On World Autism Awareness Day Have Hope But Do Not Sugar Coat Autism Realities

History is being made today; the first World Autism Awareness Day as declared by the United Nations General Assembly. Qatar led the international effort to being about this result and that effort should not be overlooked or diminished. In North America and Europe there is a movement which has tried to romanticize and glorify "autism"and which actively attempts to suppress discussion of the harsher realities faced by many autistic people. Governments, particularly the Canadian government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have been quick to point to the views of people in this movement as an indication of lack of agreement on what should be done to help persons with autism thus justifying the Harper's government refusal to take serious steps to address Canada's autism crisis.

Almost everything about autism is controversial in the extreme. Debates roar on over the causes of autism. Even Applied Behavior Analysis, ABA, a well documented, well researched autism intervention is criticized relentlessly, often by people who have had no experience with ABA. Some of these people know nothing more about ABA beyond the extremist rhetoric of anti-ABA activisits who themselves generally have no experience and little real knowledge of ABA. The ABA critics ignore the millions of parents, thousands of autism experts, hundreds of studies and numerous professional reviews by responsible expert agencies which have endorsed ABA for decades as the educational and health intervention of choice for autism, an intervention documented by years of study as effective at making real gains in intellect, behavior, communication and socialization skills for autistic children

Even the mention of the existence of severely autistic or low functioning autistic persons offends some people. Within the world of autism there is an ideological group sometimes self referenced as Neurodiversity, which perverts logic and common sense and asserts that Autism Disorder is not in fact a disorder, that somehow it is a good thing that some children develop the limited communication, social and intellectual and behavioral characteristics that lead to diagnoses of Autism Disorder. Mention the reality, the FACT, that some autistic people hurt themselves very seriously by self aggression or that they lack understanding of the world such that they require 24/7 supervision and care, in some cases for the duration of their lives and the Neurodiversity ideologues react with sarcasm, hostility and anger.

While they are quick to search history and speculate that every known genius in history was an "Aspie" or an "Autie" the Neurodiversity ideologues do not want parents of children diagnosed with actual Autism Disorder with profound developmental delays to talk about their children's existence and challenges; challenges not shared by the ND cult. Mere mention of 14-year-old Kristi Jansen the severely autistic young lady featured in one of the Vancouver Sun's excellent Faces of Autism series is enough to set off anger and hostility on autism discussion forums like Autism Speaks now dominated by Neurodiversity advocates.

Accepting autism should not mean the kind of autism acceptance which views autism as a joy. Autism is a disorder. The people diagnosed with Autism Disorder who have limited communication and social skills, serious behavioral challenges and in some cases intellectual deficits, should not be ignored in shame and denial. Their realities too must be accepted. There is no "joy" in knowing that your child, diagnosed with Autism Disorder and profound developmental delays, will never know a life of independence, that he will be cared for by strangers long after you are dead.

My son Conor, diagnosed 10 years ago with PDD-NOS, subsequently changed to Autism Disorder with profound developmental delays. lifts my spirits every day and makes my experience of life richer and more meaningful. Although I do not find joy in my son's Autism Disorder I take great joy and find great happiness in him. I accept him and the fact that he has an Autism Disorder but instead of surrendering to the seductive logic of the Neurodiversity movement, instead of embracing his autism as a "good thing" I try to help him overcome the deficits which mark his Autism Disorder. That to me is true autism awareness and true autism acceptance. That to me is being a responsible parent.

Today I will be aware of Autism and I will discuss it with many people in my daily life. I will be of service to my son and other persons with autism by speaking the truth about Autism Disorder. I will tell people there is hope for improvement by intensive early ABA intervention and the incredible explosion of autism research, the Autism Knowledge Revolution know taking place, but I will not sugar coat the realities of autism disorders to make others .... or me .... feel better.

