I have come to the conclusion that after the countless studies about the causes of autism and how to “cure” it; we are barely farther along than when we started. And in many ways we are taking steps backwards. In the USA Today article, “Autism tied to autoimmune diseases in immediate family”, another study was released stating that there are ties between autoimmune diseases and causing autism in children. The article started out sounding like progress was being made but by the time I got to the end I found some disheartening information. Not only did it not prove anything, as stated by the researchers themselves, but now there is another news story to scare parents about how to prevent autism.
There has been a large spike in the amount of autism diagnosis in the past few years which has brought with it speculation on the reasons why. Reasons range from genetics to vaccinations to autoimmunity issues to even age of parents. The most talked about of these being vaccines. The controversial issue of childhood immunizations has been debated extensively in recent history with some claiming that it causes autism and others proving that it has no correlation. This Discover Magazine article can fill you in on both sides, but in the end it was determined that it does not cause autism. What does this have to do with education? Well, part of the hysteria of preventing autism is how to treat it. Not only have we not pinned down the cause of autism, we have not determined how to treat it either.
Public schools are required by law to provide services for these children and rightfully so, but it makes it difficult when there are many, many treatments out there that simply are not proven to work. This makes it difficult for the teachers and therapists to help the kids when parents are eager to find a “cure”. Claims have been made that autism is curable but none have been proven. The problem is that these supposed cures take away from the time that could be spent on speech therapy and other proven tactics. People like Jenny McCarthy feed into this by being very publicly vocal about her unprofessional experiences. She ends up influencing other parents which in turn takes away from quality therapy time once again.
While Jenny McCarthy’s anecdotal evidence sounds promising, in the end it only distracts parents from what logic shows to be the best method. It breaks my heart to hear about the struggles that parents have dealing with children that have autism; it pains me even more to see them try every harebrained treatment with no success. I will admit that some people will have some success with these obscure treatments but those cases are few and far between. I only hope that parents will continue to rely on the professionals in schools and hospitals for advice rather than things that end up causing more harm than good and prevent their children from progressing.
There has been a large spike in the amount of autism diagnosis in the past few years which has brought with it speculation on the reasons why. Reasons range from genetics to vaccinations to autoimmunity issues to even age of parents. The most talked about of these being vaccines. The controversial issue of childhood immunizations has been debated extensively in recent history with some claiming that it causes autism and others proving that it has no correlation. This Discover Magazine article can fill you in on both sides, but in the end it was determined that it does not cause autism. What does this have to do with education? Well, part of the hysteria of preventing autism is how to treat it. Not only have we not pinned down the cause of autism, we have not determined how to treat it either.
Public schools are required by law to provide services for these children and rightfully so, but it makes it difficult when there are many, many treatments out there that simply are not proven to work. This makes it difficult for the teachers and therapists to help the kids when parents are eager to find a “cure”. Claims have been made that autism is curable but none have been proven. The problem is that these supposed cures take away from the time that could be spent on speech therapy and other proven tactics. People like Jenny McCarthy feed into this by being very publicly vocal about her unprofessional experiences. She ends up influencing other parents which in turn takes away from quality therapy time once again.
While Jenny McCarthy’s anecdotal evidence sounds promising, in the end it only distracts parents from what logic shows to be the best method. It breaks my heart to hear about the struggles that parents have dealing with children that have autism; it pains me even more to see them try every harebrained treatment with no success. I will admit that some people will have some success with these obscure treatments but those cases are few and far between. I only hope that parents will continue to rely on the professionals in schools and hospitals for advice rather than things that end up causing more harm than good and prevent their children from progressing.
I recently saw a news story on Autism. There is a street in Maryland that has had babies born within a few weeks of each other to a few years apart that all have Autism. All together there are seven Autistic children with a possible eighth. They all vary on how severe their Autism is but they all have it. The state of Maryland is not interested in doing an investigation. The parents of these children have been trying to get someone to research why this happened but no one will. They say that there are too many reasons why the kids have autism with not enough known about autism. This is similar to what you said about not enough information is known about Autism.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I also saw a story about Jenny McCarthy a couple of months ago. It was interesting to see what she is doing to help Autism in her special house and with her Autism Awareness program.
