I think that my son is on the spectrum, albeit it at the higher functioning end, but I am wondering if there are any less expensive but accurate ways to confirm.
And if anyone has a kiddo like this, what are some successful strategies?
The multi-million dollar question: Does anyone know if there is any valid research that indicates what might cause this?
The multi-million dollar question: Does anyone know if there is any valid research that indicates what might cause this?
There's no scientific evidence of a link between autism-spectrum disorders and vaccination. (The one study reporting correlation was pretty clearly cooked and has since been withdrawn.) Likewise the stuff about frigid mothers doesn't hold up.
Beyond that? It's really complicated, multicausal (probably multiple genes plus multiple non-genetic factors like paternal age, uterine environment, etc), and we don't know. Sorry.
Autism is a complex disorder, and the diagnosis is equally complex to set. There is no simple way to check, no blood test or simple form to fill out. You want someone experienced in the field to set the diagnosis.
As for treatment, there are droves of theories on how best to do it, but what I would recommend is to read up on the disorder yourself. You will be in the best position to help your son if you know as much as possible about it. Ask the doctor who set the diagnosis for a book to learn more when you get there. You need to know enough that you are able to separate the crackpot theories from the serious ones.
As for causes, again, there are theories enough to last us forever. Generally, we know that it has much to do with genetics, the age of the parents, and various substances that can affect the prenatal environment, such as various medications, various environmental toxins, have been suggested. One of the most heavily researched areas is vaccines, due to certain groups having gotten stuck on this, but the evidence is exceedingly strong that the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine does not increase the risk of autism. If anything, rubella is a very dangerous infection in a pregnant woman, that can lead to all sorts of disorders in the child.
My son had/has what is called "speech delay" of the "severe" variety. This means he did not speak until much later than other kids. I was the first to notice something was odd. It was very, very hard to convince the rest of my family, but finally my wife agreed and we took him to the doctor.
Some of the people who looked at him at first thought he was autistic, but some very smart neurologists at Stanford finally accurately diagnosed him. Nobody is quite sure what causes "speech delay," but I am eternally grateful to the doctors who took the time to work with him and diagnose him correctly. Because knowing exactly what was going on enabled us to get the best help (that the public system could give us) as early as possible, and recently, at age 12, after years of hard work in the special kids classes, my son just graduated to a normal English class with an above-average reading ability and strong spelling (though he still has some difficulty with writing - but that is expected with his diagnosis and will continue to strengthen).
My point is, there is no shortcut to diagnosing a child with a learning or social disability. There is no cheap way to do it. And his future success hinges upon a correct diagnosis followed by early intervention and help.
Oh... and it's far more than a multi-million dollar question. =)
As for causes, again, there are theories enough to last us forever. Generally, we know that it has much to do with genetics, the age of the parents, and various substances that can affect the prenatal environment, such as various medications, various environmental toxins, have been suggested. One of the most heavily researched areas is vaccines, due to certain groups having gotten stuck on this, but the evidence is exceedingly strong that the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine does not increase the risk of autism. If anything, rubella is a very dangerous infection in a pregnant woman, that can lead to all sorts of disorders in the child.
It is scientifically KNOWN that vaccines have ZERO to do with autism. It is not strong or suggested. It is known. Any connection is a myth and that should be quashed right here before anybody else spreads that terribly damaging misinformation or even entertains the notion any more.
In addition to my son, whom I wrote about above, my half-brother is severely autistic. So I know a bit about that, too.
Latest research has many scientists in some agreement that autism is a many-causal condition. That it may be brought on by multiple factors, all acting in concert. Those include diet, age of parents (as you said), most notably the age of the father, and possibly toxins in the environment. You might find it interesting to note that genetics is NOT considered to play a large part. How do I know? I consulted with a number of doctors because when my son was diagnosed with speech delay, I feared my relationship through my father to my half-brother made me a possible "carrier" of autism. Every doctor (including my GP) that I saw told me that, despite the hype you hear from major networks who are only too quick to quote bad research, there still was no real genetic link in autism that any reputable study could find. Any evidence had been anecdotal at best.