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Autism and Stimming - Conor Shows How It Is Done

The photos above are of Conor relaxing with Dad this morning at the Second Cup, Kings Place, Fredericton, one of our favorite weekend haunts. The staff have seen him there with Dad for the past several years. They know he has autism disorder. They know him as Conor. They have seen Conor laughing and enjoying himself. They have seen him melt down on occasion. Conor has always been very welcome at the Second Cup.

In the photos above, in sequence from top to bottom, Conor is seen stimming with a straw, his favorite stim object. In the bottom picture the straw is moving so fast you can barely see it in the photo. If you look at the basket behind Conor in the first 3 photos you will clearly see a red ribbon hanging down the side of the basket. If you look at the bottom pic you will see an object in front of the basket, slightly obscuring the red ribbon, Conor's straw, moving so fast it is barely discernible.

For Conor stimming is not a way of communicating with his environment. It is not a special autistic language. It is what he does.

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Low Functioning Autism, Laurent Mottron and Common Sense

Dr. Laurent Mottron is an icon of sorts of the Neurodiversity movement. A prominent autism researcher who has published voluminously if somewhat narrowly on autism subjects (tending to focus primarily on autistic savants, Aspergers syndrome and High Functioning Autistic persons) he has nonetheless lent his high functioning autism expertise to advocate in Canada against government funding of ABA treatment for autistic children whether they are low functioning or not. Together with anti-ABA activist Michelle Dawson, the good Dr. Mottron is one half of the Quirks and Quarks duo that has made representation to the Supreme Court of Canada (Auton case, Mottron filed an affidavit in support of Dawson's request for intervenor status), the Canadian Senate committee studying autism treatment and financing in Canada and numerous media interviews about the views of "autistics". His views about low functioning and high functioning autism though appear to have escaped examination by his Neurodiversity admirers who mock use of terms such as low functioning or high functioning autism.

Dr. Mottron's anti-ABA advocacy, his articles designed to show hidden and perhaps superior intelligence of autistic persons, and his collaboration with Michelle Dawson, have made him a darling of the Neurodiversity movement as in the following comments by Neurodiversity blogger Autism Diva:

"Autism Diva must say though, that the real heart breaker of Fracophone 'oh-TEEZM" researchers is LauRENT MotTRON. (sigh, sigh) Mottron is at the Hopital des Rivieres des Prairies (?) and Fombonne is at McGill with Szatmari. (not so cute, not French)

Autism Diva met Dr. Mottron a year and a half ago. He doesn't have pretty hair like Fombonne, but he's the best homme in autism research, English speaking or French."

Yet despite his intellectual, and other, appeal to the Neurodiversity movement Dr. Mottron has acknowledged throughout the course of his research career that there are important distinctions to be drawn between low functioning autism and higher functioning autism, Aspergers and autistic savants. At least he has made those distinctions in many of his research articles. Any search of Google Scholar with the terms "autism" and "Mottron" will turn up numerous summaries mentioning function level distinctions of the autistic subjects of his studies. (The good Dr. Mottron has tended to focus his studies on higher functioning autistic subjects. It is not clear if any of his findings have been questioned as to whether they would apply to lower functioning autistic persons). Here are but a few examples where Dr. Mottron has used the high functioning label to characterize his autistic subjects:

… and Global Processing of Music in High-functioning Persons with Autism: Beyond Central Coherence? - all 9 versions »
L Mottron, I Peretz, E Ménard - The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied …, 2000 - journals.cambridge.org
... enhanced pitch processing is highly compatible with the exceptional pitch-processing
abilities exhibited by musical savants with autism (Mottron, Peretz, et al ...
Cited by 86 - Related Articles - Web Search

Do high functioning persons with autism present superior spatial abilities? - all 5 versions »
MJ Caron, L Mottron, C Rainville, S Chouinard - Neuropsychologia, 2004 - Elsevier
... for participants with autism exhibiting atypical gain in cued recall condition
relatively to free recall condition ([Bennetto et al., 1996 and Mottron et al ...
Cited by 24 - Related Articles - Web Search

