Where’s the education?
April 17, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Autism mother Katie Wright recently spoke on “Imus in the Morning” on MSNBC and noted that she thinks her son Christian’s autism might have been caused by vaccines. As Dan Olmstead in The Age of Autism: Christian’s Mom Speaks wrote, Ms. Wright said that she
…is concerned her young son Christian’s autism might be
related to vaccines he received, that he is getting better through
treatments that include biomedical interventions, and that it’s time for parents to follow their own “common sense” when they get their kids vaccinated.
Christian Wright is the grandson of Autism Speaks founders Bob and Suzanne Wright. Autism Speaks has indeed brought much attention to autism in many areas, from the government and politcs to the media.
While efforts to find out the causes of autism are more than laudable, Mr. Olmstead’s article about Ms. Wright and an autism-vaccine link does not mention the very important issue of educating children with autism. The population of autistic persons is growing every day; children with autism will soon grow into teenagers and adults with autism. We need to address their needs now, by educating them. And, even more, by providing them with the best possible education most appropriate to them, no matter what the cost.
I can’t turn back the clock and “cure” or “undo” Charlie’s autism. (Not that my husband, Jim, and I would ever want to.) But I can advocate here and now for the best education for Charlie, so that he will have the best future possible.
Education! What a good idea!
Would it be too radical to suggest that, as we already have plenty of autistic adults, iyt would make a useful research study for someone to recruit them, ask them what was wrong with their education and what worked, and publish some good practise guidelines based upon autistic experience for a change?
I’m getting a sense from reading autistic writers’ blogs about what worked and what didn’t, while keeping in mind that there have been a lot of changes made to autism education in the past decade. Bronwyn left a comment about this topic in my previous post.
I’d like to see more advocacy for and publicization of the need to educate our kids. Not just about aetiology.
Even those of us who feel we can and should “cure” (a problematic word that can mean so many different things when it comes to autism) our children know that our biomedical interventions can only take us so far. We must “treat” our children with the proper educational approaches. As much as I advocate for further research into causes and appropriate medical interventions, I cannot deny that research into the best educational interventions is just as necessary. Thanks for the perspective.
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