Posted on 11/12/2007 7:51:01 PM PST by jazusamo
November 13, 2007
Autism is a devastating condition, both for those who have it and for their parents. At this point, its causes are unknown and if there is any cure for it, that is unknown as well.
There are many ways of coping with tragedies. One of the less promising, and often dangerous, ways is to launch a crusade.
Crusades may be emotionally satisfying, politically popular and welcomed by the media. But crusaders are not known for caution, for weighing evidence or for counting the costs, which may extend well beyond the cost in money.
There have already been many casualties in the crusade against autism, and there may be far more if recent recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics are carried out to have every child tested for autism twice by age two.
Think about it: How many people are qualified to diagnose autism? Enough to test every child in America? Not bloody likely.
Professor Stephen Camarata of Vanderbilt University has tested and treated children with autism for more than 20 years.
"While it is relatively easy to identify a five year old as autistic," according to Professor Camarata, "it is much more difficult to reliably diagnose a preschooler or toddler."
The word "reliably" is crucial. Anybody can unreliably diagnose autism, just as anybody can unreliably predict the weather or the stock market.
The consequences of unreliable diagnoses of autism can be traumatic for parents and children alike.
As a result of organizing a group of parents of late-talking children back in 1993, I encountered many stories of emotional devastation that these parents went through because their children were diagnosed as autistic -- diagnoses which the passing years have shown to be false more often than not.
As a result of writing books about these parents and children -- the most recent being "The Einstein Syndrome" -- I have heard from more than a hundred other parents with very similar stories.
Professor Camarata at Vanderbilt has a far larger group of parents of late-talking children, since he specializes in studying and treating speech disorders, and he has likewise found numerous cases of false diagnoses of autism among children who are late in beginning to talk.
More is involved than the needless emotional stresses of the parents. Many of the treatments inflicted on children diagnosed as autistic would be called child abuse if they were not done as medical procedures, and they can set back or distort a child's development.
Once the "autistic" label has been put on a child, it can follow him and her into schools and beyond, causing that child to be treated differently by teachers, nurses and others.
Too many people refuse to reconsider any evidence contrary to the label, however blatant that evidence becomes or however much that evidence increases over the years.
The initial evidence on which a diagnosis of autism was based may be nothing more than a checklist of characteristics of autistic children, often administered by someone with nothing more to go on than that checklist.
The fundamental problem is that many items on such a checklist can apply to many children who are not autistic. A study of gifted children, for example, found many of them showing the kinds of characteristics found on checklists for autism.
According to Professor Camarata, "because there are no reliable biomedical markers for autism, diagnosis must rely on subjective rating scales making it difficult if not impossible to conduct accurate screening in toddlers or preschoolers."
But it is precisely the checklist approach that is being urged by those who are crusading for every child to be diagnosed for autism before age two.
Like most crusaders, they seem unwilling to consider the possibility of errors, much less the consequences of those errors.
The very definition of autism has been expanded in recent years to include what is called "the autism spectrum." What this means, among other things, is that there is now far more wiggle room for those whose diagnoses have proved to be wrong, who refuse to admit it, and who are now even more unaccountable than ever.
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Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His Web site is www.tsowell.com.
Sowell’s son was a late talker and a bit of a strange cookie as a kid, but turned out well and was fairly brilliant with computers. I think he is quite clear that the kid did NOT have autism, but was the kind of kid that gets falsely diagnosed. There are some videos on the internet that just got put up contrasting autistic and regular kids. But I have a slow connection right now and can’t get to them...
(Sorry I don’t have the link. You could probably find it at fox news or associated press, along with the recommendation this fall for regular autism screening.) Maybe someone can find it and post it??? Thanks.
I’m glad to hear your son has overcome his difficulties, I know what the feeling is like.
You’re correct about Dr. Sowell being right most of the time, only a few times I’ve known him to be wrong and I believe they were oversights on his part due to the fact he writes on so many different subjects.
I’m praying with you for breakthroughs with autism and God bless you all.
bump & a ping
Agreed! I’ve seen this in my own family — one daughter with a profoundly autistic child and another daughter who insists her very bright, but quirky, child is “Asbergers”. The fact that he has bright, but quirky, parents does not seem to register with her.
