Autism in France - Le Mur - a shocking documentary, with English subtitles

[Bonsoir]

Ellen Bolte was the mother who found the link

www.whale.to/vaccines/autism_tetanus.html

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9881820

and here is some interesting stuff on the possible link to gut infections etc

cogentbenger.com/autism/interviews/finegold-interview/

It's well established that autism is a result of genetic abnormalities of the temporal lobe.

I can't believe I wasted 52 mins of my life watching that tripe, dammed if you do, dammed if you don't, patronising, a-holes the lot of them.

You didn't waste a minute. You learned about a dominant group who, in the face of all scientific evidence to the contrary and many hundreds of thousands of irate parents and much international pressure, still does not back down and give up its social and economic power.

Incredible, amazing and deeply, profoundly shocking.

Thank you claig, so not everyone in France is treating autism the same way, if some are treating it with antibiotics.

The same news clip is now on youtube, it might be easier to load. No English subtitles though.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5c_L0-yB4w

I have seen the
cogentbenger.com/autism/interviews/finegold-interview before - at the top of the page there is a link to other interview transcripts which are worth reading too.

They seem to be saying that once you have taken antibiotics and messed up the balance of bacteria in your gut, then you have to take other antibiotics to try to reduce the other bad bacteria which have expanded into the space left by the bacteria that you killed with the first antibiotics. So antibiotics could cause the problem, but then you would need other antibiotics to put it right.

"She reasoned that the initial antibiotic treatment had disrupted the natural bacteria which line the gut - called the intestinal flora. With this "damaged", other bacteria which could produce harmful toxins could get a foothold and colonise the gut."

Yes, I think you are right CFSKate.
I think the work with antibiotics is still at an early trial stage and a university in France is doing a study etc. But it is encouraging that they are taking note of findings from the US and that psychoanalysis is not the only approach. It is encouraging that it was on a TV news programme, as this will give it widespread publicity.

Also very interesting that this approach seems to have been discovered by a mother with an autistic child who went through medical literature on her own and drew these conclusions.

Just watched some of Le Mur - I couldn't continue listening to the tripe . Those "specialists" don't even sound knowledgeable about why they believe their theories. The older lady with the crocodile, the guys saying it was due to a mother's depression - what a load of bollox

Why is everything in France so medicalised?

I don't think that Le Mur was particularly medicalised, bigTillyMint. Autism requires care/therapy/education - obviously those issues were going to be at the fore of the documentary.

No, not so much in the documentary, but in general France seems much more medicalised than here.

Is dyslexia still diagnosed / "treated" by the medical profession in France?

What other profession do you suggest diagnoses it, given that it is a neurological problem?

Well, in the UK it could be a dyslexia specialist teacher.

A dyslexia specialist teacher is surely trained to help diagnosed dyslexics learn to read and write? They shouldn't be doing diagnoses, even if they should definitely be on the look out for children who may be dyslexic.

No, fully qualified dyslexia specialist teachers have specialist training to diagnose dyslexia. Their diagnoses will stand up in court - families appealing a judgement on statementing, etc.

place marking to watch later

I think that if my child were dyslexic, I would prefer, nonetheless, to have a full neurological report done in a hospital (possible with MRI scanning) and computer testing! Even if the UK currently allows teachers to diagnose dyslexia, that doesn't mean it is the optimal form of diagnosis.

In France, dyslexics usually receive reading and writing support from orthophonistes (SALTs) - that is how the treatment of dyslexia is organised, given that it is a language disorder. Schools do not always (usually, even) have room (I am talking about physical room) for SEN support within school buildings, so most of this takes places outside school.

Ah, Bonsoir that is exactly what I meant - things are so medicalised in France!

It would be very interesting to compare a full French diagnosis and recommendations for support, etc with the diagnosis and recommendations of an English dyslexia specialist teacher. And then to compare the outcomes after a period of support.

I wonder if the teaching methods are different?

I would say, in this instance, that things are insufficiently medicalised in the UK if teachers are making diagnoses of dyslexia. How do children then get a full neurological examination - given that dyslexia is often found in association with other developmental disorders? Diagnosing and treating dyslexia in isolation cannot be a good thing for many children.

The most recent progress that I have read of for helping dyslexics is with computer programmes - apparently a few hours of a sort of computer game can make a massive difference to a dyslexic's reading ability. There is great hope for the future.

It is nonetheless quite hard to compare treatment for dyslexics across languages, given that the different degrees of the opacity of the alphabetic code make overcoming dyslexia harder or easier, according to the language.

Yes, I agree the differences in the languages would make it very difficult to compare.

FWIW, we have been using a wide range of software for many years to help dyslexic children's phonic skills in both reading and spelling. It is a great way for them to practice what the teacher has been working on with them.

claig climate catastrophe is so true < blows raspberry and runs off snorting >

There was a time when lots of people believed what Freud said was true. Let's wait and see what people think of climate catastrophe in years to come.

Now with English subtitles

They are talking about bacterial infections, rather than disrupted bacteria balance from antibiotic use. It says there are 10 doctors in France treating autism with antibiotics, which doesn't sound very many.

Interesting article about bacterial infections and treatment by antibiotics

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2106125/Strep-throat-minute-OCD-How-bacterial-infections-children-cause-behavioural-issues.html

I rented a film from LoveFilm called My (or it could have been Her) Name Is Sabine about a French girl with autism living in a care facility in France. Its heartbreaking, but well worth watching.

I think that was directed by Sandrine Bonnaire, a French actress, and the girl in question is her sister.

Oh, I like Sandrine Bonnaire. I used to watch her films many years ago. Will check it out.