Plus these claims of all this money for the disorder is also bogus. The services for autism have been slashed. Everyone is fighting for an increasingly smaller services.
Its also crap that autism is on the rise due to mom’s working. I am very bonded to my child as is my husband and grandmother, etc. Most of the kids I know on the spectrum, they are to stay at home moms. Your child is different. Normal daycares are not even going to take them.
Find something else to blame other than the parents. This is like saying we wanted our child to be diabetic or have asthma. I see that some FR would like to blame this on cultural conditions instead of environmental or genetic ones, but there is absolutely no proof of this “bonding” problem being a cause for autism.
I have a close friend and her oldest son has Aspergers. Like you, she is/was a stay at home Mom. She also knew something wasn’t “right” when he was a small baby. She did everything “right”... ate well, took vitamins, etc... and loved that baby in utero and the day he was born. Wonderful home, no domestic issues, great pediatricians... you name it. I don’t see Autism and the spectrum as parenting issues. What it is from.. I have no idea but in my personal experience... it isn’t the parents.
I’ve worked with autistic children, one in particular named Dominique. Although it was many yrs ago, during my senior yr as an undergraduate studying psychology. I don’t specialise in Clinical Psychology, but know that:
It is a Neuro-Developmental Disorder which affects social interaction & communication, but also delays cognitive development, as well as how information is processed in the brain. The latter may partly explain the examples (jail & Ten Commandments, animals & rain) you gave of your son in post 18.
You’re correct, it has a strong genetic basis, sometimes environmental factors can contribute or cause it. Factors such as toxins, heavy metals, pesticides, even childhood vaccines.
Unfortunately, what exactly causes autism is still not completely clear, even its genetic basis is very complex.
Years ago, they also used to call autism “childhood schizophrenia”. And, even now most ordinary folks equate schizophrenia with multiple personality or think it is a personality disorder; it isn’t.
Also, Autism is not the same as Mental Retardation (MR) or Syndromic mental retardation, which are both, primarily, “intellectual disabilities”, coupled with 2 adaptive behaviour deficits.
I can fully appreciate that it can be stressful for parents to manage a child with autism. The best treatments and/or management is when related deficits & family stress are reduced. Mostly, a combination of behaviour & social skills therapy, structured learning/teaching, speech & language therapy, and sometimes occupational therapy - tailored to suit the child’s needs.
If it is hard to access suitable schools, it may be an idea to have your psychologist or physician tailor a management program, in conjunction with one or two qualified professionals (therapists) in above-mentioned fields, and for the therapist or qualified teacher to then work with your child at home. It can be done, for example, 3 days a week. If you network with other parents who have autistic kids with similar needs, then perhaps, the sessions can be shared.
Hello,
in my humble opinion, just like you, I am not convinced that Asperger’s/autism are caused by too little maternal attention.
My mother was a stay-at-home mom and she was devoted to me from the moment she knew that I had been conceived :-)
Hovewer, a difficult birth has been named as one of the risk factors (among others) for autism/Asperger’s.
If this hypothesis should turn out to be true, it definitely applies in my case.
All my life, I have been given hell for my behavior, until I was finally diagnosed with Asperger’s four years ago.
I am so sorry if I offended you. Please let me explain my opinion better.
There are truly cases of autism, such as your child’s. I understand that I can’t imagine your pain and frustration. For your child and all of the other children who are truly autistic, the widespread misuse of the diagnosis to cover misbehavior and/or quirky behavior has caused a great deal of misunderstanding. It seems that autism spectrum is diagnosed in far too many cases just as ADD was in the 1980s. I know of a few cases in which the problem is clearly a lack of parental involvement and too much time spent by the kid in front of a TV or monitor.
You say that funds are not available. But, here in Maryland, there are all sorts of funds allocated for special education, and it has become a gravy train for our bloated public school system. So it benefits them to “diagnose” kids with autism.
I do not know what it is like to have a child with this disorder, but I know the pain of having “different” kid and worrying about him constantly. My bipolar son is now with the Lord.
Please forgive me for any hurt that I caused you. May God bless and keep you and your family.