Face perception in high-functioning autistic adults: evidence for superior processing of face parts, … - all 2 versions »
A Lahaie, L Mottron, M Arguin, C Berthiaume, B … - Neuropsychology, 2006 - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
... Lahaie A, Mottron L, Arguin M, Berthiaume C, Jemel B, Saumier D. Hopital
Riviere-des-Prairies, Montreal, PQ, Canada. Configural processing in autism was ...
Cited by 14 - Related Articles - Web Search


Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
February 15, 2003, Vol. 15, No. 2, Pages 226-235
Posted Online March 13, 2006.
(doi:10.1162/089892903321208169)
Enhanced Pitch Sensitivity in Individuals with Autism: A Signal Detection Analysis
These findings confirm that pitch processing is enhanced in “high-functioning” autism. Superior performance in pitch discrimination and categorization extends previous findings of enhanced visual performance to the auditory domain. Thus, and as predicted by the enhanced perceptual functioning model for peaks of ability in autism (Mottron & Burack, 2001), autistic individuals outperform typically developing population in a variety of low-level perceptual tasks.


Given Dr. Laurent Mottron's persistent use of functioning levels to describe autistic persons in his research it is not clear where the Neurodiversity movement finds its inspiration for its misguided attempts to obscure the distinctions between lower functioning autistic individuals and those like Neurodiversity bloggers who demonstrate great command of language and ability to function in the real world. Parents, including me, who must keep a 24/7 watch on their autistic children for fear that they will, as my son once did, cross a busy street oblivious to the dangers of automobile traffic. are often outraged at such absurd Neurononsense. The story I blogged of autistic 7 year old Samantha in Scotland who inflicts serious injury on herself by beating her head with her hands and other objects surely would be described by anyone with an ounce of common sense as Low Functioning Autistic.

Parents and others who function in the real world can distinguish between the functioning levels of children who are a danger to themselves, or the middle aged woman in a New York residential facility who could not communicate the abuse to which she was being subjected by staff and those who attend colleges for gifted students such as Simon's Rock College or become legal , political and media advocates. In the Neurodiversity world? That is another story.

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Disgusting Autism News - Lunch Money Stolen From Autistic Student in California

"We trusted this caregiver, the assistant teacher, with our child, the most precious thing we have, and she violated that trust day after day by victimizing her," Spitzer said. "And this was a victim that couldn't speak, that couldn't tell anybody she was hungry or that her teacher was stealing from her."

- Shawn Spitzer

Shawn Spitzer was commenting in the LA Times, about the Teacher's Assistant sentenced to six months in jail for stealing lunch money on 57 occasions over a three month period from her severely autistic 13 year old daughter who cannot speak. Ms Spitzer had been puzzled by her daughter's behavior, heading straight for the refrigerator when she got home from school every day, even though she had always been given a lunch box of snacks and money to buy a hot meal. Using a hidden camera, police caught the assistant stealing her autistic daughter's lunch money twice over a three day period.

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Disgusting Autism News In The OC - Teacher's Aide Accused of Abusing Autistic Student

The ocregister reports that a teacher's aide has been arrested on suspicion of felony child abuse after two other staff members at Alton School reported that he had repeatedly hit a teenage autistic boy on the arm while he sat at his desk, twisted his am behind his back, and lifted him out of the chair to his feet. The aide reportedly told detectives that "he had "crossed the line" in dealing with the teenager."

The aide is now being held in Orange County jail. I am guessing that he will not "cross the line" in dealing with guards at the jail.

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Disgusting Autism News - Home Alone In Oregon

Some times the news about severely autistic children can be scary such as when, as all too frequently happens, the story is of a child with autism wandering away from home. In Oregon though the story was much different. In Mother convicted of mistreatment for leaving autistic son home alone the Oregonian's Aimee Green reports the story of a Portland Oregon mother who left her 11-year-old severely autistic son alone at home so she could go to a local bar. A fire broke out and the boy was rescued by a fire fighter after a neighbor's 911 call. Fortunately, the boy is now in state custody.

