Friday, September 28, 2007

Seems I may be autistic

I'm not making fun of autism. I knew a couple who had 2 children with autism, and I can tell you it is tragic. However I do not believe 1 in 150 children has autism.

My mother taught special education for 27 years and had one autistic student. If autism were really that common, I would think she would have had more than one student with the condition.

The diagnosis of autism has gone the way of the diagnosis of ADD. I'm afraid it has become a fad and children are getting wrongly labeled. Also, those who purport that vaccines cause autism has done a great disservice to children. Childhood diseases like mumps are on the rise because of the hysteria and subsequent decision of parents to deny vaccines to their children.

Now there is an Autism Quotient test where adults can see if they have autistic traits. I scored a 37 which puts me in the "very high" designation.

Any idea why I scored so high? I don't like parties, find small talk difficult and annoying, like a routine, and am able to block out distractions so that I can concentrate on a task. Sigh.


5 comments:

danny said...

I scored 26... :\ (that's above average.) But I'm only 13, and it may make a difference age-wise.

danny said...

I scored 26... :\ (that's above average.) But I'm only 13, and it may make a difference age-wise.

Keep writing,
Danny

Anonymous said...

My mother feels that 90% of children who are diagnosed with ADD actually fall into another diagonosis. It's SABS and she discovered it after doing daycare for 30 some years. It's called Spoiled Ass Brat Syndrome. She baelieves ADD is an excuse most parents use because they don't want to train their children. they'd rather drug them. After working in the same field for 23 years I have to say I agree with her.

And on the autistic front I was above average. Mostly cause I'm not overly social. Shocker.

Bonnie said...

I got a 25. I'm asocial, so this makes sense. The thing is, it's considered to NOT be normal to not want to be friendly and talkative to everyone, and sometimes you really just want to be left alone. If everyone was talkative, the world would be more chaotic than it already is. There has to be a balance. People just don't get that.

Anonymous said...

My mother feels that 90% of children who are diagnosed with ADD actually fall into another diagonosis. It's SABS and she discovered it after doing daycare for 30 some years. It's called Spoiled Ass Brat Syndrome.

Around here, that's known as NBS: Never Been Spanked.