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Researchers Identify Genetic Systems Disrupted In Autistic Brain
hessian sends this excerpt from Medical Xpress "Autism has a strong genetic basis, but so far efforts to identify the responsible genes have had mixed results. The reason for this is that autism is influenced by many different genes, and different genes are involved in different individuals, making it hard to find the common genetic ground between patients. Now, research conducted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has shown that despite this fact, the different genes involved in autism tend to be involved in specific processes in the brain. This can explain, on the one hand, similarities in the behavioral symptoms of different autistics, but also the large spectrum of behaviors observed in different autistic individuals."
Hear that Andrew Wakefield, you murdering piece of trash! Real researchers are finding real causes for autism, and not making them up and compromising the health of tens of thousands of people to make a buck.
May you roast in hell, and in the meantime come down with some particular noisome and noxious kind of cancer that makes you smell like rotting flesh and cause unceasing and unbelievable agony.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
No, no, no.... See, the vaccines contain chemicals like dihydrogen monoxide that travel through the bloodstream up to the brain, where they interact with the homeopathic echoes of infancy still resonating in the neurons. These deadly chemicals then alter the genes to cause further infant behavior, as has been observed here. Since the child now has to fight against these infant tendencies, development is slowed in what we call "autism".
Totally makes sense, I swear...
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Considering that low levels of autism-like symptoms seem to be prevalent in engineering disciplines, is this something that could be used to turn your dreamy/artistic/social child into more of a nerd/engineer type?
Also, I wonder what sort of reaction there would be if instead of autism, this paper was dealing with a potential to detect/fix some more politically sensitive group such as the GLBT community
It is true that, if there were no dihydrogen monoxide in the brain, the child would not exhibit autism.
In some cases I'd consider them bugs, in other cases they're arguably features. Who knows what the world would look like today if Nikola Tesla had been born normal.
...the article is dealing with a gene for Autism Spectrum Disorder, not Tourette Syndrome.
You're in the wrong discussion!
(Inspired by a Monty Python skit about an argument... "Oh, this is abuse!")
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
There is malice, then there is malice that causes the death of hundreds.
While I am personnaly againts the death penality, that guy is guilty beyond any shadows of a doubt. The facts are as follows:
1- He wanted to sell a "vaccine alternative"
2- He decided the best way to do that was if people were afraid of vaccines.
3- Profit
That was his plan, and because of it hundreds of kids are now dead.
I wish him the worst
You know it is also scientific fact that all people with mental disorders, terrorists and pedophiles have dihydrogen monoxide in their bodies. Surely we must think of the children's mental and physical healthy while punishing terrorists. Ban the stuff!
by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
Indeed. Once you get used to it, you find it hard to believe that the rest of the world can't think like you. For the autistic (the high functioning ones), they find their minds highly logical, and can't understand how that is a "weird" thing. As far as I'm concerned it's an advantage one ought to be proud of.
my sig pwns your sig
Unless you believe in creationism, there are no "bugs" in an organism (just real bugs like fleas and bacteria). A bug is when you write a program and it doesn't behave like the programmer wanted it to behave.
If you are a creationist, how do you know that God didn't deliberately design some infants with autism?
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The first attempt to make the syndrome seem not-so-bad was the labeling of "simple". When you called someone "simple", others knew what you meant, but it was clear you were sympathetic to their state. That changed dramatically over the course of a decade or two, as "simple" took extremely negative connotations.
The next derivation of the term was "dumb". By calling someone this, you avoided the idea of "low intelligence" all together. In fact, you were saying they were quite smart, but just weak with verbal skills. I suppose this is closest to how we use "Asberger Syndrome" today. Of course, time did not honor this PC term well, and it quickly came to mean the exact opposite.
Next was "slow". Unfortunately this term didn't sound scientific enough, so a new term, "retarded" was quickly invented to take its place. Sure, those with Latin language background knew what it meant, but to the general public, it was a new term. So, it was the accepted term for quite a while, but like all those before it, its time was limited. PSA's are shown on TV today to completely end the use of this term that was once promoted by the medical community.