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Autism and Wandering, Missing Autistic Girl Found Safe

It is sometimes difficult to listen to, or read, statements by a few celebrity, high functioning autistic persons, and others who embrace their ideology, who claim that autism is just another natural variation of the human condition, a difference to be embraced, a joy in itself. I have never pretended to accept this view. At least not for those, like my son, for whom autism presents serious life restrictions and risks. One of those dangerous, even life threatening risks, is the tendency of some autistics to wander off, to get lost ... or worse. In some cases things end well ..... in others they do not. This story has a good ending:

Missing Autistic Girl, 13, Found Safe, ... Janelle Halbrook had last been seen near Lake Center Middle School at Clarkman Street and Pioneer Boulevard around 4 p.m. Wednesday, Whittier police Officer Jason Zuhlke said. ... The mother told police that Halbrook has a tendency to wander whenever her routine is interrupted, as she did in a similar "walk-away" incident several months ago.

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Autism and Maternal Antibodies On The Johns Hopkins News-Letter

In Maternal antibodies may cause autism, published in the March 6, 2008, issue of The John Hopkins Newsletter Sam Ohmer discusses the recent study led by Hopkins pediatric neurologist Harvey Singer suggesting a possible connection between maternal antibodies and autism. The study focused on the role of the immune system in causing autism.

Singer and his group found that, in some cases of autism, pregnant women's bodies actually raise antibodies against their babies, which sets off a series of events that slowed the normal development of the infants' brains.

The team found that mothers of children with autism had heightened levels of certain antibodies during their pregnancies. "The presence of specific antibodies correlated with the presence of developmental regression in the affected child," Singer said.

"About 40 percent of mothers with autistic offspring had significant differences on Western immunoblots," Singer said, referring to analyses conducted on fetal fluids to measure levels of certain anti-brain antibodies.

This finding suggests that there may be a truly devastating link between maternal antibodies and autism. Singer's team and others are now moving toward a greater understanding of the causes of the illness.

The next step of the research is aimed at trying to discover which proteins are engaged in this immunological backfiring, in hopes of being able to prevent this process.

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An Autism Message From BC for Alleged Federal Health Minister Tony Clement

The Medicare for Autism NOW rally held in Burnaby was a huge success. The message is being heard across Canada. Autism is a medical disorder. A well studied treatment is available and it should be covered under Canada's medicare system. The Global News video which follows includes some commentary from dedicated autism advocates Jean Lewis and David Marley.The video also includes some nice footage of parents and the children they love; the children they are doing everything they can to help.

Nothing will be done, though, unless our federal politicians, people like Prime Minister Harper and Alleged Health Minister Tony Clement can be convinced that it is in their political best interests to take action. "Health" Minister Clement prove you really are a Health Minister, take steps now to include medicare coverage for ABA, a proven effective treatment for autism.

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Conor Loves The Snow

This is one of the hardest winters we have experienced in this part of the world for a long time. But Conor is not complaining about the snow. Heck no, the snow is no problem and autism is not an issue. Conor enjoys the snow, he loves the snow, just like so many other Canadian kids.

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"Medicare for Autism Now!" Rally, Sunday, March 2nd at 2 PM

"Medicare for Autism Now!" Rally

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Shadbolt Centre for the Arts
6450 Deer Lake Avenue
Burnaby

Don't forget the Medicare for Autism Now Rally tomorrow March 2nd in Burnaby! Medicare coverage of autism treatment, particularly ABA, would ensure that all autistic children in Canada receive ABA coverage without regard for accidents of geography. It would also help ensure that ABA services that are provided are protected from erosion or loss resulting from that minority, but still common, and often influential, type of bureaucrat who places his, or her, career agenda before the interests of the autistic children they are supposed to help.

Come out and voice your support for Medicare for Autism NOW! Voice your support for autistic children and their right to effective, evidence based treatment NOW!

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Where's Conor? Where Did Conor Go?

Conor has autism disorder.

