Autism
 

My Aunt sent me a newspaper clipping about the renovated elementary school being open in her town of probably less than 3500 people.

The article said there are 370 students in grades K through 4. It also said, there are 12 students with Autism and 1 with language-based learning disabilities, although it's unclear if the 13 are included in the 370 figure.

12 with Autism struck me as high for only 370 students. Is this problem increasing? :confused:

Could be its just diagnosed more, but perhaps its something else, or a combo. I've heard of speculated connections (rather convincing) to the preservatives used in some older childhood vaccinations. I think we talked about it here a while back...I'll look for the link. It could be the reporter is just lumping some other developmental delays into a quick label of "autism", small town paper and all. ?

I don't know.

This is what I do know. The Federal government says there is no link to mercury based imunizations and that they have phased out most of them. So if the 80's have gone and the imunizations are now clean then where are these new cases comming from? Is it the new fad label out there?

The schools use Autism as an umbrella term in order to get funds. What the doctors usually say if it isn't true autism is it is a 'developmental disorder' organic in the nerological make up. Have you ever heard of Non-Verbal learning disorder? It's a person who is dominatly left brained. Who cannot see in pictures. I think these people have always been here but our schools are so large now days that these kids who are outside of the norm get put in special classes. Is it any wonder that charter and alternative schools are becomming increasingly popular?

I don't know. I've worked alot on labels with my own kid. I explain alot. I don't think some things are a disability. I think secondary symptoms of anxiety about being different is. I think obsessive compulsive thinking is too and those can be controled by meds and a strong will to learn.

I did a little "field experience" (teacher shadowing) last semester through my school's education department and where I went was an alternative school for kids with severe ADD/ADHD, publicly funded. I was told there that some of the kids "have a form of autism" that has very similar symptoms to kids with bad ADHD. I'm wondering if the schools could be using kids who have been diagnosed as "potentially having" that form of autism to boost their numbers in hopes of getting more funding?

I think the schools do use the 'Autism' label for all developmental delays.



I've wondered that myself. I have wondered if it just isn't this fast paced world we live in. Some kids need extra time and quiet spaces. Maybe these kids where always there but in times past they were either ignored or faded into the background?

Does that state and/or school distric have a particularly good reputation for treating autistic kids?

My first lover's brother was severly autistic...he put an enormous strain on that family. At 13 he had the body of an 18 year-old physically.

Also, in an area with a variety of private schools, public schools will have a higher percentage of autistic (and other developmentally disabled) kids, since the private schools don't take them.

In a town of 3500, that may not be the case, though. Any factories nearby dumping mercury into the water?

One that I subbed in seemed to.

What makes you say that?

I was overgeneralizing. I'll put it this way - private schools can kick them out if they become too much of a financial or resource burden, and public schools can't.

Private schools often don't hire people with training to deal with them, as well.

Oh yeah, that's true....
But at the same time, public school districts will sometimes pay a (qualified) private school tuition for a student they can't or don't want to deal with.

I can offer first hand validation of jinx's point. She is correct.

Well, my son has full blown autism/PDD. Noone knows what caused it, and I have heard too many theories at this point. While I applaud the research into the cause, I am much too focused in the here and now to really care too much.

Autism is on the rise. This could be because of better diagnosis, or, as someone pointed out, a more lax diagnosis.

There is a reason Autism is called a spectrum. Deciding where autism begins is like trying to pick the point in a spectrum where blue begins. It really involves a checklist of behaviors. Very high functioning people with autism might simply be labelled as socially inept or 'nerds'.


Here is a table from a report to the California legislature

No factories, not much of any industry, and no public water.
You may be right about alternate schools, though. I imagine some of the kids are going to Catholic school (major bus ride), or private/home schooled. Probably not many of those though. :confused:

Could also be a funding issue. Possible (not making an assertion about this particular case) that a higher ratio of "autistic" students means a bigger share of state allocation of earmarked funds. Just making the point that there could be an incentive to widen the net as to what constitutes autism.

Thats basically what I was getting after.. but it could also be as simple as the school has a great special needs program, or just a teacher or two who have an outstanding reputation in the area.