Autism is now usually argued as something separate from all those terms above, however the lack of medical diagnosis of retardation has caused significant confusion among parents today. Although it is more narrowly defined by the medical community than previous terms, I predict that it, like all the others, will eventually became used as a taunt, and suddenly be regarded as a slur.
I don't know if this progression is necessarily a bad thing. Medical diagnoses are getting better, and the fact that we keep changing terms to keep everyone happy shows sensitivity that previous generations may not have had.
But, the down side is that the term is used for just about everything. The current conditions labeled as Autism covers far too much for studies such as the one in this headline to ever be successful. There is almost no chance that a single cause of autism would ever cover more than about 5% of the cases.
Free unix account: freeshell.org
My son is a high functioning Autism spectrum disorder child. He is 7 and has his feelings hurt quite genuinely and easily.
That is the hard part about being a parent of a child with this issue. His mom and I long ago decided it is not a disability, and not to treat it as such. You are very correct that he has an extremely ordered mindset, very logical and very strongly identified concept of right and wrong. The kicker is that his labels of right and wrong are very accurate, not just with the niavite of a 7 year old. The hardest part is helping him understand that the world is distinctively unfair. That right and wrong, while ideal logical statements often have substantial color to them that makes right wrong and wrong right enough to really make it difficult to just say "That's not right". One of his current passions (they seem to run in very deep streaks) is martial arts. The high focus / high structure seems to really work well for him.
I think he has a future that will be bright, as long as I can help steer his course in life towards something that resonates with him.
Since it sounds like you have experience in this environment, have you any sage advice for a parent that wants to do the right thing for his child?
-nB
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Well played sir, well played.
-nB
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In some cases I'd consider [autism symptoms] bugs, in other cases they're arguably features.
Someone on a board I hang out on told me that Asperger syndrome exists as a check on the social facade to prevent it from diverging too far from honesty. Consider this article about how extroverts answer personality surveys.
For what it's worth, if you have a friend or family member say they don't want to vaccinate their kids remind them of the following math:
If you count *all* children with autism where anybody made any claim that it was the fault of a vaccine...
And you count all children that have a medical reason for the vaccine hurting them (egg allergy, severe adverse reaction, etc.)...
And you count *all* children that were made very ill (beyond the normal fever, but not bad enough to be in the above category)...
If you take all those kids in one pool, and count them against the number of children that died young every year from the diseases vaccines prevent, you will find that even accepting the pseudoscience as truth, it is *still* better to vaccinate your kids from a numbers game. I forget the exact numbers, but IIRC it was like 3:1 deaths to everything else as a ratio.
I converted one of my family members with this argument. True they were still reluctant, but laying out the numbers you can't counter that, especially when you count the pseudoscience numbers in favor of the pseudoscience, and the vaccines still win.
I'd love to see Randal do an XKCD chart on this...
-nB
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some [people with low-functioning autism] can not even talk, they simply communicate through pointing and grunting.
So in other words, neurotypicality is like the command line and low-functioning autism is like a GUI. Or what do I misunderstand?
One of my closest friends is a high functioning Autistic. He's a wonderful human being and I cherish our friendship. He does have a high degree of social interaction problems and he was in his mid thirties before we could go out in public without him having an episode or creating a scene (he doesn't like people touching him or making eye contact).
I met him when we were in middle school and he was often a target of bullying. As we moved into high school the bullying started to become worse, but there were several of us who befriended him and it soon became known that to mess with him was to mess with us.
Today he lives on his own and has married a woman very similar to himself, he still can't manage his own finances and he does require some watching but he holds down a very nice job as a data analyst (his mind was made for abstract numbers) and lives a mostly normal life. The older he gets the better his social skills become, although he is definitely different.
Ironically I don't think there's a darn thing wrong with him, he's perfect just the way he is. Yes, he's different, but in so many wonderful ways.
You're right, your son is not disabled and you're doing the right thing by not treating him like he is. He might be different, but that doesn't mean he's disabled, it just means he's different.
"Autism has a strong genetic basis, but so far efforts to identify the responsible genes have had mixed results. The reason for this is that autism is influenced by many different genes, and different genes are involved in different individuals, making it hard to find the common genetic ground between patients."