He also has his own lively personality quite separate and apart from his autism. He is much more as a person than his autism. He is a lot of fun. While these pictures were being taken I was asking "Where's Conor?" "Where did Conor go?" (When my mouth wasn't covered).

Conor enjoyed every second of our fun. And so did Dad.

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Autism Disorder Versus Asperger's Syndrome

The Autism Society of America has published a good overview of Autism Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome on TylerPaper.com. The article contains a basic description of both Autism Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome and helps distinguish between the two similar but distinct disorders:

What distinguishes Asperger's Syndrome from autism is the severity of the symptoms and the absence of language delays. To the untrained observer, a child with Asperger's may seem just like a normal child behaving differently. They may be socially awkward, not understanding of conventional social rules, or show a lack of empathy. They may make limited eye contact, seem to be unengaged in a conversation, and not understand the use of gestures.

One of the major differences between Asperger's Syndrome and autism is that, by definition, there is no speech delay in Asperger's. In fact, children with Asperger's frequently have good language skills; they simply use language in different ways. Speech patterns may be unusual, lack inflection, or have a rhythmic nature or it may be formal, but too loud or high pitched. Children with Asperger's may not understand the subtleties of language, such as irony and humor, or they may not recognize the give-and-take nature of a conversation.

Another distinction between Asperger's Syndrome and autism concerns cognitive ability. While some individuals with autism experience mental retardation, by definition a person with Asperger's cannot possess a "clinically significant" cognitive delay, and most possess average to above-average intelligence.

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Autism Likely Caused By Interplay of Immune, Genetic and Environmental factors

Following is the link to an abstract of an article, Antibodies against fetal brain in sera of mothers with autistic children, published in the February issue of the Journal of Neuroimmunology

and the media release translating it into ordinary language for us mortals which implicates the mother's immune system as a possible contributing factor in causing autism.

Lead investigator Harvey Singer, M.D., director of pediatric neurology at John Hopkins Children's Center, stresses that autism is a complex condition caused by an interplay of immune, genetics and environmental factors. Further studies are needed to confirm that particular antibodies do indeed cross the placenta and cause damage to the fetal brain.

Autism's Origins: Mother's Antibody Production May Affect Fetal Brain BALTIMORE, Feb. 25


(AScribe Newswire) -- The mothers of some autistic children may have made antibodies against their fetuses' brain tissue during pregnancy that crossed the placenta and caused changes that led to autism, suggests research led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center investigators and published in the February issue of the Journal of Neuroimmunology.

The causes of autism, a disorder manifesting itself with a range of brain problems and marked by impaired social interactions, communication disorders and repetitive behaviors, remain unknown for an estimated 90 percent of children diagnosed with it. Genetic, metabolic and environmental factors have been implicated in various studies of autism, a disorder affecting 1 in 150 U.S. children, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Now our research suggests that the mother's immune system may be yet another factor or a trigger in those already predisposed," says lead investigator Harvey Singer, M.D., director of pediatric neurology at Hopkins Children's.

Researchers caution that the findings needn't be cause for alarm, but should be viewed instead as a step forward in untangling the complex nature of autism.

Mostly anecdotal past evidence of immune system involvement has emerged from unusual antibody levels in some autistic children and from postmortem brain tissue studies showing immune abnormalities in areas of the brain. Antibodies are proteins the body makes in response to viruses and bacteria or sometimes mistakenly against its own tissues. Yet, the majority of children with autism have no clinical evidence of autoimmune diseases, which prompted researchers to wonder whether the antibodies transferred from mother to child during pregnancy could interfere with the fetal brain directly.

To test their hypothesis, the research team used a technique called immunoblotting (or Western blot technology), in which antibodies derived from blood samples are exposed to adult and fetal brain tissue to check whether the antibodies recognize and react against specific brain proteins.

Comparing the antibody-brain interaction in samples obtained from 100 mothers of autistic children and 100 mothers of children without autism, researchers found either stronger reactivity or more areas of reactivity between antibodies and brain proteins in about 40 percent of the samples obtained from the mothers of autistic children. Further, the presence of maternal antibodies was associated with so-called developmental regression in children, increasingly immature behaviors that are a hallmark of autism.

