Diagnosed with Autism at the Age of 2, This 14-Year Old Boy Was Told That He Would Never Learn to Read. Now He's a Graduate Student in Quantum Physics.

Therapists didn't think much of Jacob Barnett's future. But his mother saw him demonstrate a prodigious memory, pattern recognition skills and an intuitive grasp of astrophysics:

One day, his mom took him stargazing. A few months later, they visited a planetarium where a professor was giving a lecture. Whenever the teacher asked questions, Jacob’s little hand shot up and he began to answer questions — easily understanding complicated theories about physics and the movement of planets.
Jacob was just 3-1/2 years old.
His mom realized that Jacob might need something that the standard special education curriculum just wasn’t giving him.
So Kristine decided to take on the job herself.

Now that's good parenting.

Link -via It's Okay to Be Smart

(Image: BBC)

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There are several issues with the treatment of autistic kids. There is still a huge percentage of psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, teachers, etc. who believe that all autistic children have low IQs and should be steered into institutions or special education with a view to pushing the child into a low-paying, simple job.

Another issue is ABA. This type of therapy often frustrates autistics who are bright but have difficulty communicating. Autism Speaks is a big supporter of this therapy, despite it being shown to help very few autistics.

Another issue is that it's very common for educators to jump on the latest bandwagon and attempt to apply the latest and greatest to autistic students.

So, actually, there's on big issue: every autistic is different, just like us.

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Well, not sure how things are done where you're from, But where I live autistic people have a HELL of a lot more spent on their education than kids without autism, I fail to see how this is holding them back, My school charges a minimum of £100,000 per year per student, All taxpayer funded with specially trained staff. Its actually "mainstream"kids who are held back. Rather significantly.

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Perhaps the idea is that there would be many more if they weren't held back.

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A common misconception is that all people with autism have these kinds of talents. Sure, Some do, But after 10 years of working with them i have met 2.