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Courtesy of the Melville family
When Danny Melville, show with his mom Karen, was diagnosed at the age of 2 as being severely autistic, his parents were told he might not ever talk. Now the 7-year is eager to share his interests with his family and will enter a mainstream classroom next year.
Karen Melville remembers when her son Danny was diagnosed with autism so severe that his doctor feared he might never even talk, much less go to school. “It was like a freight train hit,” said Melville, a 39-year-old mother of two who lives in Brunswick, Ohio.
Five years of intensive therapy have paid off. Danny, now age 7, is OK’d to go to school next year in a mostly mainstream class that will have a total of three “high functioning” kids with autism. “Now when he finds something he thinks is really cool on the computer -- like a humpback whale swimming -- he wants to show me,” Melville said.
Danny may be one of what researchers are now calling “bloomers” – kids who start out as severely affected but who manage to grow beyond most of their symptoms.
About 10 percent of children who are severely affected by autism at age 3 seem to have “bloomed” by age 8, leaving behind many of the condition’s crippling deficits, a new study shows. And while these “bloomers” still retain some of autism’s symptoms, like the tendency to rock back and forth when stressed or to repeat the same behavior over and over, they become what experts dub, “high functioning,” according to the study published today in Pediatrics. That means their social skills and their ability to communicate have vastly improved.
Related story: Divorce after autism diagnosis
A child at the low end of the communication scale might not be able to talk, or even to make any sounds, explained the study’s lead author Christine Fountain, a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. Those at the other end of the scale “would have a broad vocabulary, understand the meaning of words and use them in appropriate contexts, understand the meaning of story plot and carry on complex conversations,” she explained.
Similarly, a child with a low score on the social scale would have problems interacting with others and would not be able to make friends or socialize. At the high end of the scale, is a child who “would initiate one-on-one interactions with both peers and others in familiar and unfamiliar settings, initiate and maintain friendships, and not need encouragement to participate in social activities,” Fountain said.
”Bloomers” are edging up towards the upper half of both those scales.
Fountain and her colleagues didn’t expect to see kids jump from the low end to the high end in just a few short years. “It was a surprise to see how much improvement they showed – and how quickly,” Fountain said. “That’s kind of hopeful message.”
Hopeful because the odds of such big improvements might rise if more kids got the right kind of therapy early in life, Fountain said.
The researchers studied the records of 6,975 California children who had been diagnosed with autism. They found that many of the children showed improvements between ages 3 and 8, but some, the bloomers, showed startling progress, moving from the most severely affected to some of the highest functioning.
Kids who are older can continue to make progress, but more slowly, experts say. While many of their symptoms fade, they still retain the autism diagnosis.
Fountain and her colleagues suspect, after scrutinizing the differences between children who bloomed and those who didn’t, that it likely comes down to which kids were able to get early, intensive therapy since the children who improved the most had parents with more education and financial wherewithal. Researchers say that it’s possible there might be something inherently different about the children themselves who are “bloomers,” but they don’t know that for sure.
As they delved into the bloomers backgrounds, the researchers found that these children were more likely than others to have mothers with at least a high school education and to come from a higher socio-economic class. (They didn’t have information on the fathers.) Bloomers also tended not to have any intellectual disabilities.
The findings don’t surprise autism expert Tamar Apelian.
“Most children need about 30 to 40 hours a week of intervention,” said Apelian, a staff psychologist at the autism evaluation clinic at the University of California, Los Angeles. “What’s tricky is being able to navigate the system to get the therapy, especially with the state budget crisis. The parents who do this seem to have more means and they can hire an advocate or a lawyer.”
And that’s where parents’ backgrounds come in to play.
After absorbing Danny’s diagnosis at 25 months, Karen asked his doctor about the future. “I said, ‘OK, what can we do about it?’ The doctor said, ‘How much money do you have?’”
The Melville’s weren’t independently wealthy. They were comfortably middle class – but that certainly doesn’t pay for therapy that can cost upwards of $70,000 per year. So that meant the Melvilles had to be creative to get Danny what he needed.
While Danny waited for his turn to come up on program waiting lists the Melvilles found a student to work with him. In the meantime, Danny’s dad, Michael, went back to school to get certified as a pharmacy tech so he could get a job at a university that came with benefits including a break on Danny’s therapy.
The family scraped together money from a variety of sources and finally managed to get Danny into an intensive program that offered one-on-one help.
“When I think back, I think about how I sat and watched for hours waiting for him to make that first sound,” Karen said. “I think about how grim things looked. I can’t stress enough that people determine what it is their children need and then get on those waiting lists. Keep digging and fighting to find someone to start with. It doesn’t matter if it’s a student while you’re on the waiting list. It’s just so important to get help early."
The Center for Disease Control reports that one in 88 U.S. children has autism. Autism Speaks founders Bob and Suzanne wright join Morning Joe to discuss autism research, having an autistic child in their family, and the costs of caring for a child with autism.
Do you know an autistic child? Has anything helped lessen the symptoms? Tell us on Facebook.
