A Note About Diagnosing Autism
November 23, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Towards the end of a review of Dr. Paul Offit’s book Autism False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure in today’s Washington Times, Malcom A. Kline writes:
This writer recently heard a social worker warn the parents of autistic children to avoid certain doctor’s offices “where 90 percent of the children come out with an autism diagnosis.” What is even less widely known, though, is the degree to which the autism spectrum has expanded on the other end — the more severe cases.
Now what’s going on at those “certain doctor’s offices”? Is it that said doctor is particularly attentive to parents seeking an autism diagnosis for a child, as they know that such a diagnosis can come with more services? Is there some…….irresponsibility?????…….in possibly over-diagnosing autism? Is this doctor simply more knowledgeable about identifying autism and therefore diagnosing it better?
Is it a pediatric neurologist’s, a developmental pediatrician’s, or a child psychiatrist’s office? He should have reported what kind of a practice it was. All the mother’s I hear from talk about how difficult it is to get a diagnosis, they are in limbo for months if not years at times, with great difficulty in accessing services for their children.
On another note, he ends with
“You are not likely to see as much of Dr. Offit as you will of the one-time co-host of MTV’s “Singled Out” but you will learn much more about autism from his book than you will from Jenny McCarthy.”
I accidentally posted before I was finished!
I also notice he is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia. I have not heard of this organization before. His last paragraph was accurate!
” Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.”
This is a right wing organization that tracks perceived liberal bias among universities. Its a crackpot organization.
Is it any wonder to find this in the Washington Times? Many in the conservative “intelligentsia”, an adjective I hesitate to use, believe that autism is not really real in most cases. They believe its just a way for lazy parents to make an excuse for their child’s behavior. I have my doubts about whether the writer really overhead any such conversation, though if he spends his time only around other conservatives, he might have because many conservatives believe autism is mostly fake. Just an excuse for more government money.
I remember when I took my son to the pediatric neurologist trying to find out what was wrong. I had written down all of the strange behavior my son exhibited. He said that what I wrote about David described autism to a tee. That was how I found out that my son was autistic. I did not know what autism was and I was not seeking an autism diagnosis.
People who say such things have no experience with autism. This is what I expect when there is a widespread denial that there is an autism epidemic.
As for over diagnosis,I can easily see where this might be done,for Asperger’s,or HFA,but in cases,say,where a child is verbal,but shows all of the other signs of classic autism,there is no mistaking it.I am very glad that the diagnostic criteria was expanded to cover such cases. Otherwise I would never have ended up being diagnosed.
Not looking forward to when the next McCarthy/autism book comes out………
Kristina – ditto that one.
Just something from our experience – we have 5 kids, 4 with ASD’s and 1 with ADHD. Our kids range in age from 19 to 3. When our youngest was 17 months, I made an appointment through our county office of education to have her assessed because she wasn’t talking yet and having three other kids on the spectrum you start to recognize certain patterns and there were definitely things that we had already seen in our older three.
We live in Northern CA and have Kaiser, and our older kids have all been diagnosed through Kaiser. Yet with our youngest we were told by the education specialist on her case not to take her in to Kaiser because they are too quick to diagnose everyone with autism. Mind, we already have three kids with ASD’s and while each one is an individual and thus autism effects each one differently there are A LOT of commonalities in their behavior so we pretty much knew that she had it too and we’d already made the appointment at Kaiser because there’s a 6 month wait. But I found it an interesting comment.
I know that the counties and districts are strapped and I know that getting a diagnosis prompts parents to look towards the educational setting for services which puts strain on their budgets but I find it irresponsible at best that districts and counties are encouraging parents to NOT seek and autism diagnosis from outside sources. I understand what their potential motive is, but in the end an outside diagnosis does not mean the county or district will approve services. You have to go through the whole process again, at least out here.
Very conservative in this family, and believe me, autism is VERY Real!!!
Autism is spectral. I have personally seen autistics that cannot feed or dress themselves. On the other hand I have seen others who manage to fully integrate into society.
It carries a long list of symptoms and as if it were a smorgasbord, autistics get a little of this symptom and a lot of that symptom. This makes autism a difficult problem for diagnosticians.
Public conservatives on Autism and ADHD:
Rush Limbaugh (2004): The New York Times ran a long article on Asperger’s syndrome in April 2004. That week, Rush Limbaugh brought up the NY Times article, and stated he knew how to cure the social anxiety of people with Asperger’s Syndrome: “People with Asperger’s Syndrome should just get drunk to relieve their social anxiety.”
Michael Savage (2003), 2008 wasn’t the first time folks. Mocking a report from California in 2003 Savage stated: “California Report was “a way to drum up business” now that the Iraq war is over and that there is no proof that autism is increasing.” He also mocked autistics by reading a list of some of the symptoms of autism and said “I have that, I have that, I have that”
Phyllis Schlafly – “The number of children labeled ADHD and taking Ritalin has greatly increased since 1991 when ADHD was covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal program that brings more funding to public schools in order to provide extra services.”
Rush Limbaugh on ADHD “the perfect way to explain the inattention, incompetence, and inability of adults to control their kids.” Addressing parents directly, he lectures, “It helped you mask your own failings by doping up your children to calm them down.”
Samuel Bluemenfeld (from Conservative World Net Daily) “There was no ADD or Ritalin when I was going to school in the 1930s and ’40s. And that’s because you simply could not have an attention deficit disorder in the kind of classrooms that existed then: clean, quiet and orderly. We sat in desks bolted to the floor, and the teacher was the focus of our attention.”
Michael Savage (2008) “Autism is a fraud, a racket. … In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.”
Thomas Sowell (2007) “Many parents have told me that they have been urged to let their children be labeled autistic, or on the autistic spectrum, in order to get money for speech therapy or other conditions from grants that are available to deal with autism”
I was diagnosed with aspergers only after many years of my mothers “doctor shopping” I know people who actually have aspergers as well. Since my diagnosis, all the doctors I have met since fleeing the parental units coop have stated that I most definitely don’t have aspergers but PTSD and depression. This leads me to wonder how many parents shop for a diagnosis for there child, when they themselves are the actual problem. There is no denying that it is real, but is it actually necessary to diagnose someone with real mild traits. The diagnosis can cause more harm than the actual symptoms. Since I was diagnosed my whole family has used that as an excuse to treat me like I am subnormal and unintelligent even with an IQ of 156. The problem with aspergers is that it covers such a wide spectrum that almost everyone has at least a trait or two that could fall under the list of symptoms. That means that any abusive parent who wants to discredit a child seeking help, can just go doctor shopping in order to discredit the abuse victim. Psychiatry was the worst thing that ever happened to me.