Dr. Sowell and Dr. Savage, and I love them both, run periously close to getting it wrong about autism. While a clear diagnosis still is hard to come by, it is clear “something” is wrong and it is more than just delayed speech or bad parenting.
Trying to minimize austism by suggesting many cases are just a matter of delayed speech is just poor logic. There are so many other problems found with autistic kids, we wish it was just delayed speech.
So, Dr. Sowell, Dr. Savage, please spend some time with PubMed, talk to more parents of autistic children, read up on it more.
For Dr. Savage, there can be a subset among what are called “high functioning autistics” who fit your critique and where, yes, parents can use more discipline.
It is when you are sitting there with an austistic child who has problems with math, month in month out, year in year out, that you begin to see that there might be an issue.
Also, the way many autistic boys talk, you can tell, and their peers can tell right away, there is something “off”, something not right in the way they talk that is more than just delayed speech.
Many conversations are outright inappropriate, or disturbingly repetitive. The ability to read social cues is impaired.
Finally, suggesting delayed development is statement that needs to be scrutinized. So much of childhood development involves capabilities showing up at the right time. Some may need to show up at the right time, otherwise overall development is impaired. Where that might be true in autistic kids is one of those open questions.
I don’t think Sowell is trying to “minimize autism.”
Please check out Sowell’s books: “The Einstein Syndrome” and “Late Talking Children”. Sowell does not paint with a broad brush and has come up with some very specific criteria for parents to consider when deciding a course of action that could potentially cause more harm than good.
Our son did not speak until until he was 5. Our Pediatrician, after many examinations expressed the opinion he was simply a late talking child who fell at the extreme end of the speech bell curve.
We were lucky enough to stumble upon Sowell’s book, and found that our child met the description of the children in his book. We were able to avoid attempts by the school district to label him as autistic in order to receive public funding for “special services.” Our son is now 9 and after 4 years of speech therapy, speaks very well, does extremely well socially and is an A student.