Philosophical Critique of Developmental Psychology Applied to Autistic In developmental psychology, autism is often viewed as developmental delay or developmental disability, with practitioners focusing heavily on rehabilitation and social skills therapy. However, before applying such treatments, we must first examine whether the developmental tasks defined by developmental psychology are themselves justified — because if those developmental tasks are unjust, then projecting them onto autistic individuals, who are among the most vulnerable, and subjecting them to treatment based on those tasks constitutes a violation of the rights of the vulnerable. Piaget viewed developmental tasks as a process beginning with object recognition through the senses in the sensorimotor stage, continuing through the cultivation of abstract thinking in the preoperational and concrete operational stages, and culminating in the completion of logical reasoning in the formal operational stage.…