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Anyone have an autistic child?
shardian:
--- Quote from: CheffoJeffo on December 05, 2007, 10:13:01 am ---My personal belief is that there is a genetic component that is "unleashed" due to environmental issues. We do know how to treat many of the environmental issues (although we don't really know 'why' and the studies so far are not anywhere near as rigourous as we need them to be).
--- End quote ---
That is what I believe too - for a type of autism. I think that the current surge in autism is related to more developmental aspects than genetic though. There are a ridiculous amount of environmental and chemical stimuli that influence children in the current world. I guess you could say that there are not just different levels of autism, but more like completely different forms of autism.
And about my comment to jim: I guess I was thinking of "old Jim" and jumped to where you were going with that. You might as well have went ahead and explained yourself. Sorry.
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: shardian on December 05, 2007, 10:35:35 am ---I guess you could say that there are not just different levels of autism, but more like completely different forms of autism.
--- End quote ---
You don't have to guess... that's called the Autism Spectrum. It's already out there. Autism is a broad term for many traits, conditions, attributes, etc that manifest themselves under a spectrum of abilities and behaviours. They also have different causes (though most of them are unknown or unproven).
It's the near complete ignorange of the Autism Spectrum that makes it so difficult for families with an autistic child to navigate society. The kids don't look different. From the high functioning kid that is disrupting a little league game to a lower functioning kid smashing spaghetti sauce jars in a grocery store - people don't see the cause and just assume that the kid is a bad kid because the parents are bad parents. Dealing with that day in and day out is exhausting on top of all of the needs of the kid. That's where the defensiveness comes in that Jim mentioned. There is only so much energy in a day for these parents and they can't afford to spend much of it constantly explaining and defending themselves and their child.
CheffoJeffo:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on December 05, 2007, 10:43:35 am ---Dealing with that day in and day out is exhausting on top of all of the needs of the kid. That's where the defensiveness comes in that Jim mentioned. There is only so much energy in a day for these parents and they can't afford to spend much of it constantly explaining and defending themselves and their child.
--- End quote ---
The good news is that there are therapies to help manage the stress ... I, for one, like posting in response to tommy when I have had a particularly long or frustrating day.
Works like a charm and every so often I get a new custom title!
CheffoJeffo:
Since we're on the "what does autism look like" train ... I would say that, based on my experience, at least two high-post members here fall on the autism spectrum.
Nope, I'm not going to say who.
The point is that autism looks very different from person to person -- there may be a 'look' that someone would associate with autism (the blank stare is the classic), but I guarantee that at least one (and probably both) of my 'autistic' children wouldn't meet those criteria. Same situation with the majority of autism-afflicted children that I deal with (OTOH, I see a bunch of kids regularly who could be identified by the blank stare).
PBJ -- I'm not taking your comments as insensitive. In fact, your beliefs appear to be typical. That is the reason, however, that my first piece of advice to Ninten-doh was to take everything he hears with a grain of salt --most people have some beliefs/conceptions about autism.
Almost all of them are either incomplete or wrong.
To be clear, I don't blame people for what I perceive as incomplete/incorrect information -- it sure as heck ain't your duty to know everything about autism and I find some solace in the fact that 'normal' people actually spend time thinking about it.
EDIT: for grammar (or lack thereof)
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: pinballjim on December 05, 2007, 10:57:12 am --- Just in my experience, it's usually a lack of an 'inside voice', laughing inappropriately and demonstrated 'single mindedness' at some tasks. I'm sure there's others but that's what a person without an autistic person in the family has seen.
--- End quote ---
These can be from a high functioning autism but are by no means limited to them. People who are completely typical can have poor social skills too.
--- Quote ---I wouldn't say that. We're used to a wide variety of appearances but something that's 'abnormal' sticks out quickly. I think there's an overall 'autistic-look'. It may be the lack of facial expressions and unfocused stares.
--- End quote ---
I know kids who are autistic that people walk up and complement the parents on "such a good looking child". There isn't an "autistic look" in most of these kids. It may be somewhat obvious on a heavily autistic kids but that's a behaviour, not a physical appearance. If you saw a retarded child doing something seriously inappropriate you would immediately know why... not so with an autistic kid. I've seen people walk right up to parents of autistic kids and tell them off for having such "ill behaved children".
--- Quote ---Again, I apologize if any of this is coming off as insensitive. Not my intention. It's a bewildering condition.
--- End quote ---
It's coming off as if you don't have any experience with autistic kids. I'm not seeing disrespect so far.
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