autism

Having worked in the field of ASD for thirty years +, I am firmly of the belief that there's something else going on. The greatly increased incidence of all these neurodevelopmental conditions indicates that something is going on. A very wise person in our dept (not me!) once said that children are our canaries. In case that meaning isn't clear, canaries used to be taken down mines to indicate the presence of toxicity in the atmosphere. As I said. Something is going on. There is an infinite number of new potential systemic stressors from medications in the water table to chemicals in the plastics around the food we eat, chemical fertilisers, odd fungal spores, electromagnetic fields etc etc etc. So many potential risks.
Sorry to be a downer. I'm glad I've retired from the fray, and it is a fray with so many competing agendas. It's the families who live with it who really know the struggles. Good luck to them all.

The main reason that autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, and eating disorders were not around 40 p[us years ago is quite simply that they were not recognised or even identified at the time as specific problems at the time..

We were the awkward, difficult, bullied children who some teachers had it in for, who were constantly in trouble for our clumsiness or poor handwriting, or being unable to sit still or concentrate.

I cannot count the number of times I was made to rewrite my homework because of my handwriting, or got accused of not making an effort etc etc. In fact I am dyspraxic and possibly have ADHD,

Dyspraxia was not recognised as a specific syndrome until the 1980s. I was fortunate to be recognised and diagnosed with the problem quite early on, when I was in my 40s, but how much better my school days would have been if the problem had been recognised and understood then.

I am sure there are many other GN members who will have had similar experiences to mine.

So true lemon. Just wish all the children with special needs could get the help they need to cope with their life and education.

It’s funny how many of us have autistic grandchildren and oh how they are loved. If only our love could make the rest of the world realise how precious they are.

Thanks Doodle.... like me, you have no doubt spent a lot of the Summer holidays trying to help out the family and your DGS and feel that protectiveness towards him that we all do with these vulnerable children/teenagers ( even when they drive us up the wall!?)
We do what we can but ultimately our DD and SIL take the brunt of things.

Years ago children who didn't seem 'normal' were sent off to a special school at an early age, quite often residential. Children with physical illnesses were sent to 'Open Air" schools. So these children were not encountered in every day life. There were different requirements for children's behaviour. They were mostly required to be quiet and not socialise or relate to others, so someone with autistic traits could just slip into the background. Clever children were often allowed to be different and the eccentric professor was a common stereotype.
In some ways I think we are less tolerant of behaviour which is different.

Doodle ????

Good luck GG13 to your DGS and family, it’s hard on everybody.?
My DGS attends a special school ( what’s called a high achieving autism school) he loves it there but still has problems, both there and at home.Yes, hormones are racing too at that age, when moody angst mix with the autistic traits
It can be very ‘challenging’ ( understatement of the year.)

Well said lemon. So many people who have no personal experience of autism feel qualified to give an opinion. No one but the family of autistic children know the pain and hardship parents have to care for an autistic child at any level on the spectrum. I love my grandson to bits and feel for him in this world of “neuronormal” people who should know better.

lemongrove, I agree our GC is going to Senior School in September I am proud as in some subjects he is high achieving but in others and in his friendships/interpersonal skills he is struggling.

Hormones are kicking in and as a family we have new obstacles to face but I am sure we will get there in some way or another.

Newmom so glad you posted on here....I read various comments that went before yours
And thought ‘can I really be bothered to correct all these ignorant posts’! You have said it all, so I don’t need to.
Being the grandmother of an autistic and challenging teenage boy I could weep when I see such judgements as ‘parenting’
‘Too much tv or computer’ etc.
If anyone is really interested in autism there is loads of information on the internet about it, or look at the autism society online.No excuses for lazy and uninformed
judgements.

In past years it just wasn't recognised. When GS1 was diagnosed a whole lot of things about DH suddenly fell into place. Now I knew why I so often found myself asking him "Why do you always find everyday life so hard?" I'm sure his mother was on the spectrum as well. She always behaved as if she was acting out a script she'd read about normal behaviour. She had problems with personal relationships, DH was always introduced as "Son" rather than by name and i was always "Daughter in Law" She got by, but her life would have been happier with a bit of support.

newmom. Well said. What a well thought out post.
Getting a diagnosis for autism and funding is not easy. For those who think that many parents do this just so their child can have allowances to pass exams have no idea how hard it is to get an assessment or funding. My son and DIL have had to fight for years and their battles continue. There is no lack of parental love in our family nor of sticking a child in front of the TV.

Newmom101 excellent post.

However, I do agree with the points about eating disorders. Exposure to western media has been shown to influence the development of eating disorders. I can’t remember the researchers name, but in the 90s a remote island had TVs introduced for the first time, exposing them to western media. Shortly after the island had its first ever case of an eating disorder. Images in the media certainly aren’t always healthy.

Antonia I have just had a little look into ‘virtual autism’ and am dubious. I can’t seem to find the original research, just many articles making claims about ‘virtual autism’. I did however, find an research suggesting that excessive screen time can cause language delays, short attention span and hyperactivity in children. But those symptoms are more in line with ADHD, not autism. They did also identify that there was no parental engagement during this time, which may be the bigger issue at play. The WHO guidelines suggest that parents should be ‘co-watching’, to ensure social engagement alongside.

