Autism

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oxygene said:
Hence one of the myriad reasons I dont watch south park.
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Eh? It was played rather well as a certain character's misunderstanding of the title "Aspergers", along with the rampant modern mis-diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. As usual with South Park, not quite as broad as it appears.
 
Pestilence said:
Eh? It was played rather well as a certain character's misunderstanding of the title "Aspergers", along with the rampant modern mis-diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. As usual with South Park, not quite as broad as it appears.
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Some people are too easily offended IMO,but i can also see how that could happen,peoples "standards" if you could call it that are different,and thats fine by me:)
 
Dimple said:
Savants are quite rare and very special people.
There's a lad earning a fortune painting pictures of landscapes and all he does is look at the scene for seconds and can draw the tiniest details.
I remember another Savant who learnt conversational Icelandic in less than a week (Icelandic is supposed to be the hardest language to learn apparently).
Another Savant can calculate complex maths questions and he sees them as coloured shapes.
They did tests with him and changed the questions around but still gave the same answers and he still saw the same coloured shapes - he couldn't remember his name though.
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That documentary on the guy who learnt Icelandic (Daniel Tammet - The Boy With The Incredible Brain) was incredible. He is quite unique for a savant because he has none of the social anxieties that others have, so he can communicate to the experts better and they can find out more about it.

The artist I think you are talking about is Stephen Wiltshire, again amazingly talented.
 
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rebel rebel said:
That documentary on the guy who learnt Icelandic (Daniel Tammet - The Boy With The Incredible Brain) was incredible. He is quite unique for a savant because he has none of the social anxieties that others have, so he can communicate to the experts better and they can find out more about it.

The artist I think you are talking about is Stephen Wiltshire, again amazingly talented.
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If he has none of the social gubbins, is he really autistic? Or is he something individually different.
I recall that trip to iceland.
Impressive.
 
remeber that guy the rainman movie was based on?(kim peek i think his name is) he died recently but before he did they done proper brain scans on him and found that a large part of his brain was missing.the corpus coluseum or something i cant spell/remember it lol

They said because that part was gone the remaining parts of the brain were directly connected to eachother therefore bypassing certain "blockages" of data that occur in normal people and allowed him to access his memory in ways normal people could only dream of,he was like a human internet.anything he read was remebered for life,even phone books ,when he read a book one of his eyes was reading 1 page and the other was reading the opposite page at the same time! So he could read 2 pages at once and still comprehend/remember it all!:eek:

he lacked the ability to dress himself and couldnt grasp a lot of abstract concepts we can but as he aged he developed a sense of humour and became more "normal",he seemed like a really nice man:)

if i was a mad scientist id drill holes in my skull and hook up parts of my brain to other parts it shouldnt have access to and hack my own mind:eek:

not really:p,but it sounds cool and might happen some day,just not in the way i described it
 
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arknor said:
theres different levels of autism its a pretty big scale , some people are almost normal others cant live day to day without constant care.
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To make it more complex, it's only relatively recently that the definition has been expanded to include people with poor social skills and so on, traditionally, only those at the far end of the scale were diagnosed (the unable to communicate/unable to live a normal life end), but now it seems to have expanded as almost a catch all excuse in the case of many for behaviours that are just anti-social.
 
Depends on the degree of autism. I have been statemented with asbergers, and with that came social inability (which I have overcome myself), an addictive personality, laziness, quick temper and most annoyingly I am quite gullible in face to face conversations :(
 
I had a, friend, not sure it can be really quite be defined as that because it is particularly difficult to have be friends with aspergers/autism.

They guy was in my class from Yr7, right the way through to Yr13. He was, an interesting character to say the least. We were in an all boys school up to yr 11, and when we hit yr 12 and the girls joined, he refused to talk to them... It says a lot. Generally speaking I saw him approve quite a bit from the younger years to the older years.

To put it simply, Autism boils down to a difficulty to socialise properly, or to understand how social interaction works. Thinking about it, I'd say Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory has some form of Autism.

The thing I really want to put across though, is the one thing that we learnt when we were at school. It worked best treating the guy exactly the same as you would everyone else. He adapted pretty well to be honest, and did progress pretty well.

kd
 
I've often wondered if people with low confidence or low self esteem could be mistaken for people with Autism as both can give similar results of being socially awkward or shy, but I think that there's a little more to it than that
 
Dutch people (more like kids...) use this excuse all the time, just like they love to tell people "I hope you get cancer".

Sorry but I think you were lied too.
 
Dolph said:
To make it more complex, it's only relatively recently that the definition has been expanded to include people with poor social skills and so on, traditionally, only those at the far end of the scale were diagnosed (the unable to communicate/unable to live a normal life end), but now it seems to have expanded as almost a catch all excuse in the case of many for behaviours that are just anti-social.
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You are talking **** Dolph.

This is why I said to the OP to email me in trust if he really wants to know because everytime these threads descend into misinformation from both camps: from the disbelievers and the people that then think any form of spectrum problems are a carte blanche excuse for all sorts of behaviour. So OP if you genuinely want to know drop us a mail and unlike the assertion above I can back it up with evidence.
 
