Super Suzy

"The poor kid making the cartoon (and I'm not saying that in a patronising way - just purely because it's unlikely that the child would have been fully trained/aware of how media works) is now being held accountable for the charities misjudged advertising campaign! Who had 'creative control' on this project and campaing - the child? That seems incredibly unlikely. and if he didn't have 'creative control' there should have been someone there who did understand the implications offering their input, direction and accountability to ensure he didn't shoot himself in the foot." That's what I wanted but totally failed to say. Thanks.

There's a post here by Mike Stanton ( http://actionforautism.co.uk/2009/01/23/ac...istic-children/ ), who's a special needs teacher and Council member of the NAS, that explains the basis of the complaints and I'm getting more and more angry with AFC with each passing minute... One of the Trustees of the National Autistic Society is also campaigning against the ad. So, perhaps it's not just the radical scruffs that are getting worked up.

I think the charity's using the boy as a human shield, and failing to address the real concerns of the complainants. The boy in the ad says "helped me correct errors in my behaviour" Does he feel the "errors in his behaviour" that caused the bullying? What sort of school is this boy at anyway? It seems one where a 12 year old girl with serious special needs was arrested, handcuffed and thrown into a police cell... http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/south-wa...91466-20331758/

email thingy...

Action for Children's latest TV ad featuring a little boy trapped in the mouth of his autistic monster, seems to have upset a lot of people, including me. And I say this living with 3 little autistic monsters... There's even an anti-ad Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?gi...7&members=1 I haven't joined. Too radical for me (and I'm sure 'He' would object), but I do think they should've asked more parents for their opinions, before going ahead.

The NAS's reply is a luke-warm sack of sh*te. Autistic people don't need to be talented or brainy to have right to life and to have value. Whether someone is to be born or not should not be a function of society's evaluation of their utility.

I'm a very lonely person and would love friends but I just can't I'm just so incompetent at making / keeping friends That phrase could've come straight out of a "how-to-spot-high-functioning-autism" manual. I think your well on the way to being able to authoritative answer to your original question. Another thing to keep in mind is that some people feel that the diagnostic criteria are skewed to the presentation of autism in boys. Best Wishes. SS

Hi kel, Being in Cambridgeshire is quite fortunate. If you have a look at the Autism Research Centre (ARC) - {part of the University of Cambridge} website, there are some self-screening questionnaires which are quite reliable and would be quite useful to take along to the docs. There's also a fair bit of information on autistic features in younger kids, which could be quite useful. Cambridgeshire has a very good children's Asperger services, and a good audlt diagnosis service called CLASS at the ARC. Although actual services for adults are very limited. You might also want to check out what support might be available from Umbrella Autism and Red2Green in Cambridge. I would be very cautious about pursuing a diagnosis for yourself unless you need it to access services, or the lack of diagnosis is causing you significant distress. It's a diagnosis for life and would have to be declared in many different circumstances (i.e. applying for life insurance, medical insurance and job applications).

Sounds remarkably like my husband. But then he's notorious at work, for letting his students get away with almost anything as long as they get good marks. ???!

NO, it's quite possible to have both dx's. ASD's neither protect from nor aggravate the chances of developing schizophrenia. If one in a hundred people have an ASC and one in a hundred have schizophrenia, then one in a thousand are going to have both.