One child in 60 'suffers from a form of autism'

[call me jaded]

Um, are we going a wee bit

 

Bid

 

 

Guilty.

 

We need to start another thread: Did you buy your child's diagnosis? Then the rest of us can look down on whoever admits this terrible sin.

 

It's all right mods I'll be good now.

[baddad]

Guilty.

 

We need to start another thread: Did you buy your child's diagnosis? Then the rest of us can look down on whoever admits this terrible sin.

 

It's all right mods I'll be good now.

 

We'll let you start that one then, Delia

L&P

 

BD

 

 

Edited March 25, 2009 by baddad

[bid]

 

<'>

 

Bid

Edited March 26, 2009 by bid

[LizK]

The main thing that strikes me about this is that it is reported in The Daily Mail which has its own peculiar autism agenda and is not known for its accurate reporting of anything vaguely health related. See this article about how the press twisted SBCs testosterone research http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2012...ism.html?page=2

 

Until I see the actual paper I will not believe that statistic. The figure 1 in 50 was leaked a while ago to the press with similar headlines but an article in a reputable medical journal involving the actual researchers in the study made it clear that that figure may have been leaked for another agenda (Wakefields case at GMC at the time) and was just one value the study group had come up with, depending which measure they use and the incidenec varied from 1 in 50 to 1 in 200. Of course the press weren't interested in the 1 in 200 figure. The 1 in 60 figure may well be accurate but I won't to seee proper scientific evidence not the opinion of that peer reviewed scientific journal the Daily Mail that still doens't understand the difference betweeen a virus and a bacteria

 

I can well believe that the incidence is that high for a variety of reasons - better diagnosis, increased awareness, increased opportunities for genes for autistic tendencies in parents to collide, possible environmental issues. It does worry me though that it will be seen as a dustbin diagnosis and used as an excuse for poor parenting, attachment issues, behavioural problems or simply natural variation in personality. Incorrect diagnosis does a great disservice to those who are genuinely diagnosed with the condition

 

Lx

[CEJesson]

Again, time and time again, it is the Daily Mail, What do you expect?

 

 

[florrie]

I think 1 in 60 is quite likely.

 

In my case the private dx from a specialist in ASD was more reliable than NHS non specialistwhere they haven't a clue in the adult sector anyway, and don't refer or do any established diagnostic procedure. My son was dx by paedatrician who referred for this 12 years ago but I'd had private tests done by speech and language pathologist previously, semantic pragmatic disorder, the speech and language therapist did not understand them and described me as a high achieving middle class mother who expected too much from her child, however thankfully as it was 8 years at this point trying to find out what was wrong and my partner and I having develped our own strategies at the time which we found worked, a bit like the horse boy etc,thankfully the paediatrician did understand it, but sadlyshe left a year later after dx,m so he never got the help he needed with language as no one understood it. I felt quite traumatised by this as it was availlable but couldn't access it.

 

The adult services have not got a clue, and I got dx privately through learning assessments measure the auditory and visual processing and sensory integration, that picked up mixed expressive language disorder w hich is similarwhich led to ados test and dsm 4 assessment by specialist. Ican't really explain unless I gotr into detail how they tested or how it works but Iunderstand it. My local mental health team do not refer or carry out any established diagnostic procedure, of course asd is not mental illness but it gets treated as such where I live.

 

Any help we ever had that was worth having and helped was what we paid for, anything from the NHS has been one great long trauma that has made things worse, although I accept and am envious of those that have received different on NHS.

 

I suspect it is the most vulnerable that will not get dx, who are unable to fight through the bureaucracy to get referred for dx which I was also unable to do and who may not have the finances to go privately, I borrowed... Even now they are denying it, Iknow they are breaking the law according the european charter on autism rights when they do not refer for dx and it is predjudice and discrimination but they seem a law unto themselves and not sure what you can do about it.

 

Ihave seen some children dx with ASD on NHS simply because of behaviour problem and opinion but not full diagnostic procedure, I'm not saying they haven't got asd as they may have but some medical people and other people think that higher functioning autism is simply a behaviour problem alone without understanding what causes behaviour problems and that is worrying

Edited April 7, 2009 by florrie