Canopus

Only a tiny fraction of parents of kids with AS have turned towards foreign or alternative news sources. The majority still have faith and trust in the British mainstream media. One of my favourite news sources is Press TV. It must be highly effective at exposing corruption in Europe because earlier this year Ofcom removed it from Sky and more recently the EU have removed it from Eutelsat. http://www.presstv.ir/section/SaveFreedomOfSpeech.html

I could say similar things about the British people and how they are influenced by the mainstream media. I suspect that a significant proportion of users of this forum get the bulk of their information from the mainstream media, believe 99% of it, and assume that if something is ignored by the mainstream media then it is probably irrelevant.

I recommend watching the video Extradition by Turab Shah. It is very moving. http://extraditionfilm.com/

The information that I have gathered is that he is a completely unheard of individual on the other side of the Atlantic and only made it into the news after he was extradited. Even the highly controversial Abu Hamza isn't all that well known. Remember that the American media is very localised and reports far less international news than the British media does. It is believed that Talha Ahsan in detained in solitary confinement and cut off from the outside world under Special Administrative Measures where he can only communicate with his lawyer who is restricted from conveying information about his health to his family or outside organisations.

What I find absolutely sickening is the case of double standards in justice by extraditing the poet Talha Ahsan, who also has AS, to the United States just a few days beforehand after spending 6 years detained in prison in the UK without trial. http://www.channel4.com/news/mckinnon-and-ahsan-a-tale-of-two-extraditions http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/why-do-politicians-celebrities-and-the-media-flock-to-gary-mckinnons-cause-but-stay-silent-about-the-likes-of-talha-ahsan-from-tooting-8215138.html http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/16/gary-mckinnon-talha-ahsan-babar-ahmad_n_1969651.html http://freetalha.org/about/ To make matters worse, Gary McKinnon has admitted to his crimes whereas Talha Ahsan has pleaded innocent and has so far been refused a trial. It's an extremely bad case of rough justice and the NAS have been hostile towards him. The media have smeared him by lumping him along with Abu Hamza who was extradited on the same day and has previously stood trial in the UK and sentenced to jail here. Personally I think Talha Ahsan is doomed and may even die in solitary confinement before his trial in the US in October 2013. His family have heard nothing from him since the 5th October.

The best option would be to go into partnership with somebody who is NT even if it is only a family member. Similar to Apple in its early days where Steve Wozniak was the technical mind and Steve Jobs the business and marketing mind. Part of the problem results from adult education courses mirroring SEN services in schools by being too biased towards hard skills and technical knowledge whilst being severely lacking in soft skills. Workplace training courses aren't much better. Where I work there seems to be plenty of courses for learn about the technicalities of products I deal with and employees who require more general technical education are offered courses by the local college. However, there is little in the way of training or courses for things like customer service and diplomacy which people with AS will benefit from. I think it all stems from AS being such a rare condition. If about 10% the population had AS then there would be much more in the way of soft skills training than there is now.

Real world experience with other parents, although it may not be representative of the true situation nationally. I was already aware of that from previous posts as an exceptional case although I have never met you nor your son in real life.

I'm of the opinion that the system in primary schools nowadays is better for kids with AS than that in most primary schools back in the 1970s and 80s. Secondary school might be slightly worse with the dumbing down and the style of the curriculum after O Levels were replaced by GCSEs. In the past kids with AS were more often than not misdiagnosed as having some other problem - such as EBD or schizophrenia - resulting in the wrong solutions being offered to them which almost always made the situation worse. Even though schools still fail kids with AS, rarely will they be misdiagnosed because of advances in knowledge. Under the 1996 Education Act it is the parents who are responsible for a child's education. Not the school.

The information was revealed through meeting parents at support groups over the years. ASD has been described sometimes as a learning difference and the system of mainstream (and many private) schools teaches using styles geared towards middle of the road NT kids. At the same time, most schools do not effectively provide services and support that kids with ASD need because they are rarely required for the middle of the road NT masses. This combined with difficult social relationships between kids with ASD and their classmates creates a whole raft of problems that the parents have to deal with. The parents therefore (rather naively IMO) believe that if their kids were cured of ASD then they could fit in at school like most of the other NT kids and not cause any problems for themselves, the teachers, and their other classmates. Parents often compare themselves with other parents and their kids with other kids. One parent even quoted that if her son were NT then she would be spending the evening at a restaurant rather than the support group like the parents of the NT classmate who lives next door. Another parent stated that AS has degraded my child's life and her own life. The straightforward answer is that the kids diagnosed with AS today are diagnosed with AS. Adults who were late diagnosed were usually misdiagnosed as having another condition or a behavioural problem whilst at school.