Obviously too much screen time isn’t great for kids. They need lots of varied stimulation. But I don’t think it’s right to suggest that it’s ‘causing autism’ when there is no evidence at all to support that. It’s just parent blaming, and it honestly seems that parents these days can’t do much right, there’s always some news article or other criticising something.

Newmom101 what a well informed post, I agree with you.

As for "screens" an iPad and noise cancelling earphones has meant freedom for our GC and family, we can go out with GC to any type of restaurant /social situation and when GC feels "overwhelmed" earphones and iPad come out, when GC was younger and "not allowed screens" this would have necessated a family member to take GC home as the "noise and stimulation would have been unbearable.

Dyspraxia ( also on "The Spectrum") used to be known as " clumsy child syndrome" computer games are extremely helpful for hand eye co-ordination.

I have spent the last 10 years studying special educational needs, and working with children with special needs (including autism) and disagree with this entirely.

Starbird there is absolutely no evidence that vaccines cause autism. Many children with autism will have a regression in skills which occurs around 3 years of age, and happens to coincide with the MMR vaccine. But it has been proven time and time again that it is not causing the child to develop autism, many unvaccinated children also go through the same regression. The fear of vaccines for this reason that led to many not vaccinating their children did not affect autism rates at all.

More children are being diagnosed these days because we have better, earlier methods of diagnosis. This means support can be put in place for the child at an earlier age and leads to much better outcomes at school. Whereas years ago these children would have struggled academically, they are now leaving school with a good set of GCSEs and able to go onto college. Earlier, and better, methods of identification are why most there appears to be more cases of lots of things now. Take cancer for instance, if you go back 50, 100 years, there were far less cases but there also weren’t the methods for diagnosis that there are now. Many people would have just died of ‘an illness’, just like many non-verbal autistic children were ‘retarded’ and verbal ones were ‘just naughty children’. The same goes for almost any developmental disorder, mental illness, or physical illness. Science is more advanced now, people are more aware and more likely to see a doctor and get an accurate diagnosis. You only have to see the rates of adult diagnosis of autism now to see that there have always been more people with autism, but they simply weren’t diagnosed. There are far more cases of girls diagnosed with autism in the last 10 years or so, because there has been evidence to show that girls with autism present differently, they are better at ‘social masking’ than boys are so they were being missed. But they still had poor communication skills, and in most cases, extremely high anxiety. Now that clinicians are more aware of this, more girls are getting the support they need.

And please don’t suggest it’s parenting, or ‘sticking children in front of the tv’. When autism was first ‘discovered’ in the 1940s the predominant theory was ‘refrigerator mothers’ who were cold and unloving towards their children were causing them to be autistic. We’ve moved on from this now and although we still don’t know the cause, we do know that people with autism have neurological differences to ‘typical’ person. Let’s not go back to parent blaming.

Please google 'virtual autism.' Some parents, with the best of intentions, sit their little one in front of a computer screen, mistakenly thinking that because the programme is labelled 'educational' that the child is gaining some benefit. In reality, children need to learn by exploring, using their five senses, which cannot happen on a screen. Their brains are not developing as they ought to do. In addition, screens are addictive and the child can become less able to interact with other people. This often leads to a diagnosis of autism. When the screens are removed, the child develops normally once more.

I think a lot of so called 'special needs' and medical conditions these days are down to a combination of modern living; harmful substances in food and the environment including radio waves from mobile phone masts. Some are down to poor parenting and over diagnosis to get special funding. These incidences have also increased in the population, funnily enough, to match the increase in inoculations which children are advised to have.

LullyDully If the child is "statemented" the school will receive extra funding for an SEN teaching assistant.

It is a long drawn out process to get a SEN statement, sometimes taking many years.

There was a programme recently about a child diagnosed as autistic, who actually had Pandanus - which can start after a throat infection. It has similar but more extreme symptoms but is actually an illness which can potentially be cured.
What I find distressing is the number of children who develop autism after vaccines - I would not say no to vaccines but wonder if they overload the immune system. Perhaps more breastfeeding would help. I wonder if there are any studies on this?

I can remember children who were likely to be autistic when I was a child; primary school and secondary. There were children who just didn't fit in. I can still remember their names.

Also kids who had problems reading who were just thick , and are now diagnosed as dyslexic.

We now know more about special needs thank goodness.

When I taught in a special school in London, it was for children described as ESN. That is educationally subnormal. It makes me shudder.

Hopefully a child with autism in a mainstream school should have funds for a TA. ( I realise this may not be the case.)

Me neither, Terribull - I can't remember anyone with an eating disorder or who self-harmed ... or who had serious levels of 'exam stress', even though we sat plenty of potentially life-changing exams! What's happening to our youngsters today?

Grannyj, I believe the rise in asthma is linked to pollution and emissions which are far worse today. One of my sons had childhood asthma and other associated problems, glue ear etc., our doctor told us it's where we live, fairly near M25 and Heathrow, "Go and live abroad was his helpful suggestion" Little was known about autism for quite a while, I believe it only became recognised as a condition a few decades ago. There was definitely a girl at my school who had unrecognised dyslexia, very bright, but reading was behind and handwriting all over the place, which she was reprimanded for.

Having said that I never knew anyone with eating disorders or who self harmed at my all girls school.

I don't remember any children with food allergies when I was at school either. There were a few with asthma, but not the vast number that we see today who use inhalers.