Families of kids with autism earn less
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At first I tsk tsk'd Jeremy. Then I thought about it and it made me laugh. 1) Closing himself off to incoming information 2) not connecting with his peers 3) appears self-absorbed and 4) may be substituting the universal slamming he got here for "how to get to know people"....hmmmm....several markers for Autism! I have a breathtakingly pretty now deemed gifted, Granddaughter:sings like a bird, an accomplished dancer and becoming a serious gymnast. She makes friends at school and sports. Only traces remain. She tends to overthink and it's mildly, but now controllably anxiety producing. Was she really autistic? No doubt at all. The whole lousey physical and emotional load. A fat, happy, healthy, friendly baby with a disarming belly laugh who after 6 months old, began to "leave us" for another world --and eye contact disappeared. Not a family to avoid or let grass grow underfoot, my daughter got a diagnosis and all the best care, home visit therapy and preschool preparation several times a week there is. Not to mention the training everyone in the family got to deal with and remediate the symptoms. She had all the symptoms with a vengance. But by Kindergarten she was ready for mainstreaming in the regular public school and she does more than beautifully; with markers (as one psychologist put it) "too subtle and she's too well trained for an amateur to spot it." [Back to the ordinary, happy family activity of obsessing over picking colleges and envisioning futures!]
Vaccinations are not the most likely cause. The studies blaming them have been inconclusive. Most childhood vaccinations have been mandatory since 1940's and 1950's. Where were all the autistic children of the 1950's and 1960's?
The more likely culprit is the all the growth hormones and chemical additives that are in our food supply affecting the developing fetus in the womb.
and all the hormone mimics like BPA from plastic.
Might want to slow down there, with an issue like autism there's a lot of trading one pseudo-conspiracy for another which you happen to be more interested in.
Actually, the vaccine recommendations by the CDC have gone from six vaccinations, to an overwhelming 36 vaccination shots received by children before they are six years old. What people don't realize is that since the 1980's, vaccinations continue to be added to the CDC recommendations, and at least one of those "Doctors" on the CDC panel to approve vaccines was at the same time receiving $250,000 to develop his own vaccine for another pharma corp. (the same vaccine he was approving for the CDC panel) This "Doctor" likened the payout for the patent on this vaccine as "like winning the lottery", and this for a vaccine for a non-deadly virus (rotavirus).
It's one thing to praise the wonderful vaccines that have eradicated such diseases as polio and tetanus. But let's not forget that the scientist who developed the polio vaccine did not see dollar signs and "winning the lottery", he saw an eradication of the disease throughout the world, and felt the whole world should have this vaccine - free! No patent!
When we have a for-profit healthcare system, our children become just another body to make money from. Now it's by sticking them with 36 shots, compared to 6 shots when I was growing up.
For instance, the hepa-b vaccine is given to new-born babies still in the hospital, regardless of the CDC and pharma corp. recommendations that the shot be given to babies after 30 days. Why do the hospital nurses and doctors push this vaccine on your newborn, regardless of the CDC and the developing corp's recommendations? Because they want to be the ones to receive payment for it.
Every parent should do research on each vaccine that the doctor insists the child must have, and make the decision based on each vaccine separately. Do not let your newborn receive the hepa-b vaccine in the hospital - and believe me, they will make you feel like a neglectful parent when you refuse the shot, but CDC and the pharma corp recommend that a baby be 30 days old. Don't let these "healthcare professionals" bully you into shooting up your child with all these life-saving vaccines, because for the most part, they are not life-saving.
Fed up -why would you say that Rotavirus is non-deadly? Do you just make up facts to suit your argument?
From Wikipedia-
Rotavirus is usually an easily managed disease of childhood, but worldwide nearly 500,000 children under five years of age still die from rotavirus infection each year[9] and almost two million more become severely ill.[7] In the United States, before initiation of the rotavirus vaccination programme, rotavirus caused about 2.7 million cases of severe gastroenteritis in children, almost 60,000 hospitalisations, and around 37 deaths each year.
Rotavirus is a non-deadly virus to U.S. children, according to the CDC. Sorry, but Wikipedia is not a reliable source. My sources include the CDC, the Mayo Clinic, Merck Pharm, Smith-Klein Pharm, Dr. Paul Offit, etc. etc.
Parents - do not use Wikipedia for your source of information regarding the health of your children.
fed up X5, Great post without all the drama and name calling that is usually associated with these postings. Your follow up is also spot on, DO NOT GET YOUR INFORMATION AND FACTS FROM THE INTERNET! There is millions spent on research that is from internet sourcing! The Supreme Court and lower courts are using the internet as reasoning for their decisions. We have turned into a click society. I demand it now so just click!
FED UP - Try again.
This is from the CDC: cdc.gov/rotavirus/index.html
Rotavirus is a virus that causes gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines). The rotavirus disease causes severe watery diarrhea, often with vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. In babies and young children, it can lead to dehydration (loss of body fluids). Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children worldwide. Globally, it causes more than a half a million deaths each year in children younger than 5 years of age.
Rotavirus was also the leading cause of severe diarrhea in U.S. infants and young children before rotavirus vaccine was introduced for U.S. infants in 2006. Prior to that, almost all children in the United States were infected with rotavirus before their 5th birthday. Each year in the United States in the pre-vaccine period, rotavirus was responsible for more than 400,000 doctor visits; more than 200,000 emergency room visits; 55,000 to 70,000 hospitalizations; and 20 to 60 deaths in children younger than 5 years of age.
From the Mayo Clinic : Severe diarrhea can lead to dehydration, particularly in young children. Left untreated, dehydration can become a life-threatening condition regardless of its cause.
