Is autism the illness du jour ?

[dejr_8]

I agree with what Michael Savage is saying. His percentage (99%) is way to way too high but I would bet more than 50% of the cases are "fraud".

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/re..._of_radio_talk_show_host/srvc=home&position=5

Savage attack on autism
Some call for firing of radio talk show host

The furor over shock jock Michael Savage’s autism rant intensified yesterday as parents of autistic kids called for his firing and at least one advertiser yanked its ads from his syndicated show.

About 40 parents and grandparents of autistic children protested yesterday outside WOR-AM (710) in New York City, one of the more than 350 radio stations - including WRKO-AM (680) - that airs his program. Another protest is planned for tomorrow at the San Francisco station where his show is broadcast.

“What he said is reprehensible,” said John Gilmore, executive director of Autism United and the father of an 8-year-old autistic boy. “We are asking for him to be fired and we want to make advertisers aware of what he is broadcasting.”

Aflac insurance pulled its ads from his show and issued a statement: “Aflac has a strong commitment to helping children through the Aflac Cancer Center and Aflac foundation. We understand that radio hosts pick on any number of targets however we found his recent comments about autistic children to be both inappropriate and insensitive.”

During last Wednesday’s show, Savage called autism a “fraud” and “racket.”

“Now the illness du jour is autism,” Savage said. “You know what autism is? I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is.”

“What do you mean they scream and they’re silent?” Savage added. “They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ ”

Savage defended his comments in a statement that was posted on his Web site and issued by his syndicator, Talk Radio Network.

“My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community’s attempt to label too many children or adults as ‘autistic,’ ” Savage said.

Savage said his severely disabled brother suffered and died in a New York “snake pit” of a “mental hospital” and he knows “first-hand what true disability is.”

WRKO program director Jason Wolfe didn’t respond to a request for comment

 

[Charade]

This should be interesting...



I don't listen to him because he's arrogant and abrasive but I'm really bothered by the attempt to silence people who say something someone else finds offensive.

So much for free speech...

 

[shortbun]

I sure have seen a lot of obviously autistic kids lately. I really think it's a disease on the rise. When I was growing up, in the 50's and early 60's, I only knew of one child who was autistic. I have no idea what his diagnosis was then but today - he had autism.

Why has this guy-Savage-decided to attack autistic children? What's his beef? Why doesn't he attack child abusers, wife beaters. He's probably been told that his obnoxious personality could be a result of Asperger's Syndrome and doesn't like it, lol. He's another radio bully, making money on these controversial shows. We could shut him down by ignoring him. Give him his free speech, just don't patronize his sponsors.

John, I guess the protestors deserve their say as well, eh?

 

[DawnCt1]

This should be interesting...



I don't listen to him because he's arrogant and abrasive but I'm really bothered by the attempt to silence people who say something someone else finds offensive.

So much for free speech...

I agree. I find him very abrasive but whether he feels autism exists or not will not impact those parents who are struggling with spectrum disorders every day. To silence him is ridiculous.

 

[Todd&Copper]

I know I am going to get flamed for this but it seems like people are far more comfotrable saying they have an illness or a disorder than admitting they are just quirky and unwilling to conform to society's rule/conventions. Obviously there are real autistic children, but I have a feeling that a lot of kids who are identified as "on the spectrum" would have just been a little weird or quirky 20 - 30 years ago. Kind of like ADHD. Every boy between the ages of 3 and 8 seems to get this diagnosis. Back when I was in school, these kids didn't have "disorders" they just needed to be told to sit down and stop disrupting the class. Now, some kid is disruptive and his parents come in to scream at the principal that their kid was attacked for his disability.

Recent column by Thomas Sowell: http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell071608.php3

Autism cures?

By Thomas Sowell
"New Ways to Diagnose Autism Earlier" read a recent headline in the Wall Street Journal. There is no question that you can diagnose anything as early as you want. The real question is whether the diagnosis will turn out to be correct.


My own awareness of how easy it is to make false diagnoses of autism grew out of experiences with a group of parents of late-talking children that I formed back in 1993.


A number of those children were diagnosed as autistic. But the passing years have shown most of the diagnoses to have been false, as most of these children have not only begun talking but have developed socially.


Some parents have even said, "Now I wish he would shut up."


I did absolutely nothing to produce these results. As a layman, I refused to diagnose these children, much less suggest any treatment, even though many parents wanted such advice.


As word of my group spread, various parents would write to ask if they could bring their child to me to seek my impression or advice. I declined every time.

