Autism as Highly Selective Social Learning
"We like to learn & often learn by investigating for ourselves instead of learning from someone else." Evaleen Whelton, AUsome Training . Many people have attempted to give at least partial answers to questions along the lines of “What is autism?” and “Why are some people autistic?”, and I’d like to make my own attempt here. Of course, I’m assuming that these questions are still somewhat open, rather than fully resolved, otherwise I wouldn’t feel the need to add further thoughts to the debate. There have been a number of theories proposed over the years to try and make more sense of the phenomenon of autism, including the following: • Theory of Mind Deficit Theory (Baron Cohen) • Extreme Male Brain Theory (Baron Cohen) • Executive Dysfunction Theory (Ozonoff & Russell) • Weak Central Coherence Theory (Frith) • Context Blindness Theory (Vermeulen) • Intense World Theory (Markram & Markram)