Xena, Your last sentence, in the third paragraph, is the problem. All of this money for research, production, and distribution for a diasease that kills 20-60 children. The statistics, while alarming if you have the child whom has died, do not justify the use on the population. Before you go off, I have been doing vaccine and immune research for over forty years. The answers and facts that are tossed about so quickly and easily, by the medical profession, government agencies, non profit groups, and parents are NOT proven, and the research is still ongoing! The size of a research population of 12, such as in the Wakefield Study, is a joke. It should have never been published. However, the "experts" rely on the same size populations for the rebuttal. Just some thoughts!
MrKnowItAll - Perhaps 20-60 deaths does not justify it's use. I would say that in the United States we are far better equipped to handle the severe dehydration caused by this disease. However I would suggest that 55-70,000 hospitalizations does suggest that these children become severely ill. If we had a safe way to prevent that, why wouldn't we do it?
The main reason I posted the stats was because Fed Up so condescendingly referred to it as non-deadly (I'm sure those who lost children to it would beg to differ with her!), then pointed to my source material as flawed because it wasn't straight from the CDC.
I'm not as concerned with the population size of Wakefield's study, so long as findings are followed up with larger groups to validate after an unusual finding is discovered. The concern for me with Wakefield's work was more of an ethical one once it came to light that he manipulated the data to show a preconceived outcome.
Also the study sizes of follow-ups that show no link between vaccines and autism do have larger populations,
In 1999 Brent Taylor examined the records of 498 children with autism or autism like symptoms. He found the following: (1) the percentage of children vaccinated was the same in children with autism as in other children in the North Thames region; (2) no difference in the age of diagnosis of autism was found in vaccinated and unvaccinated children; and (3) the onset of "regressive" symptoms of autism did not occur within two, four, or six months of receiving the MMR vaccine.
The JAMA paper
In 2001, Nathalie Smith and coworkers examined the relationship between the increase in the number of cases of autism in California and receipt of the MMR vaccine. The percentage of children immunized with MMR vaccine between 1980 and 1994 was compared with the incidence of autism during the same period. Although a dramatic increase in the incidence of children with autism was reported, the percentage of children that received MMR vaccine remained the same.
The British Medical Journal paper
In a study that supported the findings in the JAMA paper, Hershel Jick and coworkers examined the incidence of autism in England between 1988 and 1993 and compared this with MMR immunization rates. Although the incidence of autism increased, MMR immunization rates remained the same.
The second Taylor paper
A second study by Brent Taylor and coworkers examined the relationship between MMR vaccine and "new variant autism" (Wakefield's claim that autism is associated with inflammation of the small intestine). Children with autism diagnosed between 1979 and 1998 were examined. The authors compared the number of children with autism and intestinal symptoms before 1988 and after 1988 (MMR was introduced into England in 1988). There was no difference. They concluded that there was, therefore, no evidence for "new variant autism" and provided further evidence that MMR vaccine was not associated with autism.
Oh and that was from the AMA in case you doubt the authenticity of the information.
Xina, First of all, what you dismiss as unimportant, is the key component to the debate! If you look at the statistics, from actual data, not hand picked stuff from the internet, the benefit to the population, the injuries from vaccination, and the guess that is made for percentage of the vaccinated individuals actually producing effective immunity do not justify the death rate, in this case, in my opinion. If you actually read the stack of papers that the doctor gives you when, you or your child receives a vaccination, and what you say you have read when you sign it will tell you that VACCINES ARE NOT 100% EFFECTIVE! What this percentage is varies from vaccine to vaccine! We could debate if these numbers are accurate, how immunity was actually measured, and longevity of the immunity, but that is for other discussions. A classic vaccine story, with effectiveness and history is small pox. We now find that the immunity does not persist for life. Polio, the desire to vaccinate was fueled by public opinion, the vaccine was made and the distribution was held because of politics from the discoverer of the vaccine and his competition. Orphanages were used to "test" the vaccine before it was allowed to move forward! Xina, I mentioned earlier that I have been doing this over forty years! I have erradicated one disease, in swine, and would like to do the same with brucellosis, in bison, elk, and cattle. I have eighteen discoveries that should be brought to the public, but will not due to the time and money. I support vaccines, know how they work, and can measure the immunity, in animals. I also know what the politics are, funding arrangements, and financial gains can be! When the medical profession says that the vaccine injury debate is over, that is wishful thinking. Why do we vaccinate with multiple vaccines, on the same day, and use the frequency for them that we do? This is NOT based on scientific evidence, but rather convenience and money. I hope this answers some questions and more importantly raises alot more. Look at the data, who paid for it, how big the population is, and who will benefit from it. This will tell you alot! Good Day!
Doctors are not perfect. It is possible that too many are being diagnosed with autism isn't it? Isn't it possible that the "hover parent" culture makes it more likely for parents to notice odd behaviors in children? Isn't it possible that kids have different levels of learning and expression anyway?
From the article, one would believe that if a child did not have perfect levels of socialization and development, they can be lumped into this huge group of autism that just so happens to include almost every odd behavior pattern out there- look up the definition of spectrum if you have a doubt! To me it seems that doctors have missed the mark with autism. They use it as a fallback position when they cannot properly diagnose something. It is frightening to think that such a highly educated group of people might be faling into patterns of groupthink and buckling to a trend (diagnosis of autism). I have no idea if these trends are merely due to changes in perception or due to an actual increase in autistic children, but with all the news about autism that comes out, regarding changes in levels, diagnosis, cures, causes and anything else, it just seems to have a large amount of unknown or uncertain factors to it.
