat like Outdated's suggestion, without the cheekiness (which I think is great, but is not likely to improve your grade.)
 
This was a general rubric for everyone, since there were a lot of mental or neurological disorders to choose from on his list. I definitely agree that a lot of it is less applicable to autism. I am working on it right now and I think I will just write what I want people to know (how communication can be different, stimming, meltdowns and how they occur, debunking stereotypes, impact of ableism/mental health, sensory needs, etc.). I will try to bring this up to my teacher and ask whether I have to do everything here. My Health teacher is pretty cool and I think he will understand.
 
Question, do I talk about the cure controversy? Or do I just say “There is no cure for autism “ and leave it at that. I googled the cure controversy so I could find information for my presentation, but all I got was a bunch of people yelling at each other. I personally don’t think autism should be cured, but I have lower support needs. I keep seeing people say that we act like demons to people with higher support needs. It would be nice to hear from one of them. I would maybe just avoid it, but it is on the rubric.
 
@DragonKid♾

You won't have time for that kind of discussion (maybe if it was all you talked about).

Check the definitions, but think of it this way:
* Cure = remove the cause
* Treatment = manage symptoms until the patient's body removes the cause

These aren't possible for ASD.

Assuming those definitions, neither apply to ASD, but different kinds of mitigation are certainly possible for some ASDs:
* Support = provide tools and services to reduce the difficulty of living with issues
* Education of ASDs to "backfill" skills that weren't learned in childhood (in general, this applies to social skills for ASD1).
But be careful of this - e.g. ABA (operant conditioning with negative reinforcement is a minefield)
* Education of society to understand more about the HFA's among them, and start accepting us

Note that both lists are incomplete brief, but your presentation time will also be too brief for such a big topic.

Go for clear and simple information, clear and simple messages, and not too much of either.
This is especially important if you have a message for you classmates. Less so if you're just looking cor class credits (i.e. mainly talking your teacher).

And please check the definitions of any technical terminology you use. Do not use "Strangers on the Internet" to accurately define them for you.

Also, re-read the DSM definitions of ASD. What can and can't be done varies a lot across the spectrum.
Discussions like this one tend to focus on the HFA end of the spectrum.

You'll need to explicitly include or include those parts of the spectrum you're actually taking about.
 
I think it's a very important question, but how to tackle it can be a bit awkward.

There actually is no cure, not unless we figure out how to rewire someone's brain. And as you said, in my case I believe the benefits outweigh the difficulties I face. I like who I am. It's very similar to the problem people with different gender orientation face, that's just the way their brain is wired. They didn't "choose" to be different.

Better understanding amongst the general population and accepting that some people are different is the greatest help we can receive.
 
I just presented! My delivery was a wreck (I’m really not good at presenting in front of groups), but I had lots of good information from credible sources. Overall I think it went good. Of course, now the question is whether or not my classmates remember it going forward. But my teacher really liked it and I definitely will get a good grade.
 
Congratulations. I'm glad to hear it. I always hate public speaking but it does get easier with practice, and it's probably easier when your audience isn't the kids you go to school with.
 
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