The other interesting thing about it at this point, is that the spectrum keeps changing. Awhile back there was some disagreement amongst the medical community due to a sudden upsurge in diagnoses in the US. Some speculated that it was because the tests for recognizing it were "better" than in the past, while some hinted that there might be a great many mis-diagnoses going on, artificially inflating the numbers. Just today news was release that the number may be staggeringly larger than even a few years ago. But this has many scientists thinking that what might be happening is that the line of what separates the normal spectrum of human behavior, and that of an autistic child, has been blurred to the point where they do not know the difference anymore, basically inflating the numbers.
It is similar to the scientific opinion on "Little People." Some people with what might be called "dwarfism" have various obvious medical conditions that cause disproportionate limbs, which also come along with other medical issue, such as curved spines. On the other hand, there are people they used to call "midgets" (sorry, I know these are bad words), such as the famous Colonel Tom Thumb. Those people were though to have similar conditions to those with dwarfism, but over the decades scientists began to realize that the spectrum of what was "normal" human growth and size had blurred to the point where diagnosing a small person with proportionate limbs was nearly impossible without an overt and obvious cause such as a thyroid condition.
With all due respect, genetic factors for autism are far from out. What exists is a very complex picture of many genetic differences that each do not cause the disorder, but we are getting better at finding the areas affected. Certainly, it is not monogenically inherited like Huntington's chorea. That does not in any way mean it's not to a large degree a genetic disorder. Also understand, most such conditions today are considered to be in accordance with the vulnerability principle: The basic factors that a person carries do not in and of themselves cause the disease, usually some kind of external factor is needed for that. However, said external factor does not cause the disorder in everyone, only those that have a vulnerable genetic setup.
Here is a link to an abstract I found that deals with this and seems pretty acceptable. Abstract.
Yeah there is not really any consenous. Also why do you only want to hear from parents of people with autism?
Also why does no one ever talk about the cause of being normal?
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Early therapy helps a lot. Really, the earlier the better.
They only work with very young children, they want to get two years of treatment done by age 5. A friend of mine did his internship with them and was so impressed with their methods, process and results that he's stuck with them for about 10 years now.
There method doesn't work with every child, but they have had success with severely autistic children, helping them go on to be 'normal' kids who don't need special education programs by the time they get to junior/senior high school.
Otherwise I would contact the local school district and ask for information on programs and places to go.
There is alos a lot less help once you become an adult.
Early therapy helps a lot. Really, the earlier the better.
This 100 times. I was sent back to the US from Germany (federal service) when my son was diagnosed with "moderate to severe autism." We had the fantastic luck of moving back to Howard County, Maryland, which has incredible early intervention support, particularly ABA therapy. In the year that we've been back in the States, my son has made leaps and bounds (doesn't talk, yet, but it's coming!).
I think that my son is on the spectrum, albeit it at the higher functioning end, but I am wondering if there are any less expensive but accurate ways to confirm.
And if anyone has a kiddo like this, what are some successful strategies?
The multi-million dollar question: Does anyone know if there is any valid research that indicates what might cause this?
Hi, vonklinen. Nice to meet you. :)
I'm the mom of a nine-year-old boy with High Functioning Autism. They used to call it Asperger's, but they're in the process of changing how they describe diagnostic classifications. Which gets confusing. But they assure me that the diagnosis is the same, it's just the name that changed.
How old is your son? This may have some bearing on what resources are available for diagnosis and treatment.
For my son we knew something wasn't right from the time he was a toddler, but there wasn't any problems with his language development or anything else we could really point to concretely. It's kinda hard to get doctors to really take it seriously when you're anxiously asking if it's normal for a child that age to not really process things like waving hello or bye-bye. They pretty much blew it off as just the result of him being an only child who wasn't around his peers a lot.
