Attention-grabbing antics for autism - what do you think?

Hi Elena

That link doesnt work .... can you post it again.  Ta

Josie - Community Champion

I think Elena has gone to a meeting so I updated the link - thanks for letting us know Josie.  It should work now though.

Thank you!

Anna

TreeHouse Staff

my only concern about raising the profile of autism is whether it is now going to become fashionable to claim an autistic disability in the same way as dyslexia is now widely used to explain away dysfunction in learning.

Hi Michael,

I agree with you fully. Since the awareness of autism has risen, so has people's desire to have their child diagnosed. I have met children who's siblings are on the spectrum and the parents are pushing and pushing to have them diagnosed. A few have been told by various professionals that their child is not autistic but they still persue the diagnosis saying, but they rock like autistic children do, or ...but they have a few social problems. It actually gets me annoyed because if my children didnt need their diagnosis, I certainly wouldnt want them to have them and I find it hard to understand why someone would want to 'label' their child if they are clearly not autistic or if they dont have pervasive problems. I also believe, like my brother, that there are many high functioning people who dont even need a diagnosis. He has all the traits of Aspergers, yet he has chosen a life where his difficulties are minimised and he is very happy.....if he was a child now, he would have been diagnosed, but why? he never needed to be, nor is interested in being. I know this is not always the case, but I also imagine he is not the only one who is like this...As for my oldest daughter, she cant wait until she has learned what she needs to learn so she can get rid of her Aspergers diagnosis, (which is obviously specific in relation to her)...I fully support this as she hates to be looked at as someone in a catagory ie ''those children have Aspergers''. She is Hollie first and her Aspergers needs a signpost for support right now, but if she wishes to be seen as nothing but 'Hollie' in the future, I think that is her choice and in Hollie's case, it is very likely that she wont need to mention her AS.

I would like to say, however, which may sound a little contradictory! My 11 yr old has Dyslexia, and she attends a specialist Dyslexia school. I havent met a child with a diagnosis of this who hasnt needed a great deal of support academically, so I cant comment on mis/over diagnosis. Her cognitive ability and her literacy ability is vastly different. Her whole academic profile is very 'spikey' and she clearly had something stopping her reaching her academic potential. Interestingly, similar to the autism diagnositc criteria, there are 10 critical indicators which are assessed using various tasks. The person has to have certain scores in a certain number of areas to meet the criteria for a Dyslexia diagnosis and without meeting this, even if they have significant difficulties in various areas, they will not be diagnosed....in my expierience, schools are really bad at diagnosing Dyslexia even when it is really obvious! I had to fight for years to get her assessed fully by a Dyslexia specialist because the testing costs the school a lot of money and I wonder how many others are being overlooked. I guess there is a fine balance to getting it right.....I do think it is important for Josie to have these difficulties highlighted and it seems to be something that is accepted in the workplace these days. My husband is a police officer and works with a man who is severely Dyslexic. He is an amazing officer, and gets all the support he needs to carry out his job which I think is the way it should be!  

Claire - Community Champion

Hi 

My sister who is now 19 was diagnosed as being dyslexic as a child, her school were useless and woudn't do anything so we had to pay privately to get her assessed up in a specialist centre in London and then pay for her private treatment just so she was able to learn to read because her school were so bad.  I've noticed over the years that when she or us have mentioned to people that she is dyslexic there seems to be know stigma attached to it which is good but at the same time people also seem to think its less serious and don't realise the impact it had on her, especially as a child.

On the other hand when I tell people about Dylan's diagnosis of ASD, you can see a sort of terror go over their face & often they don't know what to say.  Sometimes they say 'oh, he doesn't seem very autistic', it definately feels like there is still a stigma attached to saying Dylan is autistic.

Anyway, those are my thoughts and experiences.  

Tracy - Community Champion