Jim offers the perspective of a father of an autistic child who fights hard to make life as good as he can for his child. He has done his homework on a number of contentious autism issues and he has been an active autism advocate. In this article Jim addresses many of the contentious autism issues that hinder the ability of parents to help their autistic children. He offers his views on autism cures and treatment favoring an evidence based professional treatment that stands out above all others at this time - Applied Behavior Analysis - ABA.
Jim expresses his admiration for high functioning autistic persons who do well in the world but pulls no punches about the leaders of the Neurodiversity ideological movement and the threat they pose to the health of our autistic children:
The neurodiversity proponents do not represent the realities faced by the majority of families. My view is that they represent a real threat to the health of our children. Not only do they imply that it is fine to have autism but they urge us to "celebrate" our children’s disorder. Nonsense. Should we "celebrate" juvenile diabetes, leukemia, pediatric aids, fetal alcohol syndrome?
I can testify that there is very little about autism to celebrate. I love both of my children and could not love my daughter, who is deeply affected, any more if she woke up tomorrow without autism. But I will continue to advocate and provide treatment opportunities for her forever, despite what these people say.
Autism is a serious health issue requiring aggressive treatment. It is not a learning disorder, lifestyle choice or expression of individuality. The risks of claiming that it is, for the rest of us, are that it provides government just the excuse they need to withhold funding – the community is divided and the disorder is not an alarming epidemic. These people need to shut up. They do not represent the children with autism that I see. They represent themselves, which is fine, but no one else.
I encourage anyone interested in autism, particularly parents of children newly diagnosed with an autism disorder to read Jim's column in the Chronicle Herald. It offers a healthy dose of autism reality, straight up, with no joy of autism, neurodiversity nonsense, to divert you from helping your autistic child.
autism
4 comments:
I just have one change to his statement.
"That parents be allowed to access whatever means of therapy they feel will most meet the needs of their family".
Not all families like ABA - like the IBI horror we ended up in - not all of us dislike all parts of ABA - like token systems - but we should be allowed to mix, match and modify therapies for our children.
We should be part of the team and not have to write emails to school officials, b/c we can't get meetings, that say "I'm tired of being treated like I'm uneducated white trash".
He's a smart, sensible man. I hear what he is saying; the children in my daughter's autism program at school are going to be in serious trouble when they reach adulthood if the ND crowd is who the government listens to.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/03/26/bauer_autism/index.html
Maybe the ND movement can read this and get a reality check.
It is appalling that there is a lottery system to determine which children to help.
I have also seen many adults with special needs locked in a room in a hospital for months because people are scared of them.
Do they not have as much rights as anyone else. I am disgusted
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