While the findings suggest an association between autism and the presence of fetal brain antibodies, the investigators say further studies are needed to confirm that particular antibodies do indeed cross the placenta and cause damage to the fetal brain.

"The mere fact that a pregnant woman has antibodies against the fetal brain doesn't mean she will have an autistic child," Singer says. "Autism is a complex condition and one that is likely caused by the interplay of immune, genetic and environmental factors."

Researchers are also studying the effect of maternal antibodies in pregnant mice. Preliminary results show that the offspring of mice injected with brain antibodies exhibit developmental and social behaviors consistent with autism.

Senior author on the study: Andrew W. Zimmerman, M.D., of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Co-authors: Christina Morris and Colin Gause, both of Hopkins; Pam Gillin of the Kennedy Krieger Institute; and Stephen Crawford, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study was funded by the Alliance for Autism Research.

- - - -

CONTACT: Ekaterina Pesheva, Johns Hopkins Children's Center, 410-516-4996, pager 410-283-1966, epeshev1@jhmi.edu

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Autism Treatment Quotes 2007-2008

"If we had done what so many people told us to do years ago, we wouldn't have the child we have today. We would have written her off. Then what would she be today?

We never would have seen she could write these things. Can you imagine? We would have never have gotten out of her how articulate she is how intelligent she is. Now, she tells us stories, she teases her brother. She just does it in a different way, she does it with her computer."

Arthur Fleishmann, Carly's Dad, discussing his, and his wife Tammy's, decision to provide Carly with early intensive ABA treatment, CTV, February 17, 2008

The effectiveness of ABA-based intervention in ASDs has been well documented through 5 decades of research by using single-subject methodology21,25,27,28 and in controlled studies of comprehensive early intensive behavioral intervention programs in university and community settings.29–40 Children who receive early intensive behavioral treatment have been shown to make substantial, sustained gains in IQ, language, academic performance, and adaptive behavior as well as some measures of social behavior, and their outcomes have been significantly better than those of children in control groups.31–40

American Academy of Pediatrics, Management of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, October 29, 2007

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Autism In Tasmania - Autistic School Children Are Being Denied ABA

Autism activists in the Australia island state of Tasmania, Action for Tasmania's Autistic Children, are angry over the failure by the Department of Education to provide applied behavior analysis for autistic school children in Tasmania. As reported by ABC Tasmania, and in the ATAC Media Release of February 24, 2008, the group's secretary, Roger Law, claims that some aides for autistic children are being taken away and the department is avoiding providing ABA for the children:

""The only effective treatment for autism is applied behavioural analysis and very intensive, and because it's costly the schools have avoided it"

It seems that, no matter the jurisdiction, professional "educators" simply will not acknowledge that many autistic children need Applied Behavior Analysis to learn and develop. I would not be surprised if the Tasmanian "educators" trot out the old "one side does not fit all" cliché to justify their failure.

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Senator Jim Munson Continues National Autism Strategy Efforts

Senator Jim Munson is continuing his campaign for a National Autism Strategy. Senator Munson has been unrelenting in his efforts to help a constituency that Prime Minister Harper and Alleged Health Minister Tony Clement ignore - Canadians with autism. Speaking recently on Prince Edward Island Senator Munson stated that he would like to see the federal government take the lead in developing a National Autism Strategy to end the current patchwork of provincial programs"

“It’s expensive but buying tanks is expensive too. “What we have now is a
patchwork, scattergun approach to dealing with autism in individual provinces.”

Senator Jim Munson, The Guardian, February 23, 2008

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Carly's Writings - A Child With Autism Tells Her Story

Carly's Writings - CTV News Photo

In Girl's writings opening new window on autism CTV tells the story of 13 year old Carly, diagnosed with autism at an early age and non verbal, who can now communicate very well with a computer. Carly surprised her family and therapists when she began typing words and then sentences. Carly was believed to be intellectually challenged. She is able to describe the frustrations she endures because of being different, in some ways, then other children, and because of her inability to express herself verbally. At the same time she describes very ordinary feelings for a child, including having "crushes" and describing "yucky" siblings.

