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To: HonestConservative
Autism is up because the definition of Autism has eclipsed that of mental retardation.

I wish that were true. Unfortunately, it's not.

5,760 posted on 10/15/2008 8:11:44 PM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Gondring

Yes it is true. ANY child phsycologist will tell you that the definition of Autism as been GREATLY enlarged.

http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/24/28/6392

Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder that is diag-
nosed in early childhood and characterized by a core deficit in
social interaction (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
Other components of the disorder may include language impair-
ments, stereotypical behaviors, and unusual fear or anxiety. Since
Kanner (1943) initially described the disorder over 60 years ago,
the definition of the autistic spectrum has evolved and now en-
compasses a wide range of severity of social and emotional ab-
normalities with varying levels of cognitive and linguistic func-
tioning. The disorder ranges from low functioning with mental
retardation [low-functioning autism (LFA)] to high functioning
(HFA)]. Almost simultaneously with Kanner, Asperger (1944)
described a group of children with a narrow range of interests and
impaired social interaction similar to high-functioning autism
but whose development of verbal ability was not delayed. The
distinction of Asperger syndrome (ASP) from high-functioning
autism is controversial (Klin et al., 1995; Ozonoff et al., 2000;
Howlin, 2003).


5,866 posted on 10/15/2008 8:17:30 PM PDT by HonestConservative (Go Baroke with Barack)
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