# Half of All Children Will Be Autistic by 2025



## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

Thanks Monsanto.



> Half of All Children Will Be Autistic by 2025, Warns Senior Research Scientist at MIT
> 
> Close up of tractor spraying pesticides on cropWhy? Evidence points to glyphosate toxicity from the overuse of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide on our food.
> 
> ...


http://www.anh-usa.org/half-of-all-...warns-senior-research-scientist-at-mit/print/


----------



## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

This is one of many thing that is blamed for Autism.
Why is it that everyone who dislikes a form of health problems, claim that it is the sole problem with what ever sickness are in the USA.

Is it environmental triggers, vaccinations,heavy metals,Aluminium compounds or poor health/poorer health?
And if it is some environmental trigger then why does it affect male babies much more than female babies?
What is the autism rate in other countries?

If it is this bad why are people not marching in the streets, like with AIDS & breast cancer.
These diseases had the most Federal money & neither were the top killers for women or men at the time they marched on D.C.
The voter can make a different if they make the most noise.


----------



## labotomi (Feb 14, 2010)

crabapple said:


> This is one of many thing that is blamed for Autism.
> Why is it that everyone who dislikes a form of health problems, claim that it is the sole problem with what ever sickness are in the USA.


The fear highlights their ignorance.


----------



## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

So far in my life claims of impending doom and despair by "scientists" have come true around 0% of the time. Give or take <1%.


----------



## BillS (May 30, 2011)

I don't believe any of it. I believe autism is caused by older men becoming fathers. I also think that the numbers of autistic children are deliberately exaggerated for political purposes. People throw numbers around and there's no serious examination of them. Also, liberals target anything they find politically convenient. There was a fraudulent study linking child immunizations to autism, for example. It's like the bogus statistic that a million children go missing every year. It's thrown out and people accept it as fact.

There should be some controversy over the definition of autism. Engineers tend to have poor social skills. They tend to be low in empathy. Similar in some ways to autism. My father was a mechanical engineer. I wonder if he would be considered autistic today.


----------



## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

I have known some autistic children and whatever the cause is I hope they find it!


----------



## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

BillS said:


> I don't believe any of it. I believe autism is caused by older men becoming fathers. I also think that the numbers of autistic children are deliberately exaggerated for political purposes. People throw numbers around and there's no serious examination of them. Also, liberals target anything they find politically convenient. There was a fraudulent study linking child immunizations to autism, for example. It's like the bogus statistic that a million children go missing every year. It's thrown out and people accept it as fact.
> 
> There should be some controversy over the definition of autism. Engineers tend to have poor social skills. They tend to be low in empathy. Similar in some ways to autism. My father was a mechanical engineer. I wonder if he would be considered autistic today.


So where are the figures on research on older men becoming fathers and autisic children being born? Considering you just threw out a statement of what you feel is fact, you are guilty of what you just posted after stating the older father situation.


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

I think a lot of times Autism is confused with other issues.

Just like ADD and ADHD is tossed around by people to explain bad parenting.

When my mom was still teaching she had a select few students that may have been truly autistic. Good kids that just didn't have all their wires connected properly. There were others labeled autistic that were not. It was an excuse by doctors and parents that didn't want to deal with problem children. Too many doctors tossing around a diagnosis because of pushy parents that don't want to *be* parents.


----------



## Gians (Nov 8, 2012)

Don't know about the validity of her argument or the actual research she's done. Apparently her main degrees are in computer science and language processing. Sounds like shes throwing speculation out there as fact, when more research is needed. I used a lot more Roundup when I was younger and doing yard work for people part time. Now I try not to use any at all. We hand pick the weeds and bugs in the veggie garden and yard, got the time now so it's no big deal. Some of the claims could be true, big business tends to lie and cover things up when it's not in their best interest, much like Governments do.


----------



## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

Grimm said:


> I think a lot of times Autism is confused with other issues.
> 
> Just like ADD and ADHD is tossed around by people to explain bad parenting.
> 
> When my mom was still teaching she had a select few students that may have been truly autistic. Good kids that just didn't have all their wires connected properly. There were others labeled autistic that were not. It was an excuse by doctors and parents that didn't want to deal with problem children. Too many doctors tossing around a diagnosis because of pushy parents that don't want to *be* parents.


