"Unheard minds, again and again": autistic insider perspectives and theory of mind.

The insider perspectives call into question the ways clinicians, researchers, and society use ToM to understand autistic individuals and point to the harmful effects of ToM on autistic lived experience. These findings emphasize the importance of attending to autistic people in building a body of knowledge that better reflects autistic experiences and promotes more effective and ethical clinical practices.Implications for RehabilitationOur paper indicates the need for a timely and thorough re-evaluation of the ToM deficit hypothesis of autism.Autistic insider perspectives not only empirically demonstrate and explicitly critique the ToM deficit hypothesis, but reveal the hypothesis as harmful to autistic experience by reinforcing negative stereotypes, prompting acts of discrimination, and perpetuating autistic insider's exclusion from the research concerning them.Given the varied experiences of autistic people and the harmful impacts of the ToM deficit hypothesis, it is safer for clinicians and researchers to presume a presence of ToM and empathy, before they presume a deficit in autistic individuals.Autistic insiders are able, eager, and deserve to be included in the research and practices that concern them.