Yet, if I had concocted some half-baked method of diagnosing and treating these children, I could now claim a high rate of success in "curing" autism, based on case studies. Perhaps my success rate would be as high as that claimed by various programs being touted in the media.


If a child is not autistic to begin with, almost anything will "cure" him with the passage of time.


My work brought me into contact with Professor Stephen Camarata of Vanderbilt University, who has specialized in the study of late-talking children-- and who is qualified to diagnose autism.


Professor Camarata has organized his own group of parents of late-talking children, which has grown to hundreds, as compared to the several dozen children in my group. Yet the kinds of children and the kinds of families are remarkably similar in the two groups, in ways spelled out in my book "The Einstein Syndrome."


The difference is that Professor Camarata is not a layman but a dedicated professional, with decades of experience-- and he too has expressed dismay at the number of false diagnoses of autism that he has encountered.


What Camarata has also encountered is something that I encountered in my smaller group-- parents who have been told to allow their child to be diagnosed as autistic, in order to become eligible for government money that is available, and can be used for speech therapy or whatever other treatment the child might need.


How much this may have contributed to the soaring statistics on the number of children diagnosed as autistic is something that nobody knows-- and apparently not many people are talking about it.


Another factor in the great increase in the number of children diagnosed as autistic is a growing practice of referring to children as being on "the autistic spectrum."


In other words, a child may not actually be autistic but has a number of characteristics common among autistic children. The problem with this approach is that lots of children who are not autistic have characteristics that are common among autistic children.


For example, a study of high-IQ children by Professor Ellen Winner of Boston College found these children to have "obsessive interests" and "often play alone and enjoy solitude," as well as being children who "seem to march to their own drummer" and have "prodigious memories." Many of the children in my group and in Professor Camarata's group have these characteristics.


Those who diagnose children by running down a checklist of "symptoms" can find many apparently "autistic" children or children on "the autism spectrum."


Parents need to be spared the emotional trauma of false diagnoses and children need to be spared stressful treatments that follow false diagnoses. Yet the "autism spectrum" concept provides lots of wiggle room for those who are making false diagnoses.


Real autism may not get as much money as it needs if much of that money is dissipated on children who are not in fact autistic. But money is money to those who are running research projects-- and a gullible media helps them get that money.

 

[Charade]

John, I guess the protestors deserve their say as well, eh?

Oh, sure they do. But that doesn't mean they should get their way.

 

[JEmaryland]

I agree with you 100% Todd&Copper.

 

[NY Disney fan]

I don't think Michael Savage should be silenced either. But if people were smart, they'd stop listening to his show. He's very abusive.

 

[minkydog]

We have a saying in our household--"This man just doesn't have enough handicapped children." I have to forgive him because he obviously doesn't know what he is talking about.

 

[dejr_8]

I agree with you 100% Todd&Copper.

So do I. That was a great post

 

[olena]

I am no fan. Our local station replaced a younger, more entertaining talk show host at night with Savage. We used to listen to the other guy while falling asleep, but not with Savage. He yells, he's full of negativity and he knows everything. That's not what we want to hear when trying to sleep, so we now listen to audio books or something else. I'm not surprised at these latest remarks. It's par for the course with him. He sounds like an abusive bully. I think the market should decide his fate. We turn him off.

 

[shannonh]

I guess there's a chance that maybe the diagnosis is being "handed out", but in my experience (and I can only speak for myself) I fought tooth and nail to get some sort of help for my DD.
This is not a rant at anyone here, just my opinion of things from what I know and have seen.
This really is a tough topic, because honestly, if you don't have experience with an Autistic child, you have no idea of what's going on. I, myself, thought that any kid throwing a fit was a brat and needed a time out. Then came my youngest DD..
She was extremely young when we started noticing things weren't "right". She was able to get into an Early Intervention program and get therapies. With a lot of help, she started to improve, but slowly. Have you ever had to show your child how to play? Or how to point?
When she was old enough to get a diagnosis, she had emerged a bit and was a "question mark". That's what I got. A question mark.
Well, it's pretty tough to get help, when your child is just a question mark.
After more time with her doctors and therapists, they did give her the diagnosis of being on the spectrum.
What I've been able to see, is that the earlier Autism and it's "quirkiness" is suspected, the earlier therapies start, the better the outcome.
Imagine living inside yourself for 5 or 8 years, not knowing how to play, what to do with others, etc..Then try to take those 5 or 8 years and turn them around. It'd be much harder, than knowing at 2 years that there could be a problem, and working with that.
To say that kids that are "fixed" now, after an Autism diagnosis were wrongly diagnosed is not fair. No one, except the caregivers of the child, know how much work they put into making things right.
There are a lot of diseases and disabilities that I don't know about, but I don't go around trying to lessen them or preaching about them. Society, in general, needs to worry about there lives and not anyone else's.
Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.
Not really a comparison, but when it's said that so many kids are being diagnosed now, than before. Well, it's better medical attention.
For instance, when was cancer diagnosed? I'm guessing (and I'm really guessing, because I have no experience with it), but I don't think way back a long time ago, people died of cancer, they died of "old age" probably. Then when medicine became better, that "old age" illness, had a name and it was cancer.
See what I mean? Just because it wasn't around before, doesn't mean it's not here now.