I worked at a local school district for around 20 years in the custodial/maintenance department for the elementary and high school/ jr. high school. I remember the elementary school secretary calling kids into the office for their ritalin pills. I knew many of the kids and some of their parents as well. I used to have children come up to me and ask for hugs and sadly had to tell them I couldn't because of school policy. Many children were sent to school way before the front doors were opened because the parents wanted to do their own thing, drugs, alcohol, sex or whatever, probably just wanted the kids out of their hair. Basically had children they really didn't want or they were interfering with their pleasures. I also knew more than a few teachers that really should never taken up teaching, I new some even when I was in school. I'd venture to say that some of the things I did or didn't do while in school could have been considered, in these days, ADD or ADHD and in need of drugging. I often figured that kids that act out and disrupt class may not be getting interesting teaching, I hated boring classes, some teachers would put me to sleep in just a few minutes of their droning voices, in fact, I had to take a summer school class in World Problems order to graduate from high school. And now after all of the years since taking the World Problems class, I know that the studies my wife and I have done on our own put whatever I may or may not have learned in high school to shame. I have talked to a number of parents of kids I knew that had problems throughout school that said when their kid got out of school and banged around a few years and then went to college, they got A's and B's. There are many factors that children have to deal with and it wouldn't surprise me at all if a great deal of their problems came from toxins in food,water and sometimes the toxic environment of their families.


----------



## Turtle (Dec 10, 2009)

Viking said:


> So where are the figures on research on older men becoming fathers and autisic children being born? Considering you just threw out a statement of what you feel is fact, you are guilty of what you just posted after stating the older father situation.


BillS doesn't have time for silly things like "facts" to back up his hypocrisy. 








Sent from my iPhone using Survival Forum


----------



## lovetogrow (Jan 25, 2011)

Interesting topic, and yes a growing concern due in large part to a significant lack of timely diagnosis, and/or misdiagnosis, a complete lack of qualified services to provide care to these kids (who are in fact conflicted with Autism) and their families. 

Early diagnosis is critical for children to reach growth and developmental potentials within the scope of the disease. As for the cause(s) the jury will be out for a very long time I fear (so much for prevention), however the longer the strides in research become perhaps the limited funding for treatment will continue to flow. 

I’m by no means very knowledgeable in this area aside from a wee bit of research on my part and some knowledge my daughter who is a master in this area has shared. But I do see how dire the situation could become in the areas of diagnosis and treatment if the problem balloons exponentially.


----------



## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

BillS said:


> I don't believe any of it. I believe autism is caused by older men becoming fathers. I also think that the numbers of autistic children are deliberately exaggerated for political purposes. People throw numbers around and there's no serious examination of them. Also, liberals target anything they find politically convenient. There was a fraudulent study linking child immunizations to autism, for example. It's like the bogus statistic that a million children go missing every year. It's thrown out and people accept it as fact.
> 
> There should be some controversy over the definition of autism. Engineers tend to have poor social skills. They tend to be low in empathy. Similar in some ways to autism. My father was a mechanical engineer. I wonder if he would be considered autistic today.


 I know for a fact that many kids with mental disabilities bring in big disability checks to lots of parents. This is nothign new. One woman was caught collecting $30,000 a month for kids with disorders and 20 of them lived in Mexico. Another one houses illegals kids from south america and gets over ONE MILLION a year for 500 anchor kids. Then you have domestic americasn racking in the checks too.



Viking said:


> I worked at a local school district for around 20 years in the custodial/maintenance department for the elementary and high school/ jr. high school. I remember the elementary school secretary calling kids into the office for their ritalin pills. I knew many of the kids and some of their parents as well. I used to have children come up to me and ask for hugs and sadly had to tell them I couldn't because of school policy. Many children were sent to school way before the front doors were opened because the parents wanted to do their own thing, drugs, alcohol, sex or whatever, probably just wanted the kids out of their hair. Basically had children they really didn't want or they were interfering with their pleasures. I also knew more than a few teachers that really should never taken up teaching, I new some even when I was in school. I'd venture to say that some of the things I did or didn't do while in school could have been considered, in these days, ADD or ADHD and in need of drugging. I often figured that kids that act out and disrupt class may not be getting interesting teaching, I hated boring classes, some teachers would put me to sleep in just a few minutes of their droning voices, in fact, I had to take a summer school class in World Problems order to graduate from high school. And now after all of the years since taking the World Problems class, I know that the studies my wife and I have done on our own put whatever I may or may not have learned in high school to shame. I have talked to a number of parents of kids I knew that had problems throughout school that said when their kid got out of school and banged around a few years and then went to college, they got A's and B's. There are many factors that children have to deal with and it wouldn't surprise me at all if a great deal of their problems came from toxins in food,water and sometimes the toxic environment of their families.


