Can homeschooling cause Asperger's Syndrome?

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whirlingmind
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09 Feb 2013, 10:24 am

...and genetics, and accidents, and experiences, and diet, and many other things. Unsure if you are agreeing with OP, but even if OP suffered a form of abuse whilst being home-educated that made him develop AS-like traits, it still wouldn't have been the home-educating itself that caused those traits, but the abuse. Children in schools can suffer all the same abuses that home-educated children can.


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09 Feb 2013, 11:35 am

Logicalmom wrote:
Bottom line is, I suppose, we are more than our ASD and things that happen to us during childhood might present in ways that may expressed through our unique processing and sensory experiences. Your home environment will contribute to "you", but it is not all of what makes you "you."


In my case, the effect of growing up in a dysfunctional family served to partly 'mask' my ASD traits, so that I ended up being misdiagnosed at age 38 with ‘possible schizotypal disorder (ICD-10)’. I have interviewed my mom about my early childhood, and she confirmed that I had significant autistic traits as an infant (avoiding eye contact, severe aversion to being touched, hypersensitivity to light, having a faraway look and 'going away' inside my own mind for hours). At the time she didn't seek out a diagnosis, because in the late 60's the refrigerator mother theory was still very much in use, and she didn't want either of us stigmatized by an autism diagnosis.

If one looks at the list of possible effects of a dysfunctional family on children, there are quite a few overlaps with ASDs, so it's not surprising that it's easy to confuse the two - and the former can definitely make the latter worse. I might not have ended up a 'disabled person' if things had been different, but yeah - sh*t happens, also to people born on the spectrum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysfunctional_family
Quote:
Effects on children

Children of dysfunctional families, either at the time, or as they grow older, may also:[11]

lack the ability to be playful, or childlike, and may "grow up too fast"; conversely they may grow up too slowly, or be in a mixed mode (e.g. well-behaved, but unable to care for themselves)
have moderate to severe mental health issues, including possible depression, anxiety,[12] and suicidal thoughts
become addicted to smoking, alcohol, and/or drugs, especially if parents or friends have done the same
bully or harass others, or be an easy victim thereof (possibly taking a dual role in different settings)
be in denial regarding the severity of the family's situation
have mixed feelings of love–hate towards certain family members
become a sex offender, possibly including pedophilia.[13]
have difficulty forming healthy relationships within their peer group (usually due to shyness or a personality disorder)
spend an inordinate amount of time alone watching television, playing video games, surfing the Internet, listening to music, and other activities which lack in-person social interaction
feel angry, anxious, depressed, isolated from others, or unlovable
have a speech disorder (related to emotional abuse)[14]
distrust others or even have paranoia
become a juvenile delinquent and turn to a life of crime (with or without dropping out of school), and possibly become a gang member as well
struggle academically at school or academic performance declines unexpectedly
have low self-esteem or a poor self image with difficulty expressing emotions
rebel against parental authority, or conversely, uphold their family's values in the face of peer pressure, or even try to take an impossible "middle ground" that pleases no one
think only of themselves to make up the difference of their childhoods (as they are still learning the balance of self-love)
have little self-discipline when parents are not around, such as compulsive spending, procrastinating too close to deadlines, etc. (unfamiliar and seemingly lax "real-world" consequences vs. familiar parental consequences)
find an (often abusive) spouse or partner at a young age, and/or run away from home
become pregnant and/or a parent of illegitimate children
be at risk of becoming poor or homeless, even if the family is already wealthy or middle-class
have auto-destructive or potentially self-damaging behaviors
join a cult to find the acceptance they never had at home, or at a minimum, have differing philosophical/religious beliefs from what they were previously taught
strive (as young adults) to live far away from particular family members or the family as a whole
perpetuate dysfunctional behaviors in other relationships (especially their own children)


I highlighted the overlapping traits. I can say yes to all of those and about half of the rest on the list, too, sadly.



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09 Feb 2013, 1:29 pm

It's the other way around, Asperger's causes homeschooling. At least it did with me when my teacher enraged my parents to the point that they did not want anything to do with the public school system.
She told them I would never learn to read, drive a car, or get a job and I should be in a "special" class where I would only learn how to brush my teeth and tie my shoes :roll:


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Callista
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09 Feb 2013, 2:30 pm

Consider the real possibility that the cause and effect may go the other direction: Having autism may cause you to be home-schooled.

This was true in my case. I was definitely autistic from my toddler years, and was home-schooled off and on starting in the third grade for two main reasons: One, most schools simply couldn't accommodate me, since I was both gifted and disabled. And two, my mom didn't want me labeled autistic, which would have happened in most schools.

Whether you're a good parent who wants to properly educate a student with an unusual learning style, or a paranoid parent like my mom who believes that being called "autistic" is so bad that it's preferable not to attend school at all, you may keep an autistic student home and teach them there. The autism was there all along, and was the causal factor.

