Aspies For Freedom

Hello-
The latest CDC report (2/8/2007) stated that the prevalence of autism is now 1 in 150, up from the 1 in 166 figure reported by the CDC in January, 2004.

The report does not seem to comment on the probability having a 2nd child with autism if that family has already had a child with autism (when I say autism I am including the entire autism spectrum).

My gut instinct that is families with a child that fits within the autism spectrum may have an increased probabilty of having another child that will be diagnosed within the autism spectrum. I honestly have no idea how more increased the probabilty would be...

Also, I must say that I do know famlies where only one child has been diagnosed but I also know famlies where 2 to 3 of their children have been diagnosed within the spectrum.

Does anyone have any relevant references - beyond the general heredity discussion - that addresses this? Is this being studied?

All opinions would be appreciated!


Reference:
An overview of the CDC report and the actual PDF version are at:
http://www.autismspeaks.org/press/cdc_au...alence.php

The chances are about 1 in 20; I don't have a specific reference, but I have seen many articles, which offer chances ranging from 1 in 15 to 1 in 23. This includes Asperger's and high-functioning autism, though--having two low-functioning children (with the accompanying strain on resources) is quite a lot less likely than that. Remember also that autism is more likely to be suspected (and thus diagnosed) in siblings of children who are already diagnosed autistic.

Many siblings of autistic children have autistic traits even though they may not have diagnosable autism. For example, I have two sisters; one (age 21) is neurotypical, and the other (age 11) is hyperlexic and has special interests and pedantic speech. She has not been seen by a psychiatrist because my mother does not want her to think she is "damaged" (she isn't--her IQ is in the gifted range, and she will likely be a computer scientist one day); but I would guess at her diagnosis being something like atypical Asperger's or PDD-NOS. However, both my parents have Asperger's, my father more strongly than my mother; so autism in any of us three girls would have been even more likely than the usual 1 in 20 chance with just a sibling relationship. The existence of my neurotypical sister, who shows no autistic traits at all, would seem to show that autism is a recessive trait to some degree or another--that is, even the child of two autistic parents need not be autistic, though s/he is likely to be so.

Additionally, you will note that my siblings are both girls. I propose that since females are generally more verbal and communicative, the female brain compensates somewhat for autism: If my youngest sister and I had been male, she might have had strong Asperger's rather than mild, and I could be fully autistic. However, there has been little study on the occurrence of gender and autism; some say that female autistics are simply under-diagnosed, since they show symptoms differently. I myself was only thought to be strong-willed, obsessed, eccentric, oversensitive, rude, bookish, and a loner until the age of 19 when I was diagnosed with Asperger's: I believe that because I am female, Asperger's did not present in the "classic" manner which is easy to diagnose.

One must also note that raising a child with high-functioning autism or Asperger's will very likely take no more effort than raising a neurotypical child, once one has learned about the condition and accepted the child as s/he is. The basic needs are the same--love, discipline, physical care, teaching of needed life skills, and eventual emancipation into the world at large. HFA/AS, while it poses its own problems, often allows a child to escape many of the problems an NT child faces, such as the tendency to blindly follow the crowd: An Aspie child will generally face problems which are different in nature, but the same in magnitude, as an ordinary child.

HFA/AS generally means an eccentric but self-supporting adult; in fact, we at AFF do not believe that HFA/AS is a true disability at all. Rather, it is a difference--a set of traits that poses its own problems and often requires specialized education, but is essentially neither superior nor inferior to the usual brain makeup. Even a low-functioning autistic child--one with comorbid mental retardation, a lack of speech, or other problems which do not permit independence--can be a happy member of society. Some LFAs, having learned to write rather than speak, have obtained college degrees; others, despite never learning sophisticated communication at all, are nonetheless loved members of families, just as capable of happiness as the most socially-oriented people--perhaps happier.

In the above post is illustrated the Aspie tendency toward lecturing. My apologies.

This is interesting.  I have one sibling, my older brother, and he appears to be a very typical Aspie.

I'm a more atypical Aspie, possibly PDD-NOS, but probably on the ASD nonetheless.

I wonder if this would suggest that my theory that both my parents have AS, is correct... since the chance is 1/20, or so, that a second child will be on the autistic spectrum.

It's definitely heredity, it has to be. I hear people say, "well there must be some kind of environmental trigger", how can that be when the last 3 generations of Aspies in both of our families have been born to five different countries, under different circumstances and are still born with Aspie traits?

We didn't realise that Aspergers was an issue until we had kids with Aspergers, it was only then that we looked back and realised that both my husband and I have an older siblings who have classic cases of Aspergers and the rest of us definitely have Aspie traits.

In both of our families it seems that the oldest sibling gets hit the hardest and then the kids born after that have watered down traits.

That's interesting.  That would appear to ring true for me.  My brother is 5 years older than me and has many stereotypical Aspie traits, and while I also show a lot of traits (some of them quite severely such as massive deficiency in executive function) most people on here tell me I'm "too expressive/emotional to be Aspie" or that I have a very atypical case of Asperger's.

But you can still be highly atypical (devoid of major Aspie stereotypes such as high intelligence and clinical approach, etc.) and be Asperger's, I thought.... isn't that's why it's a spectrum disorder, which promotes diversity/variety within the same Syndrome?

Everyone should share enough traits within the Triad, that is what connects all of us, but then reaction to environment and personality should make for a lot of different results.  I believe part of my "atypical-ness" is from having a personality type not commonly associated with Asperger's.

I wish you folks could look past my strong ability to express myself and my emotional input on things, for honestly, I only use these abilities as an anonymous person on the Internet.

I think Aspies can be very expressive and even emotive, but they probably prefer such kinds of communication in more comfortable environments.  The Internet is a must for me, in terms of having a place to communicate better than I do offline.

I totally agree with you. Asperger's is a spectrum disorder and there are many different colours to this rainbow. Why shouldn't a person with AS have the ability to show emotion?

There's a series of articles running on the CNN health site right now with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. One of the articles is an interview with a severely Autistic woman who blogs because she cannot verbally communicate. She was considered to have a low IQ and no emotional faculties at all until she taught herself to type and put all of things in her head into words. She basically told the establishment that labeled her to be an unfeeling moron to bugger off. We need more examples of difference and less strictly adhered to pigeonholes.

Best,

Paula

Yeah that's what I mean.  Give an Asperger's/autistic person a comfortable way to communicate, and they can be highly expressive, and they often have strong opinions.

So what if I'm expressive and emotional.  I have strong emotions, but don't know how to blend my emotional state into daily-life activities, like most people.  Therefore I express myself within a more controlled environment, which for me is the Internet.

This is what AFF is for, partly.

Yes, and I think it is entirely possible for some of us to be very emotional. Some aspies react to emotions by mentally shutting down and appearing emotionless but others of us cry easily and are very sensitive.

It's interesting to note the comment by Paula Louise about the eldest child in the family being the most severely affected by autism - I am the eldest and more severely affected than the couple of brothers who I also think have some degree of Aspergers or HFA.

I wouldn't know. I'm the only one.