Perhaps, alternately to considering a more complex/obfuscated genetic basis, we should again consider a NON-genetic basis?
How about the experiment everyone conveniently chooses to forget, the occurrence of autism in only one genetic twin (sharing identical genes, gestation environments, etc.).
Bukowski said it. I believe it. That settles it.
Wakefield was the scam artists. Yes, lawyers, TV show hosts, celebrities and a whole host of incredibly fucking stupid people helped him, but at the end of the day it was his scam.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
What does that link go to, goatse? I can think of no other reason to use bit.ly at slashdot. This ain't twitter. I'm not clicking any damned links that I don't know where they lead to.
Be glad I'm not moderating today, shortened URLs in comments get an automatic "troll" from me, simply because there's no rational reason except trolling to use one.
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You're in the wrong discussion!
No he isn't!
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soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
That's true, but who are you or I to say that autism is a flaw or disability at all? I'd be willing to bet that Thor (inventor of the hammer) and prometheus (tamer of fire) were high functioning autistics.
And I don't know what version of the bible you're reading, but "without disability" isn't in the King James version. Are you reading that (very bad) edition that says "do not lie" rather than "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (do not SLANDER)?
Oh, and imperfection isn't what the bible says Adam and Eve brought about, it was SIN.
Free Martian Whores!
My daughter is autistic and to any parent that thinks it's special and thinks it's what makes their kid, their kid, "fuck you!"
This condition IS a huge part of what makes me special, bro. I will make billions of dollars in my lifetime thanks to this condition. Yes it has given me challenges, but you know what, I have benefited from learning to overcome them.
Your ignorance and stupidity is disgusting and revolting. Look in the mirror. Animals like you are driven by your fear, not facts and reason. You are so busy stampeding towards a "cure" for "autism" (who can say with certainty what the fuck autism even IS, anyway?) to fix your OWN problems (YOUR daughter and HER condition), that you would gladly, willingly, happily, ignorantly run right over and fuck over others like me in the process.
If it were up to stupid assholes like yourself, people like me would be identified at 3 years old as "autistic", then immediately put on prescription meds to "cure" us. Whole generations of minds would be fucked over and ruined thanks to the ignorance and just plain inability to think of normal simpletons with their average intelligence and average stupidity.
So as a person who is autistic, and fucking proud of it....let me the one to say: No, Anonymous Asshole.....Fuck YOU.
Step one, someone has to submit the story.
Did you submit those stories?
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Keep moving forward.
Now if they can only find a genetic link in why so many people on /. have Assburgers~
reference:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-real-diseases-that-have-somehow-become-trendy/
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
3:1 seems rather high, I'd like to see the true facts, I couldn't figure it being higher than 500:1 and that's just a guess. The reason I say this is that any kid that is afflicted by an effect of vaccines hits national media, get's huge coverage, etc and that only seems to happen once or twice a year. Hep C (a vaccine given to kids) afflicts millions of Americans and thousands die daily from it. Then we have cervical cancer vaccine for girls, the standard vaccines, etc etc etc.
WTF Slashdot, why do I have to login 50 times to post?
1- He wanted to sell a "vaccine alternative"
2- He decided the best way to do that was if people were afraid of vaccines.
3- Profit
Not quite correct. He didn't want to sell a vaccine alternative, he wanted to sell an alternative vaccine. He had a stake in a company that made a measles vaccine and wanted to defame the MMR vaccine in favor of that.
Obviously, things did not go according to plan.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Since it sounds like you have experience in this environment, have you any sage advice for a parent that wants to do the right thing for his child?
I am autistic and I grew up in special needs classes and went on to college and now work in a marginally social insurance analysis software development role for a big company. I have a wife, a bunch of kids, a full life.
The big piece of advice is: let him follow his passions, and they will change often, there really is no fighting it, and hey like me he might even end up using it for a nicely compensated occupation.