Spend some time in the literature, "neb". A child with an IQ deficit might appear dull-eyed and not connect. But that's not autism. If you've seen an autistic child, the aversion behaviour of avoiding eye-contact just begs to be recognized. They're not merely cranky or colicky: they're miserable. They cry heartbroken, dark tears. As they grow, they scream and cry at change, start, stop. They mirror abandonment if just one guest leaves the house. If you watch the rebuilding process during therapy, it's obvious. For example - -most little girls sometimes appear double jointed assuming baffling floor positions to play. We couldn't let her "W" sit: knees forward and legs bent back alongside, not under her. It discouraged some orientation necessity. Has to do with brain development. One by one, the little building blocks were restacked. Rituals were discouraged and undone. Some handhold tricks to let her stabilize herself were taught, but had to be prevented from becoming rituals of their own! In spite of her obviously bright brain, some trainings and benchmarks just wouldn't "take". Her terrible misery finally filled up normally. "Use your words" has more than just the usual meaning to prevent crying or tantrums in a house with an autistic. 4 and 1/2 the clouds parted and daylight showed more often. At 5 she climbed on the schoolbus and dismissed Mom with a smile and "s'long" and came home with names and stories, an agenda, and skipped off to play. It's sooooooooooooooo unique, you'd never mistake it for any of the other behavioral pitfals or educational lags.
Early intervention is the key here. If you can start early enough a lot of times the brain will find a different way to do something.
Have you ever drove from one side of the city to the other and hit: road construction, every red light, a accident, detours..etc and it took FOREVER to get where your going??
But yet the next time you made the same drive you made it in record time because every light was green, NO traffic, NO detours, accidents or construction???
Thats the way it is for a lot of kids. Some times the brain recieves and processes the information just like it should. Other times it takes a lot of time or it never gets there because it comes across these little "detours or accidents".
If you can retrain the brain to find "another route" when the child is very very young sometimes they can overcome little obstacles and move forward.
Another thing to think about...Asperger kids don't always learn a behavior or skill. A Lot of times they MEMORIZE it! Then in order to use that inforamtion that have to be able to recall it.....sometimes they find it...sometimes they dont.
I think what most people dont understand is that every Autistic child is different. If you put 50 of them in a room you might think your looking at 30 different problems. That is why it is SO hard for the Drs to understand. Just like each person has their own traits, likes, dislikes, fear, skills,..etc... Each Autisitc child does too...and combine that with 100 or so symptoms it gets very hard to understand.
For those that think we make this stuff up and our kids are just brats......try opening your eyes and maybe get to know someone who lives this life. Then maybe your heart will thaw a little and you will be more compassionate.
Bingo. I actually think scientists will eventually conclude that "autism" is a "junk" diagnosis because it lumps together a bunch of different underlying biomedical conditions. That is IMHO why one child will respond so well to a particular treatment (say, Vitamin B12 shots or a gluten/casein free diet) while another one won't.
Evidently there's another type of autism, one where you think every weird kid MUST HAVE AUTISM and can't accept that your kid is just plain weird (as most kids are at one time or another).
Perhaps a misdiagnosis? Maybe the spectrum is a little too broad for some doctors? Speaking from experience, I don't see it as something that is "outgrown".
This article and many many of the comments point up the obvious point that Autism is a complex phenomenon, with very different outcomes and degrees of severity. Perhaps there are many different causes as well. I hope there's a lot of progress using these differences to make progress finding root causes and therapeutic strategies.
To all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. of autistic children, you have my sympathy. However, given the individuality ("all autistic children are different/unique") of their symptoms, I am leaning to the conclusion that autism is an artificial grouping of many like-symptomed syndromes that will eventually be separated into their own named conditions. Then we will have the term "autism-like symptoms" just like we have "flu-like symptoms" for diseases that are not flu. As I watch the increase of autism, asthma and other childhood afflictions I am also coming to the conclusion that the human gene pool need some cleaning. Not sure there is an acceptable way to do that, but before the miracles of modern medicine children with these problems would die (unless they were royalty, another discussion though) and that by the way would have included me.
I see the Anti-Science Republitards are out in force. Shame they weren't diagnosed brainless early in life, we could have aborted them.
Too bad they didn't diagnose you earlier either.
Oh poor Neal. Must have stuck a nerve. :D
Nope. Just find the mindless name callers a drag on the rest of the human race. This includes both ends of the political spectrum and you appear to be on one of those ends.
My son was diagnosed by his school as ASD (referred to in conference as Aspergers) when he was in 5th grade. He is now in 10th grade and I honestly think if he were tested at this point he would not test ASD. His teachers are surprised when they are told he has an IEP and cannot guess what his diagnosis is without being told. My son, however, has been a late bloomer in just about everything. He struggled with school and was even held back a year in the early grades but now has straight A's, taking advanced classes. He did not do particularly well in sports in elementary school but now plays on three varsity teams. He is also more responsible, cheerful and personable than he was when he was younger. I really believe he was born a late bloomer and it has little to do with intervention. His school system is one with a good, caring environment and that has made a huge difference but he had, at most, an hour a week help for his Aspergers through middle school.
if your school is diagnosing autism spectrum disorders your school is the problem. ASD should be properly diagnosed by a team of specialist including speech and occupational therapists and social workers and a pediatric neurologist and/or psychiatrist (MD) with input from teachers, parents and family doctors, etc..
Teachers are not qualified and neither is a special ed person, only a team can evaluate and eliminate other problems that share a few traits with autism but are not autism.
