Seeking Social Connection and Knowledge as a Minimally Verbal Autistic Male with Intellectual Disability

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Khan, A. & Caldwell-Harris, C. L. (2024). Seeking Social Connection and Knowledge as a Minimally Verbal Autistic Male with Intellectual Disability [Preprint]. MDPI AG. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0338.v1

Publication date: 6 Mar 2024 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Preprint Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Aysha Khan
  2. Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris *

Abstract

We bring a strength-based and socially-oriented lens to behaviors observed in profound autism. Social deficits are a defining characteristic of autism. Yet humans’ biological drive for social connection is sufficiently strong that is should be observable, in some form at least, in individuals with autism. We describe a case that validates this view. Mahad is a 20-year-old Pakistani-American male, with intellectual disability, and minimal verbal abilities. Mahad has an intense interest in food and the steps involved in food preparation. He employs and capitalizes on his family’s meal routines to ensure continual social attention from his mother. When not immersed in food, Mahad uses his limited capacities to pursue the additional biological needs of exploring his environment, seeking information, and developing his cognitive abilities.

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 07:50.

Cited references
38
With a DOI
36
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
11 / 38 (28.9%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 38 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
38 / 38 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
0
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
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
127
From DOI or external metadata
127
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
57 / 127 (44.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 70 / 127 (55.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
14 / 127 (11.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 14 / 57 (24.6%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 7 / 116 (6.0%).
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