Liberal trickery with statistics. They fiddle with numbers to justify increased expenditures.
My theory? Soy in the formula. It’s a neurotoxin.
There is mercury in most vaccines, don’t kid yourself.
Autism spectrum disorder is the new ADHD.
Forty years ago, an autistic child was so handicapped he was unreachable...totally disconnected from the world around him.
These kids might have some symptoms of autism, but they are not autistic IMHO.
Another friend has a grandchild who has been diagnosed as autistic....because he doesn't look you in the eye when he talks to you. The kid is just plain shy...but with people he loves and trusts...he's just fine. He's quite normal and gets along fine with other kids. The school wants him to go through some kind of therapy. Of course these therapists make good money.
As the father of a profoundly Autistic 13 yr old boy, the ever expanding definition of Autism causes me concern. I am utterly appreciative of the therapists who have worked with my son. However, expanding the definition has the affect of dismissing the diagnosis. Every engineer (I R 1) and math major would be included and I disagree with that.
That all said, there is an increasing population of truly Autistic kids based on my observation.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20049118-10391695.html?tag=re1.channel
Vaccines and autism: a new scientific review
IIRC, several months or a year(s) ago, there were reports that Autism, ADD, etc., were linked to the possibility of mothers having sonograms and/or amnio before the baby was born. It actually made a lot of sense. But if you weren’t paying attention that day you missed it. As quickly as the reports came up, they were scrubbed; I don’t think they lasted more than two days. Big bucks in those procedures. Probably some goofy conspiracy theory, but it does seem that as ultrasounds became more prevalent, so did autism. Hmmm...
For those of you who believe that autism and it’s disorders are something of the imagination,be thankfull that your child doesn’t have a problem with that issue.
My son was born a normal,became a very smart toddler and up through about the age of five that’s when my wife and I began to see things going wrong.He became socially withdrawn,Not wanting to go out side to play.
He did go to school though,whether willingly or not I have no Idea since he was being bullied there.He graduated from high school and we were sending him off too college but he became so socially withdrawn that he dropped out.
Now my son is as smart as can be but it’s frustrating knowing that there is nothing we can do to get him on a path to a career.Thats something he’s going to have to do on his own.
He has had a lot of life skills training and has learned to cook,clean and care for himself but he still acts like a teenager in a lot of ways.In a sense that’s good,In that he is sensitive toward others.
One thing this country needs is employers who understand that people who have aspergers syndrome are On the very high end of the autism spectrum and they would make excellent employees.That is if placed in the right job.
My son could be locked in a room with a computer for hours and be wouldn’t complain at all.
All they need is someone who knows how to communicate with them.
bump for later
Case numbers are reported rising, but could this be due more to accuracy in diagnosis, rather than an actual rise?
I’m in the Autism spectrum. Big deal.
In some parts of suburbia, like my sister’s neighborhood, it is cool to have something wrong with your kid. Almost all the kids in that neighborhood have some kind of condition... homosexuality, aspergers, ADHD, alergies galore, gluten intolerance, depression, etc. When I go over there for parties, that is all they talk about is their kids and their conditions.
I’m a skeptic on this issue of vaccines causing autism, but allow for the possibility. But can you clarify: if rates are “skyrocketing” over the course of a couple of years, can that be attributed to vaccines? Is the rate of vaccination increasing? Are the vaccines being modified in any significant or substantial way that would cause an increase? If the answer to these questions is “no”, then it’s a matter of changing definitions and/or overdiagnosis.
This is an example of smoke and mirrors statistics. The headline says “autism” the article includes all “autism spectrum disorders”. By including Asperger’s Syndrome, a diagnosis which, in the hands of an over-zealous psychologist can be used to pathologize being a geeky socially-awkward kid (much as ADHD can be used to pathologize being a boisterous high-spirited kid), the significance of the rise in prevalence is diluted to basically nil.
My favorite hypothesis for the increased prevalence of autism is that it is a polygenetic trait, and that the genes for it, when not all present (or not present in the right, or wrong, combination, since it might not be a single cluster of genes) have all become adaptive as technology becomes more prevalent. In particular some aspects of “geekiness” have become cool and are no longer a detriment in finding mates. Of course, the real “cause” is probably just over-zealous diagnosticians and parents who have bought into the “therapeutic culture” resulting in more geeky socially-awkward kids being diagnosed.
Just wait until DSM-V redefines Asperger’s Syndrome as autism, the “rate” will sky-rocket and all sorts of nit-wits will run around wringing their hands and demanding the state do something.
They are finally counting the numbers, as opposed to guessing.
That's not in increase in anything but accuracy.
Autism is a “Spectrum Disorder”: At one end of the spectrum is the worst case ever seen, and the other end is the most healthy, most non-autistic person ever imaginable.
Imagine, if you will, that in recent years huge programs and expenditures have been created at all levels of government to “treat” or in some other way “deal with” the “problem”. Imagine, if you will, that the funding (and prestige) for individuals who diagnose, study and “treat” the disorder will go up if the cut-off point along the continuum is repeatedly nudged towards the super-normal end of the spectrum.
Imagine, if you will, that in recent years the parents of youngsters have become increasingly Narcissistic, and as a result place their own self esteem squarely in the control of their offspring, who must be perfect in order to reflect positively on their parents. Imagine, if you will, the demands of such parents - entitled to have a “perfect” child, or be compensated if they do not - for the various levels of government to “do something” to make their (perhaps, only VERY slightly) “odd” child reflect better on them.
Imagine some silly-ass but heavily promoted “No Child Left Behind” attitude developing societally out of these conditions, funded of course by taking taxpayer money to solve the “problem”. Just imagine.
I’ll be honest, I don’t even understand what autism is, and I wonder if the medical community really does. A few years ago, a friend of mine’s daughter was diagnosed as having autism. Today the kid is absolutely fine.
Also, how come no one ever heard of kids having things like autism and peanut allergies when we were kids?