DGuru wrote:
Burnbridge wrote:
As far as it being caused by an "environmental toxin," I have a sneaking suspicion that it has rather a lot to do with how an individual is raised. Their home environment, if you will.
If you'll pardon an analogy, I see it like computer programming. You start with the same hardware, but the programming language makes for an entirely different interface. Like this: "NTs are windows/DOS, Aspies are Linux." There is going to be a lot of translation error getting those different operating systems to communicate with each other.
Do any of us really want to "format drive c:" in our heads so we can be rebooted with NT?
An AS parent is rather likely to load their AS operating language on their children, while school tries to load NT onto them (a DOS shell, hehe). The efficacy of one vs the other determines how far along the autistic spectrum is.
Just my theory, mind you.
That makes sense.
Imagine a very intelligent child but the child goes to a public school in the ghetto. The kid is likely to find that none of the kids there are like him and so socialize less and build social skills less. The kid could even wind up completely disillusioned with education and drop out.
Send the same kid to a private boarding school for gifted youth and the child may socialize a lot and then in adulthood have more to carry over if forced to mingle in other social atmospheres.
My parents would've never been able to afford that. Maybe the economy is causing increased rates of autism diagnosis. Kids whose genetic and early upbringing who would do better in a private school tailored to their needs are funnelled into the one-size-fits-all public education system where they're forced to deal with kids who are too different from themselves too fast.
You need to watch more Hallmark movies. Or you know, Good Will Hunting.
A smart kid will always be a smart kid.
Saying that having autistic parents can turn their kid autistic is just about as ignorant as the vaccine theory.
I had an AS father who I hardly saw and my mum is ADHD who am nothing like. I'm more like my father, as my mother always annoyingly reminds me. And the rest of my siblings are over socialised NT's.
OK, so the economy and the state of public education is turning people autistic? I'm leaving this conversation.
01 Oct 2011, 5:33 pm