Absolutely correct. In fact, the special ed assessment team was very careful to make the distinction between a medical diagnosis of autism and an educational one. My daughter actually has both (medical one given by a developmental pediatrician and subsequently confirmed by a pediatric neurologist) but the educational one is just for her IEP services.
Thank you for writing this article. I'd like to add that autistic kids who enter school may get by, but they still have problems that some school districts refuse to help with. I'll call out my own county -- Fairfax, Virginia -- one of the wealthiest countiest in the US, with a huge school budget, but with an attitude that they will help kids who are severely handicapped, and they will brag about the National Merit Scholars they produce, but they ignore the needs of the kids who struggle and slip through the cracks. My 17 year old son has struggled mightily in school, and despite the evaluation I had to pay for by a highly respected team of experts, he does well on IQ tests and the State Standards of Learning tests, so they push him through the system with C's and D's. What the school administrators will not admit is that my son does well on their standardized tests because when taking them he can do the math his own way, rather than how the algebra and chemistry teachers demand. It has been very frustrating trying to deal with Fairfax schools. On a related note, keep trying everything you can think of to boost your child's confidence and to help them overcome their exaggerated fears. A simple hike means a whole new world to a disabled child, and you may spend hours and hours teaching them how to ride a bike, but they are so proud when they finally can do so. These are only examples from my son, and there is a world of possibilities and confidence builders awaiting.
Before the flames begin, let me say that I do know some families with autistic kids and some with uber-bratty kids whose lazy-arse mother says is autistic, as she shrugs, sits back and lets him run wild. Very definite difference!!
I cannot help but wonder if austism is being over-diagnosed. I heard the report last week that it's now at 1 in 88 children and 10 (?) years ago it was about half that. That explanation was, of course, that not enough children were being correctly diagnosed as autistic. But are too many doctors/parents/therapists now jumping on this as the 'disorder du jour?' Is this why some kids 'bloom' and become more 'normal?' Because they were not correctly diagnosed to start with.
When I was a kid, my brothers and I were all diagnosed as dyslexic. Only one of us actually had a genuine problem, but it was the blanket explanation for any learning problems kids had then. One more generation and my nephews are diagnosed as ADHD. Otherwise, normal active boys..... Now, autism seems to be the explanation for everything.
For the children (and adults) that have benefitted from this sort of therapy, that's wonderful. But how is something this time & cost intensive going to help more people? 30-40 hours a week of one-on-one therapy just isn't going to happen for everyone.
I am not any less strict with my autistic child than with her two older siblings. I *WISH* that the solution was as easy as just being firmer in disciplining her!
"I am not any less strict with my autistic child"
I agree and can add I might be even more strict as I know transitions are difficult for both my kids I make sure they only happen when they are supposed to at home, ie sticking to the schedule with lotS of warnings prior to each transition.
Maybe Terelyn instead of sitting back and criticizing this mom and her child and calling her lazy maybe talk to her, talk to the child, see if there is anything you can do? Maybe mom lets the kid run off steam and stim for a while to help him control the stimming later? Maybe mom lets the kid run wild for a few minutes in a safe environment (she knows others are watching) to catch her breathe and relax so she's not constantly on the edge? without actually talking about it you just dont know and make ignorant statements like you just did.
Respite care is VERY important for families with autism. Everyone deserves a break once in a while, especially those raising/caring for children with autism.
My son has Aspergers. The key is early intervention, We started at age 1 1/2. Social interaction and therapy are the only way. There is no "Cure"( to include the diet nonsense) all that can be done is to minimize the effects and influence social activity. And to all of you "Experts" out there, If you know one person with Autism or Aspergers you know only ONE Person with it. No two are alike.
Aspergers is very different from severe autism. Elimination of casein or gluten has helped many children with ASD. Especially their digestive issues. Just shows how little you understand.
"My son has Aspergers. The key is early intervention, We started at age 1 1/2."
How in the world did you establish an Aspergers diagnosis at 1 1/2 years of age? I guess you started treating him as different at an early age. I'm sure that helped.
"And to all of you "Experts" out there, If you know one person with Autism or Aspergers you know only ONE Person with it. No two are alike."
I think you mean no two are exactly alike. Autistic individuals share many of the same behavioral issues. That's actually how they are diagnosed.
I knew the day our son was born that something wasnt right. He hated to be swaddled, Hated to be held, didnt sleep for more then an hour or two in a 24 hour period, acted like he was in pain when you put clothes on him, would go completely still and stare at nothing for the longest time, would only drink formula if it was ice cold and started having seizures at 6 months.
At age 2, 6 doctors later...he didnt say a single word, didnt even make sounds, would not look you in the eye EVER, still hated to be touched, would only wear certain clothes, only ate foods that were cold and would have a meltdown if you gave him anything green, and would spend hours doing nothing but lining up match box cars over and over, never ever played with his toys like they were meant for he would just line stuff up, knock it over and then line it up again.
He was diagnosed at 2years 4 months and that was back in 1997 when the word Autism was rarely heard.
By 19 months, it was very clear that my 3rd child was delayed. We didn't know that it was autism until almost a full year later, but we got her on the Early Intervention waiting list and she started services through them shortly after her 2nd birthday. Three months later her EI preschool moved her to their more intensive class and I got on the waiting list to see a developmental pediatrician. It took 6 months to get the evaluation and I went into it really hoping that the dr. would say that my DD just had a developmental delay that she would outgrow in time. Instead, she got the autism diagnosis, and it was subsequently confirmed by 3 other clinicians (pediatric neurologist, school psychologist, and Regional Center psychologist).
