Why I don’t like the puzzle piece as a symbol for autism

[Judge]

I like the interpretation. To NTs we are a puzzle they don’t understand.

Consider such a metaphor purely from a marketing/advertising perspective. That in an instant and no further, such a simple metaphor leaves people with a simple understanding. That we are a puzzle to them. -No more, no less.

In essence, the metaphor does not explicitly tell them to actively seek more about who and what we are. That for most people it will just evoke the shrugging of their shoulders and to leave it at that.

Personally I see such a dynamic as more the problem than the solution. That while the simplicity of such a symbol evokes strong feeling to you or I on the spectrum, that it just "goes off a cliff" for those who do not relate to it as we do. That it requires something more.

A message that may be too complex for a single symbol to adequately reflect a need to motivate the masses in understanding not only that we are different, but why we are different. A perspective I have gained largely through the unfortunate experience of having to deal with those within my closest social orbit who may or may not acknowledge my autism, but continue to not understand it at all.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I like solving puzzles not being perceived as one.

 

[Grondhammar]

Another possible symbol/mascot,...
axolotl
(from Wikipedia)
...is a paedomorphic salamander, one that matures without undergoing metamorphosis into the terrestrial adult form;...

Not directly autism-related, but my favourite tshirt in the the history of tshirts... so many people have come up to me and asked about it as either an ND symbol, or an LGBTQ+ symbol, or a Pink Floyd tribute. It works for everything

Prismatic Axolotls

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I do not like solving puzzles. It engages my brain in ways that are painful. I have learned to apply my brain to puzzles but I am a slow, slow learner.

I will say that sometimes puzzles rattle around in my head for years or decades and suddenly the answer pops out. Now that is fun.

 

[Cutesie]

Re-watching Father Ted, and there's a scene where Father Dougal is doing a puzzle with Ted.

He can't get a piece to fit, so he gets some scissors and cuts the top off the piece, so it fits.

This is how, judging by the stories that my mother tells, I was as a little boy. Here are two of them - the first being, she thinks, from when I was three, the second probably from when I was four:

1) A therapist put three blocks next to each other in a certain position. She gave me three more blocks and instructed me to make the same design. They (the therapist and my mother) watched as I struggled to figure it out, the trying and confusion clearly evident. I then put the blocks on top of the other ones.

2) I started speaking late, but once I did speak, I was a blabbermouth. Still, I needed help to do it properly. A therapist was trying to teach me how to say the "K" sound. She asked me to say "school". I thought, then said, "I don't want to say that; I want to say 'yeshiva' [the Hebrew word for a Jewish religious school]."

 

[Cutesie]

When I first learned of the puzzle's use as an autism symbol, I didn't like it. It had nothing to do with the meaning of the word or anything ideological against Autism Speaks. (I knew nothing about them.) I just didn't like the idea that a single organization's logo should be foisted upon everyone - as if they are the only ones helping autistics and representing them.

That was well over a decade ago, and I continued to think so until today. It was @Neonatal RRT who told me that I was wrong - that the puzzle piece has been in use since 1963, long before Autism Speaks came around. It was designed for Britain's National Autistic Society, and appeared thus:

 

[Judge]

Another misleading symbol that projects the wrong metaphor. Conveying that autism as some kind of sad children's illness.

From my own perspective locally, there are entirely too many adults walking about who think autism is a children's condition. Leaving them with an "OMG" look on their faces when once in a while in frustration I will look at them point at myself and say, "Autistic children grow up to be autistic adults".

As if it never occurred to them.

View attachment 145725

 

[Cutesie]

From my own perspective locally, there are entirely too many adults walking about who think autism is a children's condition.

Even if one knows that autism exists in grown-ups, it can be easy to think of autistics as children. I'm definitely guilty of it when dealing with lower-functioning ones. (Is that a very bad thing to admit here?)

Another factor is funding. People are more easily swayed to donate "for the children". At fundraising events, people representing service organizations talk and/or sing about helping their children - even as, sitting there on the stage, are a bunch of their "children" who are very much adults.

 

[Crossbreed]

Why? A mascot that never matures...?

As I understand it, portions of the autistic brain --even among 1s & non-ASD gifted-- do not develop in accordance with NT standards. If that underdevelopment is minimal, it confers some benefits.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I have never asked for help or want it. Even if I had known just would have plotted a different path. knowledge is power. That's my only issue.