Autism

by ProdigalSon 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ProdigalSon

  The subject has come up in my Reincarnation thread and I think its worthy of its own.

  When I saw the movie "Rain Man", what amazed me the most about what Raymond was able to do (i.e., counting the number of matches in a matchbox after a glance, or memorizing all the names and numbers in a large phone book in a matter of minutes) was that it proves that a human mind is capable of performing the functions of a computer and MORE. Why then, do we not A: ALL have these supercomputer abilities, and B., why is an autistic person lacking in other areas such as social skills?

  My second son was born in 1992 with a lipoma on his tail bone which was also wrapped around his spinal cord. It was MAJOR, they had to fly in a special surgeon from France and artificial bone chips from Germany. As a newborn, he spent five hours in emergency surgery and a month in the ICU. When we got him home, we knew something was seriously wrong. Nothing would make him stop crying, and it wasn't "colic". He wouldn't listen at all, much more so than a "normal" baby, to ANYTHING, such as efforts to get him to stop trying to climb the stairs. I would pull him off the stairs repeatedly until after about 20 times, it hit me: (Aside from BLOCKING the stairs, lol) ....this kid is not "normal". This went on until he was about 14 months, when I was watching him play with a comb, making the same motions with it repeatedly. I immediately thought of the movie. I brought it to my wife's attention that I thought it was autism. She took him to see a "specialist", which turned out to be a "social worker". They said he had a "developmental delay". I continued to insist it was autism. To make a long story short, two more very critical years went by before he was officially diagnosed as autistic.

  The most important question in my mind, in order to work with this problem, is to get to the root cause. Of course I have my own ideas , but what do YOU think could be the cause?

  ~Jimmy C.
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  crazy2try

  Wow, I have worked with a few different children in my past labeled with Autism. Most of them diagnosed as very high functioning children. These children all came from a variety of homes. One family, the mother is a District Manager and the Father is a photographer for a well known magazine. Another family, dad is a doctor and mom stays at home. All four parents are college educated, one child from each family is autistic, but the others are not. Another family I know Mom is a teacher, she has an older boy who is Autistc and a younger son who is considered very intelligent. He was moved up several grades.

  The other children I have worked with, issues seem to run in their familes. Like it is genetic. Siblings have other learning disabilities.

  I know from what research I have attempted to do....there seems to be no identifiable cause. At least that we are being told.

  From what I read it seems there may be a gene in a family that may be easily changed by an outside environmental cause.

  Sorry if I am not making any sense. I am tired and should be in bed.
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  Quando

  I work with many Austic and spectrum disorder children and my observations come from nearly 100 and to date 43 show no more signs of their repetitive behaivors.

  There are many factors involved, and you will NEVER find a root cause. I know their is a thread on the board about vaccines and yes that can be a piece of the puzzle but it is not sole cause.

  The factors I have seen include:

  Vaccines

  Inherited (gene expression and enviornmental biowarfare crap like DDT, AO, etc,)

  Enviornmental

  Nutritional defiencies and/or excess

  Heavy metals

  Miasms

  brain injury profile

  brain local slow waves

  The brain is my speciality and when the "chi" (yes scary unscientic word there) is not able to flow correctly the body simply gets stuck.

  Chi works like a busy highway and when there is a car crash the traffic either stops or has to find an alternate route to get to its destination.

  The body adapts to the stressor (heavy metals, yeast, etc.) causing the blockage and the body will always try to compensate.

  The younger the child the easier it is for me, however I love my older high functioning kids, sometimes ignorance is bliss! When I look at all the years I suffered from this goofy religion I sometimes wish I could be ignorant of the all the lies.

  Life lessons Huh?
• 

  TheTruthAboutTheTruth

  My son has aspergers syndrome,sensory processing disorder and ADD.And possibly fibromyalgia and bipolar/childhood depression(although this could be a result of the abuse he suffered in the KH)

  My nephew has aspergers,sensory processing disorder ADD and dyspraxia and fibromyalgia.

  I suffer from fibromyalgia.I think the gene that causes autism could be the same gene that causes fibro.

  Alot of people in our family have certain traits if aspergers but not significant enough to be diagnosed.

  I strongly think it is genetic.with outside factors(vaccines,environmental issues etc) which makes it more severe in some cases.There is positive to it also,my son is extremely intelligent and has an iq in the 130's,top of his school and he is six.It breaks my heart to see him around other kids his age as he cannot relate to them,or get on with them on any level.