And then he went to school. It got ugly quick. We went through a long, difficult, often nightmarish process on the way to getting a diagnosis and getting him the help he needs.
I'm not sure if you're in the US or not, but if you are the following advice applies. There are resources that may be available through the school. But a lot depends on your school district. Especially in cash-strapped school districts you need to be prepared for a fight. Get an advocate early in the process. Many times there are advocates who will help you for free, and it makes all the difference in the world. We tried to do it on our own first, and I would not recommend that. Get an advocate early on and remember no matter how mad you are at the school to keep your cool. You have a lot more negotiating power if you can keep an image of being reasonable and trying to work with them.
Except in very rare cases the school district is not really going to be your best help in getting a proper diagnosis. And insurance often doesn't cover autism. Which is a travesty in my opinion, but there you have it. It's crazy expensive. But you will probably have to pay out of pocket for a specialist to diagnose your child. Another option is to see if you can find any research studies about autism in your area. We were fortunate to be able to take advantage of one of those at the university of michigan which is how we got an official diagnosis for our son. But we still had to pay out-of-pocket for visits to the therapist after that. The bad news is that's hard on the wallet. The good news is that our little boy has made huge progress as a result and is able to function with increasing ease in a normal classroom and has caught up and in most cases surpassed the academics of his peers. His social skills are still behind, but the gap has decreased dramatically. And it's been two years since the last time he had a tantrum at school. (Hallelujah!)
As far a causes, as has already been said in this thread, they just don't know. I think it will probably be a long time before they figure it out for sure, other than that is most definitely isn't from vaccines.
It is pretty remarkable to see all this agreement that, whatever the cause of autism, we absolutely, positively know it can't possibly be vaccines.
I can certainly agree with this-
There's no scientific evidence of a link between autism-spectrum disorders and vaccination.But not this-
It is scientifically KNOWN that vaccines have ZERO to do with autism. It is not strong or suggested. It is known.There has never been a genuine scientific study of vaccines and autism.
How about this one ?
There has never been a genuine scientific study of vaccines and autism. Which is why there is no scientific evidence of a link, but is also why we cannot know whether vaccines(or more specifically any toxins in vaccines) can cause autism.
We have only had statistical surveys. These surveys are not an actual use of the scientific method, not without stretching the definition to the point of absurdity. Just because a credentialed scientist does a statistical survey does not magically make it science.
And we can't even consider these surveys to be statistically reliable given the reporting methods for reactions to vaccines.
I'm curious as to where someone gets ideas like these. They're wrong, clearly, but they had to come from somewhere. What sources informed your understanding of the current state of autism research?
Thank you for your responses. This helps me gain some perspective on what I might be dealing with. he was initially diagnosed with a speech delay and was doing well overcoming that. Then we noticed the 'stimming' at around age three. He would hold a pencil in his hand near is eye and fling it back and forth while making noises. I was told to look into it as it is considered an autistic behavior. I will be taking him to a specialist, but since insurance doesn't cover it, I literally have to save up to do it. He is 7. He is mostly a very sweet boy with some emotional meltdowns when something doesn't happen how he wants it to. His psychiatrist has diagnosed him ADHD and prescribed adderall which does help him get through school, but he returns to the behaviors once he gets home. I don't worry about his academic development, but I do worry about his social development and his self-confidence. He wants to play basketball, but has not had much success with soccer. I wonder if he will just get frustrated with it. We are going to see a behavioral therapist next. All of the responses are really helpful with the various suggestions. I haven't heard much about adults with autism or aspberger's so I wonder what his future will be like. Thank you for all of the responses. I love him so much and can't help but feel responsible for his struggles.