My second is, try to do your best to teach him how and why to lie. Anybody can say things that aren't true, but the little social lies everyone tells every day were the hardest thing I ever had to overcome. You described a highly black and white world, and largely I had the same thing. I had no idea why you would pretend to not to be disgusted by religious people, or why you wouldn't say things like "no thanks I don't eat food served by people who have dirty shirts and nervous fingernail habits." There is a very blurry line between tact and deceit and that took me a lot of bullying and a lot of painful trial and error to figure out, it is not typically intuative for an autistic person, because largely we would prefer to know the real reasons behind things, but non-autistic people prefer to be lied to in social situations.
Most of the lies I tell people in a social context are straight out of movie scripts, because I can never figure out how to word it correctly on my own. People seldom notice, and when they do they think I am making an "in" joke with them. It is a win-win.
Being done by Jews. After the pseudo-science perpetrated on their ancestors by the Nazis.
It seems like you have the right idea of how to deal with him.
You are right, it's not a disability. The most important thing to consider, is getting him ready for the world outside. His interaction with society will never be as normal and easy as with the majority of people, but with proper training, and education, he can act like it is. People with autism lack empathy, and don't understand human emotions properly. It confuses them, and can put them in awkward positions as they rack their brain trying to guess what a non-autistic person would have done in similar circumstances. And this is the part to be focused on. Teaching them standard social behaviour. Autistic people love rules, love routine, and teaching them proper responses to common questions, proper behaviour to common incidents, will certainly make them much happier in life. If they dont know how to respond to something, they'll try and remember taught rules, then try to remember past experiences, maybe something they've seen in a movie, or read from a story, or happened with another family member.
For example, if one day, your son got married, and his wife bought him a bouquet of flowers. You shouldn't expect him to be as delighted as most men would be. But with proper training, he'll understand the gesture, he'll understand what she means by them, and will display the delight she's expecting, even though in reality, he really doesn't care about flowers at all. Eventually, he'll be capable of understanding most social interactions, understand expected responses, and cope with society, hiding his syndrome from everyone except those close to him.
All it takes is the basic understanding of what he has, and what *others* are like, and why he should try and cope.
Hope this helps you.
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And I don't know what version of the bible you're reading
New World Translation, similar methodology to the English Standard Version.
but "without disability" isn't in the King James version.
It was a paraphrase; hence the lack of quote marks. I was expressing my own understanding of what it means when God, the very personification of perfection, calls something "very good". But the KJV does mention "without blemish" several times. Would not low-functioning autism be considered a "blemish" on man?
Are you reading that (very bad) edition that says "do not lie"
My Bible has "You must not testify falsely as a witness against your fellowman." (Exodus 20:16) Among these translations of the same verse, are you referring to the "GOD'S WORD(R) Translation"?
Oh, and imperfection isn't what the bible says Adam and Eve brought about, it was SIN.
Same diff. Sin led to a population bottleneck in AM 1656, and this population bottleneck led to an even more thorough corruption of the genome.
It isn't the vaccines, and not vaccinating puts not only your own child at risk, but other children as well as herd immunity breaks down.
This has been dealt it. Wakefield was a fraud, and if things worked as they ought to, he'd be rotting in prison. There was no link between MMR and autism. Never was. Never ever ever ever was. You might as well not feed your child milk, because guess what, I'm sure you could make some correlation between milk and autism.
Let it be repeated into your dull, stupid, worthless brain. Correlation does not imply causation.
But I'm all for you denying your child vaccinations. By the same token I think it should be against the law for you to put them in public school, in any publicly funded daycare, that they should have to wear full environmental suits when around other children until all the parents of those children have signed a waiver.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Don't you mean Eve. She was the first to be devious and women have been following her example ever since.
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
People with autism lack empathy, and don't understand human emotions properly. It confuses them, and can put them in awkward positions as they rack their brain trying to guess what a non-autistic person would have done in similar circumstances.
Just wanted to mention, non-autistic people have the same lack of empathy toward autistic. And you'll also find a lot of empathy among those on the spectrum. (Seems to be especially strong among females on the spectrum, from what I've seen.) A lack of understanding of how that empathy is portrayed by autistics has resulted in a strong believe that there is a lack of empathy.
Should be fixable with a quick sonic screwdrivering, then.
