Could small age gaps be a factor in ASD?

[Anon22224]

Asking as a previous poster mentioned that risk is higher with 2 under 2 which I would have never have known about!

i know some is entirely genetic but are some ASDs actually preventable? Should we be more educated on this?

I have really minimal knowledge so apologies if totally unreasonable, just wondered if there were other things like the above which we could be avoiding

I've plenty ASD in my life with close family and loved ones and don't find the idea of attempting prevention distasteful, and/or trying to understand cause and effect. Make of that what you will.

I can go into detail, but first, why dont you explain what is preferable about being neurotypical?

@Ponderingwindow

My friend's son is autistic. He is 20 years old, towers over her, and has knocked her out on numerous occasions. The family are frightened of him and he seems tortured by his own existence to be quite frank. He went to the best ASN school and has everything set up for him the way that he needs it. But he's severely autistic, non verbal, self injurious, and violent. He has absolutely ruined their home over the years. Thankfully he is moving to residential care this year. She is a shell of a woman now.

Yes, it is preferable to be neurotypical.

There is a trend nowadays to paint neurodiversity as being a bit like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory when there are families up and down the country dealing with the reality of severe autism.

She has told me that she would have terminated the pregnancy if there was a way of knowing that this is how her child and her family would suffer. Her daughter has severe anxiety and suicidal tendencies from growing up in this environment. The constant stimming (read: wailing and shrieking) and unpredictable movements of her brother combined with his tendency to lash out have ruined her life.

Adults in nappies who smear and are non verbal. They throw themselves against walls and at their family members. They hit themselves and their family members. Nothing to do with ‘what’s expected of them in society.’

@ElectrixAvenue

I'm aware of that. People who are non verbal are not non thinking. People who smear faeces and engage in self injurious behaviour are still human beings.

The original title of this thread was "Can we prevent SOME ASD?"

There would be absolutely no way to know whether or not you were preventing the lives of severely disabled, poo smearing, desperately unhappy people or those with the "condition" formerly known as Asperger's. As well as the entire spectrum inbetween.

Personally I just find the entire discussion extremely offensive.

I don't find it offensive.

Apparently women are supposed to have the right to bodily autonomy and to abort a pregnancy for any reason they want. Well, I work in a school for children with severely complex needs, many of whom are the result of certain communities marrying cousins, which is another area I'm sure many people don't want to talk about because it's "offensive". These poor souls have no access to education, seem quite unaware of what is going on around them, and spend their days being moved from one type of wheelchair or bed to another to prevent sores, being changed, and being tub fed in between seizures.

I'm not saying that some human life has no value where others do have value. I'm saying that if there was a way to determine in the womb that my child would be severely autistic, self-injurious, and violent, I would want to have an abortion. And certainly if there were known ways to reduce the risk of autism, I would be doing so.