Autism News Comments 2006-09-15
Asperger’s and High-Functioning Autistic and PDD-NOS largely just need smaller classrooms and structure to support socialization and emotional self-control. Classic Kanner autistic people are not retarded at all once they get over their major sensory integration issues and language and catch up on their learning afterword. Small classrooms and special schools often treat all their special-ed students as learning-disabled (LD), regardless of handicap. AS, HFA and some PDD-NOS kids need mostly social and emotional support more than anything else, and barring major disruptive behavior, can handle par or even superior acedemic standards. I think too many AS and HFA are being pampered into incompetency. PDD-NOS and LFA-HFA transionaries will need extensive speech therapy and modest mortor coordination and sensory integration therapy though. But AS and HFA shouldn’t cost more than double of a regular student – third-to-half sized classes and extra planning for emotional and social handicaps with possible counseling and speech therapy. Mainstream classroom chaperones are very expensive. I think they are a inefficient use of money. Small classrooms that are optimized for social-emotional handicap rather than learning handicap is far more efficient.
Finding a mainstream IQ / standardized testing and educational solution for kinesthetic (touch) dominant individuals will also help lower non-austic LD special-ed costs. I think a lot of low-income kids or kids with poor parenting also end up in special-ed as LD because lots of preeschool or home-schooling is required to meet Kindergarten to 1st grade academic standards these days.
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Dealing with language delay and sensory integration issues in early intervention is the best way to turn a low-functioning kanner ‘infantile’ autistic kid into a high-functioning autistic kid or even to function like an asperger syndrome kid.
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I don’t expect boy scouts to be overly open to cappy-charity beyond a basic sense of belonging at the troop meetings. Include him if he isn’t disruptive due to behavior or incompetence (swearing. If he can’t make the requirements without fudging too much then he doesn’t advance. Regardless, barring disruptive behavior or dangerous incompetancy, one shouldn’t be excluded, ridculed, or rejected. If the troop had to look after him way too much in the past for a particular type of event, then they have the right to exclude him from future events of that type or diffuclty. My guess is that this event required integration into a team doing activities that required a lot team communication. The second article says that this particular troop is a high-discipline, high achievement, high-level troop that cannot accomadate handicap-charity to keep their standards up. Very few college and high-end varsity high school sports teams will even accept handicapped athletes unless there are exploitable special talents and that is no gaurentee. Boy scouts do have a lot of open laid back troops. They usually have a high-achieving subsets of 5-15 kids that go on all the outings and the rest are there just their for fun, maybe a few badges here and their and advance just a few ranks. There are even some troops that only accept modestly handicapped kids (AS, AFA, LD, ADHD, mentally normal blind, deaf, or wheelchairs). So I would recommend finding another troop instead of sueing if you live in a neighborhood with multiple local troops. Aperger and High-Functioning Autistic (This Casey kid is HFA or HF-PDD-NOS and not AS if he had language delay according to the DSM-IV!) definitly will not function in Troop 223. And Boy scouts do not receive goverment funding, so they can do whatever they damn please, so I think they should lose the case. They should either switch troops or go to the boy scouts central bureaucracy, if either are possible. I think they should allow alternative chaperones though, if they know this Casey kid and his AS/HFA.
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“The problem with these kinds of studies is, you never know whether it is cause or effect.”. I think it is more effect. Not all autistic people have gastro (excessive diarhea) problems. It will probably treat the gastro-problem symptom though and possibly reduce some stress. This study got botched up though because of group switching and a high dropout rate.
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Saving 52000 out of 140000, PER YEAR is a lot of savings (in british pounds, not dollars). Most people don’t even make a $100,000 per year at their jobs. Shooting him or letting him rot on the street will save all 140,000 pounds (probably $300,000 – pretty nice house) of it! Thats a lot of my (if it was USA) tax dollars for somebody won’t contribute anything to the world, not even blogging or file sharing! If the family ain’t paying the dough, then they shouldn’t be bitching. I think it costs only $30,000 per year to keep an non-handicapped medium-high security inmate in prison. Normal Special-school Special-ed is under $50,000 (vs Normal mainstream kids $10-20K) i think, and kids at this level can at least use Emule or Blog or make art or something, or work part time in a disability-job.
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My father had me when he was 25. My mother was 23. I think my father has a higher ‘AQ’ (Austistic-Spectrum Quotient) athan my mother though but both are above average, though I am guessing becasue neither have actually taken the test. I scored 41. I think down syndrome and other genetic disorders is linked to older parents too. The study is Isreali and the reference age is 40. It did not mention any measurements of severity. But as far as I know, female autistics tend to be lower functioning, and one theory of autsim is that the more sever low-functioning kanner autis (beyond early intervention age) have an extra chromosome seems to fit the patter of the study a little and that the study is focusing on the low-functioning end of the autsitic specturm.
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My cholesterol is borderline-high, running 210-225 with a little bit low HDL and average LDL. It is close to my father’s cholesterol, but slightly higher because I have a fattier diet (I don’t smoke or drink though, and my BP averages 125/85 to 135/90-95 with a 120/80 min and a 140/100 max). My mother and my sister have sky-high cholesterol levels, 250-280 for my mother (smoker, chronic high-blood pressure (175/100 abouts before the drugs), high-stress mid-adulthood, crappy diet in mid-adulthood, average-good diet now), and over 300 for my sister (alcholic, smoker, medicocre diet, don’t remember BP). I don’t fit the low-cholesterol study pattern.
