I am fairly certain that autism is genetically based from what I observed with my son Larry. One problem is the idea that there is whole spectrum of autism. I suspect that concept includes a lot of people who are not autistic. One thing for certain is that a lot more people are being diagnosed as autistic, but that could well indicate a deficiency in the diagnosis, rather than evidence of autism not being genetically based. Autism is a maddening disorder, but true autism is hard to miss.
I’d say your spot on with regards to the idea of an autism “spectrum”.
Like questionable ADHD diagnosis of educator/parental convenience, letting them place kids on the spectrum can give administrators a free pass and an excuse to punt on giving a kid a decent education.
Also gives the “psycho-educational” complex another option for kids who don’t need Ritalin for “ADHD” stuck on some form of drug or therapy or counseling regime IMHO.
I’ll stand on this, as with the whole transgenderism contagion we have seen in recent years, its becoming a thing for mid 20s women to suddenly discover they are “on the spectrum”, even though they are not nor have been in any way clinically disabled.
Now with 22 years in the classroom, I have seen this development taken place. The notion of a “spectrum” (Autism or ADD/ADHD) was ok in theory, but it was always going to ripe for abuse.
The real issue with this development is it ends up ignoring the kids who *truly* need the assistance, by lumping them in with students who are beneficiaries of “diagnosis shopping” (yes, this is a thing). In my current academic environment, I have 1-2 kids who need legit extra assistance, and 10 who are gaming the system based on a suspect diagnosis.
Can’t wait for them in a decade or longer to wonder why their mortgage lenders won’t give them 45 days to make a payment instead of the usual 30.
What eventually came to be labeled Asperger Syndrome, and is now lumped in with the rest of the autism spectrum, used to be known as “being eccentric with a high IQ,” which describes me and my brother to a T. I don’t recall ever taking Tylenol when I was pregnant with my daughter, and she didn’t show any drastic developmental lags until she was between 3 and 4 years old, long after she’d had the MMR vaccines, so I can’t really blame anything but heredity for my daughter’s autism. By the way, MMR vaccines have been around since the mid to late 60s so why did the surge in autism diagnoses only begin in around 1990 or so, if vaccines are to blame?
I don’t know enough about ADD or ADHD as a condition so I stand to be corrected:
But it appears that it was pretty damaging for all those kids in the 90s who were popped onto Ritalin. At school, you could tell the ones who forgot to take their pill on a specific day. They would crash. I’m not sure it was a healthy to give growing brains drugs to alter their minds. And you could see it messed with their mental health.
Yet, it appears that these kids, now adults, were never taught coping skills to concentrate, focus and thrive. And channel their “attention deficit” into something positive. And they grew up believing they weren’t normal.
If a kid is hyperactive and the teacher runs to tell their parent they need to be tested for ADD, I would see it as a red flag.
Our parents and parents parents used to be outdoors more. Take kids outside. Don’t let them sit on a device or video game for endless hours. Especially from a young age.
Elaine – I would t rule out the content in vaccines. Even the preservatives. Some kids react, others don’t.
My daughter had lovely skin until 3-4 then all of a sudden severe eczema at 3. None of the my other 3 kids have it.
Maria Montessori educated the “uneducable” outside under trees and God’s sky. Forcing young people to sit quietly for five hours a day is torture.
Teachers too lazy to teach prescribe Ritalin as though they were doctors. This ruins the child’s chance of getting a good job.
Big pharma love it.