Category: Health and Wellness
It seems like every other child is being diagnosed as 'autistic'. Now some I can see, like my upstairs neighbor has a 14-year-old who totally lacks emotion, parrots human speech like a toddler, and has scar tissue from repetitive biting of his wrists and forearms. Others, like some little girls who have played with my daughter...one seemed about on the level of a child two years younger than she, but the AUTISM bumper sticker her parents' van sported?! The other has medical problems like seizure disorder, but knows her parents and seems at times able to connect with others, at other times like the typical bratty kid.
I live in a cesspool called Massachusetts. I don't know about other states or countries, but I know here schools get additional funding the more 'special education' or 'special needs' children they claim to have. Could this be part of the increasing number of kids diagnosed with 'autism', which at one time was not considered a problem itself but a symptom of pediatric schizophrenia, which relatively few kids had? Also in this cesspool...if a woman doesn't abort a 'special needs' child, but can prove said child isn't learning in the neighborhood public schools, the state must offer the family a voucher for the child to be educated in a private school. Yet the teachers' union with whom Obama sleeps will protest vigorously parents of non special needs kids attending charter schools or getting a voucher to be educated in a private school. Now private school tuition vouchers is a concept I do not totally support, but I think if one group of kids has the right to them, another group of kids should as well.
I don't buy the concept of autism being related to women waiting until later in life to have children. I had my daughter at 38, and she is not Downs' syndrome, or autistic, or any of the problems supposedly linked to late in life motherhood. Late in life motherhood is not a new concept, as my former husband was a late in life child, as were many people in my MIL's family, in a third world country where at that time women had more children. Neither do any of MIL's relatives, including a brother, have any of these problems. Is the diagnosis of 'autism' some parents' desire to medicate rather than take effort to find out what else is causing their childrens' problems? Or perhaps putting a label on behavior, like shyness, that is simply a quirk of some human beings? What are you guys thoughts?
I believe years ago children who were a bit slower or shy and sutch were considered as so. But now these days parents and teachers wants to lable why kids who are not AVERAGE as special ED and those who are above average are gifted. Parents and stuff i believe wants to put the blaim on why there child is slow on any other person or reason other than there own parenting skills. Now I am not saying that these parents did something to cause the child to be a bit slower than what is to be consittered average, so don't think I am saying that cause I am not.
Then if the child is more gifted: the parents and who ever want to take credit for the childs intelegence.
and there's also the claim of certain vaccines for childhood illnesses causing autism.
I think conditions such as this are over diagnosed. Maybe not as much as ADHD, but still...
That beings said, there are factors that can cause autism that a lot of people are not aware of. For example, house paint. A lot of people like to repaint their houses, but be careful about getting lead-based paint, because lead is a heavy metal, and can apparently contribute to autism. I know there are others, but I can't think of them right now.
Children with autism are rarely medicated.
Vouchers programs, contrary to what conservatives will tell you, work like this:
Parent X gets $5,000 in a voucher for a $25,000 per year school. That means, said voucher is useless except for the parent that has the other $20,000. Hence, while the situation you describe might have happened on a few occasions, it doesn't happen that often. Autism and other severe impairments are expensive to treat with therapies and the like: it isn't a cakewalk, unlike what you see on CNN, Fox News and other visits to the zoo you may be taking.
And attitudes like what you display now were displayed in my day as a child: maybe needing some special equipment is just a blind person's way of getting attention ... blah blah blah. What this amounts to is people who, rather than improve their own socioeconomic circumstances, complain about the perceived advantage they see someone else getting, without understanding all the hidden costs that person is paying.
Ever seen some numbnuts complain when troops come home at the airport and are maybe getting lots of attention? These troops lived in really decrepid conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq, away from family and friends for 18 months minimum, and someone has to play I-resent-you when they return and get a li'l pick-me-up / welcome when they get home.
Nope, I'm not buying this. My wife saw Bill O'Reilly talking about it, and though she was taken in by it, I explained what I just did here. How many of you all got resentful remarks if you got extra time on a test? Or got to do a paper over because the typewriter ran out of ink? None of this was "get to," you had to. However, there are always people who resent any perceived extra attention someone else is getting. People even resent a pregnant woman getting attention, if she happens to carry the child in such a way it doesn't show that much, so she "looks okay."
Sad, primitive and reprehensible commentary on modern humanity. Now if we could only take their resentment and use it to power a fuel cell of some sort, we could make something useful out of them.
CNN? Fox? Visits to the zoo? Get to know a poster before attacking them rather than disagreeing with their ideas. Fact is I don't watch tv as it isn't something I enjoy, but being a parent of a nursery school aged child I have plenty of opportunity when she's playing with other kids to personally observe these kids, and, quite frankly, they don't seem that different than the average child, yet they're labelled 'autistic'.
Rather than improve my own socioeconomic circumstances? Fact is I've never complained about them. Matter of fact I've been referred to as a 'government kissass' by so called friends for refusing to take advantage of stuff like WIC and subsidized daycare, which should be reserved for the truly needy. We are so far out of the ballpark for programs like this income wise for a family of three it's not even laughable, and would never even think of having another child to qualify for a handout. We have, at least for now, a stable two income home and even if this changed would find some way to manage on one, at least for awhile.
And who are these so called numbnuts complaining about the welcome the troops get when arriving at the airport? Maybe they're getting a welcome at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson Airport, but they're sure as hell not getting it here or at Logan, as this is Pacifist Central and one orphan of the Iraq conflict (dad died) was even booed in Cambridge as he lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Having grown up with military veterans and worked at a V A Hospital, I can attest to the sorry level of care vets get there. One poor lady vet was homeless by the time her data was entered into the system, and I work with vets who will not use the V A for anything at all.
