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Canopus

A few unresolved questions about AS

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I don't know if sufficient data exists to answer any of these questions on AS but someone here may reveal something.

 

1. Does AS only affect European people or can it affect people of other races such Indian, Chinese etc?

 

2. Is AS more prevalent in children from working, lower middle, or upper middle class backgrounds?

 

3. Is AS more prevalent in children whose parents have strong interests in things themselves or is it more prevalent in children whose parents have no strong interests?

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Hi Canopus.

 

I have no idea as to the answers to these questions - haven;t read enough research. I'll certainly be interested in any answers you get.

 

I would think that the answers might be biased anyway according to diagnosed versus undiagnosed ASD. Any data would obviously focus on diagnosed cases. In which case I would expect that in 'upper class' backgrounds AS would be viewed as eccentricity and potentially nothing would be done about it i.e fewer diagnoses ( Is that the correct plural of diagnosis?)

 

Working class backgrounds might on the one hand find AS behaviours more noticeable but be potentially less likely to do something about it.

 

When I read Chris Green's book on ADHD/Toddler Taming he pointed out that perception of activity varies in individual families so what is over active in one might be normal or even 'subdued' in another. I imagine it is the same with strong interests. If parents were very interested in one thing - in our house it is railways/model trains then a child with a strong interest would not stand out that much.

 

I am fascinated with these questions.

 

Hopefully someone will be along with some gems of wisdom.

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Hi,

 

The first question, I think I can answer. AS can cross all races, we have a member of the forum called Shona who runs a suport group for asian families. I'm not sure what their race is but I think they speak Urdu as she was asking about books in Urdu a while back.

 

As for the rest of the questions I will wait and see.

 

Viper.

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As far as I know there is no evidence to suggest that Autism is more prevelant in ay particular race or class.

 

There is some indication that genetic factors can come into play, so I would expect that parents of AS children are more likely to have AS traits, and there is quite a lot of anecdotal eveidence to support this, for example many of the parents here have recognised Aspie traits in themselves.

 

 

Simon

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I wonder whether the problems for ASD children from 'working class' families tend to get blamed on 'poor' parenting, while 'middle class' parents get accused of being neurotic, or of 'reading too much'??

 

Bid :wacko:

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I wonder whether the problems for ASD children from 'working class' families tend to get blamed on 'poor' parenting, while 'middle class' parents get accused of being neurotic, or of 'reading too much'??

 

Bid :wacko:

Hmmm,

Don't know about ASD's specifically, but it is recognised that 'class' can make a very big difference in general to disability issues... As well as the obvious things, like access to treatment, improved care services - all those things that money CAN buy - there are different social expectations, too, both positive and negative.

While undoubtedly stereotypical, it's possible that 'eccentricity' (which certainly would be pertinent!) is less severely judged in the 'upper' classes, while responses to physical disability were less judgemental in 'working' class environments. [in terms of historical precedent unusual behaviour is less 'damaging' if there's money to spend on papering over the cracks, and the working classes would be more likely to suffer the disabling effects of Ill health, poverty, poor nutirition etc etc... This is the REAL reason we have the NHS - it was realised after the crimean war that the general population were actually so clapped out they didn't even make decent canon fodder! Sad, but true...]. Not sure about the middle classes, but thinking in stereotypes again there is this 'thing' about keeping up appearences...

 

CANOPUS:

1) Autism effects all Nationalities. Rates of incidence can vary for all sorts of reasons (diagnostic criteria/social attitudes etc), and it may well be that external triggers (diet/inoculation programmes etc) have an impact too, but this will always be 'theoretical' unless you can somehow make all of the other factors equal...

2) See above

3) Mossgrove's post is on the money...

 

Hope that's helpful in some way

L&P

BD :D

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I wonder whether the problems for ASD children from 'working class' families tend to get blamed on 'poor' parenting, while 'middle class' parents get accused of being neurotic, or of 'reading too much'??

