To welcome research into autism?

[wehavea2319]

As mum of a 7-year-old autistic DS. I understand a bit some of the concerns but at the same time, we understand so so little about this condition, what causes it, even what it actually is.

It’s so widespread in society that I think it’s vital to actually understand what it is and what may help.

My DS is wonderful but I find it frustrating that I don’t actually know what his ‘autism’ actually is- genetic? Just the way his brain is wired and inevitable? Some sort of outside influence? A combination of all those factors?

I don’t understand being content with just a definition that is the symptoms themselves and zero further understanding.

I think the American research is a facade. They'll 'find' it's caused by vaccines.

My 14 year old DD is autistic and I too would like more research into it. She is the only person in the family to have an official diagnosis (although I have my suspicions about several older generational members!) but it would be interesting to know how exactly it works. Is it just pure chance? Does it skip generations etc? Although I wish it wasn’t the Americans running the research!

That’s worrying if that’s the case. AFAIK the vaccine myth has been debunked a long time ago?

RFK jr isn’t really proposing research though. They will decide it’s vaccines.
Loads of actual scientific research has proven that it isn’t. Wakefield was a money grabbing charlatan who rode roughshod over research ethics (amongst other issues) which is why he was struck off.
There is research into autism. It’s going on all the time. It is at least partly genetic. The current US regime have gone round firing all the actual scientists, I wouldn’t trust anything from there for the next four years.

Who has said they are “content” with not understanding more?

It was. Ages ago. But still it lingers. Despite many autistic people not being vaccinated (as well as many who have been).

Okay, American research aside. I just notice a lot of pushback in autistic groups “/circles to any kind of research.

I just notice it in a lot in some SEN parent groups or autism circles. A pushback to any kind of research, that it is just diversity of people and not something that needs to be investigated.

thankfully that won’t actually stop research from taking place

but I can understand why they may come to that stance and there isn’t anything wrong with it. It will be based on their experience with their child or indeed being autistic themself.

Thing is (thankfully) those Facebook or wherever it is groups don’t get to have a say whether there’s be research or not. I believe a lot of research has been and is being done however there’re no conclusions as of yet so not much to socialise.

I think part of the reason why there appears to have been a a huge surge in the numbers of autistic children being diagnosed is that the diagnostic criteria have changed.

There are many autistic children today who would not have received a diagnosis had they been born a few decades earlier. That is why so many adults are now being diagnosed in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond. When they were children, they didn't exhibit any of the behaviours that would have indicated autism at the time. They would possibly have been called "difficult" or "moody" or a "day-dreamer" or "backward" "awkward" or "eccentric".

RFK doesn't want genuine research. He wants pseudoscience to identify a scapegoat that can be blamed so that they can then "eliminate" autism. Given that a key step to "eliminating" autism would be a fascist programme of eugenics to prevent neurodiverse people from reproducing, I am very much against the starting principles. I would welcome genuine research that focuses on understanding the nature of neurodiversity and making the world more habitable for neurodiverse people but I don't want us eliminated.