Primitive? A friend of mine was asking the same question, why do so many modern kids get diagnosed as autistic when no one was diagnosed with it when I was in school? She went to school 10 years before I did and quite frankly I don't recall as many SPED's or diagnoses of autism in either Arizona or Florida public schools. I'm simply curious, and concerned about local schools that seem to offer everything to straight A students, and work wonders for students with specific problems, but seem to offer nothing to the majority average student, and believe me it hasn't just been myself making the comment.
A lot of people are diagnozed as having some learning difficulty or other. I did hear someone saying that a lot of the time it's just a naughty kid playing their parents around and I probably agree, because there are a lot more younger people diagnozed with conditions like ADHD and aspergers than there used to be. I've often wondered what's in these medications they give some of the kids that are diagnozed. Like is there not a way of using less chemicals because chemicals could screw things up even more. Mind you, that could be said for most other medications and I'm not a doctor, so I'll just shut up now.
I think autism is underdiagnosed, and that a lot more people have it than are diagnosed with it.
I think the amount of autistic people, whether diagnosed or not will go up.
The cause is an imbalance in the amount of time interacting with peers and the amount of time spent alone.
OK Spongebob your slapdown was totally fair - I came off harsh, but the truth is many people complain whenever they see anyone getting a perceived advantage.
I'm barely old enough to remember older relatives and friends of relatives who suffered poleo. They weren't "getting attention," it wasn't pretty, but at least the ones I remember handled it with bravery and courage. There was a time when Poleo wasn't diagnosed either, and that can be said for any number of conditions. A diagnosis is not, as some might claim, an excuse. It is simply an explanation.
Schools don't diagnose patients, doctors do. If a school professional tried to, it seems there would be a criminal case for unlawfully practicing medicine, but I'm not a lawyer.
If a child is diagnosed with a condition, it must be by a medical professional unless the diagnosis is a fake. Hence, the child can't so much be fooling around with the parents, as such things are made by a battery of tests, are they not? Naturally faulty diagnoses do happen, but to assume an undercurrent or conspiracy theory type scenario, which is first unprovable and second based only on experiences / anecdotal evidence is not really the same thing as getting to the bottom of a problem.
I repeat from my last post, any of you all get criticized growing up for wanting or getting extra attention if you were granted extra time on a test such as the SAT, or given an opportunity to redo a paper because the ribbon ran out partway through? I can't be the only one this sort of thing happened to. And it was always based on the same common denominator: person x must be trying to whip the system, mess with one's parents, fool the teacher, fill in the blank with anything because for such "minds" anything will do. Yet I imagine for most of us anyway, we all pretty much handled situations with a sportsmanly attitude, hauling heavy backpacks of books, redoing papers when the ribbons went out, and the like. And such a sportsmanly attitude is no more and no less than anyone could really expect.
There will always be people who look at others and see some perceived advantage, sort of like the churlish boy saying, "Man, you're so lucky!" without seeing the whole truth. Truth be told, said people could be any of us myself included, at any point, when we don't see the whole picture. To that end I don't resent those who were resentful of me growing up, because that was more gratifying for them, got them off quicker, and was a lot less work than seeing the whole picture. Then again, I don't really resent the neighbor's dog for doing what dogs do either , though I may shoo it out of my yard.
I don't think anybody has ever thought I had an advantage over them because of my blindness but there's a first time for everything so one day it may happen. It may be an interesting experience.
Anyway I see this happening more with poor people resenting people who have more money than them because they get more such as a better education. Personally I don't resent rich people for giving their children more than I had. If you have money to spend on giving your children a better life that is a good thing to spend your money on imo.
I can see both sides of it. Yes, I was at times preceived as faking/playing what have you. However, I know from talking with parents of children that if a child shows any out of the ordinary behavior, displays a different personallity, etc, that schools will insist the parent takes them to a doctor, and if the parent's doctor doesn't give a prognosis that allows the school to keep the child on meds (IE, write a perscription for the child) than they refer them to another doctor who they trust, (likely one who has diagnosed for the school before). I don't think it's kids playing their parents or the system. I personally think we're going through a time when individuallity is not respected or accepted.
That's what I mean. Why the hell does every "abnormal behaviour" have to be medicated all the time now?
Sometimes too, it seems to be a case where a teacher doesn't know how to cope
with youngsters who are active and alive and they, as a teacher, lack the desire
and the energy to help those ones produce and engage them in creative learning outlets.
That they, the teacher, would rather a child be silent and not a perceived bother
thusly the "need" for some of the meds.
Exactly my point, and we're stifling one major source of true creativity; we're killing our own societies. As well as our future and advancement.
Autism is a spectrum of disorders. If you hear that your child's friends are diagnosed autistic, then that doesn't necessarily mean that they are at the extreme end of the spectrum. The behaviors you expected to see are a stereotype.
Totally agree with post 11, couldn't have said it better myself. That's what I hate most about today's society...the aversion to differences. That's why these same hypocritical adults who say "be yourself and people will like you" are also saying "be whatever makes us happy, not what makes you happy, because if you do something out of the ordinary we'll put a stop to it." whether this thought is expressed verbally or through action, you quickly learn what's "acceptable" and what's not, and the more different you are the more things they want to change. It really makes me sick sometimes.