Autistic people can be very smart, if so, why do people talk to them like they are retarded?

Question

Did you know Albert Einstine might be autistic

Answer 1

Often when people talk down to others it because of their own ignorance. In this case, it's probably because people are uneducated about Autism and are unsure of how to communicate. The best way to combat this is to educate people about autism.

Answer 2

It depends on the level of autism. Not all autistic people are intelligent. Many of them are retarded and some are simply very smart in one area like in Rain Man, but this is rare. Then there is Asperger's or high functioning autism, usually these people are intelligent, but are slow in some ways ie. social 'smarts'. People who are autistic lack the ability to pick up on social cues that to most people are obvious. This too gives off the impression that this person must be 'stupid' or mentally ill. Of course, a lot of people just don't know any better.

Answer 3

Autistic people tend to not communicate, or at least not on a normal level of conversation with eye contact and reading body language during the conversation. As you speak with an autistic person, there is a sense that they are not connected with the here and now, and so in turn people respond to them as if they were either deaf or dumb(speechless) or mentally challenged.

Autistic is to be separated or distanced from, not connecting with other people.

Answer 4

Because their social skills are weaker so people misinterpertit it as being less intelligent