Autism on 60 Minutes Show tonight

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60 Minutes is suppose to include a discussion tonight Feb 18th on early diagnosis and treatment of childhood autism. Check your local listings for time.

60 Minutes??? What's THAT?


-SpaceCase

It's a newsmagazine that comes on every Sunday night on CBS.

Tim

Oh,okay.

-SpaceCase

It's a news program. It's going on now... I just switched and what I saw wasn't anything about autism- BUT here's the supposed program description:
"A look at the Kurdistan region of Iraq where Americans are liked, unlike in other parts of the country; A look at efforts to detect autism."
I wonder how much time they are going to dedicate to autism.

Nevertheless, they are talking about DNA and a r@pe case dealing with a lacrosse team at a university campus.

At 7 PM EST Space.

I switched to an American feed (instead of Canadian) and they are actually talking about Kurdistan!
Hopefully I'll get to see the segment on autism.

I just watched this episode of 60 minutes. Did you know Dr. Ozonoff is painting the picture that we are "diseased" and people like her are working on a "cure?"! I read her book "A Parent's Guide to Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism: How to Meet the Challenges and Help Your Child Thrive" and it didn't take me long to see that she is a Neurotypical Bigot who seems to lack sufficient understanding on what she claims to be an expert over. I don't claim to be an expert on autism, but I would call myself an expert on Asperger Syndrome since I've lived it for 52 years. She never used an Asperger Syndrome brain for one second.

What seemed to come across the segment on autism tonight was the creation of an atmosphere of fear being injected into parents over any range of autism. Ozonoff definitely ignored the positive aspects of Asperger Syndrome completely! That is why I use the strong term "bigot" in my above statement of her with her book. To be fair about the book, somebody did mention some plus sides to AS, but I doubt it was her since there were 3 authors who put the book together.

As my husband the hunter says, "To hunt deer well, you must think like the deer." He (being a carpenter) also says, "To prevent a roof leak, one must think like the rain drop."

I don't see too many neurotypical doctors even beginning to try to think like an Aspergian. How many neurotypical people think that they too might be mindblind (lacking Theory of Mind)? Can they understand how we think? No. Do they want to understand how we think? Usually not. Anyone else feel the same way as I do?

The Autism segment was on after the Kurdistan. I thought it was good and was nice they actually mentioned Aspergers though they didn't explain it. I hope they do find a cure. I hate being a weirdo and though they won't be able to cure adults it would be nice to not see the next generation suffer extreme lonliness and being bullied. Then again I pray they can find a cure for the older auties somehow because I can't stand to be around my own kind. Can't stand myself much either.

More importantly the world is going to go belly up if they don't find a cure for autism SOON. With 1 in 150 kids autistic, 1 in 95 in New Jersey, the world cannot support that many people on lifelong welfare. Combine that with all the diabetic kids that will be disabled by the time they reach adulthood, the lowering of birth rates in the Western world and you see there will be hardly anyone left to work to keep the world going.

What I gathered from the segment is that they are experimenting with the use of early Intensive Behavioural Intervention to "alter" the way the autistic brain functions.
It seemed more like an advertisement for the psychiatrist (don't remember what exactly she is). Nevertheless, it all seems like they can't even pin-point the early symptoms so I doubt that much of what they are saying will be taken seriously. How can she be certain that the children who undergo this early intervention weren't already high functioning? She wants to be able to diagnose children by the age of 12 months!

Well, I'm rather glad I missed the program.

I'm thrilled that "they won't be able to cure adults", because that would be the death of me (the real me).

As soon as I had come to know that I had AS, /that/ was my cure - in the sense that I had always felt that I was in some sense "ill" before. Now that I know what I am, and that there are huge numbers of people out there, just like (or rather, unlike :> ) me, I feel much better!

There is no evidence that there has been any change in the incidence of autism throughout recorded history. All that's occurred recently is a greater recognition of what it is and some more sensible attitudes toward accommodating it.

I'm a huge optimist. I see the world as being in a panic-inducing state of flux, at present (future shock and all that). But hey - look where it just might be heading...

... and there, I haven't a clue. The prospects are that the future is going to be changing no less violently. Anyone with a strong grip on where we might be headed is quite sure they don't know where that is. I thoroughly expect it to be in a positive direction. I'm waiting so see it.