Your sense of humor is apparently misunderstood under appreciated. Not everyone with mod points know what to do with them.
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
Like I said I don't remember the exact numbers, but I remember thinking the same thing. 3 kids would have died (without vaccines) for every one that got sick (with them).
Now herd immunity will skew those numbers given that the majority of the population is vaccinated, but it is still crazy numbers.
-nB
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Are you woken up at 4:30 a.m. because your autistic child won't go back to sleep?
Or kept up till midnight for the same reason, or end up giving up and sleeping on the floor next to him? yes.
Do you have to spend $6.00 on a gluten free loaf of bread?
no, because I don't have those allergies in my family.
Does it hurt when you remember what your son WAS like and wonder if he will ever be 'normal'?
not so much, I am happy I have a son that is high functioning (which it sounds like may not be your case, so you have my sympathies).
etc.
Look, all of us have issues, I've not walked in your shoes, just like you've not walked in mine (high function Autism and factor IX hemophilia), I'll agree that the post you were responding to was worded badly, and aggressively, but I must agree with him that the vaccinations were highly unlikely to have been causative. I'm going to guess this happened around the time he got the MMR shot series? This developmentally also happens to be the time when the brain makes lots of changes, one of which is manifesting symptoms of the miswiring we are discussing here.
-nB
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Not saying it IS the vaccines, but as a father of an autistic boy, i sometimes think.
Right. No offense, because I understand the emotional feeling of lacking control, but what you could have done is increased your child's chance of contracting a potentially dangerous disease with no effect whatsoever on their autism condition.
Autism is a developmental disorder. It happens over time, as the brain develops. A child who at first seems normal but then takes a turn, regressing, is perfectly normal progression of the disease. It is impossible for the changes to have occurred between when they first received vaccines and when you first noticed symptoms.
You say "if you like those odds" as if vaccines have anything to do with the odds. Those odds exist independent of vaccination, so liking the odds should have nothing to do with the decision to vaccinate. If you like the odds of your child getting sick with a preventable disease for the completely illusory feeling of having done something about autism, then by all means, skip vaccinations.
This desire to blame something tangible, to try to find something we could have done differently, is an emotional reaction and not a sound basis for medical advice. It's perfectly understandable, but understanding it is exactly why we shouldn't listen to it. I'm sorry about your kid, but there's nothing you could have done and not getting vaccines would have only been for the worse.
The enemies of Democracy are
I used to have extremely black & white thinking, and was often accused of having it (as derision). The high functioning autistic mind will often attempt to enforce rules of logic where there is none to tame and make sense of an illogical world. It wasn't until I started learning about various forms of philosophy that my mind expanded to see the shades of grey. A simple example is democracy: on the one hand, it promises fairness by giving everyone equal say; but on the other, the majority has tyranny over the minority. Some will say fairness is everyone having equal amounts; others will say fairness is only having and keeping all of what you earn. I still deeply detest the discordance of life, but it is what it is: an inescapable game. The rules are what they are, and they change, so accept and adapt to the rules and play it to win.
Be relentless!
It was a paraphrase; hence the lack of quote marks. I was expressing my own understanding of what it means when God, the very personification of perfection, calls something "very good". But the KJV does mention "without blemish" several times. Would not low-functioning autism be considered a "blemish" on man?
Let's not go projecting our human notions of what's "good" and what's a "blemish" are on God, okay? It just smacks of hubris.
BTW, this is still true if we replace God with "nature".
The enemies of Democracy are
"The results of this study point toward contribution of minor and major perturbations in the two sub-networks of neuronal genes to ASD risk"
Notice genes *contribute* not cause, and they contribute to risk of ASD, not to ASD
Like I said, I understand that -- as much as I can, not being you and not going through it, of course.
But to compare to something less emotional, I also understand why people think they're safer in a car they are driving versus a plane someone else is piloting. It makes perfect psychological sense why someone would be convinced airplanes are death traps and they are much better in a car. However advising people not to fly in airplanes because they'll be safer driving across the country in a car does not make sense. That is factually wrong. It's bad advice. A national movement of people promoting this viewpoint would be bad for public safety.
