Anyone else noticing the uptick in open hostility towards people with ASD?

[FFSakeDrinkSake]

As the title says. It feels like it's open season recently. In the last few weeks alone I've seen many threads questioning the validity of Asd, the credentials of those diagnosing the condition, the 'explosion' of diagnosis', the 'fact' that you qualify for extra benefits if you are autistic and/or have ADHD, the apparent drain on resources kids with ASD have on the educational sector depriving others and most recently the idea that someone (self diagnosed) can 'outgrow' autism. Most of which contain the worst misinformation about what we're trying to deal with on a daily basis and making it sound like we're just trying to .. i dont even know tbh.. scam our way through life?

Disclaimer NATAAT.

Oh and screen use doesn't cause autism. Obviously.

There is some support for something being called virtual autism where children who have excessive screen use at a very young age to the exclusion of actual social contact might exhibit autism-like traits. It's not autism though. This is why parent diagnosis can be dangerous as a lot can be done to reverse the impact of virtual autism and a parent deciding their child is autistic without diagnosis can delay that work. Problem of course is the wait list for an assessment but it is why it's so important for parents to keep an open mind whilst their children are going through the assessment process.

And by excessive I don't mean occasionally handing your 12 month old a phone so you can get 15 mins to yourself. I mean children who don't actually get any real human interaction consistently. And I mean young, I think it's about this happening under 2.

I know of a few kids who have had traumatic life experiences (death of a parent) and are now having difficulties but their issues did exist before the traumatic experience but weren’t to such an extent, they have had problems with diagnosis as everything gets put down the traumatic event now.

The thing is though my son who is a teenager now and has been diagnosed with autism since age 6 if I asked him how many of those applied to him he’d say none of them, but in my view all 7 apply.

I think far far far more happens from birth to age 1 than we think. Around 12/13 months is when most babies begin to speak, so the whole year preceding is them laying down the foundations of understanding language and eventually learning they can use it themselves. We encourage new mums to ‘cuddle them and watch Netflix’ and of course phones are a huge distraction - I wonder how much early communication is disrupted due to what must be very limited interaction with small babies compared to 10/15 years ago.

Mines 14, I didn’t have a smart phone when he was born or a tablet, remember talking to him loads when he was younger, he’s still autistic

I was born in the 60s and had zero tech. My kids had zero tech until a phone at secondary school. We’re all autistic.

I agree. But to ensure I'm absolutely clear - virtual autism is not autism. Screens do not cause autism. However some of the external behaviours that the general public think of as being autistic can be displayed in children who had excessive screen use at a young age (we're talking parental neglect levels of lack of interaction with the child). That doesn't mean those children are autistic and they'd be unlikely to actually receive an autism diagnosis (although misdiagnosis of course happens).

But the trouble is you then get a lot of people thinking that about all autistic children and that they all had neglectful parents whilst patting themselves on the back and congratulating themselves on what perfect parents they are themselves, most parents of autistic children have to work far harder at parenting than anyone else cus it’s tougher to start with

I may need correcting on this but virtual autism is thought of as a form of attachment disorder.

It can be hard to tell the difference between an attachment disorder and autism. Professionals can get it wrong. Parents most definitely get it wrong. But with attachment disorders we're talking material neglect at an early age, Romanian orphanage type situations. We're not talking about a little bit of YouTube. For the vast majority of parents of diagnosed autistic children it isn't misdiagnosed.

That said, if you're going to diagnosis your own child, you're hardly going to go for an attachment disorder over autism (unless an adopted child) as that would mean accepting and admitting your role in the attachment disorder. I actually have a friend in this situation. Child diagnosed with attachment disorder caused by a domestic violence issue at a young age. Mother has had two (NHS) autism assessments that I know of, both saying child isn't autistic. She's pushing for another because she's still certain it's autism. (And for anyone about to say you can't get multiple autism assessments on the NHS - the child has very high SEMH needs and the mother is a strong advocate for her child). I feel for her and understand why she doesn't want to believe it's attachment disorder but I'm close to the family and the circumstances and the diagnosis makes sense (and ultimately I defer to the professionals who have carried out the assessments).

