Autism Speaks is quite diskiked at this site.
One thing would be because they spread the view of autism as something tragic, which is quite ofte inappropriate.
AFF generally neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is the philosophy about autism is a part of who a person are, and the big problems around autists can't be autism itself, but the environments incompetence of handling the difference.
This is can be viewn as a useful view as there have yet to be a total cure, as in removal of all autism symptoms. Yes, we do have many treatments that are claimed to be curing autism, but they do not perform any total cure, and they often have many negative effects.
... sry, I often forget words.
Dogbrain!
I want this guy to listen, not be provoked.
I disagree with some of the stuff Autism Speaks say and stand for but to be honest if you listen to that crap above about how Alison Singer wanted to kill her daughter, just watch the film and listen to what she actually says, before you decide. If you're unsure, Email her and ask her herself (she is very friendly and was devastated that people could claim she wanted to murder her daughter or didn't love her autistic daughter).
She was depressed because she had just seen what was on offer for her daughter (schools that treat autistic kids like an empty being not worth teaching, with no potential etc.) and when driving her home she felt so desperate that she considered driving off the bridge. KILLING herself and her daughter because the state etc. offered her daughter no future, or seemed to, at the time.
She said that remembering she had another daughter who would be left behind, because she wasn't with them at the time, stopped her carrying out this (irrational) idea. That has nothing whatsoever to do with whether her other daughter was NT or autistic. She realised how cruel it would be to leave her daughter behind, and it snapped her out of it.
Beammeup... yes. In this case it would be VERY helpful to read the full thread before commenting. You are missing just about every point anyone here (on either side of the debate) is trying to make. I am not trying to be rude or hurtful, but, as a general rule, it will be very good for you to sit back, and ACTUALLY READ a thread before you comment.
qtkids- there are several "anti- ASpeaks" sites out there. One that I found recently is
http://www.gettingthetruthout.org it is rather involved and you really need to read through the whole thing (it has a "twist" in it)
And I do agree, it would be helpful for the autie community as a whole for us all to come out. There have been several threads of this forum that discuss the pros and cons of doing this. Unfortunately, I tend to see that admitting to people in positions of authority, in my life, could be severely damaging to my way of life. (I could loose a job I need to keep to support my family, or it could somehow put me on some list that I don't want to be on -rather paranoid fear, I know) However, I have told my family and very close friends about it and they've accepted me for the person I have always been.
PS: Re that "Autism every day" video. As far as I can see it is a film about autism and the prejudice and false assumptions that are directed at autistic kids ("You're being naughty") and their parents ("You should discipline that kid, he/she is out of control"), and the lack of understanding.
I'm not saying it was right that her comments were included in this form, but I am loathe to criticise someone for speaking so honestly and bluntly about their feelings. Why should I, who often find it hard to express what I think or feel without sounding blunt, judge someone else for doing the same?
With treatment ( the treatment on here that everyone seems so against) my little boy no longer bangs his head into walls and floors. I am no longer bit so hard that I look like a battered woman. Why would we not want to inform the public about this. People should learn about autistic people if anything because we all have to live on earth together.
There are so many different "treatments" out there... and they are all very different from eachother, so apparently none has found a universal solution...
Many parents claim that their child have improved if just slightly after som kind of treatment, an example of this would be when a young boy with autism recieved secretin at a hospital. The mom noticed some slight improvements and then the secretin was sold to hundreds of families.
We know now that the secretin had nothing to do with the boys improvement. Luckily secretin (a hormone found in pigs actually) didn't have any negative side-effects that I know of like many of the other "treatments".
It is very important for parents to try to understand autism, parents with autism of autistic children are often lucky to recognize many of the things that their children struggle with and are often more successful in raising autistic children. Like when qtkids's child has a meltdown, it is useful to know what exactly that is causing the meltdown. It is important to avoid frequent meltdowns as the child's mental health is at risk.
Ooops...when I mentioned treatments I was thinking more along the lines of theraputic treatment, not meds. We have never looked into giving my son meds because I don't feel at his young age, that it is something we are ready for. You are right, a lot of them have a lot of negative side affects. At one point the school nurse at the old school asked me if I considered it, and I expressed to her that it was not on my to do list this year!
I've heard that most of the treatmeant are meant for very young children, like ABA. ABA is practiced in a large variety of methods and apparently some of them are alot more positive than others. There's certainly a huge gap between "the school of terror" JRC where they give electric shocks for "inappropriate behavior" and other ABA schools where they barely have any kinds of punishment at all.
One that I found recently is
http://www.gettingthetruthout.org it is rather involved and you really need to read through the whole thing (it has a "twist" in it)
That's an awesome site!!! Thanks for sharing it.
You find more of them in the stickified in the general forum. "AFF awards" something.
When you know something that someone else does not I don't think that it is a matter of judgement . I believe it is a matter of sharing your knowledge with others. I understand about the video, and the assumptions because I have heard them before while out with my son. I find the best way to deal with it now is to tell people my son has autism, and when they look at me funny I get a chance to explain to them what autism is, and that he just happens to be this way.
I completely 100% agree - unless people are told, you can't expect them to know a kid is autistic, or an adult, or whatever. I have made (tried to make) that point many times in the past, on forums and suchlike, when there were complaints about people reacting "as if I was XXX" just because it looks exactly like I *am* XXX (XXX=drunk, callous, whatever). How are they to know the difference unless they are told? 
I didn't mean, Re: the prejudice, that they expected people to know their kids are autistic, more that they get a lot of "Autistic? Whatever, give him a week with me and I'll show you how to bring that kid up properly" comments when they try to explain. Or that people judge them for "Not having their kid under control" first, and then refuse to change their minds once told.
What you just wrote, that's the whole reason for making this film in the first place as far as I can tell, to SHOW people that there are reasons why kids behave in a certain way, and that it's not always the kid or the parent who's to blame. It's to try and educate people about these behaviours and show them that this isn't just a kid being naughty or a parent being "slack".
I've heard that most of the treatmeant are meant for very young children, like ABA. ABA is practiced in a large variety of methods and apparently some of them are alot more positive than others. There's certainly a huge gap between "the school of terror" JRC where they give electric shocks for "inappropriate behavior" and other ABA schools where they barely have any kinds of punishment at all.
That's very true. My main objection to ABA (the non-violent variety) is that for most kids with autism, it's not necessarily a very useful way of learning things, even if they may learn to "perform" certain things.
It is crucial for the "analysis" to be correct if the ABA is to work, and unless the person doing the treatment REALLY knows about autism, there's a BIG danger they will analyse wrong.
And how do we know what the child learns through ABA will be generalised to other situations that weren't covered by the ABA sessions?
Getting the Truth Out wasn't a response to Autism Speaks. It was a response to Getting the Word Out, which was a PR campaign by the Autism Society of America. (That reminds me I ought to go post a request in one of the other forums for more contributions of stories/pictures to that site, it was never intended to be just one person.)