Thank you for your responses. This helps me gain some perspective on what I might be dealing with. he was initially diagnosed with a speech delay and was doing well overcoming that. Then we noticed the 'stimming' at around age three. He would hold a pencil in his hand near is eye and fling it back and forth while making noises. I was told to look into it as it is considered an autistic behavior. I will be taking him to a specialist, but since insurance doesn't cover it, I literally have to save up to do it. He is 7. He is mostly a very sweet boy with some emotional meltdowns when something doesn't happen how he wants it to. His psychiatrist has diagnosed him ADHD and prescribed adderall which does help him get through school, but he returns to the behaviors once he gets home. I don't worry about his academic development, but I do worry about his social development and his self-confidence. He wants to play basketball, but has not had much success with soccer. I wonder if he will just get frustrated with it. We are going to see a behavioral therapist next. All of the responses are really helpful with the various suggestions. I haven't heard much about adults with autism or aspberger's so I wonder what his future will be like. Thank you for all of the responses. I love him so much and can't help but feel responsible for his struggles.
Does he have difficulties with coordination or difficulties with writing? Poor coordination and dysgraphia can also be symptoms of autism. When you do take him for a diagnosis make sure to answer as honestly as you can and try not to color the results, but the more information you can give, the better, so it's good to make sure to observe as many of these things as you can while you're saving up to pay for the consultation.
My son also has ADHD although in his case medication didn't work out so we had to stick with behavioral therapy. Before we started treatments he would have epic meltdowns on a daily basis. I lost track of how many times I had to go and pick him up from school in the middle of the day.A couple of suggestions for dealing with emotional meltdowns: yoga stretches really help. It's a great stress management technique. I have my son do yoga with me before we go out shopping (something he finds very stressful) and it makes a world of difference. This can be helpful regardless of whether he's autistic or not. Also, making sure to talk him through what is going to happen. No surprises, ever. This is super important for an autistic child, but also really helpful for a kid with ADHD (I've had ADHD all my life so I can relate to that). Knowing what's supposed to happen next prevents a lot of the meltdowns before they happen. Obviously you know your child better than anyone and know what does or doesn't work for him. This is just what I've found that works.
Now, one parent to another, take it easy on yourself. This process is hard. You are going to want to beat yourself up. You are going to feel like it is all your fault. You are going to feel helpless and probably occasionally angry at the universe. That's okay. You care about your son. It's not your fault. You're not all by yourself, there are lots of other parents out there dealing with the same stuff. It's normal to worry.
Since my son was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism I've met a number of adults who have the same diagnosis who have relatively normal, happy lives. They have more struggles in certain areas, mostly dealing with social skills, but it is not insurmountable. So as much as you're probably freaked out about your child's future, even if he is autistis, it isn't the end of the world. He can still have a pretty 'normal' life, especially with early intervention.
Thank you for your responses. This helps me gain some perspective on what I might be dealing with. he was initially diagnosed with a speech delay and was doing well overcoming that. Then we noticed the 'stimming' at around age three. He would hold a pencil in his hand near is eye and fling it back and forth while making noises. I was told to look into it as it is considered an autistic behavior. I will be taking him to a specialist, but since insurance doesn't cover it, I literally have to save up to do it. He is 7. He is mostly a very sweet boy with some emotional meltdowns when something doesn't happen how he wants it to. His psychiatrist has diagnosed him ADHD and prescribed adderall which does help him get through school, but he returns to the behaviors once he gets home. I don't worry about his academic development, but I do worry about his social development and his self-confidence. He wants to play basketball, but has not had much success with soccer. I wonder if he will just get frustrated with it. We are going to see a behavioral therapist next. All of the responses are really helpful with the various suggestions. I haven't heard much about adults with autism or aspberger's so I wonder what his future will be like. Thank you for all of the responses. I love him so much and can't help but feel responsible for his struggles.
The hard part of wanting to play basketball may be having the social skills to find people to play with. Talking on the phone will likely be struggle.
Not advice for you and your kid, but very topic adjacent.
Temple Grandin talking about how we need autistic people.
She herself is on the autistic spectrum and is an advocate for recognizing the potential of autistic people. She's written a lot of books and has an interesting take on the subject. It's also good education for those of us who don't have autistic kids.
The term is, at this point, used too broadly. It describes everything from a form of mental retardation to what is functionally a personality type.