It seems you are parenting her. I applaud your efforts. Every child needs a push. Sometimes the schools need a shove. Not everyone can see the forest...
Posted on 07/26/2008 12:06:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last week, radio talk-show host Michael Savage talked about autism:
I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, `Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.” I’m not an impartial observer here. My six-year-old son has high-functioning autism. He is exactly the kind of kid that Savage attacked.
Savage’s comments were wrong and harmful. Some autistic kids do learn to read and speak, which is why misinformed people may think that they are not “genuinely handicapped.” Yes, they are. Autism is a brain disorder that affects everything from social communication to physical coordination. Autistic people have multiple problems that make it hard for them to do things that the rest of us take for granted. It may take them years to learn how to toss a ball or nod their head.
And even when they can talk, they often have odd speech patterns that instantly mark them as autistic. Other kids taunt them with the very words that Savage used. If they respond verbally, their speech problems will draw even more taunting. If they respond with their fists, they run the risk that authorities will label them as “violent.”
Once in a while, parents take the approach that Savage recommends. It never works. Screaming insults at a handicapped kid is not child-rearing. It’s child abuse.
Conservatives need to speak out against Savage. Many news stories label him as “conservative” or “right-wing,” which may prompt some people to think that we agree with him. Savage has a long history of disgusting comments, which has led David Klinghoffer to speculate that his act is a giant liberal put-on, a “lefty’s cartoon mental picture of a ranting right-wing caveman.”
The liberal website Media Matters has spearheaded the backlash against Savage’s autism comments. Understandably, conservatives might be uneasy about siding with such an outfit. Savage has tried to exploit such feelings by casting his critics as PC leftists. But just because the folks at Media Matters oppose child abuse, it doesn’t follow that we conservatives should accept it just for the sake of disagreeing with them.
Besides, liberals do not have a corner on concern for autism. California’s 1969 Lanterman Act was a landmark in serving people with autism and other disabilities. Its sponsor was a Republican, as was the governor who signed it: Ronald Reagan. In 2006, President Bush signed the Combating Autism Act. Its author was Senator Rick Santorum (R., PA).
Savage has cited respectable commentators who suggest that many kids with the autistic label are merely late talkers. His defense fails on two counts. First, these commentators don’t speak in the hateful language that he has used. Second, although they make their argument in good faith, they get things backward.
When you first notice that your child has a speech delay — around his second birthday — autism is the last thing that you want to think about. Autism is devastating and frightening. It’s more comforting to think that your kid is just starting late and will catch up soon. Clutching the “late talker” security blanket, some parents wait months or years before admitting the possibility of autism.
At that point, they may indeed conclude that a formal diagnosis could be important in getting help. States and school districts often pay for the assessment. Every autism diagnosis means thousands of dollars for services that the federal government mandates but does not fully subsidize. With tight budgets, the authorities have no incentive to encourage overdiagnosis. Once in a while, a child may incorrectly get the autism label, but underdiagnosis is probably a much bigger problem.
We need more study of the causes and prevalence of autism. At the moment, though, the issue is Michael Savage’s attack. He has since claimed that he is a nice guy who wants help to go to those who truly need it. Nonsense. If he cared about autistic kids, he wouldn’t have spewed words such as “moron” and “idiot.”
And he shouldn’t claim to be a conservative. He has cheapened political discourse and hurt defenseless children. There’s nothing conservative about that.
—- John J. Pitney Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College.
No your a Vestibular patient. With it comes Cognitive Behavioral issues both in kids and adults as well. They didn't know that till very recently. Believe me I know. Only one doctor I can think of make the connection and he was scoffed at as being a quack for a long time.
Vestibular disorders or issues create a wide variety of other problems that go with it including even Dyslexic type symptoms. You can thank Dr Harold Levinson a research Neurologist for making one of the fisrt links in this. He atributes this to being a major cause of the growing Anxiety Disorders in adults.
Today Vestibular research has validate a lot of his 1970 era theories. My Vestibular issues had me labeled ADD ADHD. It wasn't because they were pushing Ritalin as this was in the 1960's. It was because reseach had not yet produced any answers. BTW I'm also single eye functional with two eye vision and very few eye doctors catch it till I tell them. I got a double sensory dose of it. Thankfully I got help early and was taught skills to live with it til it got so bad I could no longer work. Try this link a good one IMO. COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF VESTIBULAR DISORDERS
I know someone who had to go through vestibular therapy after a cerebral hemorrhage followed by stroke. It was not pretty, and the therapy can only do so much. On the other hand, without therapy he was utterly unable to function.
