Cultural factors of “Autism”

Abstract

The article presents some reflections on autism from a cultural perspective, defined as the way of understanding the different ways of communication and interaction that occur in the different spaces of relationship, whether in the social, educational or family environment. Individuals or socio-cultural groups have the possibility of using a diversity of languages to build their particular ways of living together, even though our socialization and communication processes tend to privilege only some of them. Adopting a cultural perspective allows us to investigate the social representations, beliefs or worldviews that are transmitted through these different forms of language. It is to recognize that we all, according to our sensibilities, may have different ways of seeing and understanding the world. Accepting that people with autism have different ways of seeing the world and seeking to understand them allows us to build another type of relationship, where the “problem” is no longer to find how to integrate them into our world but to find ways of living together in harmony from different worlds.

Our behaviors, work methods or ways of intervening are also cultural constructions as a result of the way we look at people with autism, and the diagnosis validates this view. If we shift the psycho-medical view towards a social and educational perspective, from an integral understanding of the bio-psychosocial aspects of the human being, the relational conditions with children with autism will change. 

The conclusions show the importance of understanding from the representations of the world and the different modes of language to reach the recognition of differences and from there to a true coexistence. A comprehensive educational proposal is built through biological, cultural and social interventions based on an understanding that must take place in a relational framework accepted by those affected and their families.