Posted on 04/08/2012 6:22:16 PM PDT by neverdem
THE report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that one in 88 American children have an autism spectrum disorder has stoked a debate about why the condition’s prevalence continues to rise. The C.D.C. said it was possible that the increase could be entirely attributed to better detection by teachers and doctors, while holding out the possibility of unknown environmental factors.
But the report, released last month, also appears to be serving as a lightning rod for those who question the legitimacy of a diagnosis whose estimated prevalence has nearly doubled since 2007.
As one person commenting on The New York Times’s online article about it put it, parents “want an ‘out’ for why little Johnny is a little hard to control.” Or, as another skeptic posted on a different Web site, “Just like how all of a sudden everyone had A.D.H.D. in the ’90s, now everyone has autism.”
The diagnosis criteria for autism spectrum disorders were broadened in the 1990s to encompass not just the most severely affected children, who might be intellectually disabled, nonverbal or prone to self-injury, but those with widely varying symptoms and intellectual abilities who shared a fundamental difficulty with social interaction. As a result, the makeup of the autism population has shifted: only about a third of those identified by the C.D.C. as autistic last month had an intellectual disability, compared...
--snip--
But whether the diagnosis is now too broad is a subject of dispute even among mental health professionals. The group in charge of autism criteria for the new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has proposed changes that would exclude some who currently qualify, reducing the combination of behavioral traits through which the diagnosis can be reached from a mind-boggling 2,027 to 11, according to one estimate...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping
They broadened the definition to include late talkers.
Too deep to dive into this pool tonight. Tomorrow is another day.
Teachers should not be diagnosing anything.
Autism and ADHD are ways to control kids that the teacher can diagnosis and get more money out of the system.
Both are serious or can be but have become catch all for laziness of authorities and drugging kids who are just active.
” and drugging kids who are just active. “
“Boys will be boys” - there’s a pill for that...
My vote is for more aggressive detection and categorization rather than a huge deterioration in the human condition.
I’ll check back on this thread after I get in a head-banging and rocking session.
They want boys to act like little girls.
The school systems get more money from the Feds for each kid they put in any form of special education program.
Then the kids lose due to the teachers telling them "That's good enough" instead of having them complete assignments & projects.
Didn’t they beat up Michael Savage for essentially saying the same thing?
More money for union schools... Can parents collect disability for kids who start talking late?
We were told my grandson had autism. Turned out he had Lyme Disease. Two articles for your information.....
http://www.lymeinducedautism.com/lymeautismconnection.html
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/09/27/doctors-find-link-between-lyme-disease-autism/
My neighbor is collecting money for ASD
Some children MUST be affected by their mothers running off to work shortly after birth. Science would never pursue researching the affects this has on babies and toddlers due to exposing the negative effects of mixing motherhood with their mandatory careers. Today’s lack of bonding between mother and child COULD be the trigger for autism. ‘Bonding’ is just as critical to formative years as food and sleep but it seems the emphasis today is on DAYCARE, food and sleep. I’d be curious to know what the prevalence of autism is in families with ‘stay at home’ moms, and especially in families with stay at home moms where the biological father is also present. Has anyone studied this or is this theory too ‘politically incorrect’?
“Autism” has a code in the DSM. People get paid for “treating” people who can be shoehorned into a code. Broadening definitions in a “code” means more money.
You can also increase the income of “mental health” providers by creating new codes in the DSM - like “Oppositional Defiance Disorder” or the now well-established, highly profitable and destructive “ADD/HD”.
Government schools also get a lot more money when they have to educate the “disabled”.
Anyone have info on the prevalence for this in Europe?
If it’s lower in other cultures then it could be a difference in child-rearing.
It’s all about the money. They get more money the more special kids they have. That and the power to play God and declare the fit and unfit according to their liberal religion.
My nephew’s preschool teacher tried to say he was autistic. Forget the fact that she was a piss poor teacher who couldn’t control her class, the woman was drunk with the power she had over those kids lives and tried to bully my sister with veiled threats.
What the teacher didn’t know was that my sister knew the principal very well and she put some black marks on that teacher’s record. It could have easily went the other way.
I am a mother of an Autistic Child. He has Asperger’s. Believe me, it is not due to lack of parenting skills. I am a stay at home mom. It is a severe social disorder in the case of my child. He can not read body language. He had to be taught. He had to be taught to understand allegories, euphemisms, saracasm, etc. He can not cope with large crowds and noise. IT is too many sensory inputs. He is however, sweet, honest, very smart, and loving.
Let me illustrate it for you. He could not possibly understand why people would be in jail. To his logic God gave us the Ten Commandments. They are the rules. To violate God’s Rules is unthinkable. Therefore why would people break the rules and end up in jail?
Another is the phrase madder than a wet hen. He doesn’t understand why the hen would be wet or why an animal would be upset about rain.
This is not some made up excuse for our child’s behavior. It is something that he copes with daily. Then add all the confusing messages he gets outside the house. Its rough on these kids.
You bring up an interesting point. If a baby is dropped off for 8+ hours at a daycare at 6-8 weeks then I could imagine that they are not getting enough stimulation and there are going to be problems in mental/social development. I had a good friend who managed a daycare and even though they did their best to interact with each child it was basically all they could do to make sure they were fed, changed and not being mauled by the other kids. No time for individual care and nuturing. We have millions of newborns being warehoused for most of their waking hours.
ping
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