  There was a comment made on the reincarnation thread saying video games and tv should be considered regarding autism.I agree that these dont help ANY children if used too often and for too long,But to think these things can cause autism is in my opinion silly!
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  cantleave

  Our son has been diagnosed Aspergers. He didn't start speaking until nearly 5 years old, has suffered constipation issues from potty training on and doesn't non verbal / social cues. He pretty hyperactive but not ADD - he just never goes to sleep!!! He can be very frustrating but always lovable - we wouldn't have him any other way.
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  Leolaia

  Our son has been diagnosed Aspergers. He didn't start speaking until nearly 5 years old

  I find this really interesting. A history of language delay is supposed to contraindicate a clinical diagnosis of AS. That is one of the traits that supposedly distinguishes AS from autism. Now I was dx'd with AS (as an adult) but it never felt right because of the significant language delay. The box that best fits me is PDD-NOS, but this is a wastebasket category that doesn't signify anything really. So I wonder if PDD-NOS is becoming subsumed into AS as a diagnostic category. I know that the DSM-V will eliminate it.

  Here the issue is discussed in an article:

  “When you see these kids in the clinic, it feels somewhat artificial to make a distinction just because they had an early language delay,” said Kathleen McKenna, M.D., director of the Psychosis and Special Diagnostics Center at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

  “If they had a language delay at age 3 or 4, I am forced by DSM to call it autism, and if they didn't and have a normal IQ, to call it Asperger's. That's not a problem because those who have the language delay often continue to have signs of autism. And often, the more severe cases end up being called autism and the less severe cases are Asperger's. But not always, and it can seem arbitrary eight or nine years down the road. If the family is overwhelmed, the least of their concerns is remembering exactly when the child first uttered single words and phrases.”

  http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/41/19/21.1.full

  In my case, because I was assessed early (but not dx'd with autism because AS and PDD-NOS did not exist at the time as diagnostic labels), I have very detailed information about my early childhood; plus my mother has very good specific recall. I used my first words at 18 months, I then had a brief episode where I displayed the use of lots of words, then I stopped speaking entirely except for four or five words (the words for mother, father, water, milk, and town) and some echolalia, and then I did not start attempts at speaking again until I was 3 1/2, and then I did not speak in sentences until 4 1/2. The month before my 5th birthday I was unable to repeat sentences longer than three words in length. The sentences I spoke were usually jumbled up and incoherent until I was about 6. I continued to have speech therapy until I was 12 and other cognitive therapy until I was 14.
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  TheTruthAboutTheTruth

  My son had a speech delay also,not as significant as some but he didnt start speaking properly until age 41/2-5.

  I thought he would get a diagnosis of high functioning autism because of this,but they diagnosed aspergers as he has the obssesion aspect of it,plus his educational report and high iq suggest aspergers.
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  Leolaia

  The other children I have worked with, issues seem to run in their familes. Like it is genetic.

  My nephew has AS. My great-aunt on my mom's side most likely was autistic.
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  Leolaia

  I thought he would get a diagnosis of high functioning autism because of this,but they diagnosed aspergers as he has the obssesion aspect of it

  But doesn't HFA have obsessive interests within its scope as well? This is another case of how it is all one big amorphous spectrum and the splitting it up into categories results in some rather problematic diagnoses.

  When I saw the movie "Rain Man", what amazed me the most about what Raymond was able to do (i.e., counting the number of matches in a matchbox after a glance, or memorizing all the names and numbers in a large phone book in a matter of minutes) was that it proves that a human mind is capable of performing the functions of a computer and MORE. Why then, do we not A: ALL have these supercomputer abilities, and B., why is an autistic person lacking in other areas such as social skills?

  ProdigalSon....Savant abilities are actually not that common demographically in the autistic/AS population and are clustered very strongly with those who are lower functioning. Impairment in function in some cognitive domains may allow other domains to take over and specialize. But it is important to keep in mind that in general autistics are not savants and savants are not always autistic. Rain Man gives a portrayal of an autistic person that has then become stereotypical in our popular culture.
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  ProdigalSon

  Thank you all for your very helpful comments. What's most disturbing is how common all these conditions have become!

  Leolaia, while Rain Man has become a stereotype, my son does have extraordinary abilities in music, computers, and memory. However it is extremely difficult to get him to respond to questions with coherent sentences rather than one-word answers.

  I recently read a book called "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge, Psychologist and Psychoanalyst. He has put together a lot of information on recent brain research that suggests that it is not nearly as hard-wired is much more neuro-plastic than had been previously thought and can be remapped. He started a reading program especially tailored to autistic and developmentally delayed people called "Fast-For-Word....

  http://info.fastforword.com/novideo.php