This is why despite respecting your feelings, when you say "if you like 1 in 66 odds of autism (implied: as a consequence of vaccines, much lower or no odds for the non-vaccinated) then go ahead " then it's no longer just feelings but bad, dangerous FUD and it must be countered before it becomes a public health risk (more than it already has).
But back to your feelings, maybe there's something you can help me understand which I never have before: Why does it seem like so much of the late-night wondering and second-guessing is focused around vaccines? Why is this quest for a reason for this to have happened -- perfectly understandable -- focused like a laser on something that there is essentially no chance is actually responsible because it goes against everything that is understood about the disease? That had the only thing actually implicating it as the cause shown to be an outright fraud?
I ask because I imagine that if I were in your shoes, I would want to find the reason, but I would want to find the real reason. I would want to find the real reason because if you find the real reason you could perhaps find real help. Or at least understand what happened, that it was indeed something I did, or if it was always out of my control and simply fate. So I'd like to think that I might have suspected vaccines, but once every piece of evidence showed that this isn't it, I'd have moved on to something else that might be right. Like, say, the science in this article.
Why isn't this so? I honestly don't get it.
The enemies of Democracy are
Yes he is!
(Even further inspired by a Monty Python skit about an argument... "Oh, this is abuse!")
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I would like to add a note here on behalf of those Autistic people who are not high functioning, as many of them are unable to post on internet sites. I have worked with many of them and it is a really serious disability. High functioning autistic people are able to live fairly normal lives and can be fascinating people to know, at the other end of the spectrum though it can be pretty hard.
Just wanted to mention, non-autistic people have the same lack of empathy toward autistic. And you'll also find a lot of empathy among those on the spectrum. (Seems to be especially strong among females on the spectrum, from what I've seen.) A lack of understanding of how that empathy is portrayed by autistics has resulted in a strong believe that there is a lack of empathy.
This makes perfect sense, if you accept that the core essence of empathy is being able to create a "model of mind" for another being, and then look (back at yourself, out at the world) as that "model" would see/feel.
To be able to do this when faced with the Alien is not easy.
After reading the description of your friend, I realize that I'm a lot like him - sans the protection racket that he got, that is.
Since I was a kid - heck, since I was a little baby - I always know that the world is totally fucked up because they just can't see what I see and they just can't think what I think
Yes, I had a really bad time adjusting, but adjusting I did - and still do
While my IQ is way over 200, my EQ is still lower than a kindergaten toddler.
And to that dad of that special boy, to you, I will say "Congratulation !" for you do treasure what's inside your boy.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
You should look up 'X chromosome Mosaicism'. In female mammals, each cell deactivates one of the two X chromosomes. It basically happens randomly, so *any* female mammal is a mix of cells with about half having an active *maternal* X chromosome, and the others having an active paternal X chromosome.
Identical twins will have different patterns of X chromosome activation. This can be a completely visible difference, such as in tortiseshell or calico cats
So, if any of the AD genes are on the X chromosome, they can be expressed *very* differently in otherwise identical twins.
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/genetics/medgen/chromo/mosaics.html
That's just the one mechanism I know of off the top of my head that can cause differences in twins, no doubt there are others. Once you get into environmental causes, I'm sure that does nothing but expand the possibilities.
You're not going to make a billion dollars, slow the fuck down.
Says who? Who are you again?
Also, genius, it's a spectrum disorder. Ranging from people who might have it, or are just using it as an excuse to be a dick, like you, to people who can not funtion.
.....and your point is?
You falsely link intelligent with autism.
Intelligence*
You have no clue what reasoning I've taken to come to my conclusion, because I haven't explained it to you ..... nor do I feel any obligation to.
Not nearly as smart as you think you are, but that's the case now, so no change.
You just love saying that, don't you? I wonder why you feel so driven to insult me?
IF someone made it so you were comfortable around people, you would still be just as smart as you atr.
are*
What makes you ASSume "being uncomfortable around people" is my definition of "autistic"? That's a simplistic definition invented by a simpleton.
Parents of Kids that rock back in forth all day, drool on themselves and can't communicate would probably love to cure the disorder.