A link to a Meniere’s blog. Interesting since I have Meniere’s.
They had me walking balancing beams {very close to the floor for obvious reasons} and other task some may not understand. This was to improve my eye to muscle coordination. It's still bad I would likely flunk a field sobriety test. But they helped me adapt which is what Occupational Therapy does. Four years later I got in the Navy. Had they checked me for two eye vision I would have flunked. They check my left eye fine then the right also fine but not both at once which will not happen.
When my wife went quad I learned a lot more about the Inner Ear as this is one of the first things Paraplegics and Quads loose. Thus the reason for the Tilt Table seen in rehab centers.
My damage was due to severe Sinus allergies they think. Ever hear the saying Snotty Nose brat? LOL..
I retired at the ripe old age of 34 about 16 years ago. My concentration was shot as well as my ability to tolorate a lot of audio or visual stimulation. For disability I am diagnosed as having General Anxiety Disorder. I also have Myoclonic seizures with it which produces severe upper torso spasms. Some would call me spass I reckon LOL.
Looking at me a person would say I'm healthy though except now my feet and legs are giving out from too many years walking off balance.
I do to and multi frequency ringing in the ears almost deafening. A nice and convient 6000HZ is the loudest tone. I had my own persons battles with the mental health system. Try telling them Vestibular disorders can cause anxiety yet Vestibular researchers know it. I was laughed out of an anxiety forum for even trying to discuss this about 7 years ago. For about two years I was at war over shrinks prescribing me SSRI's. They made matters worse. Now I know why. They also almost pushed me over the edge I know why now about that as well. It took 5 shrinks to find one to write me Xanax and leave me be but he did.
LCSW's though are another matter. They are the real key to coping with it. Usually they know more than the shrinks too. Mine learned a lot from me and vice versa. I was the first Vestibular patient he had and he was an anxiety specialist. BTW these persons can not write meds.
Apparently many big advertisers are distancing themselves from Savage’s rants about autism.
IMO he damages conservatism.
btt
Myt tendency is to agree with Savage - although it might get me flamed. Although it treats lots of illnesses which would not be paid for in the US, the health care system in Germany does not recognize the condition of “high-functioning autism”. Because, if you think about it, the description of the symptons basically sounds like a description of what Germans are like in general.
Dr. Savage wasn’t talking about YOUR child. He doesn’t deny that autism disorder exists. He is simply saying — as even professionals in the field know — that autism has become the “catch all” diagnosis for all developmental delays in children, INCLUDING certain behaviors that might not fit into “normal” range, but have no business being labeled as austism.
I have friends who work for Regional Centers here in California,and even THEY admit that diagnosing autism in children can be very subjective. I don’t know that I would use the same language as Dr. Savage did on the radio to describe the problem of over-diagnosis in children, but I fully agree with his assessment.
I have a child who was “special ed” in public schools and was considered on the spectrum for autism in several areas. They got more $$$$ for her in public schools because of that label, but more importantly, they abandoned their duty to provide her an adequate education based on her individual capabilities. She was placed with me for adoption at 10 years old, completely illiterate, and I was told she would never learn to read or write in any qualitative way. Two years later (after pulling all four children out of public schools and homeschooling them), my “special ed, borderline-autistic” daughter can read at a 6th grade level, knows all her states and capitals, is doing pre-Algebra math, and has become a little social butterfly, making everyone around her very happy all the time.
So much for the autism scale. Thank God I knew about the overdiagnosis problem, and didn’t freak out when they patted me on the hand to say that “this is her brain” and there is nothing you can do for her, so you need to “lower your expectations” for her in general. I finally told her what all the psychologists / teachers told me just recently, since I think she can handle hearing it now. She laughed, and said, “Mommy, I’m doing great! They were wrong about me!”
You go, girl! Phooey on all the labels!
Good grief. Another alleged “conservative” moron weighs in.
There’s no shortage of “medical experts” who can come up with handy excuses for lazy parents who need to explain to themselves and others why their children are undisciplined failures. And, of course, pharmaceutical companies gotta absolutely adore lazy moms.
“Autism” has simply become the latest catch-all “disability”. “Medical experts” have been continually expanding the definition of autism as they find “new, previously undiagnosed” forms of this “disability”. (Hang onto your wallets.)
I guess those other recently discovered bogus excuses, ADD and ADHD, have grown stale.
