soap box time

Stupidity angers me. Stupidity towards children angers me even more. There is this radio personality for MSNBC that is very controversial. He goes by the name Michael Savage and his show is called Savage Nation. His latest off the wall remarks are towards the population of children with autism. His view is that 99% of those diagnosed with autism don't really have it and that they are just "brats". I went to his website and listened to his explanation of his remarks. He bases his beliefs off of the fact that he had a brother with a disbility that died in an institution. He says that the pharmaceutical companies are pushing for a diagnosis of autism to get their drugs out there. He feels that there is an overdiagnosis of the disorder. As an Intervention Specialist whom specializes in working with the autistic population, I do not think there is an overdiagnosis. What I think you are seeing is new awareness by parents. It was not socially acceptable to have a child with a cognitive disability many years ago. You didn't talk about it and you certainly didn't see them out in public. He stated that doctors have broadened the term to encompass more. Yes, that is true. There is still so much we do not know about autism. There are such varying degrees of it. So therefore we discribe it as a spectrum. There are key characteristics we look for when diagnosing and depending on the severity, it will determine where on the spectrum that child falls. I have worked with children that have had very average to above average IQs. They were very high functioning and you would hardly know they were on the spectrum. But then I have also worked with those that are on the opposite end of the spectrum, average intelligence but communication delays like you wouldn't believe. Behaviors coming out that stemmed from them not being able to let us know what it was they were trying to communicate. That's not a brat. That is a child crying out for help. It just angers me that someone can be so callous and make an assumption like that. Until you have been in the trenches with these children day in and day out and gotten to know them, you can not make a general assumption like that. Yes there may be a few cases where the diagnosis was wrong. I have dealt with that before. But to say that 99% of children with autism are faking it is wrong. I would love to invite that man into my room any day and have him tell me that my students are faking their disabilities.