Britney Spears Worried About Her 2-year-old
August 8, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Not that this is becoming the autism celebrity blog or anything—–but just read that Britney Spears is worried her 2-year-old son, Jeyden James, has autism. The source is via Spears’ ex-husband, Kevin Federline; according to a “Federline insider,” Jeyden is “very calm and hard to get through to” and that he “does not mix with other children, and prefers to keep away from the crowd.” YellMalta notes that the “news comes after People Magazine reported that the singer attended a fund raiser for Generation Rescue.” A little competition for Jenny (not that she didn’t already have some from Amanda).
If there are concerns, hope the 2-year-old can be evaluated soon.
I’m not quite sure what to think of this, though I have to admit that I do hope we’re not getting another clueless celebrity autism spokesperson. I don’t want to diagnose her son via tabloid or anything, but reading the “reasons” behind her fear kind of make me cringe a bit. I’m not an expert, but those traits are in no way exclusive to autism. This is not a kid with serious delays, from the sounds of it, so why freak out and rush for an evaluation so young? It does seem like an example of autism “awareness” (fear-mongering) gone awry.
Moreover, it does seem to me (from what I’ve heard on the news) that this child’s family life has been quite atypical even by celebrity standards and quite possibly traumatic. Has Britney stopped to think that she and her ex-husband have not perhaps provided the best environment for their son? (I really don’t mean to be judgmental of parents at all here, but Britney’s situation has been well-documented.)
http://www.usmagazine.com/britney_new
Tuesday October 30, 2007
Usmagazine.com has learned that in last Friday’s custody hearing the court-appointed parenting coach, Lisa Hacker, reported that when they are with their mother, Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, have no real schedule or routine. Hacker explains, “The environment in the house ranges from chaotic to almost somber with little communication at all.”
She added, “During all three of my visits, [Spears] rarely engaged with the children in conversation or play.” Hacker also noted, however, that Spears’s parenting lapses are nothing she “would characterize as abusive in a traditional sense.”
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Hmmmn. I wonder if things are better chez Papa Federline?
Perhaps it’s much ado about nothing or a real concern.
Having a professional diagnostic screen is not that controversial and somewhat preferable to the current atmosphere of armchair diagnosis going on on the web, scrutiny of this family, and public consumption of a little boy’s health status. Having concerns about one’s child is worrisome enough; I can’t even imagine what it would be like with the hot light of the media thrown in.
I hope that they get good professional assistance to give them the information that they need to determine what action to take as a family and how to best act on their son’s behalf.
This could simply be a quiet kid who doesn’t thrive on the spotlight like his parents do.
It’s more likely that he’s just traumatized by all the stuff that he’s been through with his dysfunctional parents. I know I’d be hesitant to talk to my peers if I was Britney Spears’ kid. Everyone knows who he is and supposedly knows his life story. That has to be tough on a kid, especially when so much has gone wrong in his life.
In which case, one could argue that he’s quite observant of the unfortunate effects of celebrity.
His mom seems very impulsive and emotional; if he is a typical introverted child he will seem withdrawn by comparison. I just hope that this does not “label” him as abnormal.
I also really, really hope that this isn’t some publicity stunt, because that would be about as low as you can possibly go.
or he could be drug or alcohol affected…very common.
Spears isn’t Autistic I don’t believe but she does have mental issues (obviously). God help her child, regardless.
And now there’s speculation about her older son.
Just to offer another perspective, the phrase “according to an insider” in the tabloid world means “I’m just making this up to meet a deadline.”