 Lets face the facts!! Some kids are really sick and some are just not that smart. There have always been slow learners but nobody got paid for it and big pharma didn't make trillions off it. One of my brothers was 'slow' but was very talented in art and hands on skills.



lovetogrow said:


> Interesting topic, and yes a growing concern due in large part to a significant lack of timely diagnosis, and/or misdiagnosis, a complete lack of qualified services to provide care to these kids (who are in fact conflicted with Autism) and their families.
> 
> Early diagnosis is critical for children to reach growth and developmental potentials within the scope of the disease. As for the cause(s) the jury will be out for a very long time I fear (so much for prevention), however the longer the strides in research become perhaps the limited funding for treatment will continue to flow.
> 
> I'm by no means very knowledgeable in this area aside from a wee bit of research on my part and some knowledge my daughter who is a master in this area has shared. But I do see how dire the situation could become in the areas of diagnosis and treatment if the problem balloons exponentially.


 You can't teach a child to have a high IQ. Plus many kids are wild now like animals. They watch tv and video games that pumps them full of violence and most rule the households because big brother village idiot said no more ass whipping. That is CHILD ABUSE! yet you can show a 1st grader porn all day long in school to please the fems and homosexuals.


----------



## lovetogrow (Jan 25, 2011)

*Dumb or What???*

Holy Freakin Hanah Meerkat!! Are you just that ignorant,and/or dumb or what? Do some homework and get a grip before you bore us all to death here. SHEESH!!

Of course you cannot teach a child to have a high IQ DUH!! And fems and homosexuals have nothing to do with the disease DOUBLE DUH!! WHAAAAAT???


----------



## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

BillS said:


> I don't believe any of it. I believe autism is caused by older men becoming fathers. I also think that the numbers of autistic children are deliberately exaggerated for political purposes. People throw numbers around and there's no serious examination of them. Also, liberals target anything they find politically convenient. There was a fraudulent study linking child immunizations to autism, for example. It's like the bogus statistic that a million children go missing every year. It's thrown out and people accept it as fact.
> 
> There should be some controversy over the definition of autism. Engineers tend to have poor social skills. They tend to be low in empathy. Similar in some ways to autism. My father was a mechanical engineer. I wonder if he would be considered autistic today.


Wut? Have you hit your head recently? I'm an older dad with a child that has no problems. I can't believe there are that many old farts out there fathering children. When I go to school functions I see a lot more children with problems than old men attending those events. The children with problems and the old men stick out like a dick on a baby at school gatherings. From what I have witnessed your math is flawed......


----------



## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Bill didn't pull that out of his a$$, here's the study. It doesn't always happen, thankfully.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/h...nked-to-risk-of-autism-and-schizophrenia.html
*Father's Age Is Linked to Risk of Autism and Schizophrenia
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: August 22, 2012

Older men are more likely than young ones to father a child who develops autism or schizophrenia, because of random mutations that become more numerous with advancing paternal age, scientists reported on Wednesday, in the first study to quantify the effect as it builds each year. The age of mothers had no bearing on the risk for these disorders, the study found.

Experts said that the finding was hardly reason to forgo fatherhood later in life, though it might have some influence on reproductive decisions. The overall risk to a man in his 40s or older is in the range of 2 percent, at most, and there are other contributing biological factors that are entirely unknown.

But the study, published online in the journal Nature, provides support for the argument that the surging rate of autism diagnoses over recent decades is attributable in part to the increasing average age of fathers, which could account for as many as 20 to 30 percent of cases.

The findings also counter the longstanding assumption that the age of the mother is the most important factor in determining the odds of a child having developmental problems. The risk of chromosomal abnormalities, like Down syndrome, increases for older mothers, but when it comes to some complex developmental and psychiatric problems, the lion's share of the genetic risk originates in the sperm, not the egg, the study found.