Sure. And I bet parents of kids who "don't listen", who forget things they're told verbally, who have strange habits like skipping up and down the house excitedly and flapping their hands, who are willful and impulsive, etc, would love to cure their kids of this "disorder" as well.
Which is why I'm well and fucking glad mine weren't able to.
Autistic people love rules, love routine, and teaching them proper responses to common questions, proper behaviour to common incidents, will certainly make them much happier in life.
I agree. The problem that I've found as an Aspie, however, is that a lot of neurotypical people don't know how to express these rules, and especially the principles underlying them, in a language that I understand.
If they dont know how to respond to something, they'll try and remember taught rules, then try to remember past experiences
And without taught rules, sometimes they'll overgeneralize from past experiences, or they'll undergeneralize and end up in trouble again.
maybe something they've seen in a movie
Hence the CSI Effect and other unsafe cases of confusion that results from misapplying storytelling tropes to real life.
are you referring to the "GOD'S WORD(R) Translation"?
Yes, after reading that one I decided to stick to good ol' King James. I can't trust a bible that's under copyright protection. No man should have a monopoly on God's word.
Free Martian Whores!
I can't trust a bible that's under copyright protection.
Three works of authorship are subject to perpetual copyright-like rights in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. One of the three is the King James Version of the Bible.
No man should have a monopoly on God's word.
Which is why the Watch Tower Society puts its literal New World Translation online and distributes printed copies at no charge.
My son is a high functioning Autism spectrum disorder child. He is 7 and has his feelings hurt quite genuinely and easily. That is the hard part about being a parent of a child with this issue. His mom and I long ago decided it is not a disability, and not to treat it as such. You are very correct that he has an extremely ordered mindset, very logical and very strongly identified concept of right and wrong. The kicker is that his labels of right and wrong are very accurate, not just with the niavite of a 7 year old. The hardest part is helping him understand that the world is distinctively unfair. That right and wrong, while ideal logical statements often have substantial color to them that makes right wrong and wrong right enough to really make it difficult to just say "That's not right". One of his current passions (they seem to run in very deep streaks) is martial arts. The high focus / high structure seems to really work well for him.
I think he has a future that will be bright, as long as I can help steer his course in life towards something that resonates with him.
Since it sounds like you have experience in this environment, have you any sage advice for a parent that wants to do the right thing for his child?
-nB
I'm a "high-functioning autistic". I was diagnosed when I was 41 years old. Had a really crazy first 30 years or so. I was (literally) raised in an abandoned building
and was beaten by both parents. I was beaten by my classmates from the age of 8 to the age of 16, about 3 times per week. I was sexually molested in front
of teachers on school grounds, and was suspended for "causing trouble". I was forced to enlist in the Navy when I was 20, under threat of death, with a
gun in my face. I was set on fire, had urine saved up and thrown in my face while sleeping, etc.
Now I'm not saying "oh poor me". I'm just saying, I truly understand what it's like to be autistic in America.
But you know what?
I can also say the following:
* Became certified as a technician class amateur radio operator at 14.
* Became a 2nd Class Commercial (Tv/Radio broadcasting engineer) at 16.
* Managed 80 men (they didn't like me- but that was their problem) and 2 nuclear reactors at 24.
* Started a dot.com DURING the dot.com crash, that has earned me over 2 million profit.
* Have worked in IT for 20 years in networking and systems, and am now a Principal Systems Engineer
* Married/Been with my wife for 15 years now.
* Raised my step-daughter for the same period of time.
And I didn't even KNOW I was autistic until I was 41, which was 9 years ago.
I've known a number of auties, other than myself as well, that are pretty happy and successful. It can certainly be done,
if the disability aspects aren't completely overwhelming.
But yes, a little help can go a long ways. There are work-arounds for most things that autistic people must face, but obviously not everything.
For example bright light and almost any sound is very difficult for me. I have no sense of direction at all. I really have problems
with authority figures. And of course, even after 15 years, my primary relationship (my wife) will never cease to be "interesting".
Of course you don't have to be autistic to understand that!