Having taught several Autistic children (trumpet lessons :D) the main difficulty they seem to have is in empathy (not sure if that's the right word). They seem to be unable to see anything from someone else's point of view, or to understand how their actions or words are percieved by others. That's where where the social interaction and behavioral problems come from.
 
Xordium said:
You are talking **** Dolph.

This is why I said to the OP to email me in trust if he really wants to know because everytime these threads descend into misinformation from both camps: from the disbelievers and the people that then think any form of spectrum problems are a carte blanche excuse for all sorts of behaviour. So OP if you genuinely want to know drop us a mail and unlike the assertion above I can back it up with evidence.
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So what you're saying is that the diagnosis increase over the last 30-40 years is a result of an increase in cases rather than a change in diagnostic methods?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_autism#Changes_with_time

and also

The incidence and changes in incidence with time are unclear in the UK.[52] The reported autism incidence in the UK rose starting before the first introduction of the MMR vaccine in 1989.[53] A 2004 study found that the reported incidence of pervasive developmental disorders in a general practice research database in England and Wales grew steadily during 1988–2001 from 0.11 to 2.98 per 10,000 person-years, and concluded that much of this increase may be due to changes in diagnostic practice.[54]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_autism#United_Kingdom

On the flip side, if you have actual evidence, why not post it here and educate people (will have to run it past a medical professional with several decades of experience mind to ensure it's not just historians fallacy)? Or indeed actually publish it and settle an ongoing argument in the medical community.
 
For those saying about the self diagnosed aspect of aspergers. Sugar Motta, character from Glee, has it and in her first few appearances uses it as an excuse to say what she wants. Luckily now the character has calmed down. But it was cringe worthy to watch, just not for what she was saying and blaming it on but for everyone with a self diagnosed condition who then uses it as an excuse.


Doesn't even contain her best bits.
 
Dolph said:
/wikiwikiwiki
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Well for one you could just use the search function I have covered these points several times before. Hence why I am reluctant to keep going over the exact same ground again and again and again and again. You implied a deliberate message in that post - the point being it's just an excuse. Again something I have covered time and time again.

As a retired paediatrician who is married to one of the countries most recognised practitioners in paediatric neuropsychiatry then you'll have to forgive me for not wanting to get in another debate with you when all you are likely to do is to post wiki links with an incomplete knowledge of what you are actually on about at quite a fundamental level.

So save yourself the time from replying because I am not going to go there but will happily answer the OPs questions on how specifically things may present and allowances that may have to be made. Which was the purpose of the thread was it not - not to dispute or not whether the conditions exist etc.
 
Xordium said:
Well for one you could just use the search function I have covered these points several times before. Hence why I am reluctant to keep going over the exact same ground again and again and again and again. You implied a deliberate message in that post - the point being it's just an excuse. Again something I have covered time and time again.
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Perhaps that's just the way it's used by those with the diagnosis then. Perhaps seeing someone use it as an excuse and justification for rape has coloured my view.

I can't help feeling you may be confusing the (changed) medical diagnosis with the social implications of the diagnosis when it comes to it being an 'excuse'. 30 years ago people now diagnosed as autistic were not given a justification for their behaviour, and hence expected to work through their problems. Now they get the label and expect the world to mould around them, encouraged in schools and the like, until they get to the world of employment and adult interaction...

As a retired paediatrician who is married to one of the countries most recognised practitioners in paediatric neuropsychiatry then you'll have to forgive me for not wanting to get in another debate with you when all you are likely to do is to post wiki links with an incomplete knowledge of what you are actually on about at quite a fundamental level.
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I've had long chats with my mother about the change in diagnosis over the years, and it has changed substantially over that time, from something only diagnosed in very severe cases incapable of living a normal life to something that covers a massive range of behavioural qualities. It's not restricted to autism, massive rises in diagnosis of similar/related conditions such as ADHD have also occurred over the same period, with similar social consequences.

It seems there is a diagnosis for everything, which in turn becomes an excuse for many things, this isn't just a medical issue.

So save yourself the time from replying because I am not going to go there but will happily answer the OPs questions on how specifically things may present and allowances that may have to be made. Which was the purpose of the thread was it not - not to dispute or not whether the conditions exist etc.
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I'm not saying the conditions do not exist in any way, I'm saying that the obsession to label every behavioural trait is not always helpful, and should not be used as justification to excuse poor behaviour or aggression.
 
Autism is a very touchy subject. Usually involving social awkwardness but has a huge spectrum. My brothers autistic in that he doesn't realise that it's wrong to lie, and has a helluva temper so anyone who disagrees with him gets an earful. He also doesn't get when someone isn't listening and continues talking. He's capable if looking after himself but needs support as he can't hold down a job because of his inability to do as he's told (I know no one likes it but when it comes to your manager you kinda have to!). My driend also has a brother with autism but his is more sevear, he focuses on one thing and won't stop talking about it for weeks, the most recent one being "3,2,1 smurfs racing in the post in the post". And yes, people with autism tend to be good at one thing. My brother is super good at art.

Hope this helps.
 
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