 

There could be some validity to this statement although I reckon that AS in working class communities is overshadowed by more prominent problems. I am tempted to say that a kid with AS who lives in a more middle class area will be more easily recognised as having AS than a similar kid in a working class area.

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Bid

 

It is certainly true that if are childs parents are middle-class, well educated assertive and well-informed he/she is likely to get much more help than children whose parents are poor or less well informed. It shouldn't be that way, but if a child has a parent who is unable to 'work the system' thay have an inbuilt disadvantage. As a country, we do not do a good job of ensuring that ALL children get the help they are entitled to.

 

Simon

Edited by mossgrove

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Success is often achieved by understanding the ins and outs of any system and then maninipulating the system to your advantage. Mind you many middle class people may well have little knowledge of the technicalities of the education system.

 

I have a suspicion that certain special needs provision is a postcode lottery and varies from LEA to LEA. An LEA covering a middle class area may well have people who are more knowledgable about AS then an LEA covering a working class area.

 

The internet adds a whole new dimension to things as it allows access to information that would otherwise not be available. If the internet had existed 20 years ago then my time at school would probably have been different.

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Canopus

 

You are right that there is a postcode lottery, but I am not sure about it being class-based.

 

Even within uor LEA area children with the same educational needs who reeive wildly differing levels of support, and ability/inability to work the system is behind many of those diferences.

 

Places like this board are invaluable because it makes parents refuse to accept no for an answer.

 

Simon

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It has been noted that Autism is generally more prevalent among families where one works in engineering and the other in medicine or care. It is recognised that Silicon Valley has a disproportionate number of Autistic children among the families living there.

 

It slightly leans towards Autism being a natural occurance as parents in those professions would be most prepared to raise an Autistic child, it's almost uncanny.

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This is getting very interesting. Here is a run down of our background. My Mum and Dad pretty much working/lower middle class as were their parents. More on the side of working to be honest. Same for my DH although my MIL now has climbed up the ladder due to taking Higher Education later in life (if you regard education and subsequent profession as being tied to class of course!) MIL's parents were more middleish and FIL more workingish.

 

I regard DH and I as being slightly eccentric possibly with some AS traits - fixed interests, very fussy about social situations. We both went to University I teach, he is a computer whizz.

 

Interestingly, my SIL did not choose the university path nor did six out of seven of my cousins. All went to work after finishing school.

 

Mum remarried and both Dad and step dad have a royal air force background. My dad is a distinct black sheep of the family. Very much a worker and proud of it. I think he has ASD traits but his relationship problems and lack of communication are just regrded as being uniquely him. Step dad is definitely middle class.

 

So I am now in a position to recognise and find out more about ASD partly because of my profession. I have access to the internet mainly because of DH's profession and here I am pursuing a Dx of possible ASD for my son.

 

So I think I agree that uniquely in our family DH and I are probably more prepared to raise an ASD child and we have possibly been given one.

 

I wonder if diagnosing ADHD or AS exclusively is linked to background? I know they can and do occur together.

 

Apologies my messages always seem to end up longer than I planned! :rolleyes:

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I don't think anyone is any better prepared to raise an autistic child and when you have your gorgeous bundle of joy in your arms for the first time it never crosses your mind that they might be anything less than perfect (as long as all the fingers and toes are there and there's nothing else obvious).

 

remember too that most of the families where the adults show autistic traits actually don't know anything about it until they discover that their child is autistic - often the adults' traits go completely unrecognised until the child is diagnosed.

 

I know people from all backgrounds and ethnicities with autism.

I do think though that in some communities there is still pressure to hide the child away so unless you are working in education and health you won't see them around so much.

 

one thing I have noticed in terms of class is that children from less well educated and poorer backgrounds seem to get less definite diagnoses - we all know from various threads here how hard it is to get diagnosis and how reluctant LEAs and consultants are to specify the exact diagnosis sometimes and I suspect that this is why middle class/ well educated parents tend to get more specific diagnoses; they are more able to fight and do not accept halfway houses in terms of diagnosis because they understand that to get appropriate support the diagnosis needs to be correct and specific where less well educated families tend to trust professionals more because they don't have the resources to see past the manipulation.

