Autism Speaks, with its brutally honest new video "I Am Autism", has broken Commandment #6 of Neurodiversity's Ten Autism Commandments which forbids any negative depictions of autism.
The information in the video is not presented delicately but the challenges faced by persons with severe autism and their families are depicted honestly, perhaps too honestly for many. But the people most upset by this video are those who subscribe to the belief that autism is not a disorder but rather something to be celebrated.
My son Conor is severely autistic and he and our family have experienced many of the challenges featured in I Am Autism. I applaud Autism Speaks for breaking the absurd taboo against speaking the truth about autism disorders imposed by those who do not share the realities of severe autism; people like Ari Ne'eman, the very high functioning, intelligent person with Aspergers who does not share the challenges of persons with severe Autistic Disorder. These "Autism" Self Advocates and Neurodiversity ideologues protest because they have essentially co-opted autism disorders since the expansion of the DSM criteria in 1994. They like to call themselves "autistics" and "auties" but they do not want to acknowledge the harsher realities of the severely autistic. The severely autistic are shunted into the closet of suppressed speech where they can remain invisible and not offend the sensibilities of the HFA/Aspergers leaders of the self advocacy movement.
I will speak the truth about autism and I will not be cowed by those who have it much better than my son. I find the continuing attempt to suppress the truth about autism to be offensive and a violation of my son's most basic rights of expression through me and others who speak honestly about his condition.
Thank You Autism Speaks for speaking the truth about autism ... the real autism.
autism
I have no problem with the video however I wouldn't give one cent to Autism Spekas and neither will many other parents I know. Autism Speaks will be spinning their wheels with their bogus "research" 20 years from now with Suzanne Wright and her cronnies claiming to want to help the children. My money will go to places like TACA or an organization that isn't interested in high end NYC offices and Hollywood events, but rather in finding the underlying cause of autism.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 4:53
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments about the research directions of Autism Speaks. Giving money to people like Laurent Mottron to conduct research to demonstrate the intelligence of some persons with High Functioning Autism is one obvious example of wasted money ... and time.
I understand the concerns about fancy offices and Hollywood events but I believe that Autism Speaks has used such resources well to increase awareness of autism.
And AS had the guts to produce "I Am Autism" knowing that it would be denounced by the "autism is beautiful" crowd at the ASAN and Autism Hub neurodiversity centers.
The "autism is beautiful" crowd is utterly pathetic. The fact that they try to speak for the more severely affected children is a disgrace and, quite frankly, I don't think half of them are even autistic. Just misfits of society looking to blame something!
ReplyDeleteThat said, Autism Speaks is nothing but a media machine who has been chanting the same pointless research for a while. They are a joke and the parents who walk for them and constantly promote them are typically parents who haven't a clue. Sorry, sad but true.
I have money and I would NEVER give anything to them or any center or organization associated with them. I think they do nothing but use the children to rake in money that primarily goes right into their own pockets.
We may disagree on things... Which is OK too... But on this we are 100% in agreement.
ReplyDeleteAutism is NOT glorious.
ASAN and it's ilk don't give a damn about those with Autistic disorder and I've bopped around the Hub with their whining - like Club 166 today - saying so.
Autism like my eldest has and like they all do... simple, easy, wonderful... he's off with a friend having supper at their church tonight. Autism like little boys... yes, he's easy going, lovable, friendly... but watching him in the playground trying to figure out how to interact with the children - who were very kind, not complaing about them - broke my heart.
to 4:53 - Find the underlying cause of autism? Are you for real?
ReplyDeleteThe cause is very simple - DENIAL
Denial that autism is caused by allowing kids to be vaccinated.
Take for instance the latest scam... The H1N1 Vaccine is a toxic soup containing:
- thimerosal (mercury)
- porcine gelatin (pork gelatin)
- formaldehyde (to get you ready for the mortician?)
- squalene (can you say Gulf War Syndrome?)