Previous studies had strongly suggested as much, including an analysis published in April that found that this risk was higher at age 35 than 25 and crept up with age. The new report quantifies that risk for the first time, calculating how much it accumulates each year.

The research team found that the average child born to a 20-year-old father had 25 random mutations that could be traced to paternal genetic material. The number increased steadily by two mutations a year, reaching 65 mutations for offspring of 40-year-old men.

The average number of mutations coming from the mother's side was 15, no matter her age, the study found.

"This study provides some of the first solid scientific evidence for a true increase in the condition" of autism, said Dr. Fred R. Volkmar, director of the Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research. "It is extremely well done and the sample meticulously characterized."

The new investigation, led by the Icelandic firm Decode Genetics, analyzed genetic material taken from blood samples of 78 parent-child trios, focusing on families in which parents with no signs of a mental disorder gave birth to a child who developed autism or schizophrenia. This approach allows scientists to isolate brand-new mutations in the genes of the child that were not present in the parents.

Most people have many of these so-called de novo mutations, which occur spontaneously at or near conception, and most of them are harmless. But studies suggest that there are several such changes that can sharply increase the risk for autism and possibly schizophrenia - and the more a child has, the more likely he or she is by chance to have one of these rare, disabling ones.

Some difference between the paternal and maternal side is to be expected. Sperm cells divide every 15 days or so, whereas egg cells are relatively stable, and continual copying inevitably leads to errors, in DNA as in life.

Still, when the researchers removed the effect of paternal age, they found no difference in genetic risk between those who had a diagnosis of autism or schizophrenia and a control group of Icelanders who did not. "It is absolutely stunning that the father's age accounted for all this added risk, given the possibility of environmental factors and the diversity of the population," said Dr. Kari Stefansson, the chief executive of Decode and the study's senior author. "And it's stunning that so little is contributed by the age of the mother."

Dr. Stefansson's co-authors included C. Augustine Kong of Decode, and researchers from the University of Iceland, Aarhus University in Denmark and Illumina Cambridge Ltd.

Dr. Stefansson said it made sense that de novo mutations would play a significant role in brain disorders. At least 50 percent of active genes play a role in neural development, so that random glitches are more likely to affect the brain than other organs, which have less exposure.

In the end, these kinds of mutations may account for 20 to 30 percent of cases of autism, and perhaps schizophrenia, some experts said. The remainder is probably a result of inherited genetic predisposition and environmental factors that are the subjects of numerous studies.

Dr. Stefansson and other experts said that an increase in the average age of fathers had most likely led to more cases of autism. Unlike other theories proposed to explain the increase, like vaccinations, it is backed by evidence that scientists agree is solid.

This by itself hardly explains the overall increase in diagnoses, at least in the United States. The birthrate of fathers age 40 and older has increased by more than 30 percent since 1980, according to government figures, but the diagnosis rate has jumped tenfold, to 1 in 88 8-year-olds.

And it is not clear whether the rate of schizophrenia diagnosis has increased at all in that time.

Nonetheless, if these study findings hold up and extend to other brain disorders, wrote Alexey S. Kondrashov of the University of Michigan, in an editorial accompanying the study, "then collecting the sperm of young adult men and cold-storing it for later use could be a wise individual decision."

That very much depends on the individual. "You are going to have guys who look at this and say, 'Oh no, you mean I have to have all my kids when I'm 20 and stupid?' " said Evan E. Eichler, a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. "Well, of course not. You have to understand that the vast majority of these mutations have no consequences, and that there are tons of guys in their 50s who have healthy children."*


----------



## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

Meerkat said:


> ... You can't teach a child to have a high IQ. Plus many kids are wild now like animals. They watch tv and video games that pumps them full of violence and most rule the households because big brother village idiot said no more ass whipping. That is CHILD ABUSE! yet you can show a 1st grader porn all day long in school to please the fems and homosexuals.


Some truth, some not ... We're raising our grandson and I can state for a fact that he doesn't play violent video games. He does, however, love watching cartoons like Tom and Jerry (his favorites), Chip-n-Dale, and a few others. He also likes the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies (all three) and the Power Rangers. (Plus a few others.) We've had to squash several bad (violent) behaviors he's copied from these shows. Many/most of his worst behaviors were from the old cartoons. Violence has always been a part of childhood life. (I grew up watching the same cartoons!) What's missing in many cases is parental involvement and good (caring) adult role models.