The CTV article states that Carly's development of computer assisted communication abilities challenges conventional views of autism. That may be so, at least for some children with autism disorders. But Carly's story also challenges the anti-ABA, anti-treatment, ideology advocated by some prominent "autistics" and espoused by their neurodiversity followers. And challenges their rhetoric that all persons with autism want to remain autistic.

Carly's parents refused to "write her off" and instead obtained intensive ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) intervention for her. Professionals, including autism specialist Dr. Wendy Roberts, who has read some of her writings and observed Carly on video, says that she is "certainly unique in her abilities and provides some fascinating insights into the condition of autism". Dr. Roberts also notes that "Carly possesses unique abilities that make her a rare case, or it may be that her early and intensive training simply drew the skills out." Her parents are very happy that they provided Carly with the benefits of ABA therapy.

CTV has also provided a separate page of Carly's writings which are fascinating reading. Some of what she says strikes me in many ways as similar to what I imagine my son Conor is feeling. I found her writings on stimming particularly interesting.

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Conor And Dad Dueling Computers

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Autism in Ireland - Fianna Fail Uses Old, Failed Logic, Tired Clichés, In Denying ABA Help To Autistic Children

It is sad to see that in Ireland today that old, failed logic and tired clichés like "one size does not fit all" are being trotted out by the governing Fianna Fail party to deny Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services to autistic children in Ireland:


Fianna Fáil's Peter Power appealed to the Opposition not to assume that those opposing the motion were 'anti-children', saying nobody was absolutely right, or absolutely wrong.

There was derisive laughter from the gallery when Fianna Fáil's Margaret Conlon, a former teacher, referred to children with special needs demonstrating their abilities 'when they play their tin whistles as a group'.

Concluding the debate for the Government, Minister Micheál Martin said the Government did not believe 'one size fits all', because autism is a continuum, and said the idea of a wide range of teaching methods was not a ridiculous suggestion.



These rationalizations were trotted out a decade ago in New Brunswick and other jurisdictions in Canada and the United States in an effort to deny proven effective ABA services for autistic children desperately in need of such help. These rationalizations are used to provide cover for a refusal to provide effective help for autistic children, not because of genuine concern that other methods might be more appropriate, but because of the cost implications of providing effective ABA intervention.

The reality is that stubborn insistence on refusing the only widely endorsed, evidence based, effective intervention for autistic children is motivated by nothing more than miserliness. The concern of those who resort to such obviously weak excuses has nothing to do with ensuring that each autistic child receives the best intervention possible for that child. If it were they would provide ABA for each child for whom, in their wisdom, they consider it appropriate and other interventions, whatever they might be, for the others. But they won't do that either; governing parties are often just too cheap to spend money to provide evidence based, effective ABA treatment and education for autistic children.

In New Brunswick the government of the day tried the old "one size does not fit all" approach . The debate over whether ABA should be provided by government was intense and at times very personal. But today, although improvements are badly needed, government funded ABA intervention is provided for pre schoolers and some methods and resource teachers and teacher aides are being trained to provide ABA in the school setting. My son with Autism Disorder , and in grade 6, receives ABA instruction every day at Nashwaaksis Middle School. ABA services are also provided to one extent or another in jurisdictions across Canada.

The debate in New Brunswick, and elsewhere, was moved forward by focusing on the principle that interventions should have a solid evidence basis to support their effectiveness. Without an evidence basis parents and officials are essentially gambling with the development of autistic children by wasting time on unproven and unreliable interventions. Here in New Brunswick it was the insistence on evidence based interventions that emerged from an Inter Departmental Committee review of autism specific services in 2001, which at that time were virtually non existent. It is that commitment to evidence based practices which has led to substantial improvements, and to the provision of ABA services for autistic children in New Brunswick.

