Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) has commissioned what is described as the “first national survey of attitudes toward autism.” Today’s Physorg notes some highlights of the report; more results of the survey will be revealed at an autism conference to be held at FIT this weekend. The Scott Center for Autism Treatment is located at FIT. Its College of Psychology and Liberal Arts, which commissioned the survey, offers a graduate program in Applied Behavior Analysis.

Looking at what Physorg reports about the survey’s result, there’s a lot of confusion out there about what causes autism and what it is. 1000 men and women who were 21 years old or older were randomly selected from throughout the nation and information was gathered via telephone interviews conducted between August 1 and August 29 by GDA Education Research, Mount Pleasant, S.C.:

Nearly one in four (24 percent) said that because vaccines may cause autism it was safer not to have children vaccinated at all. Another 19 percent were not sure.
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Nineteen percent of the respondents agreed with the statement “Autism is caused by a preservative once found in childhood vaccines.” An additional 43 percent were not sure, meaning fewer than half (38 percent) of the respondents believe no link exists between the vaccine and autism.
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More than three in four respondents (76 percent) to the national survey agree with the statement: “At this time, scientists don’t know exactly what causes autism.”

Looks like more than a few people would benefit by joining this book club.

A post here on adult sexuality in autistic individuals led to a very interesting exchange, including critique of the survey itself. The survey is being conducted by the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System is and the University of New Brunswick and the researchers have sent me a response (see below, after the jump).

Being the mother of a 10 year, 10 month old son who (as I’ve noted) has started a moustache —-puberty is right around the corner—-I very much value the findings of the research and, too, discussion of this topic among readers. If you review the “Ashley treatment“—which involved the removal of her uterus and breast buds, so that she will not start to menstruate and will also be “kept small,” Ashley growing up and into adulthood was, it seems, a foremost concern for her parents. The issue of sexuality in individuals who are cognitively disabled is a huge topic that I certainly have just started to think about and rather than just take a “wait and see” approach, it’s important to me to learn as much as possible, and to keep dialogue going.

Here is the response from the researchers of the study on sexuality in autistic individuals: Read more

Children with special health care needs—-including autism, ADHD, asthma—are not consistently getting the care recommended by the government, and the care and services they receive varies from state to state. Go here to see state-by-state details of the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs. From the February 28th Science Daily:

The survey is especially significant because it finds that more than 10 million American children have a special health care need – that amounts to one in five households with children younger than 18. [my emphasis] While states perform well in specific areas, no state is providing all of the recommended care to the majority of their children with special health care needs. …….

- While nearly all children with special health care needs have some type of health insurance, 3.3 million are underinsured. The health benefits packages for one-third of currently insured children with special health care needs do not adequately cover needed services or have reasonable co-pays.

- Only one-third of children with special needs who are Hispanic or who are living below the federal poverty level get coordinated and family-centered care from their health care providers.

- Out-of-pocket medical costs exceeded $1,000 for 1 in 5 children with special health care needs during 2005-06.

- Family members of nearly 2.5 million children with special health care needs had to cut back or stopped working because of their child’s health conditions.

Those last two points more than ring true for us.
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