The schools also contribute to the problems with their social agenda. Kids aren't really taught how to think anymore. I base that statement on my college experiences as a "non-traditional" student in classrooms full of recent HS graduates. Most social beliefs are a result of indoctrination rather than logical thought/discussion.

Regarding spanking: Don't do it in public (my parents didn't) but I know of no parents who stopped spanking their kids out of fear of government interference. I can remember my sister trying the BS of threatening my mother that she'd call Family Services if my mother spanked her. My mother tanned her bottom then went to the phone and offered to dial the number for her. That was the last time my sister tried anything that stupid.


----------



## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

I know what you saying.
My dear daughter said was anger with me & said "I do not want to be apart of this family."
So I take her by the hand & lead her to the front steps & said "Okay, you do not have to be part of this family" & went in the house & locked the door. She began to cry & bang on the door, I let this go on long enough for her to think I had leave the room, I was watching her though the peep hole in the front door.
Had she known this & turned & walked away,I would have stopped her before she got to the mailbox.
But she did not know & my bluff worked, she learned that being special did not mean being spoiled, that she was one of many in a family & must share.
I let her in the house & ask her did she want to be part of family again, she said yes.
When people hear that she was only three years old they are shock.

If you as my daughter what the worse, most abused thing her Father did to her, has & will say "Made me eat Brussels sprouts".
Dear daughter will not eat Brussels sprout to this day & she is 25 this year.


----------



## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

crabapple said:


> I know what you saying...So I take her by the hand & lead her to the front steps & said "Okay, you do not have to be part of this family" & went in the house & locked the door...


Our daughter ran away from home when she was around 12 - 13 years old. She packed a small suitcase and sneaked out the back door. Daughter and wife had butted heads earlier in the day. Evidently the wife's "No" actually meant no this time and daughter couldn't get mom to say yes.

Wife, "I think daughter just ran away."

Me, "Let her go"

Wife, "Shouldn't we go get her?"

Me. "No. If we do then she'll know she can run away again just to get her own way."

About a hour later daughter sneaked back into the house. We learned later she walked to a girl friend's house but the girl friend wasn't home. So she laid down in the bed of their truck and evidently thought things over.

A few years later when she as in Junior High she announce during supper that she as going to call the police and turn me in for child abuse.

I told her, "There is the phone. But before you call, remember. While I'm sitting in jail, I will not be working. No work, no paycheck, no money to buy food, she will not be fed or have a place to sleep." She never did make that call.

FYI. Daughter's definition of "abuse".

1. If assigned chores weren't done then no allowance.
2. No unsupervised dating until she was 16. Boy still needed a background check from dad.
3. If Dad said, "No", then later getting a "Yes" from mom still meant "No"
4. Had to keep her room reasonably clean.
5. If justly arrested, I would not be bailing them out.


----------



## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

In light of the posting by tsrwivey and the age related link to autism article, it may have some credence to studies on what causes cromosomal abnormalities and that is the study of what causes telomeres that are the protective coverings at the ends of DNA strands, much like the plastic tips protecting the ends of shoe laces, to become shorter with each cell division until the telomeres can no longer protect the DNA strand ends and cell damage can happen. This is generally normal to aging but stress from environment, diet and life style could certainly cause telomeres to shorten prematurely, so in the end there is a lot more going on than just fathering children at older ages, I could see an older father that had practiced healthy living having far less chance of children with these problems than some young person that abused his body through excess alcohol, drugs and a crappy diet. Thing is, I'm often surprised with some of the young people I know of that have children that have turned out undamaged by their parents bad living habits. Far more often I have seen really messed up children come from really screwed up families.


----------



## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

What's the deal with the "I spanked my kids when they were little and they turned out GREAT so if your kids are naughty/wild/violent/impulsive/ you must either be a crappy parent or aren't spanking frequently enough/hard enough/for the right things" 
I learned a long time ago, as a parent of 3 ADD kids that spanking has its place, but is not the only way to parent nor is it an appropriate response to everything an ADD kid does. I also learned that nobody else knows my kids like I do nor do they have as much of a vested interest in their success as I do so passing out free advice or judgements about my parenting is just because they haven't walked in my shoes. It doesn't sting any less than it used to, but I've gotten past wanting to slap them across the face with a chair. 
Whether or not ADD, autism or other mental health disorders are caused by old guys, GMO, vaccines or 1,000 other things will probably be up for debate for quite some time. Regardless of the causes, I can assure you the responsible parties will not only have absolutely NO financial repercussions, but will find a way to profit from it. Well, all except maybe the old guys.