One of the most helpful and influential reviews of the studies of autism intervention effectiveness was the MADSEC ( Maine Administrators of Services for Children with Disabilities) Autism Task Force Report 1999, 2000 (rev.ed.) The MADSEC Autism Task Force was commissioned to:

perform a detailed analysis of methodologies with which to educate children
with autism. This analysis will focus upon the scope and quality of scientific
research which objectively substantiates, or fails to substantiate, each method’s
effectiveness. Based upon the research analysis, the MADSEC Autism Task Force
will make recommendations for the consideration of decision makers who are key
to the intervention of children with autism. (Mission Statement, p. 2 )

The MADSEC team reviewed the scientific literature, literally hundreds of studies, in support of various autism interventions. It concluded, as summarize in its Executive Summary at pages 5-6:

• Substantiated as effective based upon the scope and quality of research:

Applied behavior analysis. In addition, applied behavior analysis’ evaluative procedures are effective not only with behaviorally-based interventions, but also for the systematic evaluation of the efficacy of any intervention intended to affect individual learning and behavior. ABA’s emphasis on functional assessment and positive behavioral support will help meet heightened standards of IDEA ‘97. Its emphasis on measurable goals and reliable data collection will substantiate the child’s progress in the event of due process.

• Shows promise, but is not yet objectively substantiated as effective for individuals with autism using controlled studies and subject to the rigors of good science:

Auditory Integration Training, The Miller Method, Sensory Integration, and TEACCH.

• Repeatedly subjected to the rigors of science, which leads numerous researchers to conclude the intervention is not effective, may be harmful, or may lead to unintended consequences:

Facilitated Communication.

• Without scientific evaluation of any kind:

Greenspan’s DIR/”Floor Time,” Son-Rise.

The MADSEC depiction of ABA as the only autism intervention substantiated as effective, based on the scope and quality of research in support, was not the only review of the research literature to reach such a conclusion. State agencies in New York and California and the office of the US Surgeon General had reached similar conclusions. Nor was it the last.

In Management of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, October 29, 2007 the American Academy of Pediatrics stated:

Applied Behavior Analysis

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the process of applying interventions that are based on the principles of learning derived from experimental psychology research to systematically change behavior and to demonstrate that the interventions used are responsible for the observable improvement in behavior. ABA methods are used to increase and maintain desirable adaptive behaviors, reduce interfering maladaptive behaviors or narrow the conditions under which they occur, teach new skills, and generalize behaviors to new environments or situations. ABA focuses on the reliable measurement and objective evaluation of observable behavior within relevant settings including the home, school, and community. The effectiveness of ABA-based intervention in ASDs has been well documented through 5 decades of research by using single-subject methodology 21,25,27,28 and in controlled studies of comprehensive early intensive behavioral intervention programs in university and community settings.29–40 Children who receive early intensive behavioral treatment have been shown to make substantial, sustained gains in IQ, language, academic performance, and adaptive behavior as well as some measures of social behavior, and their outcomes have been significantly better than those of children in control groups.31–40

Other interventions were evaluated by the AAP but no other intervention received a comparative positive assessment, not even close.

Fianna Fail is using the old beaten argument that one size does not fit all to justify refusal to provide ABA services to autistic children. In doing so they are denying those children the opportunity to realize, in the words of the AAP, "substantial, sustained gains in IQ, language, academic performance, and adaptive behavior as well as some measures of social behavior".

Fianna Fail has its counterpart here in Canada. Although most provincial jurisdictions try to provide ABA services, the level of funding, and extent of service provided, varies from province to province. Our federal government has huge surpluses but will not provide funding to the provinces to pay for more ABA intervention. The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Alleged Health Minister Tony Clement refuse, on a variety of flimsy grounds, including the old "one size does not fit all cliché", to spend money to help autistic children.

For Ireland's Fianna Fail, and for Canada's Conservative Party, it appears that money means more than children .... more tha