http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-03-29-09-59-30 Basically, autism spectrum disorders are on the rise again. They were 1 in 110 (based on data collected in 2006). Now they are 1 in 88 (based on data collected in 2008), and 1 in 54 for boys. Nobody is sure why it's increasing. The givernment has declaired it a "public health emergency", however it vary's from state to state! In Utah 1 in 47 8 year old boys had autism, while Alabama has 1 in 210! I just think...wow. How crazy is this? I know this doesn't have a whole lot to do with Homeschooling in the News, but...it is news, right? I just wonder what is CAUSING THIS! I think a HUGE part of this is Genetics since we can trace the Autism in our family to WAY back. I also think that vaccines play a bigger role than scientists admit. Ugh. What do you think about these new findings?
I am not sure how often this happens, but reading the article makes me laugh. First it says that it is from "data from areas in 14 states" They didn't even look at a whole state just an area of a state. I can think of several reasons why there might be a pocket of Autism in one area, with higher or lower rates. Especially since the cause is unknown. Second it says "They checked health and school records to see which children met the criteria for autism, even if they hadn't been formally diagnose" So somebody reading the paper diagnoses them without even seeing the child. This also leaves out any child not in the school system, and I wonder about the "high functioning" ones. The reason the difference in the states is "Alabama was at the other end the scale, with only about 1 in 210 identified as autistic. The difference was attributed to less information out of Alabama. Researchers were not able to access school information in that state and a few others, and as a result believe they have a less complete picture" If you are only going to use a few parts of a few states to compare them, I think you should at least choose states and use the same information from all the states. Because you can't compare apples and oranges. I just laughed and thought that it was a very incomplete study.
Genetics has a role to play. I was reading about highly functioning Asperger individuals the other day....something about there being a lot of aspie babies born in Silicone Valley to ....guess who? Aspie parents! turns out a lot of them are good for technology type jobs...with the extreme focus and detail orientation....and they're getting married, and having a higher than usual rate of aspie and autistic children. That said, I also believe that autism has to do with environmental factors as well. There has got to be some sort of correlation. We are doing something wrong. Is it the vaccines? I'm not educated enough in that area to know, but somethng is certainly wrong.
It's entirely possible that MANY people went undiagnosed in previous decades, but that more kids are being diagnosed nowadays, who would have gone "unnoticed" back then. They might have been thought of as "that odd duck" or something by the people who knew them, but not clinically diagnosed. Kind of like ADD/ADHD... "that kid who can't sit still" rather than "that ADHD kid" ...
Also I think diet plays a major role. We eat so much over-processed foods, chemicals, etc. And television/computer/video games also contributes to it.
Yes. I believe that putting young children in front of the TV and letting them veg out can actually trigger autistic symptoms. It "teaches" children to zone out. Have you ever read the book, "The Plugged-In Drug"? Very interesting!
My brother and sister have high functioning Aspergers. When my sister was younger we were always the kids who played outside all the time and had very little TV time (we always wanted to be outside anyway). My grandparents raised us and we got home cooked meals almost always (grandparents were off the boat Germans and my grandfather was a baker). My youngest brother has a slightly more sever case then my sister, and again my mom was a SAHM for quite a few years and my brother spent more of his time outdoors or in his play room. He was wicked smart!!! Before he could talk he was adding and subtracting and now (a Jr in high school) he has a 3.9GPA (in average to accelerated classes). He lacks almost all social skills and your typical "common sense" thinking but this boy is really, really good in math and science. I keep saying he is going to be the one who ends up being the millionaire in our family. And I agree, I think the TV (more specifically the programs like Spong Bob and other fast-paced cartoons definitely contribute to ADHD issues). I always worry for my son since Autism seems to run in my family. So far he isn't showing the symptoms my brother did at his age, but he still isn't talking. I know that doesn't mean much at 16 months old, but it is extremely scary to see these numbers continue to go up. My sister was diagnosed with a "general learning disability" in school since not much was known about Asperger Syndrom. Looking back we now know that is what she had. I think better testing and earlier detection is playing a big role as to the number of cases we see now. I think we all remember the "odd" kids in school who seemed to have zero social skills but were crazy smart.
Just out of curiousity is it possible for a child to have aspergers some days and not other days?The reason I'm asking is that a woman I know said her son has aspergers some days and not others. She didn't say anything about him having higher functioning aspergers.
Emjay - Just from my experience with autism and Aspergers the answer would be no. The child might have good days vs. bad days, but they will always have Aspergers or Autism. It might be that she is viewing her son's good days as him not having Aspergers, or her son might not have Aspergers and she is viewing her son's bad days as having Aspergers. I am no expert, but with two siblings with Aspergers and my husband's cousin with a sever form of Autism, I know that it is something they will have to deal with all their lives.
Read this today. I wouldn't hold my breath that the study will be published in an academic journal (because they are very biased), but I would love to read it if it's made public. Monkeys given vaccines show autism symptoms
I thought so, but my personal experience is limited to just one child with Aspergers and one person with Autism so I thought I'd check. Thanks