----------



## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

lazydaisy67 said:


> What's the deal with the "I spanked my kids when they were little and they turned out GREAT so if your kids are naughty/wild/violent/impulsive/ you must either be a crappy parent or aren't spanking frequently enough/hard enough/for the right things"
> I learned a long time ago, as a parent of 3 ADD kids that spanking has its place, but is not the only way to parent nor is it an appropriate response to everything an ADD kid does. I also learned that nobody else knows my kids like I do nor do they have as much of a vested interest in their success as I do so passing out free advice or judgements about my parenting is just because they haven't walked in my shoes. It doesn't sting any less than it used to, but I've gotten past wanting to slap them across the face with a chair.
> Whether or not ADD, autism or other mental health disorders are caused by old guys, GMO, vaccines or 1,000 other things will probably be up for debate for quite some time. Regardless of the causes, I can assure you the responsible parties will not only have absolutely NO financial repercussions, but will find a way to profit from it. Well, all except maybe the old guys.


I don't think anyone says spanking is the cure-all to make well-behaved children. If there's no love present it just makes them into even greater monsters. There are many ways to discipline kids so use the combinations that work best. There's also a point in which they choose their own path in spite of or because of what their parents did.


----------



## DM1791 (Oct 6, 2014)

*A bit of perspective...*

My youngest son has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. For those who aren't familiar with it, AS is a disorder that, until the most recent edition of the DSM, was classified at the high end of the Autism spectrum. A few of the characteristic diagnostic traits are: 1) An inability to effectively empathize with the feelings and thoughts of others; 2) Awkward motions such as flapping of hands, or body rocking; 3) Aversion to direct eye contact and/or physical touch; 4) Abnormal intelligence in a very narrowly defined field of focus; etc...

I had my son when I was 21 and his mother was 20, so age was not a factor. We lived in an area where pretty much all of our produce was home grown and "organic" though we didn't think of it that way.... we just didn't spray crap on our food as a general rule. Neither I, nor his mother have any family history of mental illness, developmental disorders, etc. No drug use was a factor either.

Essentially, this was a case that has no tell-tale causal factors what so ever. The sad fact is, I don't think anyone really knows what causes disorders like this. I can tell you from personal experience, though, that if they can identify contributing factors and control even some of the apparently mushrooming prevalence of autism and autism spectrum disorders, then they should.

My son has a very difficult time with Asperger's Syndrome, and he is blessedly at the high-functioning end of the spectrum. Still, he has almost no real "friends" at school because he can't really identify with anyone. He doesn't know how to carry on a conversation, and instead he tells you things. He enjoys sharing his vast knowledge of cosmology (at just shy of 3, he could name all planets in the solar system, 8 of Jupiter's moons, Saturn's moons, mars' moons, 17 constellations, and more than 40 Messier catalogue objects in deep space...he could even point out their locations on unlabeled star maps by visual triangulation....it was impressive to watch). However, he doesn't understand why other children get bored with his lists and lectures, and he takes it as them "not liking him."

It is heart-breaking to have a 4th grader look at you, tears streaming down his face, and say, "Daddy, I just wish I didn't have Asperger's. I don't want to be different."

I have worked very hard since securing custody of him five years ago to teach him that he is not "broken." AS is simply part of who he is....part of his uniqueness as an individual. I have tried to show him that, despite the difficulties we've faced (for instance, 4 months spent teaching him to button pants and shirts the right way at age 8) I would not change him, any part of him, for the world. Getting an adolescent child to understand that, though, is difficult to say the least.... especially when he sees how different he is, and he can't "fix" it.

I look at this like I look at lung cancer. No, cigarette smoking is not the _only_ causal factor for lung cancers (most of them). However, it is a *major* contributing factor, and therefore should be avoided if someone doesn't want lung cancer. Same thing for Autism and Autism spectrum disorders. If they can find even semi-contributing factors, then parents and the public should absolutely be made aware of it, and those factors should be avoided.

