Conflicting information about a possible surge in Autism

[Radagast]

So many kids you would never guess are being diagnosed now. I kind of wonder if it isn't overdiagnosed.

That's a good point. Since it's a spectrum, the mild end shades gradually into "normal." Indeed, there seems to be a link between autism and engineering, and without engineers, society would collapse. So where should the line between "normal" and "disorder" be drawn?

Personally, I find the negative language of "disorder" less helpful than the positive language of "what is the best way to educate this particular child?".

[moonglow]

This is what I have read from other parents of PDD-NOS and ADHD kids. Their kids are usually on a combination of meds to control the outbursts. We have decided for now that I will continue to work so we can afford a therapist to help us communicate.

I had this discussion with my neighbor at work a bit ago, she thinks the supposed rise is due to vaccinations, I told her I think it is because it is more widely diagnosed now. My kids has some serious quirks, but he is no Rain Man. So many kids you would never guess are being diagnosed now. I kind of wonder if it isn't overdiagnosed.

I still don't rule out vaccinations causing some of these ...for a toddler to be normal and talking and active then get the MMR vaccine and suddenly stop talking and even reverting and losing the gains they have made..and that happening over and over and over with thousands of children..I just don't see how that can be dismissed. And there was at least one case that won a court battle in actually proving the MMR did cause autism in their daughter who had some genetic problem that the vaccine triggered. It could be all these children carry some gene that causes autism and something..vaccines, illness...major stress...who knows..that triggers it. I have never heard of someone becoming autistic later in life though...ought to research that. Maybe they just need to delay certain vaccines by six months and see if that makes a different. I don't see what the harm would be. I think its outrageous to be giving a new born baby a hepatitis shot which is gotten by having sex and drug abuse...

Radagast

Originally Posted by SethElijah
So many kids you would never guess are being diagnosed now. I kind of wonder if it isn't overdiagnosed.

That's a good point. Since it's a spectrum, the mild end shades gradually into "normal." Indeed, there seems to be a link between autism and engineering, and without engineers, society would collapse. So where should the line between "normal" and "disorder" be drawn?

Personally, I find the negative language of "disorder" less helpful than the positive language of "what is the best way to educate this particular child?".

Yes that was brought up in this study as one of the question to parents were, was your child ever dx with autism and are they still now and 40% said their child was when they were younger but no longer considered autistic. It was pointed out this is not something that is outgrown either...so they don't just 'recover from it' so it had to be mis-diagnosed to start with.

Now my son was nearly dx with Asperger...but his therapist didn't want to put that label on him unless he was totally sure so he waited for years, literally and just watched my son's process and finally decided that no he wasn't as my son truly did seem to 'outgrown' some of those Asperger qualities. If he truly had Asperger he would not have outgrown it. He had a long list of problems...fine and gross motor delays, sensory integration disorder...auditory processing disorder...ADHD and a learning disability. And he seemed to fixate on certain things. He also was very, very rigid about how words should be pronounced..still is to some extent..and how things should be done. He would even correct his teachers if they failed to follow their own rules or routines! It bothered him that much. But as it turned out this was more of an anxiety issue due to early childhood trauma (emotional abuse from his dad) more then anything else.

I got him physical and OT therapy in preschool for this motor delays and sensory problems ...and took him in for testing at an early age for learning disability. I have a major LD problem myself and knew that can be inherited so I watched for signs of it in him. And sure enough he does have one but not as severe as mine. Still I had to battle the school to get them to do their own testing (and they finally accepted the outside testing I had done) to get him and IEP so he could get that one on one help from and LD teacher for that areas he was way behind in...reading and spelling. Once they finally started working with him..and the LD teacher was just awesome and did find a way to teach him in a way he could learn...he advanced by leaps and bounds and is now reading ahead of his grade level. In fact he advanced two grade levels that first year he got help..when he was way behind his grade level on reading to start with. He could not learn like the other children...so she would take him twice a day to the resource room and work with him and a few other children and taught them in a way they could understand.