As far as autism vs another label, there are 14 specific labels that IDEA lists and they should all be funded similarly. The sheer number of children with autism does create a political constituency so it may be easier to get money for that label. I think that some kids who used to be labeled with a behavior disorder are now being more appropriately labeled autistic. Lots of kids have multiple labels and since autism is the hot topic right now, that's where the focus is. I saw kids come into the Unit with milder traits and leave in months without any of the tell-tale behaviors, but they're still labeled and might not "look" autistic. Early intervention is where its at.

I'd also agree with Bullits idea. Parents will move to get their kid in a decent program increasing numbers in particular districts.

What does the 80' have to do with anything? The phasing out of thimerisol didn't begin until 1999 - and thimerisol-containing vaccines were used up, not removed from the shelves.

FWIW this story on the same topic appeared on the BBC website a couple of days ago ...

Oh well then my information was wrong or I read it wrong. Thanks..

I'd like to read more about that. Got a link for me? Yeah, I'm lazy.

Limey, that link says in part; I should think those numbers wouldn't be to far off for the US, but I could be wrong.:confused:

Here. And here. And here. Or just google thimerosal...

Private, Public, and Funding. Each state is completely different. I know California on this very well.

In CA, no additional funds are given to public schools for student accomodation. In fact, the incentive is the opposite: a student can attempt to get an IEP, Individual Education Plan, to address special needs. Once the IEP is accepted, the school is responsible for following the plan, even if it means paying a private school to meet the needs.

Well, the schools set up an elaborate gatekeeping system to agressively avoid IEPs. Basically, the student has to fail out of school before any IEP can be implemented.

We had a solid diagnosis from the Children's Health Council at Stanford University from an inter-displinary team of 4 professionals. It was in the Autism spectrum towards Non-Verbal Learning Disorder. A very smart student getting by with a C average is not good enough for an IEP; he would have to fail out of school to get an IEP.

My wife and I fought with the public schools for an IEP and got nowhere. We had no choice but to send him to a private school with 10 students per class and training in special needs students.

In the SF Bay Area the private schools are much better at handling all kinds of students. Private high schools here are more expensive than Yale and Harvard, but they do the proper job. At $20K a year tuition, rarely is a student a burden.

California public schools rank 49th in the nation just ahead of wealthy Mississippi.

RS, would you venture a guess as to why CA ranks so poorly? Certainly it isn't because the teachers are all dumb. Your remarks hint that the primary motivation to keep the student from physically leaving the public school system but staying on the (financial) books is economic. Would more money for public education make this problem better or worse?

Proposition 13, period. Little money for public schools.

Real Estate taxes pay for public schools. But they are limited to 2% increase per year as long as you own your home Prop 13. I pay $5,000/year and the old geezer across the street pays $400/year. If we do fix the funding problem, a serious transition of attitude must be accomplished.

Now, in the Bay Area, public schools are for the Mexican immigrants. Everyone else has stock option money to buy out of pathetic public schools.

My sister-in-law used to make a living giving reading instruction to kids whose parents successfully sued their district. Cal. schools are completely in violation of the Federal law on this. One big problem, though, is that the Feds never funded their educational mandates at any reasonable level.

Are Cs what he's actually earning, or just awarded to keep a low profile for the school?
He probably lived there before the yuppies drove the real estate prices and taxes through the roof, and might be forced out by a $5k tax bill. Besides, not likely to have any kids in school. ;)

We had a similar situation here until some people living in new houses went to court and the Judge forced the County to reassess every property.

http://www.ewg.org/reports/autism/background.php

Drug companies used thimerosal as a vaccine preservative to allow multiple injections to be shipped and stored in single containers. Thimerosal is 49 percent ethyl mercury, a widely recognized and potent neurotoxin. After more than a decade of nationwide, high childhood exposures, it was removed from childhood vaccinations between 1999 and 2002, at the urging of the Public Health Service and the American Academy of Pediatrics, but is still present in most flu vaccines. California and Iowa have banned mercury-containing thimerosal from all vaccinations, and Missouri and Nebraska have legislation in progress.

Autism treatment progress
 

Do some research on Asberger Syndrome.

