RFK JR. He claimed that autism “destroys” life. People from autistic do not agree.

Remarks of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This week, that autism “destroys” children, caused the indignation of many autistic people and their families. They said that they did things that, he claimed, were impossible – keep a job, write a poem, play baseball, go on a date – and added that the lives of people who needed facilitate in performing everyday activities was still respectable.

“Autism does not destroy families. This is talented,” said the only grant, which was diagnosed with autism at the age of 17. She called the comments of Mr. Kennedy’s “defense of fear” and said that his “rhetoric flattens our existence in this obsolete stereotype.”

Many autistic parents have said that they were afraid that Mr. Kennedy’s comments will restore efforts to distigmatize autism and connect families with support services.

“How will our children survive if they are considered a tragedy?” Kim Cristo, whose 17-year-old daughter is “essentially non-verbal”, but has a satisfying social life, loves music and makes yoga and karate. “How can we make their lives significant if they are rejected as lost causes?”

Mr. Kennedy gave comments on a press conference on Wednesday, discussing recent data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed that the diagnosis of autism among children in the United States was constantly growing. Although it is largely believed that growth is driven by expanded criteria and increased awareness, Mr. Kennedy falsely stated that autism can be prevented and called the situation an epidemic.

“They are children who will never pay taxes,” he said, adding: “Many of them will never utilize a toilet without assisting.”

27 -year -old Mrs. Grant said that Mr. Kennedy’s comments “simply reveal what we all know that we live in a world that is still trying to treat autistic people with basic decency – especially when we need support.”

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes difficulties with social interaction and communication. Because it covers a wide range of features that may differ in terms of human life, it is often described as appearing in the spectrum.

Some autistic people need broad support in everyday life. Many others live independently, with demanding workplaces and vigorous social life. And many fall between them, having problems with moving with some tasks and interactions, but doing well with accommodation.

50 -year -old Geoff Saavydra said that he took advantage of having a mother who helped him find mechanisms to deal with what he described as “violent crash” and not treating him as a problem, because the comments of Mr. Kennedy suggested.

“When I was a teenager, my mother tried to find ways to facilitate me, so I wouldn’t hurt anyone,” he said. “I learned to feel how it came, and then went to our yard and chop the wood.”

In a statement, a spokeswoman HHS said that Mr. Kennedy’s statements were not aimed at stigmatizing autistic children or their families, but rather to emphasize the need for further research on “environmental factors contributing to the enhance in autism’s diagnoses.” Mr. Kennedy, who has long been pushing the unjustified relationship between autism and vaccines, said that he would examine the causes of autism and provide “some answers” until September.

“Secretary Kennedy remains involved in working on a society in which people with autism have access to significant possibilities, appropriate support and full respect and recognition they deserve,” he said.

A punishment, an autistic woman who asked for identification only by her name, because she was afraid of harassment from colleagues who did not know about her diagnosis, could not speak in public to high school. As a child, she hid boxes or behind furniture and saw from a bottle up to 7 years elderly, because she did not have sufficient motor skills to utilize cups.

But over time she learned the ability to cope. He follows strict routines, and with the therapy he is able to work at school. Telephone calls are tough, but it is communicated by e -mail.

“The children’s version, which could not speak, deserves a elated life just like everyone else,” she said. She added that as a child she was aware of comments like Mr. Kennedy, even though she could not verify the answer. “” Niepopijanie “does not mean” no facilitate, “she said. “I was aware of the terrible things that people talked about me when they talked about me as if I wasn’t there.”

Not all parents of autistic children were outraged by comments. Jackie Ceonzo, whose son is non -verbal and has attacks, said that he is glad that Mr. Kennedy spoke about the challenges that people with higher support needs and their families face. “We are in crisis with the aging population of parents looking after the aging group of children who will require life care,” she said.

But a few autistic adults with high support needed that they were so upset by Mr. Kennedy as everyone – and that as children they were deeply wounded by their parents’ sense of their parents as a burden.

And Maria Davis-Pierre, a therapist at West Palm Beach, Fla, who advises black families of children with autism, said that she was afraid that comments would prevent some of these families to seek diagnoses for their children.

Continuing the trend for the first time in 2020, recent CDC data showed a higher autism rate among black, Latin and Asian children than among white children, because clinicians, teachers and parents are increasingly seeing early signs in communities that were previously omitted.

“When someone tells you that your child will never have a contribution and destroy your family, it still harms our community,” said Mrs. Davis-Pierre, who has two autistic children and was diagnosed with autism at the age of 37. “Which means that they will not receive the support and services they need. In the black community. Autism is then seen as a behavioral issue that feeds from school to road.”

32 -year -old Marianne Eloise was stunned by Mr. Kennedy’s comments, especially his commentary that autistic people would never write a poem. Mrs. Eloise, who is autistic, is the poet herself.

“I would like to read RFK poetry if he could divide it,” she said. “I don’t know his work.”