Very interesting insights. I spent a good amount of time researching both sides of the autism debate.
ReplyDeleteI can’t imagine the emotions they go through when something happens to their child. She painstakingly described him as “his personality locked away.”
You are right in that the rates of autism are skyrocketing. 1 in 10,000 in 1989, Minnesota recently reported 1 in 80.
I read a Time Magazine article titled How Safe are Vaccines. The article suggests that there is a correlational link between autism and vaccinations. Anti-vaccination advocates point to a positive correlation, since 1980 the number of autism cases has tripled along with double the shots given to children.
Much of the article is devoted to thimerosal, a preservative used in vaccines from the 1930s-until 2002. Many believe its mercury content causes brain damage. Vets stopped using the preservative back in 1992. Thimerosal is still given in flu shots to pregnant women. Despite discontinuing its use, ASD rates continue to climb.
The article talked of Hannah Poling, a young girl diagnosed with ASD. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Board awarded her parents financial compensation. Their rationale was that her weakened immune system allowed a preexisting mitochondrial disease. However, both her neurologist and the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation dispute the link between her condition and the vaccine. They state that her underlying cellular condition may very well have developed along with her ASD.
Over ¾ of Americans are vaccinated. Every state in the union mandates that children be vaccinated in order to enter kindergarten. Parents in Maryland have taken to homeschooling their children rather than vaccinate them. Truancy courts are conducting “sincerity interviews” to ensure that parents aren’t abusing the religious exemptions.
More vaccinated kids than unvaccinated kids stamp out the mobility of a virus. In 2001, Nigeria had a polio outbreak. People have forgotten the terror associated with toddlers suddenly stricken with paralysis. In 2008, there was a four-state outbreak of Measles. Many believe that rare and forgotten viruses such as whooping cough, rubella, and meningitis could return in record numbers.
I also read articles on Jenny McCarthy’s website. This included Jim Carrey’s well thought out argument. Carrey argues that the vaccination sector is the fastest growing within the pharmaceutical industry. Carrey’s argument is that the drug industry has corrupted many branches of the U.S. government including the CDC, AAP, and FDA. Carrey notes that America mandates twice the number of vaccinations than each of the top 30 industrialized nations. 36 shots given in 6 shot increments. He believes the shots to be too powerful for the small body of a child. Carrey mentions that vets reduced the number of shots given to dogs. The reason, a chronic disease known as vaccinosis. This is one point I agree on. Kids should be screened for pre-existing autoimmune conditions. And, fewer shots should be given on single occasions.
The computer age has provided us with so much information. There is so much out data out there that it is possible for people to manufacture so many arguments on pseudo-facts. There are advocacy groups that claim the World Trade Center was attacked by a U.S. missile, or that AIDS doesn’t exist. I think the Internet was supposed to liberate us from media bias, yet it seems to have done the opposite. George Canning said “I can prove anything by statistics except the truth.
I have no idea what the cause of autism is. Could be vaccines. Maybe not. Trusted organizations such as the New England Journal of Medicine say no. Some suggest toxins such as pesticides, plastic, and flame-retardants.
I read and wrote a lot because of my interest in this topic. Such a frightening prospect. I may sound gutless, but its things like this that cause concerns about bringing children into this world.
The only thing that can be certain is that more research is needed.
Wow, that brings ups some serious controversy. Its interesting that we haven't came any closer to curing this disorder. My experience with autistic children has been both good and bad. The good that I experienced was with a child who really was struggling trying to find friends and ended up being very close to me by the end of the year. I enjoyed it because you can't help but feel compassion for someone who struggles socially, but I also felt bad because of the good relationship we made. The student I had felt comfortable with me, which led to him making extremely inappropriate comments in class. It was hard because you don't want the other kids to acknowledge the comment because that can lead to loosing control of your classroom. However, I wouldn't change the relationship that I gained with that student for anything.
ReplyDeleteI hope they come up with a way of solving the problems many autistic children have soon, until then we can only do the best we can with what we have.