*Everyone* knows that global warming is due to the decline in the number of pirates in the world. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

Arrrrrrrr!

– Phil,
AS father of an autistic son and a daughter in the broader phenotype,
Son of a professor emeritus of English who was hyperlexic as a child,
Grandson of a merchant who had arithmetic savant skills, and
Married to a charming non-autistic woman whose father was profoundly non-autistic but who had autistic cousins in his mother’s family

You pass the “hidden horde”, or their relatives, on the street every day.

Let’s agree that there are 1 in 150, *however we got to this point*, and get busy arranging the support and accommodations they will need, and removing the obstacles in their way, as they attempt to live maximally enabled lives in this world of ours.

We aren’t going to drown, and we aren’t going to go bankrupt doing so.

Get used to the world becoming ever so slightly more autistic on average.

Complications at childbirth for all of mine, though. C. least of all. S. had to undergo “vacuum extraction” and then had jaundice. C. and T. were twins, with all that implies (although I carried them long enough to avoid the NICU).

2 grandfathers probably both with AS has something to do with it, I think!

I think it’s jarred babyfood. All those pesticides in concentrated amounts fed to the child every day for months. (IMO, this is no further out there than the vaccine theory or the tv theory).

Seriously though, of course it somehow leads back to the parents. Genetics, behaviour, exposures to certain substances (I’m thinking the parents exposure, not the kids)….it really could be anything or any combination of things couldn’t it? I think it can only be called blame when the intention of the parents is in question.

I honestly don’t think all autism is caused by the same thing. There seem to be so many different “kinds” of autism out there. It looks like a bunch of different autisms…some genetic, some caused by other things, and if they all have the same basic symptoms then they’re lumped into the Autism umbrella.

My son was different from birth. There was no regression. His progress just seemed to slow over time. I dunno, the cause just doesn’t seem all that important to me anymore.

What always strikes me is sometimes I look at my daughter and I look at my husband and just have to say out loud: how could the two of us, the most ordinary people in the world have created such a beautiful extraordinary child? That truly mystifies me.

The parents are always to blame, are always responsible for, in some sense for their child’s autism, just not in the sense of Bettleheim and the mom having a deep seated wish to kill her own child. It’s riduculous to hold the parents “blameless” or entirely unconnected to their child’s autism. jypsy says if she could take “credit” for Alex’s autism she would, gladly.

And I do think too much time and digital ink is spilled on “causation”—-and is never enough time as it is to enjoy being with Charlie.

I had Charlie when I was 28 years old when I had Charlie. No alcohol, drugs, or drugs to prevent a premature pregnancy (Charlie was full-term).

But I would say, I think that there was autism in the family, before Charlie.