It's a bit more sophisticated than this. You are broadly correct in the cases of certain variants of ASD which are likely to exclude all possibility of a reasonably independent life. However, a considerable proportion of parents of kids with AS and HFA favour a cure simply on the basis that it will eliminate most of the problems they have at school therefore resulting in a 'normal' life for all the family. I have over the years encountered many home educated kids with AS and HFA, and so far, not a single parent has wanted them to be cured of their condition.

Self employment for people with AS is a subject that definitely needs to be looked at more seriously than it currently is. The NAS has little to say about it - but then they aren't really interested in people once they hit 18 if they are capable of anything other than a low skill job. Business and entrepreneural activity is barely covered by the school curriculum - which is strongly designed around an assumption of working for somebody else. An overwhelming number of parents are too preoccupied with issues relating to school and social skills (with other kids) that they fail to devote sufficient attention to what will happen after the age of 16. Their first and foremost learning objectives are NC subjects and gaining GCSEs without much thought about whether the knowledge is really useful or the qualifications essential for success after school. There are an odd few shining lights here and there. Some people in the HE community are looking at self employment seriously. One parent of a teenager with AS who is active in a local support group says that academic study is only really worth it if you are very talented (like having a maths A Level at 12 years old) or are aiming for a highly paid professional career like law or medicine. Other than that it's better for youngsters to look more seriously at real world things and how to make money rather than heading off to university. Even if you are not planning self employment, a knowledge and appreciation of business is highly valued by employers. The days of when you could achieve success in employment using academic qualifications and technical skills has (sadly?) gone. If you want a job in IT for example, you will have much more success if you can combine your technical skills and knowledge with business nous or management experience.

I was thinking along similar lines. Earlier this year I attended a meeting about setting up an AS friendly company based around microcontrollers and embedded systems as there would be more diversity than with software testing - such as CAD of board layouts, electromagnetic compatibility, digital and analogue electronics - in addition to software but not a lot has materialised so far.

Here is an interesting question. If the economic situation in the UK continues to worsen to the point where social problems and crime are totally out of control then would you be happy for the UK to no longer exist as an independent nation but instead become part of another wealthier country such as China or Iran? Businesses merge or get taken over when they are no longer financially viable but the same principle can equally apply to nations.

The problem with the state secondary school system is that it was set up in an information poor era with the aim of teaching a broad selection of subjects which may or may not be useful in later life under an ideology of just in case it is useful. Once one had finished school then their opportunity to study and learn had been diminished so it was advantageous to make the most of school and learn as much as one could, again, just in case the knowledge is be useful. In reality much of the knowledge acquired by students was forgotten and never used either in or out of work but that didn't stop parents and teachers making baseless arguments like 'it will all pay off in future'. Nowadays we live in an information rich era where opportunities to acquire knowledge outside of formal education is greater than ever thanks to the internet. This has resulted in certain educational strategists developing the view that it is more important for students of secondary school age to develop the skills and ability of how to learn and find out knowledge and information as when one requires it rather than cramming one's brain with knowledge of invariable utility on a just in case it is useful basis. The ability to find out about things like Newton's laws of motion or study the history of the Norman conquest in depth at the age of 30 with the minimal amount of guidance and direction of a classroom teacher are now far more useful skills to possess than a fuzzy and superficial knowledge of such subjects acquired during one's teenage life when one is uninterested and then half forgotten at the age of 30. Schools haven't moved forwards and still follow the ideology of 'fill the bucket' although nowadays the trend is for schools to teach to the test in order to pass exams rather than operate as fountains of knowledge as they did in the past. Such a system has the potential to be inhibitive and create students who have difficulty in self directed learning without the guidance of a teacher. Students in schools compete against a fixed system called the GCSE syllabus except in sports where they compete against each other. In the real world most competition is against other people rather than a fixed system.

