But you are right Kristina, I don’t see the problems that exisit at home and I am not an expert I am just an observer that thinks my nephew is just a shy and imaginitive little boy.
I also do understand that early diagnosis is really important if parents want to see the best outcomes for thier children.

However I am getting sick to death of my family treating my nephew as if he is a fragile porcelen doll. I think he is more resiliant than people give him credit for. My SIL completely ignores the other grandchildren and only plays with my nephew at family gatherings beacuse she feels his needs are above the other children.

It also upsets me as the other cousins are becoming shadows to thier cousin and that all play is centered around my nephew and aunts and uncles spend all thier time “opening up” my nephew while ignoring my neice.

Anyway these are my personal problems not really reflected about my nephew being diagnosed with autisim but how my family has responded to it.

I know now after watching a show on catalyst a couple of weeks ago, that there are defining pathological gait differences between children with Asperger’sand Autism (and interestingly significant differences between both these disorders)

What I don’t understand, because I am not an expert and don’t really know too much about ASD (and don’t carry around copies of DSM-4) is in the diagnosis. What kind of boundaries are made between normal and disorder. I guess how many boxes are ticked for symptomatic behaviours? This seems flawed to me as there is so much room for bias from parents, teacher and so on. Maybe someone can tell me how a diagnosis is made for autisim. For example what kind of assessments are undertaken and do these assessments have potential flaws and bias?

When my son was diagnosed, many family members were skeptical. I think this was somewhat because they were basing their views on seeing my son for shorter periods of time, and we had a longer view of the sorts of difficulties he was having day in and day out. By getting the diagnosis, my son was able to have access to services (including speech therapy) that he truly needed; slowly, over time, family members have come to accept the diagnosis—-over time, though.

Autism is getting a lot of attention now, in the press and in general and while it’s not easy to get a diagnosis for one’s child, it’s not the hopeless thing that was once thought—-a lot we can do now for autistic kids. Very best—–

You could choose to see it that way. For me, I see in that a convergent thread of human behavior that is indicative of something quite broad that we hadn’t addressed before. Autism, it seems to me, does at least a better job of addressing a common group of individuals and about their similar behaviors and needs than had been typically described before it. And I think that the inclusion of people who otherwise might not be pathologized is accurate, even if they live fully functional lives. Mind you, I have a separate agenda in a sense, but to pare a generality I think it at least might make light of how the thread of behavior in what we would describe “impaired” autistics can be much the same types of behavior that can be found in a way that isn’t as impairing in human activity, and that one can fluidly move to the other. But I certainly understand, if you had a view of autism as a real “disease” or “disorder”, why one might come to that conclusion.

Cliff

Anyway I would appreciate any comments I am aware that I am stepping on sensitive ground here. Feel free to shout me down with hate comments if you so wish.

Autism is without doubt a very debilitating disposition. There is always a truth behind this. It is also a diagnosis that must not be abused. There are very many genuine autistic cases but it is a very scarey stastistic that the hightest rate of autism as a diagnosis was the year following of the release of the film rainman. This enabled American psychologists to respond very effectively to their paying client base by enabling them to justify cases and effectively labelling children.

This is obscene and must not be permitted to continue. Autistic children are quite unique and generally easily identifiable as being off the norm. To take this and abuse it to label children that have tantrums, emotional upsets and all the normal things that happen to children is very very dangerous.

I would say that it is more dangerous to label innocent children than it is to support worried parents that demand action.

I think this may be part of a greater push-back against something which is quite real: grasping for officially-recognised victimhood in service of an excuse.

When I first heard of Asperger’s in the early 1990’s, I thought back to my life, including comments of my teachers and elementary school principal about my habits and social defects, and came to the conclusion that I probably had it. I thought, ‘Well, that would explain why I have to waste so much of my processing power on handling social situations, and still do badly in them,’ got on with it (’it’ being dealing inadequately with work and personal relationships). A few years later, a woman at work came up to me, and with what I believe was no unfriendliness, said, ‘I just read about this thing called Asperberger’s syndrome, and I think you might have it,’; I laughed (since that’s what humans do) and said, ‘Yes, I think you’re right.’

A few years later a therapist agreed.

Starting a couple of years ago, I started encountering more and more people in my (cyber-centric) circle, talking volubly about their recently self-diagnosed Asperger’s. Nearly without exception, these were intensely self-involved persons very active in a scene about whose peripheries I lurk. I know a couple of other people with professionally-diagnosed Asperger’s, and they seem very different from these people.

A world (or God, if you prefer [and I don't]) bad enough to allow the pains real illness brings is a one bad enough to produce those who will grab onto an illness for gain, financial or social. I think it even worse that reaction to Asposeurs and the like should potentially hurt you who have so many real problems.

(As for me, I still believe I’ve got the taint, work on social coping skills, and generally avoid being obnoxious, even if it means avoiding people altogether, which in turn doesn’t bother me even though I know it’s supposed to.)