This is exactly how I feel. I just watched a video on Youtube about Vernon Smith. He was advocating just accepting the difference of brains and working with that. As he said, we don't have to all think alike to be communal. That is SO true! The next thing I know, they talk to some "expert" at Yale who says, Oh he's a big exception and most people with Asperger's couldn't even function without major intervention for years. What??? Has this guy even talked to adults with it who are out there working, married and living their lives? Some of us don't, some of us do. We don't fit into tiny boxes. It made me feel like this guy was justifying his existence, such as beaurocrats do. (It reminded me of the RTC which was created in the 1980's because Savings and Loans were failing. It's still around today. When was the last time you heard about a Savings and Loan failing for bad loans? Or any bank for that matter? Yet, the RTC costs us millions in tax money each year.) Beaurocrats often push their agenda to keep funding. I find it interesting that Smith and Grandin both warn against pushing Autistics and Asperger's kids to be "normal." Both say appreciate their difference and work with them to develop their skills. Both say they can see the world in a different way that helps society and fear is what holds people back, not the disorder. Smith even said that not so long ago people were prejudice over color of skin, now it is common to be prejudice over diverse kinds of minds.


You are absolutely right that NTs do not try to see into our minds. I wouldn't trust a NT Pyschiatrist or Psychologist anywhere near me. It's a brain disorder they can see on a fMRI, yet this disorder is being routinely diagnosed by Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Pediatricians who have absolutely no business saying what is happening in a brain based on observation of behavior. That is the biggest bunch of horse crap I have ever heard. They have the tool to see it actually happen or not, so use it. If you want to know what is happening in your brain, see a Neurologist. That's what they are there for. You wouldn't be running off to a Psychiatrist or Psychologist to diagnose a brain injury after an accident, so why on earth would you go to them for a diagnosis of a brain disorder? That makes no sense whatsoever.

A Neurologist is qualified to say exactly what is wrong with your brain and how you can make alternate routes (if you can) to compensate. They can explain it from the brain's perspective, not some emotional or behavioral hogwash. They can explain physiologically why you do what you do and how you can change that or not. Everyone else is just using smoke and mirrors to try to describe a brain.


As to a cure, I wouldn't have it. I like myself exactly like I am and I never had any desire (even as a child) to be like everyone else. I remember at eight years old telling them I was going off to my room by myself and I didn't care about them or their opinions. I told them I was going to live my life and I suggested they do the same. That was it. I went off and lived my life. And THAT made people respect me even if I was strange. I could see back then they had their own problems. They still do. NT life is not the golden egg people seem to think. Those people live in constant drama. I listen to that crap all day long. When they get together they talk about their drama. Emotional or feely people do this. They are different. That's all. No better or worse than I am, just different. I'm with Professor Smith, two hours with them and I have to go to bed with a book. I only get so many minutes in this life. I am not wasting them on bigots or stupid schoolchildren or adults who feel the need to tease others to feel better about themselves. If they have to do that to feel good, you can automatically assume they have no self esteem. Otherwise, they'd be living their own life instead of worrying about yours. I am not wasting minutes on people who while they may be perfectly nice, drain me with their drama. They are my minutes. I plan on enjoying them because once they are gone, I don't get them back.


As to painting a brain disorder as a disease? They need to do some real journalism and quit worrying about sensationalizing.


And as to worrying about how many autistics there are in the world, I am not bothered. Higher end Autistics and Aspies do well ina technological world. I hate to be the one to clue you in, but that is the world we live in. NTs do not do well in that world. It's isolated, routine and quiet. Everything most NTs hate. We thrive there. That's probably why there are more of us now. Natural selection. Far from a welfare state, we will do well in that landscape and are doing well in that landscape. I've worked in it for 23 years and it's filled with geeks and Aspies. My company employes 39,000 of them. That number grows every day. It's where they are pumping all of their money. Not all of us are living on welfare. Yes, some of us are disabled by this and if they wanted a cure, that's fine. I don't need one. I like myself the way I am. So do my bosses.

To be quite frank, I think alot of what is being done to supposedly help us is actually hurting us.

I don't think the researcher's ideas are so far fetched. Just going out in town I can observe for myself which babies and little kids are normal and which are not. Those babies they showed looked obviously autistic to me. I think though that the babies not responding to being called by name from someone standing to their side may have been exhibiting CAPD which I wonder if the researcher even knows about.

They were not talking about psychiatry. They believed giving these toddlers what amounts to life skills training would rewire their brains. It's similar to the idea of books like Brain Gym that doing certain mental exercises can boost brain power in those with brain injury, Alzheimers or CNS problems. What's so objectional about helping am autistic kid to improve their ability to express themselves and fine tune their motor skills? That's part of the reason autisitics, including some of the ones on here explode on others because they lack the ability be it vocabulary or mastery of the language to express what they need. So those people end up cussing everyone out, saying they want to die or in real life situations kicking and screaming. What's so wonderful about a kicking and screaming autistic that makes you think it is wrong to help them get past that developmental difficulty?