I pray for all those afflicted with Autism in its more severe forms, and I pray just as hard for their care givers.


----------



## lovetogrow (Jan 25, 2011)

DM1791 - Right on the mark! When they removed A.S. from the DSM my daughter who really is a master in this area just grieved for the loss of valuable services families and their children now have to suffer through. God bless you on your journey with your son.


----------



## DM1791 (Oct 6, 2014)

lovetogrow said:


> DM1791 - Right on the mark! When they removed A.S. from the DSM my daughter who really is a master in this area just grieved for the loss of valuable services families and their children now have to suffer through. God bless you on your journey with your son.


I would still like to meet the person(s) who made that bone headed decision. I can't even take my son to get an evaluation now because he'll lose his diagnosed status. Talk about a load of total crap.

We worked hard when my son first moved down here from his mom's to get him off the IEP program and into regular classes. None of his issues revolve around learning and academics (he is in 6th grade now, and testing at a 10th grade level in language skills and reasoning, and that's his lowest category) and we didn't want him any more singled out than we already knew he would be. There are Asperger's kids who need that kind of thing, though.

I met one child at an OT specialist we were taking my son to, and he could barely talk to people outside of a set script. That little boy was on the opposite end of the A.S. scale from Connor, and he was borderline Autistic. Still, with the new DSM, he would be classified as 
un-diagnosable at best, or possibly listed as PDD or high functioning autistic.

For those of you out there interested, there is a movie... Adam... 2009 film with Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne that is one of the most accurate representations of A.S. I've ever seen on screen. You can also check out the book Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison or The Way I See It by Temple Grandin. In fact, anything by Temple Grandin is awesome. I would love to meet her one day with my son.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. This is just a topic that really hits close to home with me.

One more thing I will share.... In case anyone out there finds themselves in a similar situation with a child of their own: Keep up your work!!! I promise you, it makes a HUGE difference to your child....

When my wife was pregnant with our now 2 year old daughter, we were out shopping for cribs. This is an exercise every prospective parent goes through, and I imagine it is always a stressful thing for both parents and other children to experience. The options seem endless, the features arbitrary, and the prices exorbitant.

The whole ordeal put my poor, hormonal wife into quite an emotional tailspin. At one point, she was overwhelmed, and sat down on a foot stool, and began to cry. I wasn't near by at the moment, I was comparing four different models she was interested in to see if I could figure out why four different white cribs varied by as much as $200 in price (long story short, I never figured it out).

I turned, and saw here sitting there, crying. And my son walked over, put his arms around her shoulders, and hugged her while saying softly, "It's okay, Momma. It's okay."

For most kids, this would just be a normal demonstration of affection and sympathy. For me, it literally made my heart just about stop. This was the first time in 9 years I had EVER seen my son offer sympathy and support unprompted and unsolicited when someone else was feeling bad.

It's the little things.... the small wins.... that really make it all worth while.


----------



## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

We have a neighbor that just bought their home next to us a couple of years ago and they have a son that's about 27 that has Aspergers and his dad has confided to me some of the things they have gone through, some have been rather scary. His son loves music and has learned to play the banjo, I've heard him play and he is good. It's not an easy path for them but being here in this valley has been good for the whole family. The only time things got a bit too much for him was the year before last with the fire going on above and the helicopters taking water to the fire flying right over their home to get to the fire. They left for a while until the fires got under control.


----------



## lovetogrow (Jan 25, 2011)

DM1791 said:


> It's the little things.... the small wins.... that really make it all worth while.


So True!!

My daughters' practice brought her in contact with Temple Grandin - she said she truly is a remarkable human being!!

I think the movie portrays a true picture of her life 

http://www.hbo.com/movies/temple-grandin#/movies/temple-grandin/synopsis.html


----------



## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

DM1791 said:


> It's the little things.... the small wins.... that really make it all worth while.


So true! Our "adopted" son is autistic & for the first 12 years of his life, the only things he said were copied off TV shows. One day he was stuck in the recliner & couldn't get up. He held out his hand & said "I need your help!" , which is a direct quote from Dora & Diego but that was the first time he'd ever used words appropriately. We cried like babies!


----------