 

Zemanski

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they are more able to fight and do not accept halfway houses in terms of diagnosis because they understand that to get appropriate support the diagnosis needs to be correct and specific where less well educated families tend to trust professionals more because they don't have the resources to see past the manipulation.

 

There could be cultural issues as well to take into account. Many middle class people like to question and scrutinise things whereas many working class people were brought up with a culture of do as you are told; accept things without reason, question or explanation; respect authority and do not challenge it; do not kick up a fuss in public; and the authorities are smarter than you are. The situation is changing and working class people are increasingly questioning things.

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The worst background for a kid with AS has to be a chav community. Chav culture is defined as: complying with lots of unwritten social etiquette when it comes to mixing with other chavs - most of which is not applicable for middle class people, not having interests in things other than popular culture, being bad academically. All three of which are precisely the opposite of AS.

 

If reasonably educated middle class parents had an 8 year old who was an expert with computers, could do calculus, and had an obsessive interest in radio telescopes, but the same kid hated football, couldn't ride a bike, had difficulty making friends at school, took no interest in popular culture and was clumsy and disorganised then the parents would probably try and get help at school but respect the kid's interests and expertise. If the parents were chavs then they would probably rip their hair out in frustration.

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The middle class parents would probably be making enquiries into the NASA sapce exploration programme entry requirements for their budding genius. I wonder if NASA have a higher number of Aspies compared with other big US institutions?

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thinking of putting Com in for the trip to mars - NASA are worried about whether their astronauts can cope with the isolation for 4 years

 

what? - a little metal box full of computers with lots of fine focused scientific tasks and complicated mathematics to do and no one to bother you for 4 years - no problem :P

 

Zemanski

 

almost forgot - everything completely planned and organised in the minutest detail too

 

- heaven off earth B)

Edited by Zemanski

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Now I am sure there was a thread somewhere on here about what people were doing with their children in the summer holidays........ could catch on! :lol:

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the russians have just put out a call for volunteers to try living in isolation for 500 days with a view to manning their mission

 

not sure what their email address is though :devil:

 

Z

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The middle class parents would probably be making enquiries into the NASA sapce exploration programme entry requirements for their budding genius. I wonder if NASA have a higher number of Aspies compared with other big US institutions?

I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. I have thought about working for NASA although many people have informed me that it isn't anywhere near as exciting as it was back in the days of the space race.

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the russians have just put out a call for volunteers to try living in isolation for 500 days with a view to manning their mission

 

not sure what their email address is though :devil:

 

Z

My daughter would think that was absolute bliss - she's always saying how much she doesn't need people and, space is one of her major obsessions. :lol:

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I don't think ASDs are more prevalent in any race or culture, there is an Asian child at my dd's school with autism. The reason there aren't more ethnic children in the school is because the area I live in has a predominantly white population, I'm sure in more ethnically diverse communities there is a more even mix.

 

As for the class argument, yes it does affect things significantly. As someone else commented, in more upper class families someone who is 'eccentric' would be accepted as being a bit odd and no questions asked. The wealth issue affects the treatment the autistic child gets significantly too, I have friends through school who are very well off and their children gets all kinds of therapies which I could never afford. I feel like such a bad parent sometimes when I hear how much their child has improved with this or that therapy :( But the reality is that my dd misses out because I am a single parent on benefits and I simply can't afford it.

 

I certainly wasn't prepared to bring up an autistic child, hell I barely knew what autism was until 1999 when she was diagnosed. I thought she was partially deaf because of the lack of response from her and in some ways that would have been easier to cope with (or maybe not but that's how I viewed it at the time). I still find it damn tough at times but I do cope because I have to and because I love her dearly and the alternatives to me coping are unacceptable to me.

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