How to deal with ignorant comments about autism? WWYD?

[Maxine3477]

Ok, so I've recently been on an autism awareness course (arranged through my work) and found it really beneficial. I definitely learned a lot from it.
However, there are a couple of older generation people in my family who scoff at the mention of autism and dismiss it as a "made up" condition, or a "cover story for bad parenting".
Obviously it's a medically recognised condition but these people say things like "austism never existed in my day..." or "it was never heard of 20 years ago..".
I must admit that when I was at school it was never mentioned, it does seem a lot more common and "mainstream" these days.
How do you deal with people with such old-fashioned ideas about it?

Hey my nephew is autistic, he is 4 doesn’t speak At all, still wears nappies, is continually stimming Ect my nan always says it’s made up Never had it back in my day and it really frustrates me.
I always tell her straight there are a lot of things you didn’t have back in your day Nan that we have now and it’s because the world is evolving all the time. I hate ignorant people

As a parent of an autistic child I have skin as thick as a rhinos! I just ignore & get on with my life. That or spend a little time with them & my child they soon change their tune when they see first!!!

Find hand what's involved etc. Such as a 2 hour Melt down because the ketchup touched the chips on the plate etc etc

Of course it was around years ago, people have always been autistic. But they were locked away never to be seen, or classed as naughty. That’s why more adults are now being diagnosed.

I would tell them to do a bit of research. As a pp has said many people were locked away in institutions if they had any kind of disability - there is a book called Christmas in Purgatory that was written in the 60s and documents what these places were like at the time - it is not for the faint hearted though but it might help then change their ignorant views.

Also, there are a few reasons Autism is more "common" now. For one there are more people than there were 20, 30, 40 years ago. They used to think it was something that only affected boys and not girls ( we now know that that isn't true, it can just affect girls differently) and there is also more understanding of Autism. So more people plus a better understanding will mean that more people get diagnosed.