Most autistic people are good with computers and a bit quirky. Autism, except in profound cases does not affect intellectual ability, and in fact, may actually increase intellectual proficiency because the parts of the brain that control learned facts compensate for the parts of the brain that controls inborn social behavior, so the autistic person in question learns social behaviors like how somebody learns a foreign language rather than being inborn with social behaviors like most other people do. Think of it as a kid being born with an oddly shaped foot learns how to run with a particular motion, and runs really fast, but because of the nature of his or her body, will always stumble once in a while. But that kid that also has the weird shaped foot also would probably end up being the school's soccer star, due to the unusual spin he or she puts on the ball due to his or her oddly shaped foot. Much like how most people with Autism will end up being savants, even the most mildly Autistic will end up with some sort of savant behavior because of the nature of their brains, but they will stumble socially.
"I guess that’s one thing to be said for having kids late in life, as did Dr. Sowell. Keeps old age from getting boring."
There was a recent study that showed that having children late in life increases the odds of Autism.
I personally think Dr. Sowell is in denial about his son being autistic. From what's described from above, his son is most likely mildly autistic and Sowell's using strawman tactics to to state otherwise. Notice he uses no figures, facts or previous studies to back up his statements, just rhetoric.
Agreed! I’ve seen this in my own family — one daughter with a profoundly autistic child and another daughter who insists her very bright, but quirky, child is “Asbergers”. The fact that he has bright, but quirky, parents does not seem to register with her." And yes, if somebody is profoundly autistic in a family, they are very likely to have Asperger's syndrome in their genetics as well. Asperger's syndrome is a very real disorder that has been backed up by neurological and MRI tests and studies, much to the chagrin of your anecdotal story.
BTW, Out of proably over 20 doctors I've seen in a lifetime, only 3 said I wasn't Autistic, and 2 of them haven't even heard of A.S. or Autism so my DX is VERY real.
Hey, TypeZo, in one post you say autism is psychological, and in the other you say it is detectable by MRI or neurological tests. My understanding is that it is:
-NOT psychological. We have a lot of kids, and the one with autism was raised exactly like the other ones, but is a whole different critter. There is something neurological going on.
-NOT detectable by MRI or by any other objective, physical method. If it is detectable, that is huge news to me, and PLEASE POST A LINK.
Most appreciated. God bless, Guitarist.
Sorry, I’m a bit late in posting this reply but I’ve been busy with a job, school, a new girlfriend, and Tae Kwon Do practice, so I haven’t been on the net much. Thank god for Mountain Dew Game Fuel, because if I didn’t have that, I would be constantly tired.
And I meant to say “neurological” not “psychological”.
http://www.pfizer.com/brain/images/etgraphic15.jpg
To the left is a person with Autism, to the right is a Neurotypical. You can see the frontal lobe dysfunction in the person with Autism vs the Neurotypical.
Sorry, I’m a bit late in posting this reply but I’ve been busy with a job, school, a new girlfriend, and Tae Kwon Do practice, so I haven’t been on the net much. Thank god for Mountain Dew Game Fuel, because if I didn’t have that, I would be constantly tired.
And I meant to say “neurological” not “psychological”.
http://www.pfizer.com/brain/images/etgraphic15.jpg
To the left is a person with Autism, to the right is a Neurotypical. You can see the frontal lobe dysfunction in the person with Autism vs the Neurotypical.
TypeZo
Thanks for the link. But can you back that up with a medical link or any analysis or anything? Your post is the only thing I have heard like this in the six months I’ve been reading massive amounts of stuff about autism. All I’ve read is that it is “undetectable” by any test, but rather only by symptoms which, to a trained eye, are pretty clear.
If you have any more links, like a link to the article attached to those scans, please post.
Thanks and God bless
g.
For example, from the Autism Society of America:
There are no medical tests for diagnosing autism. An accurate diagnosis must be based on observation of the individual’s communication, behavior, and developmental levels.
http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_whatis_diagnosis
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