To have these thoughts about Autism?

[MrsCantSayAnything]

I know so many people now who have a child on the spectrum. About 6 children in DDs school that I know of because their parents have told me....so obviously there will be more whose parents I am not on chatting terms with....my best friends son is showing strong signs and my own nephew is being assessed.

There must be some reason for this? So many children being affected. Another friend of mine says she thinks her child is on the spectrum and talks about poisoning from mercury.

I haven't learned about why she thinks this...but I do notice that there has been a growth in cases...why? Is it due to some kind of Mercury thing or can it really be that the professionals are better at noticing the symptoms now? If that's the case then why didn't we have all these children on the spectrum in the past...or did we?

There are threads on here about ASD all the time....I just feel sad I guess....so many DC that I know are affected and I feel there must be something to blame.

I've been to a couple of training sessions where it has been stressed that school is what makes ASD children display challenging behaviour - they aren't difficult school is the problem - and its very true. Current emphasis on group work is a nightmare for so many children

I totally agree with that.

School holidays are a breeze in comparison.

Yes I agree about structured school. ds1 was fine with strict teachers who taught the curriculum, but struggled with circle time, show and tell, group work, etc.

He was and still is great at answering short questions involving knowing facts, but struggles with questions like "what do you think would happen if ...."

Also, in the old days, children could leave school at 13, 14, 15 whatever and could get jobs, often physically tiring, which suited a lot of children with conditions like ADHD, ODD etc. Nowadays you are keeping these disillusioned teenagers in schools until they are 18, simply filling in time until they can "escape"

I think it's evolutionary.

Apparently there is research going on into the possibility that there is a link between the use of syntocinon in labour and the huge surge in ASD diagnosis.

I do think it's something to do with the environment.

Charotte Moore, who has two boys with autism and wrote a book about it commented that when she was a child you did not see so many children who 'appear' to have ASD as you do now.

I disagree that it's better diagnosed, as my daughter who is quite severe was ignored her symptoms until I got a private assessment done.

I know a lovely man who is almost certainly on the spectrum who was sent to a school for the Maladjusted. He has never recovered . That's how people were dealt with in the past, hidden away.

I know, I saw YouTube clips of her, I was wow tat is fantastic, what an intelligent girl.

at junior school in the 70s there was a special table for the 'odd,slow,dim kids!!! Yes I know not my language just a few descriptives used by both teachers and children to describe these kids.

Awful.

We had something called a "Behavioural Unit" in the 80s at high school...was full of kids with Lds looking back.

Amber and Mary, very interesting posts. I am a new TA and we have a very challenging child who is fantastic one to one and exceptionally clever but cannot deal with group activities at all.

It would be worth reading up on Asperger's in that case thebody - not so you can diagnose him, but to give you some ideas on different ways to approach different children. If you are interested, have a look at the Oasis site especially the articles that are linked at the top of the page. I found that reading those has helped me deal with a lot of children who aren't necessary autistic, but who display some autistic-like behaviours.

CailinDana you write "the diagnoses were inaccurate, unless one concedes that "severe autism" can be cured."

I disagree with your conclusion that it must mean the initial diagnosis was wrong - and the one that they are completely cured...

Here's Tony Attwood on the topic: (yes you were talking about an ASD diagnosis, the book this is taken from is about Asperger's Syndrome specifically but soon the AS/ASD diagnosis distinction will be dropped anyway)

"There has yet to be a study of the long term outcomes for children with Asperger's Syndrome. Professionals and service agencies tend to see adults who are having problems that are conspicuous and this may lead to an overly pessimistic view of the long-term outcome . AS is a development disorder and eventually the person does learn to improve their ability to socialise, converse, understand the thoughts and feelings of others and to accurately and subtly express their own thoughts and feelings. The author uses the analogy of completing a jigsaw puzzle of a thousand pieces without a picture on the box. Over time, small, isolated sections of the puzzle are completed, but theoverall picture is not apparent. Eventually there are sufficient 'islands' of parts of the puzzle to recognise the full picture and all the pieces fall into place. The puzzle of social behaviour is solved. The author has met many adults with AS who have described how in their late twenties or thirties they eventually managed to intelectually grasp the mechanisms of social skills. From then on the only people who knew of their condition were their family and those who knew them intimately.
We recognise the continuum of expression of autism from the silent and aloof child to the person with AS. Can children with AS progress further along the continuum? We have only just begun to explore the area of the continuum between AS and the normal range. However children with this syndrome can progress to a point where the current diagnostic criteria for AS do not adequately describe the more subtle qualities that remain ."

Fascinating stuff, ain't it!