August 17, 2007

Looks Like Autism Speaks is Faking Us Out Again

Autism Speaks, who we in the biomed community have been praising in the last few weeks for beginning to put money into researching the treatments that are actually helping our kids, might just be doing it for show.

The Rescue Post is reporting that rumors point to Eric London of NAAR being put in charge of the biomed research at AS. This would turn the program into an instant joke.

If this happens, we can all just close the door on AS and move on with our lives.

Read the Post article. And the rest of them while you are at it. Blogging will continue to be light here for a while. But they are consistently on the ball.

4 comments:

Martha said...

I could not seem to email you - so thought I would contact you here. I would be interested to know your thoughts on medication for autism. Right now - the doctors have my son on several different medications - he takes 16 pills a day! It is starting to appear that they are shooting in the dark - I just am more than a little confused and ready to ditch the whole medication thing. Any thoughts? My emai - rnmspurgeon@sbcglobal.net

Anonymous said...

These treatments that you know are helping kids, would they be proven treatments? Check out my post on anecdotal evidence.

Unknown said...

I think my ex is faking my childs autism. I know it sounds impossible but in the past shes faked seizures for herself and after he was born, told everyont that he was deaf in one ear. All fake. Ive not been a part of their lives for the past year and a half through no fault of my own, but now my son is 2 and a half and I think his mother is faking this illness. When he was 12 months old he could already say things like Dad, dog, duck, truck, and f*ck. lol, he knew what they all meant except for that last one. Now she says he cant speak.... please help!

atomicliberty@gmail.com

Ginger Taylor said...

Michael,

If you think that is true, it is a very serious accusation and you need to pursue that very carefully.

However...

The description of your son's regression is pretty typical for an autistic child. At 12 months my son was hitting all his milestones and began loosing his speech and eye contact, regressing into autism at 18 months. There are children who are completely normal and even potty trained, that loose all those skills and regress into autism. So what you have said tells me that you have a real autistic child.

However... I have not laid my eyes on this boy. If you really think that she is 'faking' his autism somehow, take him to your own speech language pathologist, developmental pediatrician or autism specialist and have him evaluated.

Even if your wife is a complete crazy person and has done what she say she has done in the past, that does not mean that you son is not autistic. Autism is common now, hitting 1 in 150 children. By contrast, Munchausen By Proxy Syndrome (a very real and dangerous diagnosis in which parents make their children ill to get attention) which is what you are accusing your wife of having, is very very rare. Just running the odds, your child probably has autism.

You do run a risk here in that if he is autistic, and you make this about your wife and her former behavior, you loose time on treating him.

If by some stretch your wife manages to 'fake' a diagnosis, she will not be able to fool any treatment professionals that see him for any more than a few visits. Autism does not look like anything else and they know autism inside and out.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if he has been seen by any professionals that believe he is autistic, your son probably has autism.

If you want to discuss this further, email me privately and give me more details and I can offer some advice. You have parental rights and can demand your own evaluation to settle any questions that you have.

mail@adventuresinautism.com