We didn't, the therapist did.
That's what the therapy was.
Yes, you are right, I left out the word exactly. There is a long list of indicators, and not all persons have all of the same indicators. All of them have a certain number of them combined. My son had all of the indicators that Rhonda-806776 child had and a few others dealing with, among other things, speech and tactile/sensory issues
Don't mind Biff, ( I have him on ignore for reason that become rather evident after reading his posts on a couple of autism threads)
He's here to promote his made up theory that autism is caused by baby formula. Never mind that both my boys have autism and the one more severely affected by it actually NEVER had baby formula (I pumped for 18 months til he was weaned to soy milk) and the one less affected by it was exclusively on baby formula...
Genenut, correlation doesn't equal causation.
Wow, now we found a cure. Let severely autistic children "bloom" and outgrow their autism. I see the big push for early intervention. How about some real biomedical treatments for a real cure.
There may simply be no "cure". Autism as a label covers too wide a group of symptoms (see above comments about each child with Autism is unique). Eventually a specific set of symptoms will be found to be caused by some X-factor and that symptom set will be labelled BigDoctor Symdrome for the BigDoctor that discovered it. Autism will be slowly picked apart in other Syndromes until a much smaller group is left with no known cause. Even if causes are found there may be no way to treat some of these kids.
OK Neal. If a cause is found, perhaps some children may avoid becoming autistic. Then these children wouldn't need to be treated. I guess it depends on what is found as causative now doesn't it?
True. Only when the cause is found can someone figure out a cure or at least a treatment and with a cause, future suffering can be avoided. My comment was only to warn that for some sub-set of current sufferers there may be no cure per se as the symptoms may have caused changes that are not reversible. I hold out hope that at least some of these kids can be treated effectively.
It isn't an either/or situation with the biomedical treatments for ASD and the educational/behavioral ones. I don't know any parent who goes the biomedical route who isn't at the same time also getting their child speech therapy, OT, ABA or one of the other approaches like Floortime, and so on. We are seeing a DAN-affiliated doctor but I haven't stopped the EI preschool, speech, or OT. I also just got approval today from our insurance for physical therapy and additional private OT, and am on the waiting list for ABA.
Ok just to let everyone know about this story about Danny, This happens everytime this time of year they bring in a happy story > I am so glad Danny has improvements. But please people do not take this as Autism can be cured. It Can't. There are many parents wishing it could. I being one of them. While we are at it lets put another myth to rest. Not all Autistic kids are highly intelligent in a certain subject. I have no clue how many times people have asked me what is my child gifted at. My son is gifted in the fact he does not no what being a racist or hating people means. I wish people cared about autism as much as they pretend to in the month of April. The biggest advocates for autism are suprisingly in NASCAR, Jamie McMurray and The Salder brothers. Jamie has a niece who is autistic and Hermie Sadler has a child who is autistic. You look at Jamie , Hermie and Elliott's cars during anytime of the year, They have Autism ribbons somewhere on thier cars. I just wish we had more people to find a cure and a cause of autism than people who want to act like they care this month. Some times I really don't like seeing April come.
Sorry to say but the vast majority of people could care less about anyone outside themselves and possibly their current "group". Autism looks to be a long time in the solving, i.e. figuring out the source of the symptoms which would lead to finding the cause(s).
More like miss-diagnosed than out growing.
You got that right Ursamajor. Bazerko8 started early intervention for his son with Aspergers at age 1 1/2. See post above. Are you kidding? Who made such a diagnosis at that age? Good Lord.
Biff, Ursamajor
I am quite certain that some of these "diagnoses" are self-serving for the doctor(s) involved. These late-bloomers would seem to be suffering from something other than Autism, but has similar symptoms.
The developmental pediatrician who did my daughter's initial diagnosis does not provide any therapy herself. She is far too busy just evaluating all the children on her waiting list (which was 6 months at the time I got on it, and another developmental pediatrician I called had an 18 month wait list!) The school psychologist and the Regional Center psychologist both have the financial incentive to DENY an ASD diagnosis because their agencies are experiencing tremendous budget pressures with all the state budget cuts. Yet they also confirmed the diagnosis.
So Biff, where did you get your PHD?
I still dont understand what autism is in terms of what causes it.
Morlack, currently Autism is a collection of symptoms related to learning abilities, emotional growth, etc. with no known, verified, causes. It was thought that the mercury in the preservative of some vaccines was a cause, but has been recently found not to be so. There a host of other suspects for cause(s), but nothing has been verified as far as I know.
Neal in Denver?....your credentials? One thing that being an integral to the life of an Autistic child does, if you're a pro-ad, activist type and attack the problem, is to put you in touch with other parents of other Autistics. My daughter is personally acquainted with more in her immediate neighborhood than I would have guessed would be in that population sample. There do seem to be some common denominators. Echolalic speech, and the lack or avoidance of eye-contact are two great big beacons. You can tell: very young. The moms know each other and exchange data and can help each other because of their familiarity with the same rough spots. A lot of people here are having a hard time because autism sometimes comes with a constellation of other problems. A kid whose IQ isn't affected is a very different child to work with than one who has a more profound brain disfunction which has caused him or her to also be retarded: which clinically means there's little potential and the conscious intelligence isn't available to use to let the child himself-herself participate in the controls as well. Then there are the variables involved with just plain normal children: your little brother looked like a dolt and fell asleep in his soup. Today he's a cardiac surgeon. Miss Flash in the Pan who won all the spelling bees in 5th grade, married at 18, is fat and works part time at K Mart. But ask the parents. Intelligence and coordination may rest on other neurological involvements, but you can most often pick out the autistics. A doctor diagnosing a 1 1/2 year old can often see enough to say that. Diagnosis, by the way is the key to "getting services" and not to be feared. It isn't a sentence of death. au contraire, these children are evaluated frequently along the way. Changes for the better or worse, or changing the diagnosis are rarely missed.