Before that his self esteem was just crushed because he couldn't keep up with his classmate and so many times at bedtime he would be in tears while talking about his day at school. After all, every subject involved reading! Which he struggled with the most. But by third grade he was making great progress. Still it took several more years for him to gain some confidence in school and not have so much anxiety about feeling like he couldn't keep up. He is doing really well in school now and making A's and B's. Now he still has an IEP..he is in seventh grade now and in fact he is going through testing now for his upcoming yearly IEP meeting that we will have next week.

If he hadn't gotten the IEP ...oh I hate to even think where he would be now. He would be so far, far behind the other kids and would have no self esteem left at all! Parents have to be pro-active and sometimes fight for their kids to get them the help they need because no one else will. And many schools won't do testing and IEP until sixth grade...seeing a huge delay and grade problems..by then the child though is so far behind, it so much more difficult to get them caught up.

Nate has a great lady now at middle school that helps him with any of his school work during that class time he has with her. He just needs that little extra help and support to get him through and doesn't have to be taken out of regular class now to get that help.

Anyway didn't mean to ramble on like this!

God bless

[SethElijah]

My grandfather was a chemical engineer, and he developed the first fully synthetic oil. He also had other inventions in grass seed. My nephew is HIGHLY intelligent, scary intelligent. He has taught himself classical piano and guitar, taught himself how to play chess when he was 5, how to read when he was 3. We call it the gift of autism or asperger's, we do not call it a disability. We tell my nephew, and my son, there are a few areas they need to work on, however, everybody does.

[moonglow]

My grandfather was a chemical engineer, and he developed the first fully synthetic oil. He also had other inventions in grass seed. My nephew is HIGHLY intelligent, scary intelligent. He has taught himself classical piano and guitar, taught himself how to play chess when he was 5, how to read when he was 3. We call it the gift of autism or asperger's, we do not call it a disability. We tell my nephew, and my son, there are a few areas they need to work on, however, everybody does.

That is great they have such gifts.

One of my sister's adopted son's has been dx with asperger's...but his IQ is barely above borderline...though I don't think that has to do with the AS, but the fact his very young teenage mother did drugs while she was pregnant with him. The doctor says he isn't exactly brain damaged...but areas of his brain didn't develop correctly...its kind of complicated.

He also has an assortment of other problems plus bipolar to boot and right now refusing to take his medications.

His social skills are horrible...added to everything he doesn't process what he is told correctly so what he repeats is usually a terrible distortion of what he heard! He comes up with the most off the wall things. Everyone is always constantly correcting him as we feel it would be wrong to allow him to believe these really strange things. As it turns out his reading skills are very good and he processes what he reads much better! So to me it would seem like if anyone wants him to truly understand something they should write it down and let him read it.

He also has a bad learning disability..which is common with people with AS too. He is in his last year of high school, in special ed and even with all sorts of support he is still flunking most classes. Its been a terrible struggle getting him to learn and every year he has fallen more and more behind. My sister feels like when he was still in grade school even though he had and IEP the school didn't follow it and so he kept falling behind.

Eventually she tried him in a private Christian school thinking him getting more individual help would help him learn but he fights with everyone about everything..like I said he has terrible social skills and little to no respect for others. She finally gave up on that...putting tons of money into it for no gain and put him back in public schools. No teacher, no school can make a student learn if they don't want too though... and he doesn't seem to want too.

Meanwhile as they have done more testing on him they discovered his IQ is actually dropping! Very alarming to my sister...and she wants to know why. Which I don't blame her..I would be pretty alarmed too!

God bless

[moonglow]

Is autism genetic? Researchers hone in on an answer

* Story Highlights
* Autism research found a possible genetic link -- alteration near semaphorin 5A gene
* Another report found evidence that a cadherin 10 mutation may play a role too
* As many as 100 genes or more could be involved in autism; more research needed