Autistic Self-Advocacy and the Neurodiversity Movement: Implications for Autism Early Intervention Research and Practice

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. two authors of this publication are identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Leadbitter, K., Buckle, K. L., Ellis, C., & Dekker, M. (2021). Autistic Self-Advocacy and the Neurodiversity Movement: Implications for Autism Early Intervention Research and Practice. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 635690-635690. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635690

Publication date: 12 Apr 2021 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 4 (50.0%)

Abstract

The growth of autistic self-advocacy and the neurodiversity movement has brought about new ethical, theoretical and ideological debates within autism theory, research and practice. These debates have had genuine impact within some areas of autism research but their influence is less evident within early intervention research. In this paper, we argue that all autism intervention stakeholders need to understand and actively engage with the views of autistic people and with neurodiversity as a concept and movement. In so doing, intervention researchers and practitioners are required to move away from a normative agenda and pay diligence to environmental goodness-of-fit, autistic developmental trajectories, internal drivers and experiences, and autistic prioritized intervention targets. Autism intervention researchers must respond to these debates by reframing effectiveness, developing tools to measure autistic prioritized outcomes, and forming partnerships with autistic people. There is a pressing need for increased reflection and articulation around how intervention practices align with a neurodiversity framework and greater emphasis within intervention programmes on natural developmental processes, coping strategies, autonomy, and well-being.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:39.

Cited references
81
With a DOI
60
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
19
17 / 81 (21.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
14 / 81 (17.3%)
References with detected author names
67 / 81 (82.7%)
Without detected author names
14
Without a structured title
13
Without a stable identifier
19
References with raw author names still to review
9
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
311
From DOI or external metadata
311
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
9
173 / 311 (55.6%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 138 / 311 (44.4%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
25 / 311 (8.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 25 / 173 (14.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 20 / 241 (8.3%).
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