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FACT-BASED AUTISM INFORMATION: Biosocial Developmental Spheres
This developmental domain describes the interactive systems of and between a persons innate biological features (discussed in the PHYSICAL column of this web site) and capacities and the nurturing features and capacities of the spheres of our environment. including home, school, community, nations and global cultural communities. These two domains mutually impact our individual, our families’, and all our social groups’ development, well-being, resource access and diverse bio+social identity, status and power across our life-spans.

One of the emergent biosocial issues in the field of psychology and human development is how societies may or may not 1) socially include or exclude, 2) culturally advantage or disadvantage and 3) economically provide or withhold resources from specific diverse groups based on their dominant or non-dominant social status. The relevant aspects of human development we study around diversity are race, ethnicity, nationality, belief systems, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic class, age and biological, cognitive, and psychosocial ableness. We live in a world that highly values typical development and more ableness in its people. This universally dominant cultural perspective of ableness creates a uniquely invisible and yet overtly disadvantaged social status for many groups. People who live, work and cope with Autism must often deal with having a most disadvantaged/least able social status, in addition to their relevant ableness challenges. Therefore, when talking about a systems science approach to psychology and human development in terms of Autism, it is very important to address how these cultural diversity issues relate to our small group.

The effects of the stigma of this ableism are easily seen in how public policies and funding impacts the critical resources our society grants to all ableness-in-need groups, including individuals with Autism and their families and providers. The most powerful dominant culture myth that overtly fosters and covertly conceals ableism is resouceism. One can hear this myth innocently expressed whenever individuals or groups with power or privilege woefully discuss how scarce human resources are in relation to the needs of able disadvantaged people. It is then often proposed that members affiliated with less able groups must to work to share (fight over) their allotted (inadequate) slice on some pie chart. However, often the picture of the pie presented is not a complete image of how all of our society’s wealth and resources have been allotted by members of the dominant groups. This is particularly true around the size of its own slice of all the real and whole pies. So subordinated groups must always beware of those bearing slices of pie.

For example, in an educational pie chart a student with Autism may appear to get two or even three times the amount of money as a typical student. But if the pie chart included all available resources for children within our culture, the picture dramatically changes. First, we are spending less and less available resources on developmental support per child and family. Even then, typical children and their families benefit from ten or more times the amount of total community resources compare to those who live with Autism. Yet our children and families struggle with the extreme biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial challenges. So it is time our group begins to speak and act in ways that reflect both the reality of inadequate support to all our children’s and families’ developmental needs as well as to radically advocate for a socially just distribution of resources for children, families and providers living, working and coping with Autism. There is much work to do and one of the greatest disadvantages we face is our own exhausted personal and financial resources. Finally, we must remember that we live in the most powerful and privileged county in the world, so we must also find new ways to meet our obligation to advocate for people with Autism around the world.

ADVANCED BIOSOCIAL COMMUNITY BUILDING TIPS: Biological Reality & Able Status

People with and without Autism ALWAYS do the best we can with all the internal and external resources we have each day. Therefore, it must be the job of each human being to increase those resources for our own self, our family, our communities and people across our world in ethical and effective and equitable ways. In reality when everyone has the internal and external resource they need all human beings will benefit internally and externally over the long term. The most surprising outcome when we engage this reality is that people with Autism can help others increase our internal resources and can participate in positive external resource production, use and sharing in ways that are mutually beneficial too.

Biosocial spheres effecting both developmentally typical and pervasively developmentally diverse groups are:

1) Families ( traditional/nuclear/nontraditional/extended, birth, adoptive, foster and custodian guardianships) and their closest social support network of family, friends, neighbors and volunteer helpers.

2) Religious, private social service, and advocacy organizations-like Threshold and those listed in our Resource Lists;

3) Educational programs and services including national, state, regional, county and local providers like the Federal and Oregon State Departments of Education, Regional Educational Services districts including Regional Programs for Autism, local school districts as well as private programs and community educational providers;

4) Medical/mental health/developmental disabilities programs and services including national, state, regional, county and local providers like the Federal and Oregon State Departments of Human Services, Children’s and adults health/MH/DD offices, community health care service providers and private insurance programs.

5) Legislative bodies at national, state, county and local levels surround all these smaller spheres. They are the sources of power and access to public resources may or may not adequately regulate or fairly fund resources for typical or atypical developmental and ableness needs.

In addition, there exists the modern fourth estate of the technical communication systems and media networks that may connect individuals and groups within these spheres. This may serve as an outside check and balance of social power. But it is largely made up of and controlled by typically able people and groups, and as of late has been both informative about and yet also openly more hostile to peoples of atypical able loss in its entertainment and even news coverage.

Finally, it is important to understand that within these biosocial spheres exist many cultures made up of diverse demographic groups living with dominant and non-dominant social status. The challenge of the next millennium will be in how the people of the world learn to live together embracing our own and others diversity. One of the systems science measures of our success will be seen in how we provide social justice and needed developmental resources to all families and children, including those that are living, working and coping with Autism. These all make up the social spheres within our biosocial development.


A.D.A.P.T.™ Training Series. Copyright © 2000-03 by Sharone Lee. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. All names, concepts, methods, materials, products and publications are protected by trademark and copyright, and no part of this text or this web page may be reproduced or distributed in any manner, for any purpose, including educational purposes, without express written consent from: THRESHOLD • SALEM, OREGON • 503-375-9462 • sharone@understandingautism.org. Portions originally published in the 1999 Fall Issue and 2002 Complimentary Edition of The Net Journal of the Autism Society of Oregon, with the Author's permission.