The nitty gritty is that autism is far better understood now, and the articles will open your eyes. If your child is very little, there is a lot of hope for improvement.

Autism is now considered an extreme in the asberger curve of behaviors. Language problems, or lack of use, and social problems are part of the characteristics. They can follow the person into adulthood. I think 3 of my 4 siblings, if not all 5 of us, suffer from it in varying degrees.

Let me know if you have trouble finding information.

I've seen some articles that say it is not curable, but I have also seen ones that say classic autism is avoidable with very early intervention in many children.

You say asperger curve of behaviors?

You mean autism and aspergers is under the pervasive developmental disorders as is 'non verbal learning syndrome'. There are a specific characteristics yet separate diagnosis.




http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec04/definition.html

"These are kids who talk before they walk," Volkmar says. "Language is their lifeline."
However, notes Volkmar, children with Asperger's syndrome generally do not master the usual give-and-take of conversation. More characteristically, they will drone on about their favorite topics, such as meteorology.
While many children with Asperger's syndrome acquire an impressive vocabulary, children with autism tend to find their strengths in motor skills and manipulating objects, according to ongoing research by Klin and Volkmar. In this study, they are comparing 21 children with Asperger's syndrome with 19 similarly aged children diagnosed as autistic--through all have normal IQs. Both groups took the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children, including tests of their motor and language skills.
The participants with a diagnosis of autism performed well on tasks requiring visual-spatial perception--such as puzzle-solving--or motor skills. Those with Asperger's syndrome tended to show deficits in these areas, though they outperformed the participants with autism on vocabulary, auditory perception and verbal memory tasks.
"Though both of these groups have similar trouble with social functioning, they show different patterns of neuropsychological functioning," says Volkmar.

Non-Verbal Learning

http://www.pediatricneurology.com/autism.htm#Non-Verbal%20Learning%20Disabilities%20(NVLDs)

NVLD kids, though, do typically appear interested in human bonds--even though they may be clueless how to actually achieve them successfully. Additionally, children with Asperger’s more typically have diminished “symbolic play” than in NVLD. For example, the toy school bus is a box that rolls, rather than something that little plastic figures climb into. So, how about this for a gross oversimplification? NVLD kids recognize that you exist while they miss the subtext of what you are saying. Asperger’s kids appear behind a plane of glass as they miss the subtext of what you are saying.

Maybe I have Asberger Syndrome....as in language problems. My Mother doesn't like my f*ckin' language. ;)

:lol2:

Its really pathetic. that too in little kids. I pity for them , should be treated well enough to cure them in the earlier stage itself.

There has been a marked increase in cases of Autism in the past couple of decades. Incidencies of PDD and other similar disabilities have increased in incredible amounts.

So have incidences of Asthma, ADD, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, retardation, various deadly allergies such as the peanut allergy, among many other diseases and disorders.

There are so many possible explanations to this weird phenomenon, but it's most likely because of a combination of a bunch of things: more pollution, more synthetic foods, increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics, all the other lovely gifts of living in the twentith/twenty-first century.

Part of it is probably better diagnostics and more alarmist doctors, but definitely not all.

Thank god we at least now have the tools to deal with all these issues, but then, who knows if the tools themselves are contributing to the problem in some oblique way?

One leading theory on asthma/allergies is that our environments are too clean.

More on this...1,2,3

Corrected: one leading theory on asthma is that our environments are too clean.

The increase in allergies is probably the part inflamed by better diagnostics, the proper concept of an allergy and doctors with the skill to correctly diagnose it as such is a recent phenominon. ADHD, ADD and other hyperactive disorders might stem from the rapid change in youth lifestyle from very active (farm life) to very sedative (school and TV). Retardation? Well now they live long enough to be diagnosed, you don't want to hear my other theory. The most convincing theory about why the incidences of genetic disorders (far more things have genetic roots than most people think) is that the people carrying these genes are now reproducing with help from the rest of us. Deal with the politial incorrectness when I say we are weakening our gene pool (no Nazi references, just take it at face value). Our immune systems are advancing at nearly the same rate as bacteria and viruses so I don't think it's a big factor in all but a few cases.