I could fill a book with advice (but I'm sick of all those books on autism out there!), but you might consider the following:
1) Read up on "Observer perspective", try to practice it yourself, and help your son with that.
2) If your son has issues with reciprocity, then study that subject yourself, and help him see reciprocity from a logical perspective.
3) If your son has issue with "empathy", then study compassion and share things about compassion with your son. I myself don't
have that much empathy, as the circuits don't seem to be there so much, but I've understood and practiced compassion since I
was 6. If you practice compassi
Wakefield never wanted people to not get vaccinated (he just wanted people to buy his company's vaccines, he tried to scare people off of the competitor's one). It is people like McCarthy who actually advocated not getting vaccinated, so please put the blame squarely where it belongs. Wakefield was a greedy moron but the blood isn't on his hands.
My webcomic
My son has the 299.00 diagnosis, and he so far shows no signs of concern for the feelings of anyone. He finds it funny when I wince or say OUCH as he kicks me in the face or nads.
Dyjkstra: It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
It's not your fault.
Really.
Dude, in all seriousness, get some counselling.
It can really help.
You need it.
I've spoken to quite a few of [Jehovah's Witnesses] and every single one seemed crazy.
In the first century, Jesus seemed crazy.
Plus, I don't like door to door salesmen.
JWs base their "house to house" ministry on Acts 5:42, if I remember correctly. JWs aren't obligated to preach that way, as I understand it; it's just one thing they can do in addition to sharing the gospel with friends and family.
[A list of verses omitted from most modern translations of the Greek Scriptures] makes me like the KJV that much more.
The Greek Scriptures in the Luther Bible, KJV, and NKJV are based on TR, as opposed to the NU (Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies) text based on the oldest manuscripts, which underlies NIV, NWT, and most other twentieth-century translations. TR-type texts include back-translations from Latin into Greek of some verses that do not appear in the original manuscripts of the New Testament. NKJV is based on TR, but editions of NKJV published by Thomas Nelson include footnotes as to which verses are omitted in NU, for the benefit of those who believe that these extra verses are not inspired and did not exist in the first century.
It is focused on vaccines because there is an amazing correlation between the MMR vaccine and Autism onset. The correlation is strong enough that there have been multiple studies to see if there was also causation. There is not.
The brain goes through some crazy changes at 18 to 30 months, the MMR vaccine is targeted for 24 months. Since in many cases Autism onset appears to be rapid, and there is a high probability of recently (within 6 months) of having gotten shots, naturally people seize on that. I even grappled with that, the scientific part of me said it was not the cause, but the parental protection part of me, yeah, that crossed my mind. I'd be lying if I said otherwise.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Seconded tolkein fan. :)
I've had a shrink for a while. It does help, and there is no shame in it. (Not to say I don't enjoy a drink now and then).
Don't let this become your demon.
And, you can always contact me for some moral support
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Most basic health care plans will provide one for free, they will be a LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker), not a psychiatrist; kind of like seeing a Nurse Practitioner rather than an MD. If you don't have health care, there are still support services out there. It really will help, I promise. Having someone to talk to other than us anon dicks here on /. really works well. They can help you place stuff in perspective and place your priorities where they need to be (as opposed to where you honestly think they should be). They will help you with tools to work with your son, how to step back when the frustration gets to be too much, but in a way that does not make him worse.
Know that you are not alone in this. There are plenty of us here with autism, or like me and you, parents of autistic children. Find a local support group, talk to people. We recently lost my wife's grandmother, who lived with us for several years, that was particularly hard for my son, and by extension for us. If it weren't for the support out there I don't know how I would have dealt with it.
Come to think of it, talk to your child's care provider... they may be able to hook you up with someone.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
My son has the 299.00 diagnosis, and he so far shows no signs of concern for the feelings of anyone. He finds it funny when I wince or say OUCH as he kicks me in the face or nads.
I've never known a little boy who doesn't laugh when he kicks me and I say ouch. All my nephews, all my cousins...all thought it was hilarious. Don't assign to a disease something that's fairly normal in young boys. I don't doubt the diagnosis, but that particular example seems normal in my world. Ever heard "little boys are cruel". It's true.