I read the whole of it, the parts about the genes are interesting but the writter is very ignorant about autism and it doesn't help when Autism Speaks are one of their main sources.
It says autism is something that is developed around the age of 3. That irritates me because it implies that it is something that can be caught or prevented.
And the article seems to ignore the fact that females have it as well as male, it says males are more likely but then goes on to explain that females are "immune" to autism.
I'm going to leave a comment under the article.
nice, short but effective. my comment is this, although i haven't posted it yet because i'm checking it for mistakes and ways to improve it. suggestions are appriciated.
This article contains many inaccurate facts,
Autism isn't something that just appears at the age of 3, it is shown consistently throughout that person’s life, not making eye contact during breastfeeding is a symptom that psychologists look for when diagnosing Autism. Babies are breastfed well before the person is 3 and therefore it is an unfair assumption that Autism appears around the age of 3. Autism only become more apparent as the person gets older because there is more to be expected from them and therefore there are more things to for them to have difficulty.
Also people in the Autistic spectrum are not walled off beyond their parents love as the article puts it, they simply express their love differently.
This article seems to of skimmed over the many benefits that come from the Autistic spectrum some being; honesty, lack of pressure to conform which is what causes many people to take up negative activities like drug abuse; intense concentration which enables the person to be able to study a subject that they enjoy further than most typical people would which could benefit man kind, a well known historical figure who was Autistic was Albert Einstein, I bet most people don’t regret him ever existing.
Autism is not a “cruel condition” as referred to in this article, I am not denying there are difficulties which are mainly to do which social interaction, but what makes it cruel is the treatment people on the Autistic spectrum are forced to endure from groups like Autism Speaks and Cure Autism Now which claim to be fighting the “War Against Autism” and use many techniques including celebrities endorsement (
http://www.vh1.com/partners/vh1classic_rock_autism/) to help convince the public that people that are different from the norm should be eradicated. The only way to stop Autism which is HEREDITARY (that means if your kid has it then you or your partner has to be at least a carrier) is to wipe out everyone with those genes which is very similar to what Hitler wanted which was to get rid of anybody with imperfect genetics.
On a brighter note the three replies to the article condemned the way it spoke of autism. The first had an autistic son, but was anything but curebie, openly said quite rightly that autism speaks was not a good information point, and obviously loved and accepted her child the way he was.
The second posted an intelligent post telling the writer of the article that autism is not on the up, to stop being so dramatic and how good it is that autistic children who would have been put in homes in the past now had chances.
The third poster kept his/her head and said that autism is not an epidemic and that the writer was making autism sound much more tragic than it is to anybody.
One has to question the value of a label that is being applied to such a diverse group of people. It is very unlikely that the articulate people with "autism" who are commenting here really have the same underlying condition as my "autistic" 14-year-old son, who is almost mute. It seems very probable that there are numerous different conditions to for which the same word is being used. Using the same label for millions of different people, most of whom don't seem to have a whole lot in common, is only likely to confuse everyone--not just the public, but also the scientists.
How would you guys answered this
This time around I wouldn't worry about it - it looks like the comment has been buried by lots of others. In general terms, it's a good idea to point out that many people who are also "almost mute" are involved in the neurodiversity movement.
I just replied to the guy who said that autism was caused by vaccines - basically I said that I could trace 3 generations of Aspies in my family (myself, my mother, my grandfather). If 1 in 250 people were on the spectrum, the odds of that line of descent happening through random vaccine exposure would be 1 in 250^3, or 1 in 15,625,000...
*grins* Technically it would be 4 in 15,625,000 or 1 in 3,906,250, but I figured I'd use the higher number anyways...
I have replied to so much today people must be sick of me but I could not stop myself from responding to this.
I am the mother of 4 boys. ALL have ASD. All were treated the same by me and raised the same.Eldest 2 are undiagnosed(formally),Youngest 2 are diagnosed.
All $ of my boys are INDIVIDUALS.
Yes they have simeralities ;they are brothers!
My niece is on the Spectrum,and 4 of my nephews.
Yes there are things they all have in common(grandparents for one).
Sorry to be flippant and I know genetics has to play its part but none of are the same; even my mom and aunt who are identical twins are so very different.