 

[BoyLovesBuzz]

I suspect there are a lot of sick kids out there. But I KNOW there are a lot of kids that play their parents and play the system.

 

[suzanna1066@comcast.]

I think it is very arrogant to proclaim that autism is overdiagnosed or just a label for unruly kids. What qualifications do naysayers have to back up their armchair diagnoses?
I personally think that there is something to the link between autism and vaccines---from personal experience.
Parents dealing with an autistic child have challenges you would not believe.

Savage is an idiot.

 

[Geoff_M]

Speaking as a conservative, Savage is nothing but a "bomb thrower" and I have no use for him whatsoever. However, he doesn't deserve to be thrown off the air, he deserved to be not listened to anymore. I personally lunge for the radio dial every time I hear him.

As to the subject... Yes, there are misdiagnosed kids... Yes, there are parents that use the "system" to their advantage. But that generalization was totally uncalled for.

 

[Kath2003]

I know I am going to get flamed for this but it seems like people are far more comfotrable saying they have an illness or a disorder than admitting they are just quirky and unwilling to conform to society's rule/conventions. Obviously there are real autistic children, but I have a feeling that a lot of kids who are identified as "on the spectrum" would have just been a little weird or quirky 20 - 30 years ago.

I agree to an extent. There is no acceptance for children who simply don't 'get' social rules - and yet it's one of the most difficult concepts a child must master! If a child didn't 'get' math, they probably would just be said to have difficulty mastering math, or possibly a special educational need in a severe case. If a child doesn't always 'get' how to interact with their peers (which is a far more difficult cognitive concept than math), they're often hauled off and said to be "on the spectrum".

I suppose it has a lot to do with our society's predisposition with achieving socially. Those who do not achieve at math are still accepted, because they still achieve socially. Those who do not achieve socially are seen as 'disabled' because of the importance we place upon social interaction. I suspect many parents - however many would admit it - would be able to cope with their child's difficulties in math, but would feel badly about their difficulties in social interaction - blame themselves, wonder what they did wrong etc.

 

[freckles and boo]

I should keep my mouth shut, but since I am here I am going to pop off anyway. Those of you with no personal experience with autism are certainly entitled to your opinion, but until it is an INFORMED opinion it is worth what I scraped off my shoes. I have a six-year-old child who can't currently funtion in a regular classroom, although she has an above average IQ. She is neurologically impaired. I could tell her ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ She would feel the anger of those words and she might even understand most of what I was saying but she can't ACT on those words simply because I yelled at her. She can't CONTROL her wiring any more than someone with MS can control theirs. We work very hard with her and we have high behavioral expectations of her. She has a bright future BECAUSE of her diagnosis and the therapies she receives. I don't understand why anyone thinks people like Savage are credible. He is a *******. I'll happily take the points for that.

 

[shannonh]

Something else, that I'm not sure most people understand, is the testing that is required to be diagnosed. At least with competent doctors, anyway.
You can't just say, "My child doesn't like to interact with others" and get a diagnosis, or at least you shouldn't be able to. in my experience, it's a long process, with tests that don't really make much sense to the person observing, but greatly mean something to the evaluator diagnosing the child.

 

[jrsmom]

I think that unless he or any of the naysayers have a medical degree they should be ashamed of themselves for such comments.

My sister has two beautiful girls that have autisim and I can tell you that everyday is a complete struggle. Maybe someday some of the naysayers will be personally touched with a child who is special needs and then have to eat their words. Not that I am wishing this on anyone , but they need to walk a few days in the shoes of a parent with a children of special needs. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[tar heel]

America is so full of experts that sometimes I don't know why we even bother going to doctors. We should just ask a columnist, radio talk show host or the DIS Boards.

Does everyone remember when Rush Limbaugh make fun of Asperger's? I had the misfortune of listening that day.

I would like to let some of you borrow my "spectrum" child for a while. I wouldn't, of course, b/c he deserves better.