Looking at Monotropism as a Strength-Based Cognitive Theory

When we understand monotropism is foundational to understanding autism, it’s all too easy to lose sight of what this may mean for a strength-based understanding of autism. After all, our insurance companies often only support someone for their ‘medical condition’. Medical condition implies there is something wrong with you. Even in Australia, our National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) which is meant to take note of an individual’s ‘functional capacity needs’ not necessarily their ‘medical condition’ still might not recognize the impact one’s ‘autism’ has upon daily function. This means the NDIS only offers financial support for an individual who can show formal evidence of ‘disability’ as in Autism level 2 and 3, and not level 1. For some individuals, however, an assessment of autism might lead to a formal report saying they operate at level 1… . which does not account for those days when their autism leads them to sensory overwhelm and shut down, eventually to ‘burn out’.