As “autism” gets over-hyped, it too will eventually elicit only bored yawns. And then something new will take it’s place - - another string of capital letters, perhaps. Meanwhile, taxpayers’ wallets will continue to get fleeced.
now that is definately a brat, later its called a**hole. I have a 3 year old niece, when her daddy says tells her to do something, she starts to cry, he will say " GO A HEAD CRY" then she will dry up and say "NO!" a little reverse psychology works.
Read up on the history of the disorder. It always has been a catch all for specific symptoms which have been branched off for classification of differing symptoms
. The pressure for a diagnoses comes from a source so far no one has bothered to mention. A part of the medical system that operates on coding and demands disorder or diagnostic codings before paying for services rendered. Give them one and they're usually happy. Don't give them one and be ready for denials and multi-appeals. Can you guess what part of the system that is? Tell them you don't know what's wrong for very long and they'll do denial of payment for the patient faster than you can say experimental procedures.
Well that’s a story! sheesh - All from whack-allergies? If they’d have had Allegra and Claritin at the time, I wonder if it would’ve made a difference. Dang. What’s the long term prognosis?
While I believe there are many cases of these as well as other illnesses that are real, I think many times they are a creation of a mothers or teachers imagination.
I have a granddaughter very similar. She is 7, and has always been introverted, but totally sweet and loving, with a high functional brain, although sort of spoiled, and very hard to teach. Her attention span is only about 30 seconds, and then she refuses to participate in the lesson, whatever it is.
A previous school district we lived diagnosed her with full blown autism, and demanded she be put into a class with problem kids, kids with Downs syndrome and very low-level handicapped kids.... even though she has a much higher functional intellect.
The public school where we live now has her mainstreamed into a 1st-grade class with other kids her age. They have a reading and math specialists see her every day, and she is doing great. She can recite word for word the lines in every single Disney movie ever made.
I dread to think if I had allowed these public school dolts to put her in with the severely retarded Downs kids. Now, she is the most popular girl in her class, in the entire elementary school, literally, because she is so sweet and lovable -- even though she occasionally gets stubborn and has a tantrum over something silly.
It seems you are parenting her. I applaud your efforts. Every child needs a push. Sometimes the schools need a shove. Not everyone can see the forest...
My apologies, perhaps next time I should read your post a little more carefully. I was just a little upset yesterday with some of the comments and I think I just partially skimmed yours and did not read it correctly.
nyetproblmeo, tovarish!
Have a good weekend
Michael Savage is right about the San Francisco Bay Area and the misdiagnoses/application of "autism". I have no problems comprehending Mr. Pitney's story is true; but I do think his article is lending far more credence to portraying America as "culturally insensitive" to the outside world, as well as within in.
Here, in the South, children are being branded overwhelmingly with the label "depression"; some are being morphed into the "autism" category as I write this.
The labelling of children is being done differently per area of the country.
What one poster sees as a "brat" and not autistic may be entirely true for the area that poster lives in. What another poster sees as Michael's verbal "assault" on truly autistic children, may make perfect and reasonable sense to the poster in living in that area.
The same strategy during a Presidential election year was employed by the Clintons in 1992, and then again in 1996: Divide and conquer.
Obama did his excellent tour; not for the US, and certainly not on behalf of the US. Chavez'/Iran/China plans are currently halted by Bush Admin policies; but yet Africa, and the anti-American countries are still bullish on getting the US labeled "racist" and "lacking cultural sensitivity".
The Conference at Durban, So Africa was an attempt to have America, England, and Israel branded "racist" nations in order that the non-G-8 and some might be prohibited from doing business with said "racist" countries. Those "culturally insensitive countries".
I'm hoping Freepers, and others, are aware of this, and as we go through to November; please keep this in mind.
We are indeed being and going to perpetually be set up against each other.
Walk softly, carry a big stick.
Sure, Michael Savage could have been more "artful" in his description of what I also know to be true about so-called "autistic" children around the SF Bay Area. But, he's not lying. It is true for the SF Bay Area.
And I've no doubts, Media Matters knows all this too.
Hillary may have on surface failed with her "health care plan"; but her minions have been quite busy with "the plan" nonetheless. Ipso, statistics, ipso, knowing precisely how to drive the shaft.
Sure, fault Michael Savage for being culturally "insensitive" to those living in areas of the US where the label "autism" is being properly applied; but please also realize, we stand together, or we don't.
Just imagine all of us uniting under the UN as run by Obama, and the Iran/Venezuela leadership.
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