The Gold Standard was abolished back in the 1930s. Ever since then Sterling has been a falsely valued currency or a number in a computer. It has further devalued with the replacement of silver coins by cupronickel after WWII then the trend away from cash towards cashless payments since 1970 has reduced the amount of cash in circulation. This has created the conditions where the bankers have the opportunity to totally screw up the economy and why gold prices are skyrocketing. Most of the cost of petrol at the pump is in the form of tax. It would be under 40p a litre if it wasn't taxed. I'm of the opinion that taxing fuel and power is morally wrong and economically destructive. Arguments about pollution and the environment don't stack up. Modern cars do not pollute the air and the tax on fuel is not used to develop alternative energy sources nor is it used to subsidise public transport. Unfortunately the general public wants wants wants the government to pamper them with all manner of public services. If a referendum was held giving the choice between scrapping taxes on fuel and scrapping the state school system or maintaining the status quo of high fuel taxes and the state school system then the outcome is a foregone conclusion.

My recommendation is to set up a business and then claim Working Tax Credits for the self employed. You get around £40 a week from HMRC for being a low paid self employed person.

I read something on Facebook about school is for friends, not education... I discussed your son's experience of school with a businessman who says that in reality he sadly failed. The government rates success at school on the basis on how many A* to C grade GCSEs one leaves with but this gives no indication of other factors. Was the student popular or unpopular? Did the student behave well or badly? Did the student contribute to life at school or not? Did the student develop any other real life skills or did they focus entirely on studies and exams? Did the student receive any awards? Did they make any good friends which last many years beyond leaving the school? Traditionally employers just looked at ones grades them maybe asked a couple of quick (and easy to fake the answers) question to life at school. Now they are increasingly looking beyond the grades. What you are saying is that social skills are developed naturally and gradually. This does not apply to people with AS.

Casein intolerance is more common than lactose intolerance amongst kids with ASD. I haven't managed to find out whether casein or lactose intolerances are more prevalent amongst certain variants of ASD than others. Most of the kids with AS I have encountered over the years enjoy drinking milk and do not seem to experience any bad reactions. They have a strong preference towards full fat although I'm not sure whether they prefer the taste or whether it digests more easily. I seemed to have some strange reactions with the cartons of milk at primary school that didn't occur with fresh full fat milk at home so I stopped drinking them.

Lactose intolerance is a separate condition unconnected with ASD.

Can your kids with ASD drink fresh milk without it causing them to have any strange reactions or side effects?

The one that really got to me was the assassination of Bin Laden. A ridiculous storyline like something out of Hollywood combined with a complete lack of transparency and evidence all followed up by what was probably the largest case of hack journalism in history. I'm strongly of the opinion that it was faked as a political stunt. There's information out there that Bin Laden died of medical complications in 2001/2 and I was even giving a talk about them just a few days before the so called assassination.

I think it depends on the target audience. If it happens to be some snobby semi-rural part of Surrey filled with BMW driving investment bankers then anything less than a hand made suit will not cut it with the voters. If it happens to be a less well off neighbourhood with a youthful audience then wearing a hoodie might be on for a winner. The Independent Working Class Association wear black bomber jackets and have managed to elect councillors in Oxford so wearing a suit and tie isn't always necessary for success.

Would you be happy to vote for an independent candidate at an election who wore a hooded top rather than a suit and tie assuming you generally agreed with their policies?

What are the benefits and advantages of attending secondary school, assuming that one has completed their primary education and scored close to full marks on KS2 knowledge? Is there anything that secondary school offers that cannot easily be found outside of school?

The definition of a conspiracy theory is an idea of how an event happened that contradicts what the political establishment and the mainstream media says. It is still a conspiracy theory even if evidence emerges that proves the political establishment and the mainstream media wrong. I'm of the opinion that adults with AS are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than NT adults are. The reasons are twofold. Firstly, adults with AS tend to be less image conscious than most NT adults and they prefer the truth over maintaining a good image. Most NT adults prefer to avoid creating frictions with their family and work colleagues which often means having to put image over seeking out the truth. Secondly, adults with AS tend to be more distrusting of the mainstream media than most NT adults are. They are more inclined to investigate into matters using alternative sources of information whereas a high proportion of NT adults are happy and content with most of what the mainstream media supplies them. After years of investigation and research I'm convinced that 9/11 was an inside job carried out by the CIA. I'm also a member of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.