Autism… some cold hard facts.
(This one is for Sharkiepoo, while I’ve still got a few spoons and a nicely balanced foul attitude to dish them out)
WAKE UP PEOPLE AND PAY ATTENTION!
ASD’s - Autistic Spectrum Disorders - have been proven to be caused by genetics; with premature birth being very highly suspected to be most likely to cause an ASD to be more severe than it might have otherwise been. Some environmental factors might make ASD’s more severe, but this has yet to be proven and probably never will be because the varients are far too extreme. Simply put, if you’re going to get an ASD, you’re going to be born with it, it’s no one’s fault, it’s just one of those things.
It is not contagious.
It is not a disease.
It is not caused by environmental factors.
It is not curable.
It is not preventable - excluding contraception of course. If you don’t want to risk having a child with an ASD, don’t have a child.
People with ASD’s are not stupid. In fact, some are savant, which is a whole new level of genious.
Autism makes itself known between 12 and 36 months of age. In more mild cases it’s often not noticed until the child starts school and begins to struggle keeping up with the rest of the class.
Children with ASD’s can have learning “difficulties” in school. The reality is, learning isn’t difficult for them at all - if the information is presented to them in a manner in which they can absorb it. The learning problem is created because neurotypical people learn things one way and ASD people learn things in a different way - because their brains process information differently, but the point is, they still process information! The lack of recognition of how ASDer’s learn and lack of ability to get the information through to them in a way in which they can absorb it is the failure of the teacher, not the student.
To use a metaphorical example: If you only know how to speak, read and write English, and I was to attempt to teach you something by only speaking and giving you written information in Arabic, would you understand anything I’m trying to teach you? No. When you fail the subject, is it your fault for not knowing Arabic, or is it my fault for not presenting it in English? It’s my fault for not recognising the fact that I need to present the information in a way you can understand it. That is the problem ASDers have with learning.
Yes, in recent decades more and more children are being diagnosed with ASDs. Why is this? Is it something new? No, it’s not. It’s just more recognised and more people are taking their kids to see medical professionals to get their kids diagnosed.
When I was a little kid, Aspergers (a form of high functioning Autism) wasn’t heard of by the general public. It was known to exist, had been “discovered” and documented, but the information just wasn’t available to everyone like it is nowdays. I was simply considered to be scatterbrained, inattentive, daydreamy, obcessive, strange child. There was nothing actually “wrong” with me. My brother was always being commented on as a “brattish boy” and the term “boys will be boys” was often applied to him. It was considered to be a nothing more than a personality quirk.
Nowdays, if a child doesn’t fall perfectly within the bellcurve of “normal” learning in kindergarten, something diagnosable must be “wrong” with them. The parents are given a recommendation to get a diagnosis, thus more parents are taking their kids to the doctor to find out why their child doesn’t fall within that standard bellcurve, thus more kids are getting diagnosed. This is the only reason I’m aware that my boys have ASDs, had I not been pushed by their kindergartens to get a diagnosis for them, I would have just seen them as kids that were about as normal for boys as I had always thought my brother was.
I’m yet to get a diagnosis for myself, but my brother has had some genetic type information given to him by a doctor and one day he phoned me to tell me that if either of us have a premature child the chances of autism are higher because he carries the gene for it, thus chances are I probably do as well. Well, my children certainly proved that correct!
The number of cases of severe autism are also growing, but not as fast as the overall statistic for all ASDs. But of course the cases of severe autism are going to grow, the whole damn population of the planet is growing, so of course there’s going to be more severe cases of ASD around. Not to mention, decades ago a child with severe autism was often hidden from the world in shame, some parents would even kill the child rather than attempt to deal with it, medical access wasn’t as readily available nor as often accessed, thus many cases went uncounted. When my parents were kids, it was generally considered pointless going to a doctor unless you were literally dying or had something physically very wrong with you, like a broken bone sticking out of your leg.
There is nothing “wrong” with people that have an ASD. They are simply different. They perceive the world differently. They learn things in different ways. They process information differently. They express themselves differently.
Children with ASDs can have emotional meltdowns and throw the biggest tantrums you will ever witness. There is a good reason for this and I can’t blame them at all. If you’re neurotypical and want to get a little bit of insight into what it’s like for a child to have an ASD, go to a completely foreign country (or planet!) where not only does everyone speak, read and write a language you can’t understand, but also use body language and vocal expression you can’t understand. Somewhere that you struggle to understand everyone else and be understood by everyone else. Now imagine your frustration when you’re trying to communicate something really basic and no one has a clue what you’re trying to say and none of them are even bothering to try because they think you’re just retarded or something, and every second thing you say and every other movement you make seems to upset and offend people and you have no idea why. Now tell me you wouldn’t eventually throw the mother of all tantrums in a situation like that! That is what it is like for a child with an ASD to grow up in our horrible world full of bizarre social rules and complex expressional language.
The reason therapies exist for kids with ASDs is not an attempt to cure them or make them better, but merely to teach them strategies - in a way they can understand - to better nagivate the neurotypical foreign world.
Now take that child and raise them in that world to be an adult. Is it any wonder adults with ASDs can get a bit pissed off at the world and the ignorance and stupidity of neurotypical people when they try to blame something like milk for causing Autism?
Wake up people.
Quit trying to find something to blame and someone to sue for a condition that is completely genetically natural. All you’re doing is degrading and cheapening those that have ASD’s like they’re some sort of plague upon society.
Autism is here and it’s not going to go away. Get used to it, accept it, and deal with it.
What can I say? Same thing I always do I suppose: People are so stupid.
Anonymous