If you have a minute watch the story of Jake Barnett on 60 minutes.
First of all, I have Asperger's Syndrome. Second, while I cannot speak for people who are low-functioning (They may very well need all the help they can get), people with high-functioning autism don't necessarily need to be "cured" into neurotypicals. Some of us are proud of our autistic traits. It tends to make us smarter, more creative, and give us a unique outlook on things. Many famous people such as Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, etc. are now speculated to have possibly been on the autistic spectrum. It's not a straight-forward disorder, it's a trade-off. It has it's strengths and weaknesses. But growing up, I definitely seemed to be more autistic than I am now. But I clearly remember everything from my past, and the biggest problem I faced growing up was not my own way of thinking and doing things, but the way I was treated by society. Even my own parents and teachers, who were "supportive", tried to "help" me by taking me to psychiatrists, diagnosing me, medicating me, and desperately trying to teach me how to act and behave in public to appear like a "normal" person. I cannot even begin to tell you what that does to a child, having every little thing you say and do treated like a symptom of some mental disorder. You always feel like a burden on your parents, like you can't do anything right. You feel like there's something wrong with you, but the truth is, I got along just fine on my own, and my only problems came from interacting with so-called "normal" people. All that time people spent on me, trying to make me fit in to their social norms so I could live a "healthy and productive life with positive social interactions" could have been avoided if people had just accepted me and the way I was from the beginning. And even now, my current therapist speculates that I may have never had autism at all, and it was possibly a mis-diagnosis. Which is great to know after 20 some odd years of hell, sarcasm intended. I believe I definitely have some form of autism, so I wouldn't change my label, but let me say this: Doctors love to diagnose. It's part of their job. So I would keep that all in mind before you decide to subject your "potentially autistic" kid to this kind of treatment. You say you want to help the children, but do they really need your help? Maybe your support and acceptance is what they need more.
Sincerely, Semi-autistic guy with a massive inferiority complex. (among other things) :)
1SGFitzsWife4ID- The reason you are safe from those disease here is the US is because most of us are vaccinated. The likelihood of you coming in contact with a full blown outbreak of polio or mumps in the United States is slim, though rising as more and more people choose not to vaccinate.
Your choice to not vaccinate because you are safely ensconced in a vaccinated "herd" is selfish and irresponsible. It's reaping the benefits of vaccination without accepting any of the risk. It makes most of us angry because we are all doing the responsible thing, not only for our children, but for our society at large.
My grandmother was the youngest child of 8. My mom only met 2 of her mother's siblings. 4 of the 5 that died before my mother was born died from childhood illnesses in the early 20th century. (the 5th died in an accident).
If everyone thought as you did, mothers would have to adjust to the idea that any sniffle might kill. Half of their children may not survive to adulthood. That is a reality that I do not want to see happen ever again. Go to the third world and see what happens in an unvaccinated village when measles comes through. I would rather risk having an autistic child who is alive than a so-called normal child that dies at age 10 from a preventable illness.
Consider this in 1950 there were 4,236 deaths from Diptheria, Pertusis, Tetanus, Measles and Polio; in 2000 there were 18. The population of the United States in 1950 was 150,697,361. in 2000 it was 281,421,906. the number of deaths from these diseases have been reduced by 99.998% in 50 years. That's a modern day miracle. And the reason I chose 1950 as a starting point was because by then the US no longer had the sanitation issues with it's water supply that so many point to as the reason for the outbreak numbers in the 20's and 30's.
I've already answered this but, you chose to vaccinate your kids good for you, as a parent you were doing what you thought was "best for your child" but I have to take exception to this comment:
Which again I've already answered but you seem to want me to do it again.
The whole problem here is people like you who HAVE been vaccinated rail against us who have not been. Explain to me how we're a threat to you? When it's those of us who have NOT been vaccinated are warned (as were you when you were vaccinated) to stay away from people like us, those not vaccinated and those 70 years or older (especially with polio and the MMR) for at least 48 hours, because you could give US the disease. Please explain how I could be harmful to you in anyway? Even if I were to contract Polio or measles, or mumps, or rubella how could I possibly harm you? You're vaccinated right?
Hate to burst your bubble but YOU are harmful to US, you carry the disease, we don't. YOU on purpose put a disease in your body, we didn't. Between myself and my daughter I can count on one hand how many times we have been ill in our lifetime. Can you say the same?
I didn't intend for this to bea stand alone comment. And I know that others have tried (and failed it seems) to answer your inquiry as to how you are a threat. If I were a smarter woman, I wouldn't try to make you understand, but alas, I'm pigheaded and stubborn and hate to be misunderstood so I'll give it a shot.
You by yourself are not a threat to me. That is not what I said. You live in a culture where the majority of the population is vaccinated which has pretty much eradicated these diseases within our borders. You enjoy living in an area of the world where polio and diptheria are not problems. The reason you are able to be non-vaccinated and healthy here is because so many of your neighbors are vaccinated so the only cases we have of these diseases are imported from other places.
