a diagnosis issue?
Autism tends to occur in places where parents are older, more educated, and white.
Autism tends to occur in places where parents are older, more educated, and white.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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January 7th, 2010 at 11:18 am
racist!
January 7th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Autism has become the politically correct replacement diagnosis for retarded, ah sorry, developmentally delayed. Combine that with “autism is caused by evil vaccines/mercury/toxins/food/water/air” or whatever the upscale white parent doesn’t have to deal with their own failures but gets to blame someone else.
January 7th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
That’s white and _nerdy_.
January 7th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
I know a couple who hold the vast majority of their conversations via text messaging, to the point of doing so while at home. All 3 of their kids are multiple-diagnosis, including Aspergers to autism.
I blame the internets for allowing such people to interact and eventually breed with each other. These two have precious few ‘normal’ social skills that don’t originate through a keyboard.
Regards,
Rabbit.
January 7th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Rabbit, that follows my feeling that autism is a clinical name for “weird”.
January 7th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Rabbit, does either of them have a sister? Could you introduce us? Absolutely every chick in this town seems severely, frighteningly neurotypical.
January 8th, 2010 at 1:44 am
#2, Mu, You are an ignorant asshole. Or, you’re a troll. Not sure which.
I am the father of 3 children. Two (aged 7 and 3) are ‘normal’ (for lack of a better term). My middle child (5) has Asperger’s Syndrome, an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
My autistic son is spooky bright. He’s got a near photographic memory (blessing and curse all in one), pitch perfect singing, and he reads 3 grade levels above what’s normal for his peers. By way of comparison, my 7-year old daughter is in 2nd grade and is one of the best readers in her class and my 5-year old autistic son reads almost two grades above her level.
On the other hand, my 5-year old autistic son constantly confuses male and female pronouns, is socially awkward, “stims” on certain things (parents with autistic children will know what this means), and is virtually incapable of reading emotions from body language and/or facial expressions. All of these are things that my 3-year old has no problem with.
My son is different.
To you he’s “retarded”.
My wife and I are blessed. He’s healthy, has his sight, 10 fingers, 10 toes, and is sharp as a tack. We are fortunate that my son was born into a family that has the means and the willingness to help.
A lifelong challenge is staring my wife and I in the face. We love our son and we are finding a way. We are on the verge of my son becoming aware that he’s different from other kids his age. Talking to other parents indicates this (the becoming self-aware) is the hardest thing on a parent. It brings me to tears to think of the things my son is missing out on.
At times it’s hard. Really hard.
The last fucking thing I need is ignorant comments like yours.
But, at least I has solace in knowing that my 5-year old “retarded” (your word) son has more social grace and is more considerate of others than you are.
ObGun: Oh, and he’s already a crack shot with a single-shot pellet gun. When he gets a bit older, I’ll get out the CZ-452 w/ the Gemtech Outback. 🙂
January 8th, 2010 at 3:48 am
@Parent: Amen.
There are a few people on Uncle’s blogroll who are pretty sure they have a touch of the “A”, and think, as I do, that it makes them better shots. Among other things.
Q. Is an ASD a bug, or a feature?
A. Yes.
January 8th, 2010 at 10:54 am
Poac, read Prometheus’s analysis of the statistical data on autism diagnosis. No, not all autistic kids are retarded, but oddly enough, where there used to be 1% autism and 10% retarded there are now 6% autistic and 6% retarded. So there’s a huge diagnostic shift, related to social-economic status, what was the subject of the post.
January 8th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I have heard that autism spectrum diagnoses are what happen when nerds mate with nerds and have children. Thus, you’d expect more autism and aspergers in places like Silicon Valley.
Has anybody checked the maps to see if these clusters correlate with hotbeds of nerds?
(Mind you, I’m definitely a nerd. And some think I have a wee touch of Asperger’s, though it’s not been diagnosed.)
January 8th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
@Ellen (10). I’m in the Seattle area. And Seattle is one of the leading autism treatment / research centers in the nation. Hard to tell if it’s because of the money in Seattle (hint: there’s a lot) so more folks have access to diagnosis which leads to higher diagnosis rate.
When I talk to the autism centers in the area (ASTAR, Children’s Hospital’s new autism center, etc.) there seem to be a high rate of autistic kids from ‘nerd’ parents.
Again, is the ‘nerd mating’ the cause or does it mean they have more money and more access to resources that enable them to get a diagnosis?
Oh, for the record, Jenny McCarthy is an ignorant tool. (and a waste of a perfectly good vagina) Her “vaccine’s cause autism” has been blown out of the water by repeated studies but she uses her celebrity status (and magnificent tits) to push her crack pot theories.
This is like doing 100% pap smears for women. You’ll find more cervical cancer. But that’s not because there’s something new causing the cancer, it’s because you’re checking everybody.
Look more, find more.
It’s related to the Early Detection Fallacy, but only different.
Finally, there is a strong school of thought in the Seattle autism community, always whispered and never spoken of on the record or in large groups, that Bill Gates is autistic. Microsoft has awesome autism-related benefits. Has for a long time. Many insurance plans simply don’t cover autism treatment (they’ll cover the diagnosis but no follow-up treatment, nice way of reducing costs). Again, difficult to tell if this was MSFT finding a way to give themselves a competitive advantage (better benefits) or if something else was going on.
I know of several prominent MSFT executives (not BillG ) who have autistic kids and who have dropped large chunks of cash building a close-to-them autism center.
Hell, I know of one who found a specialist that worked well with their child so they moved this person from another state to the Seattle area to improve the care their child was getting.
If you can, you do.
I can’t (at least not at that level).