- polyethylene glycol p-isooctylpheny ether (umm antifreeze - yeah ok)
- sucrose (yum yum for your sweet tooth)
-nnonoxynol-9 (used in spermicide WTF? This has been shown to increase the risk of HPV cancer infection)
Trace amounts of the following are from the preparation of the pork gelatin:
tetrachloroethylene
food-grade mineral acids such as:
- hydrochloric (HCl)
- phosphoric (H3PO4)
- sulfuric (H2SO4) acid
No farmwife, according to ND you are just a whiny, yuppy, self-centered martyr mom who is unhappy that she just didn't get easy kids.
ReplyDeleteThat was sarcasm, BTW. I've been reading what the ND blogs have to say about the video and those of us parents who are not just thrilled to the gills that our kids are autistic :P
Natalie began after school in-home ABA therapy earlier this week, BTW. So far so good. She is already warming up to the therapist and starting to sit with him longer at the table and she has only had two sessions so far.
Regardless of the merits or lack of them of the "I am autism" video, the video has no credibility whatsoever as long as they give Laurent Mottron, a man who states that autism is harmless and a difference rather than a dysfunction and a medical doctor who posthumously diagnosed Niklas Tessla with autism a half a million dollars to spend on research on how he sees fit. Certainly the part of the parents and other relatives of autism fighting autism is false advertising as long as they fund the research of this man.
ReplyDeleteNavy Mom - they hate more more than most because I live with a child on either end of the spectrum. They hate that I know you can deal with social and behavioural issues - it's called PARENTING, EDUCATION and DISCIPLINE - especially for one on the upper end.
ReplyDeleteMy eldest (10) has no idea he has a diagnosis, he's never been told. When he finally is, he's going to learn that life hasn't changed any, whining about how hard done by he is, whining about how life is hard, whining about how nobody understands him or blaming everything on it... Isn't going to happen.
Where were they when Jonathon went to his hearing for his social security $$. Where are they when children go missing. Where were they when Kristina's (Autism Vox's) boy is being kicked out of his school... Where???? No where because they don't want to be seen as having the same diagnosis.
It hasn't been roses. It's been downright thorny at times. But I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever, blamed my children for it.
But to sugar coat those thorns and claim I should "get over" them, ignores the truth... Autism is a DISABILITY, not a difference.
Hope your ABA goes well... ours did not.
I'd like to pay for more private speech therapy but living in "no man's land" has put it out of reach unfortunately. They jumped the price from $100/hr to $200 because they said the gas was too expensive and we lived 30min away... Huh?? $100 for an hour of travel time?? Don't know what gas they were buying but that's ridiculous. Eldest was in a Sat morning program (9 to 12), an hour away but that was easier to do when little boy was little. Not so easy now that both are getting bigger. So I do the best I can at home.
I think there is a double-edged sword here.
ReplyDeleteAutism Speaks would do people with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Disorder if they explicitly omit these groups from their agenda and focus on those who demand treatment.
The people who say "Autism is beautiful" are likely referring to those who are high-functioning and experience the ability to speak for themselves. These people are beautiful as they are and as long as they are happy being themselves, "Autism Speaks" really needs to let them alone and not speak for them. You wouldn't like it if someone labeled you by something that singles you out either. NOBODY WOULD.
There needs to be "Autism Speaks" for those who cannot express their condition in any medium, and the rest of the people on the spectrum are not being helped by "Autism Speaks".
You are rather making people unhappy who live and breathe normal lives and don't want to conform to neuro-typicals, and life is short, we're all individuals, and some Aspies and Auties want to be just that. I know one myself who moved to the coast of Oregon and she is VERY HAPPY and she does not want anyone to cure or change her. Do you understand?
Anonymous 7:29
ReplyDeleteYes I do understand.
The problem is that the "Aspies" and "Auties" you are talking about are not content to speak for themselves. They tell the world that "WE", meaning everyone with an autism disorder, do not want to be cured, that autism is not really a disorder and that the truths depicted in the I Am Autism video do not really exist.
They take offense because parents of severely autistic children tell the world the truth about their own children's autism disorders and this the Auties and Aspies your object to because they identify with "autism" and do not harsh things said about autism.