If you understood what the disease situation was like in areas of the world that do not have widespread vaccination you would understand the criticism levied at you much better.
You would not want your unvaccinated child to live in a village in the third world during an outbreak. If you keep yourselves away from newly vaccinated individuals, I doubt highly that you would allow yourselves to come in contact with people who have full blown disease. So what you are esentially saying is that you want every other man woman and child in the United States to take a risk that you yourself are unwilling to take because you don't want your family to get sick. You don't see how that's selfish?
It's like wanting to collect when the office lottery pool finally hits the jackpot, even though you've never put a single dollar into the pot. It's not fair to the rest of us!
Unless what you're saying is that you prefer that no one vaccinate their children. If we were to become a nation full of unvaccinated citizens all it would take are a couple of sick tourists from another nation to bring back all those childhood diseases. Go to an old cemetary sometime and see how many graves are for children under the age of 18. Do you really want that to be the new normal? Because that is what would happen if everyone were to forgo vaccinations. Children would die. Not just a couple here and there... thousands every year.
The reason we get so angry with you non-vaxers is because the only way that vaccines work is by creating herd immunity. It stops the spread of disease so it doesn't create an epidemic. The more people refuse to vaccinate, the weaker the herd's immunity becomes. Does one unvaccinated person present a risk in and of themselves? no. Does a trend towards not vaccinating your kids because of misplaced fear brought about by a fraudulent "researcher" looking to make a name for himself present a risk? You bet your pitootie it does.
1SG - don't pay attention to Xena. She's obviously all for vaccinating your child with 36 shots, compared with 6 shots back in the 70's, and not too much research into what all these shots do to a young child.
Besides, she thinks that wikipedia is a good source of info. Perhaps she sees the pedia and thinks it has to do with kids. Regardless, if wikipedia says a disease is deadly, or a vaccine is good, she'll believe them.
Finally! An article that I personally can be emotionally involved with. I was born with Asperger Syndrome (which is now for some asinine reason been grouped with Autism, which is a seperate disorder entirely) and outgrew it to enough of an extent that I am now mostly normal. I have my quirks, but otherwise I am a normal 19 year old Freshman in College. This, however, does not apply to ALL kids with Asperger Syndrome and the Autism complex-and kids MUST recieve the proper attention. I was fortunate to live in area with alot of support for people with these disorders and I excelled-but there are areas that nobody cares about people who are autistic.
I am happy for Danny, and I hope he does well in school and can fulfill his every dream. As for everyone else like me, we defy what Doctors diagnose and predict about us. We are truly blessed by something higher then anyone could possibly fathem, and we are destined to make a name for ourselves. We are fighters, and we are people to.
And to all the naysayers-you do not know what Austic kids go through to become normal. It's a struggle, and you've never fought for anything in your lives
Sorry, but Asperger's *IS* a mild form of autism. There are a couple of Aspies in my family, and they have similar issues as my autistic daughter, but on a much less severe scale.
Jeremy (Jeremy C Gorzynski), you are a nieve nincompoop! You may want to educate yourself before opening your mouth next time.
explain...
Every autistic kid is different. My son was in a preschool program that focused on ABA therapy. I volunteered 3 hrs a week in his class. I saw kids who were more "severe" than my son in the beginning progress and at the end of two years, they appeared almost like normal kindergartners. My son? He was still about where he started, very little measurable progress according to ABA standards. And there were several others like my son that ABA therapy did very little for. It involves lots of repetition where the kid had to imitate the therapist at least 7/10 times in order to pass off a level. My son was like, dude, I just did that, I'm not doing that again! He's now 12 and although he has made progress, he still is pretty much non-verbal. We spent four years in public school with no progress and finally had to enroll him in a small private school that focuses on the DIR/Floortime approach. He has made progress with this therapy although he still has a long way to go. He's real stubborn. If he doesn't understand the why of something, you can forget about it. If he can see the point and how he'll benefit (like getting a small candy or a toy), then he does it.
What is the mystery "therapy" anyways and what excuse do they give for charging $70,000 a year for it? Exactly what kind of degree do these people have? Wouldn't it be cheaper for the parent to go to school and learn how to do it? This is nothing but inexcusable greed. You can't tell who is ending up with the gobs of money but someone is in the 1% because of it.
i went to all free seminars on Autism. I got involved . I didnt take no for an answer.
well if you figure they are giving 30-40 hours a week of one on one mystery therapy it really is only $33-$44 dollars per hour for the therapy. According to salary.com the average occupational therapist makes $74K so it's really a bargain...
Though there's no reason to spend that much money with all the free programs available out there.
Not autistic, Jerry? Then how would you explain children such as the ones you have read about that can't speak, write, have meltdowns, and some can't even feed themselves. It seems you claim to know the answer, so tell us all.....what would you call it? My daughter was diagnosed with autism at age 4, and is now 12. I am one of the Lucky ones. She can speak, write , and can keep up with most of her peers in school. However, she has trouble reading people, has no idea to differentiate between being bullied or when someone is actually trying to be her friend. Has absolutely no self confidence, since she has to try 10times as hard as most people when it comes to sports, dancing, or even just trying to maintain a conversation. I do know one thing, though. If she met you for the first time, she would smile and say hello, and not judge you withouth knowing anything about you . This, sir is what you have done with your comment.