Aspies For Freedom

Is this really were "earlier the better" comes from?

http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/8017355/main.html

Diagnosing Autism: The Earlier the Better

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Every year more than 24,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with autism. Once a child is diagnosed with autism it will never completely go away, but new research reveals early diagnosis and management can lead to significant quality of life improvement.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has published two new clinical reports that offer strategies to help pediatricians and parents diagnose and treat children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) sooner and more effectively.
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The first clinical report lays out specific signs and symptoms both a childs parents and his or her pediatrician should look for. Most cases of ASD are recognized at about 18 months of age when a childs language is delayed. Study authors believe there are several signs of ASD that are recognizable much earlier. Not turning to look at things, not pointing to objects, lack of babbling and delays in smiling and eye contact are a few of the early warning signs. Also, if a child forms attachments with hard objects like pens, keys or action figures rather than soft objects like blankets or stuffed animals, it might also be an early indicator of autism.

If any of these signs are present, the AAP guidelines recommend the childs pediatrician use a standardized screening tool to assess the child for ASD. The AAP report also suggests universal screening be done on all children at 18 and 24 months.

In a second report published by the AAP, ASD management guidelines are reccomended. According to the report, a child diagnosed with ASD should engage in intensive intervention at least 25 hours per week, 12 months per year. The child should also have a low student-to-teacher ratio in school, and substantial one-on-one learning time. Complementary and alternative medicine therapies are becoming more and more popular to treat ASD so pediatricians need to be knowledgeable about available therapies.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: PEDIATRICS, 2007;120

I saw that America's largest organization of pediatricians is calling for all children to be screened for autism twice before the age of two.

Their publication is, at least, emphasizing that this is not about a "cure" -- that there is no "cure."

Well yeah, but how positive is it really if all children anywhere in the autistic spectrum have to spend 25 hours every week with intensive behavioral intervention (most common form of ABA for autistic children which is not nearly as extreme as that presented at Judge Rotenberg Center)? I remember I made a thread for a similar question here:

Aspies Growing Up Today

I would hope that giving a child some intervention might be more benefit to them than just having a parent let them sit around with no one talking or playing with them.  Most people just give up on trying to communicate with autistic children because they are not like "normal" children.  They can end up being ignored and not be taught anything.  

Would early intervention lead to more autistic people being accepted or not?

Intensive Behavioral Intervention sounds mega-expensive, and something tells me that it isn't always as great as it is made to be.

No, it would destroy just about every vestige of individuality the children had.

I agree. I had no problem communicating with my children when they were small, because I didn't think that their 'unusual' response was a problem; so it wasn't!
But I've seen a lot of people ignore their spectrum kids completely. I've seen them ignore 'normal' kids too, but non-spectrum kids will inititate communication more often.

I used to find it horrifying that so many mothers I knew would not talk to their babies if the mothers had an adult around to talk to instead. I hope that being told how to talk to their children will lead to more people having a proper relationship with spectrum kids, but I'm not holding my breath....

I have heard some people say they don't talk to their babies because "they don't understand".  How is the child ever going to learn to talk or even know that they are human if no one ever talks to them?

Do people really completely ignore babies? I'm not very chatty, but I still found it instinctive to say - right we're going out/right I'm going to change you/put some trousers on you etc.

America has proved again and again that as a nation we are not all that concerned about the health and well-being of children. So if there's a massive program to identify every AS child in America, you can bet some major Big Pharmaceutical giant has a Big Dollar "miracle drug" in the works. Big Pharma is in bed with the government and they're doing all sorts of naughty things.

i would say that americans in general are not concerned about the health and well being of anyone period, not just children.  and i likely think there's some new drug out there to treat these "nasty autistic afflictions".  i just hope it doesn't become mandatory for health insurance in the near future to be taking that drug if you're autistic.

Oh yes, they really do. But it is because the adult is not getting the response from the baby that they would get from another adult. Like you, however, I found it completely natural to talk to my children!

Are you on the spectrum? It seems we do not have any pre-conceived or instinctive notions about how other people, including infants and children, are 'supposed' to behave in response to us and so we accept what the other people 'can' do. If a baby is too little to produce the 'proper' social response, who cares? If the person to whom I'm talking is on the spectrum, and doesn't produce the 'proper' social response, why should I care?

I don't know if I ever produce the 'proper' social response!

And what's wrong with just cuddling a baby sometimes?

Absolutely true. far too many people have babies to satisfy their own narcissistic needs. Stupid. Babies aren't here to gratify you. It's all about the baby's needs -- that's how it should be. But a narcissist tires of that quickly enough, and either loses interest in the baby or rather resents them because they are a burden.

Thanks for the replies to my post guys. I am self-DX'ed aspie - or if there is a category OCD with aspie traits rather than vice/versa maybe that would be a good fit. My son who is 3.6 has big problems with speech (both understanding and expressive), and I suspect will be diagnosed with HFA or AS next year.