But this is why diagnosis by parent is a problem.

Oh yes. But this is why assessment and diagnosis matters. My child is autistic. It's not attachment disorder. But I didn't start saying she WAS autistic until I had professional confirmation of that (not that my child would have ever fitted attachment disorder criteria - they're very high masking and very compliant in school/public).

Disability in general though. I take your point about hidden disability because they 'look normal' but the number of people who refuse to educate themselves regarding disability and prefer the 'Dave down the pub says' school of knowledge acquisition extends to people 'pretending to be physically disabled.' And these thick F***s actually have the vote.

So yes, virtual autism is an issue. It's actually very rare but the misinformation around autism and screens allows some (not all) parents of NT children to act as if their child being NT is because they parented well.

Is this something you can evidence, or just what Dave (or Davina) down the pub says?

This is such crap.

The reason the ‘affluent’ get it, is because they are likely to be more educated so more inclined to support and push for their child.

The fact that you’re a teacher and thinks this is horrific. I was a secondary teacher in a very affluent area. There were loads of undiagnosed kids. It tended to be the less affluent who had behaviour problems who were diagnosed. Not the quiet young women/girls who slipped under the radar.

My Dd is Audhd.

As a baby she went from crawling to walking on her knees everywhere. Went to see a pead who’d never seen it before. How weird was that gait? It’s an ASD thing now. But you wouldn’t know as you never saw her then.

She couldn’t do baby led weaning as she was sick all the time with it. Again, you weren’t there, so you wouldn’t have known.

Exactly what my former friend did. Her child suffers from neglect but she kept pushing and pushing and asking for another opinion until she got the diagnosis so she could get the DLA. Feel so sorry for this subset of children.

The child I'm talking about gets DLA. The DLA is based on his needs which are extremely high regardless of what causes them. The challenge to his diagnosis has absolutely nothing to do with eligibility for DLA. Please do not use what I say to support this bullshit about people only getting autism diagnoses to get DLA and making it all up.

Attachment Disorder or trauma based needs would provide as much evidence for a DLA award as an autism diagnosis. DLA is needs based.

Attachment disorder also doesn’t equal poor parenting. It could just as easily result from factors outside anyone’s control - separation from the main caregiver due to illness, for example. There is so much ignorance on this thread.

Many autistic children will experience trauma due to the fact of being autistic and not being understood or accommodated. Trauma doesn’t mean a person isn’t autistic!

And if your friend is similar to mine and had to escape domestic violence with her kids, your attitude to her is pretty shitty. Yes in a perfect world she'd have left earlier, but we all know it's not that simple.

Or are you just friends with people who neglect their children for kicks?

And if your friend is similar to mine and had to escape domestic violence with her kids, your attitude to her is pretty shitty. Yes in a perfect world she'd have left earlier, but we all know it's not that simple.

Or are you just friends with people who neglect their children for kicks?

If you want high rate mobility under smi criteria you need the autism diagnosis to prove a state of arrested development or incomplete development of the brain (or similar wording). Autism is recognised in case law as proving this so this part of the criteria just becomes a tick box with a diagnosis. The rest of the criteria needs to be met and proven too.

I’m a welfare benefits lawyer. It’s true that these is case law around this. However, an autism diagnosis doesn’t automatically meet the SMI criteria. Most with autism get middle care, low mobility. The guidance for assessors points to that award, although autism doesn’t mean automatic eligibility and it can be higher if night care needs are proven and / or SMI criteria are met.

I had a client recently awarded SMI due to trauma based needs.

I do see what you’re saying @Perzival I think - you’re saying that if needs meet the standard for SMI, the autism diagnosis meets the arrested and incomplete development of the brain part. That’s true. It can be met without but easier to argue with a diagnosis of autism or learning difficulties, you’re right.

And (only because I'm mad about this child being used as an example to support ablest views). This child has been awarded high rate mobility. When your SEMH issues are significant enough you are permanently excluded from mainstream in year 4, what the actual diagnosis is doesn't really matter.

We didn’t have that in our diagnosis for Dd.She got full mobility because she’s too anxious to go on public transport and can’t stand the noise.