Autism is usually apparent before a child starts school; starting school might be the thing that makes it obvious enough to diagnose, but it's plain that it's been there all along. I do not believe that home-schooling causes autism; in fact it may be a protective factor if the school available is a bad fit and a better environment can be created at home.


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09 Feb 2013, 3:10 pm

I don't think that AS is so easy to cause that homeschooling could cause AS in a child who had been born with a typically developing brain. The social brain seems to start developing and locking in verry merry berry early, from infancy in a child wih typical development.



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09 Feb 2013, 3:37 pm

No



Matt62
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09 Feb 2013, 8:50 pm

Agreed. Nature AND Nurture make a person, not one alone. Autism is how people with certain brain-wiring relate to their world. Always a combo of inherent traits plus social experience.
And as a a person with a Psychology degree, Personality disorders are pretty flimsy, except for Anti-social.
My current hypothesis is that conditions like Schizoid personality disorder are actually un-dxd Autism Spectrum Disorder, who are comfortable with their isolation.

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10 Feb 2013, 3:28 pm

No it doesn't.



SusyQ
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10 Feb 2013, 3:49 pm

It sure doesn't! I was homeschooled and it was one of the best things that happened to me. I don't even want to THINK about life would have been like had I NOT been homeschooled. My experience with homeschoolers that may have bad social skills etc come from two types of families:

1 The parents homeschool from laziness, don't care about their kids, etc.

2. The parents believe in patriarchy and take it to the extreme, or are trapped in church that takes patriarchy to the extreme. Parents/churches that take patriarchy to the extreme over protect their children, especially their daughters who usually have no freedom.

Homeschooling is awesome. The patriarchal (aka complementarian) beliefs that many homeschoolers have are not.



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10 Feb 2013, 4:13 pm

SusyQ wrote:
It sure doesn't! I was homeschooled and it was one of the best things that happened to me. I don't even want to THINK about life would have been like had I NOT been homeschooled. My experience with homeschoolers that may have bad social skills etc come from two types of families:

1 The parents homeschool from laziness, don't care about their kids, etc.

2. The parents believe in patriarchy and take it to the extreme, or are trapped in church that takes patriarchy to the extreme. Parents/churches that take patriarchy to the extreme over protect their children, especially their daughters who usually have no freedom.

Homeschooling is awesome. The patriarchal (aka complementarian) beliefs that many homeschoolers have are not.


My family was the bolded (hence, I'm like the only guy on this board who supports feminism, out of rebellion lol). In my house, there wasn't a huge disparity between how the sons and daughters were treated when we were young, however, though there was later. Could this type of homeschooling cause aspie traits? I could imagine how extreme conservatism could cause lack of empathy and difficulty relating to people, for example. If I had NVLD and minor social issues, something like this could turn what might have been a small problem in school into a big deal that puts my GAF at 50 and qualifies me for an ASD diagnosis.



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10 Feb 2013, 5:25 pm

No. Aspergers is a certain wiring of the brain. Homeschooling can't change the wiring of your brain, but it can give you difficulties in life which are similar to the problems that people with AS have.

====

Empathy is a thing which (some) people naturally have in their brains, it's not something you learn, so homeschooling cannot cause a lack of it.



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10 Feb 2013, 5:30 pm

JellyCat wrote:
No. Aspergers is a certain wiring of the brain. Homeschooling can't change the wiring of your brain, but it can give you difficulties in life which are similar to the problems that people with AS have.

====

Empathy is a thing which (some) people naturally have in their brains, it's not something you learn, so homeschooling cannot cause a lack of it.


So it could cause someone to meet the criteria for AS without perhaps having the different wiring?



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10 Feb 2013, 5:45 pm

In wouldnt exactly say it caused autism but Im sure homeschooling doesnt "help" the situation.



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10 Feb 2013, 5:50 pm

Tyri0n wrote:

So it could cause someone to meet the criteria for AS without perhaps having the different wiring?


I don't think that's the case. It's possible to miss learning some social skills, but I don't think it would actually result in the RRBs and sensory issues, for example.



whirlingmind
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10 Feb 2013, 6:13 pm

JellyCat wrote:
No. Aspergers is a certain wiring of the brain. Homeschooling can't change the wiring of your brain, but it can give you difficulties in life which are similar to the problems that people with AS have.

====

Empathy is a thing which (some) people naturally have in their brains, it's not something you learn, so homeschooling cannot cause a lack of it.


No it can't. The cause would be the views/parenting/lifestyle of the parents (which would still be the same even if the child was at school) not the home-educating!


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whirlingmind
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10 Feb 2013, 6:14 pm

Ai_Ling wrote:
In wouldnt exactly say it caused autism but Im sure homeschooling doesnt "help" the situation.


Quite the opposite. Find out about home-educating.


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