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The Centers for Disease Control now says that 1 in 100 children has autism. Some of the growth is likely spurred by a change in terminology: children who once would have been diagnosed as “emotionally disturbed” or “mentally retarded” are now notches on the autism spectrum.
On The Atlantic’s website, there’s an eye-opening piece that looks behind the statistics and points out that along with the surge in diagnosis comes a wave of potential clients for services and supports that may not be available for anything less than a determination of full-on autism.
Photo courtesy of D Sharon Pruitt (flickr.com)
Forget fuzzy terms like “processing disorder” or nonspecific developmental delay. The word “autism” is what gets funded services for a family desperate to get their child help without going bankrupt.
The child gets help, but the numbers shoot up — and now, an eye-opening documentary, “Autistic-Like: Graham’s Story” tells the tale of Jennie and Erik Linthorst and their son Graham. At age 17 months, Jennie and Erik noticed something not quite right about their son. He was diagnosed as autistic. Possibly. Kind of. Some described him as autistic-like; others said he didn’t fit the criteria. The parents flung themselves into full-on therapeutic mode, getting services and therapies for him. But something about the therapies didn’t seem right either, and so Jennie and Erik researched until they found a developmental pediatrician who diagnosed Graham with sensory-processing issues. “Keep the label anyway,” she advised, “so you can get services.” But she prescribed other treatment for Graham that the Linthorsts would have to pay for out of pocket.
The documentary is being shown at some 90 venues Oct. 10 and 11. Check for showtimes near you.
Here’s what I think: kids who receive the diagnosis of autism because of much milder issues are the ones who later turn up as “cured.”
It’s fine with me if people stand under an ever-expanding autism umbrella in order to get the help they need. But I don’t like them to leave the umbrella and stand under clear skies, and proclaim that any child can be cured if the parents want it enough, or work hard enough, or do enough research. We have done all of that, including dream of a cured Alex in our sleep, an Alex who can communicate with us and the world. What I’d like is for those parents to acknowledge that what they were experiencing was a cloudy day. But it’s still raining for us, and likely always will be.
I feel much the same way about the “umbrella” of diagnosis. It’s funny, but I just wrote about something quite similar. I’ve often thought that the criteria for falling under it was way too broad. And apparently now it is much more so.
The increase in children being diagnosed with autism could very well be because of the autism spectrum expanding to include terms like “emotionally disturbed” or “developmentally delayed”. As far as I know there is no clear scientific explanation for the increase in autism diagnoses. The metaphors about cloudy days and raining every day made a lot of sense to me and helped me to understand what it must feel like for a parent who child is on the more severe end of the autism spectrum. Would children with severe autism receive the same services as children who receive a more mild diagnosis of autism?