I have a cousin, Matthew, who is autistic. Our family and friends all know about his condition. You’d think that having a close relative or friend diagnosed with autism would make them more understanding, but nope. Every time Matthew “acts out” or does something considered “not normal,” like yelling and throwing a fit, people stare.

This reaction just shows how ignorant people can be about autism.

My aunt and uncle felt ashamed when they noticed people staring. They didn’t feel shame because they had an autistic child. They were ashamed because they knew people thought that they didn’t teach their son proper manners. This judgement puts pressure on autistic kids’ parents.

In another case, Hedy Lee, a licensed psychologist, has an autistic son. Once, Lee was called to her son’s elementary school because her son skipped a class. When Lee found her son, the teacher wanted to remove her son from class. Lee then pointed out that schools should not give up on an autistic child so easily just because they’re hard to handle.

Hedy was frustrated with the teacher who was willing to throw away all of Hedy’s hard work to give her son the best education possible because of her son’s condition. She felt that the way people treated her son was unfair.

Both of these examples from my life are just two of thousands in Taiwan.

Taiwanese people often believe stereotypes when it comes to autism. When people hear about autism, they think that autism means someone is “stupid”. Ignorance is what makes this situation so harmful.

We need to learn more about autism

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological condition that makes people behave differently. Though autism may sound like a rare and unique condition, it is not. Around 1 in every 83 people in Taiwan have autism as of 2023. Autism is common in Taiwan, so it is our responsibility to be well-informed.

Many believe that autistic people are either savants or mentally disabled. This is untrue. Not every autistic person is Albert Einstein, who was likely autistic. Autism is a spectrum. Every case is different.

How to treat autistic people

There is no “right” way to treat autistic people, but there are some things we can do to make interaction easier for everyone.

Some things to never do towards autistic people and families:

• Don’t judge and whisper
• Don’t stare
• Don’t tell parents how to parent

Autistic people need the support of people around them, whether it’s friends or family. Here are some ways to support autistic people:

Supporting those with autism

People with autism who are verbal and talk nonstop and might seem rude. They don’t mean to be, they just don’t process social cues the way most people do. For example, I have an autistic classmate that interrupts the teacher mid-lecture. He was a transfer student who was homeschooled. He had no prior experience in a classroom. People got annoyed with this classmate at first because they didn’t understand him. However, the teacher explained that he was autistic and that he didn’t understand that we needed to raise our hand before speaking. After that, everyone understood and didn’t mind as much.

All we needed to understand and empathize was enough information and exposure. Once we had that, it was no problem.

Psychologist Hedy Lee told me, “what these autistic children need is the support and love of family and friends”. The support can require a great deal of patience. In Lee’s story, when her son ran away from class in the middle of school, if the teacher had understood her son’s condition they could have easily resolved the situation.

Eventually, however, Lee’s son’s school figured out how to help him. First, they all acknowledged he had a hard time writing his essays in Chinese writing class. He physically could not write out an essay. To address this, his teachers let him verbally record the essay instead of writing it out. Doing so still required him to use all of the same critical thinking and communication skills that other students needed to use, but in a format he was able to operate in. This relatively minor accommodation helped Hedy’s son continue to learn, all because some good teachers took the time to learn what they needed to do to support this student.

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Taiwan offers a lot of government and NGO support for families that have autism. More and more people in Taiwan are studying autism. However, the majority of the population is still ignorant.

Taiwan is famous for being a country of kind, patient people. But Taiwanese people need to stop ignoring those with autism and start learning about this condition if we want to live up to our reputation.