Read this essay by a high school senior. If this doesn't outline exactly how much the "help" is hurting, nothing will. I found it amazing how much this kid reminded me of me.
Personal experience has taught me that those who think in different ways should not be written off despite the challenges and obstacles that are often thrown in their way. For several years I was in a special education system that practiced enforced conformity. The belief was that anyone society labeled "disabled" could only go so far. Sadly, these misconceptions had the potential to become self-fulfilling prophecies. When the expectation is that people of a certain type can only reach so far, they are not provided with the same challenges and opportunities that educators give mainstreamed students.

Yet I did manage to make it out of special education by advocating for myself and refusing to believe in a myth that equated distinctiveness with inferiority. By insisting on inclusion in the same opportunities and programs as other students, I achieved academic success. In the space of a few years I went from being advised that I would have to delay my high school graduation to being an honor student who will attend college on time to study international relations.

Now, as a speaker for the New Jersey Department of Education and other organizations, I advocate for reform of the system I left. When I speak to educators, students and policymakers I stress one message: those of different neurologies can succeed not by luck, chance, or even extraordinary willpower, but by recognition of their unique abilities and methods of learning. Understanding that different styles of learning do not imply inability to learn is essential to creating a more inclusive educational environment. With an educational system that works with us, society will see an even larger level of success for autistics and many other neuro-diverse citizens. In truth, differences in neurology often contribute to success. History supports this conclusion.

Today, experts are finding autistic traits in many of the great minds of the past such as Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein. These people possessed many of the traits that today can be found on the autism spectrum. Like many autistics, they viewed the world through different eyes and were not possessed of the same type of social skills as their neurotypical peers, yet they possessed highly capable intellects and used them in ways their unique perspectives made possible. Neither these greats of the past nor those of us in the present deserve to be marginalized from society or labeled as broken or diseased.

Society has developed a tendency to examine things from the point of view of a bell curve. How far away am I from normal? What can I do to fit in better? But what is on top of the bell curve? The answer is mediocrity. That is the fate of American society if we insist upon pathologizing difference and seek to "cure" it. The person who is socially isolated because he views the world in a different light may use that difference in perception to invent something revolutionary.

"I don't have any trouble thinking outside the box. I don't feel any social pressure to do things the way other people are doing them," said Vernon Smith, the 2002 Nobel Prize winner in economics and an Asperger's autistic, in a February interview with CNBC. Does it serve anyone's interests to label people like Smith diseased? Isn't respecting the other a vital part of both the American and the Jewish tradition? We do not need a cure to make us like everyone else. We need to be accepted for who we are. "We don't all have to think alike to ... live in a productive and satisfying world," said Professor Smith.

Each day the world learns more about how to recognize yet respect the differences in neurology that exist throughout our society. In February at a conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers announced that many previously held ideas about autistic intelligence were mistaken. A new intelligence test discovered that even those who had previously been written off as capable of very little possessed great, untapped potential.

As society advances and we learn more about the differing kinds of neurology and intelligence, it should be our hope that we respect people for their differences and not try to enforce neurological conformity. In a day and age when we have broken down countless prejudices of the past and recognized the legitimacy of differences in race, color, creed and religion, we should be tolerant of those who think in different ways.

We should recognize what diversity of neurology has contributed to the human race and what it can bring to the future. Difference is not disability and someday, I hope, the world will recognize that those who think in different ways should be welcomed. '



Ari Ne'eman
Grade: senior School: East Brunswick High School in East Brunswick, N.J.


Special thanks to AutismDiva's blog for finding this wonderful essay. ...


That was posted on the comments for Vernon Smith's interview on Youtube. Here's the link to that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6laOv94VUU

As I said, some are disabled and if they want a cure, I think they should have it.

I don't have any problem with teaching them skills, I have a big problem with it being developed by Pyschologists, Psychiatrists, Educators and Pediatricians. Those are not medical doctors specializing in Neurology. Most everything for Autism and AS is developed by these professions. Neurologists are only now getting involved. If you read Neurology journals, you will see that for yourself. They talk about it. Just recently they also realized much of what they thought in their research is flat out wrong. So, what happened to the methods they developed with that wrong information. You have to be very careful what you deal with in any situation.

They've also found out that children they thought were very low end are actually higher than they thought.

As to the kid kicking and screaming? They are probably in sensory overload. So, my question then is why is the parent even putting them in that situation? It isn't necessary to go to the mall. It isn't necessary to work in a social situation. We can eventually fake being social. If that works for you, learn to do it and do it. If you want to be social, learn to do it and do it. Don't think that all of us want that. Many of us are just fine in our own quiet space and we are doing just fine. We don't need to be cured of anything.

Yes while some in Silicon Valley and other hi tech places may be autistics all of them are not. One can be high IQ'ed and NT. When only 6% of Aspergers adults work for a living, yes, it is an enormous problem. It is a burden to society and to families that support these adults. How would YOU like to be the parent or sibling stuck with financially supporting and living with an autistic adult your whole freakin life? Not everyone is a millionaire and can afford a financial drain like that.