Comments on: 9 Autism Bills in New Jersey

By: Autism Vox » NJ Autism Bills Advance to Senate: Be sure to drive safely

Autism Vox » NJ Autism Bills Advance to Senate: Be sure to drive safely — Tue, 22 May 2007 03:53:33 +0000

[...] Committee approved a package of three autism bills today. Back in early March, a package of nine autism bills was voted on by the State Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee ; seven of the bills were [...]

By: DA

DA — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:48:34 +0000

While I strongly encourage the further study and awareness of Autism, I am actually panicking by the thought of these bills, which I don’t even know to the full extent. Why? “Awareness” they say? Well, autism awareness to the common people basically means checklists! Checklists that for practical reasons (or intentional serving other interests), are based mostly on secondary symptoms of Autism, and hardly ever tackle the core symptoms, the real and core issues of Autism, secondary symptoms that can reside among many developing children that are simply developing different or have other delays or impairments. When I hear more Awareness, I hear more hype and more potential misunderstandings about children. More such “awareness” actually means less awareness in my opinion. Real awareness is to be able to discriminate between real autism and all the rest, and not to just categorize in such a coarse manner all that are different. Failing to discriminate has serious negative consequences on our children and our families. The latest “Awareness” is discouraging us to accept the child as a human being who is an individual, and it is encouraging us to treat the child as broken or disabled. My experience is telling me that we are going all wrong about this Autism Spectrum condition. I feel we have been hijacked by special interest groups lobbying for more and more power and control over how to classify children that are simply different, and that some are only developing differently. I feel that this is being achieved by means of inserting feat into society about this “Autism Spectrum epidemic”. They are feeding us with a lot of misinformation with controversial facts and statistics, all synthesized to appear scientific, but really just to lead you on to panic, hysteria and early treatments that lack real science regarding not only their effectiveness of treating specific issues, but their influence on the child as a whole. Yes, there are children with real conditions out there for it may be appropriate to be classified under some common condition such as Autism or ASD. Unfortunately we are now on the verge of becoming a society of checklists and symptoms trying to point out “red flags” to every child that is atypical in behavior, or doesn’t talk yet, or maybe has receptive delays or sensory integration issues, or maybe just likes to align things in rows and is just not the expressive and social type. It is tragic because real people are victims here. Both the real autistic children and grown ups and their families, as well as all those many children that now fall into the current wide Autism spectrum, that in my opinion has become a spectrum of intolerance to people.

By: Autism Vox » A Whole Lot of Autism To Account For in New Jersey

Autism Vox » A Whole Lot of Autism To Account For in New Jersey — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 06:29:33 +0000

[...] A March 15th article in the New York Times notes that the New Jersey state assembly is expected to pass seven autism bills today; the bills call for (among other things) early detection of autism in children, the formation of a Task Force on the needs of adults with autism, and financing for the Governor’s Council on Autism. “The legislative package could help cement New Jersey’s growing reputation for being at the forefront of autism diagnosis and treatment,” notes the New York Times. Some autism advocates have indeed been pointing to the heightened awareness about autism in New Jersey and better record-keeping as reasons for why the state has the highest prevalence rate for autism (1 in 94, according to the recently issued CDC study). Researchers in New Jersey “had a median of eight diagnostic records available to them to determine whether a child had an autistic disorder, while researchers in Maryland, for instance, had two,” the New York Times notes. [...]

By: Autism Vox » My Testimony on the New Jersey Autism Bills

Autism Vox » My Testimony on the New Jersey Autism Bills — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 16:50:21 +0000

[...] At 10am this morning in the Senate House Annex in Trenton, New Jersey, a hearing was held concerning the package of autism bills proposed by lawmakers who are “[s]tunned by a recent federal study that found New Jersey with the nation’s highest autism rate,” as noted in today’s Courier News Online. I had planned to attend this hearing and prepared a written statement. [...]

By: Caroline

Caroline — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 15:00:03 +0000

Thank you for responding to this, my mantra! Often therapists,special education teachers, and behavior consultants, while attempting to help a situation, are working from 15 year old models of how to work with kids with challenging ‘behaviors’. I look at it as all behavior is communication. A child might be ignored by teachers whose attention and understanding she/he craves, and bullied by the other children is subtle ways. This can cause a child with communication and sensory integration difficulties to act out. Everyone says ‘change the child not the environment’ and I do agree with that in many cases, but sometimes – very often in public school settings – its the attitude of teachers and other children that needs modification. Kids really want to help once they know what to do. And as I have commented before, a regular education teacher who does not use the robotic language( that some special ed professionals adopt because its what they were taught), can form better connections with a child because they are not scripted. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing though, I have heard regular education teachers attempting to put labels on kids – ‘we think he needs to be tested for ADHD’ instead of looking at how the classroom is organized, or how classroom discipline is maintained. a lot of times its blame the child and stamp a label on the problem. This prevelent attitude is very hard on children and their parents, increasing loneliness and desolation. Not everyone wants to OR CANNOT spend $150,000 year over year just to have a somewhat supportive school and theraputic environment for their children. In the end, the simple attitude adjustment will save pots of money!

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:05:44 +0000

Yes, autism is big, big busisness—–langauge like a “set of behaviors” indeed only dehumanizes a child and sees her or him as those “inappropriate” behaviors and not the whole person within. I’ve been writing about our past experience with our former school district regarding Charlie head-banging and have been thinking about how the behavior consultant indeed only looked at the head-banging, and not at why he might be doing it (communication needs, sensory overload). “Autism awareness” is the vaguest of terms and I am curious as to how this “awareness” might be characterized—-maybe some improved “autism attitude” might be helpful.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:36:13 +0000

I hope I do not sound like I have a one track mind in the comments I have started to make here, but I sure hope that the ‘autism awareness instruction’ gets across one important point, that children with autism are children first, not a ’set of behaviors’ to be ‘diagnosed’. They require understanding and patience, and respect, like any child.
All children also need to feel loved and accepted. I have heard so many mothers speak disparagingly of other children – ‘he flaps’ ’she’s really low functioning’ ‘I dont want my child to mimic behaviors’ and many special education schools that a few short years ago accepted children with ‘behaviors’ now do not, in order to cater to these parents. Its all about money, and autism is big business. Children with special needs derserve to be part of their communities, with the right supports. Community for children is school. An atmosphere of understanding rather than judgement and prejudice is essential. Your teaching strategy about ‘attitude’ should be incorporated in the the ‘awareness instruction’.