Understanding Autism & Education - Part 1
April is Autism Awareness Month
You may have seen the brightly colored puzzle-piece ribbon around, but didn’t know what it stood for. Because so many children are being diagnosed with autism, it is important for all of us to know what autism is; what we are dealing with, the phenomenal increase in children being diagnosed; and what impact this can have on our society, and on public education.
April has been designated as “Autism Awareness Month” and I would like to do my part. If you’ve been reading my posts for awhile, you know that my background is as a Critical Care nurse, but I started in NeoNatal Intensive Care with premature and at-risk infants.
Because there are so many things to know and learn about autism, I’ve decided to devote the next several days to sharing information with you about this troubling epidemic, the signs and symptoms, what is being done, some potential causes, and many other topics.
Autistic Child Stacking Cans
Because this is such a big issue in the USA, I’ll be sharing as much as I can about this puzzling neurological disorder, what parents and grandparents can do and, most importantly, the best way to help children diagnosed with autism.
Research about some of the suspected causes (are vaccines a risk or not?) and the impact on society and our schools are just a couple of the topics I’ll bring you information about.
One in every 150 children is being diagnosed in this very real epidemic. In fact, a child is diagnosed with autism almost every twenty minutes!
Please join me as I try to give you all the latest and most accurate information about this disabling and puzzling disorder, and what can be done to counteract it.
See you tomorrow!
Brennan
Filed under: Education News
This is a very serious issue. We’ve been concerned about the vaccines for some time.
Thanks for bringing us more information.
Yes, Alice,
This is a very serious issue. There is so much conflicting information about the relationship of vaccines to the increase in diagnoses, that I will devote an entire post to some possible causes - and what research has shown.
Thank you for your comment,
Brennan
I think autism is heterogeneous and has quite a number of different causes. One cause of what today is diagnosed as autism is having a father who is older at the time of conception. Vaccines play a role in a number of children with mitochondrial disorders. Mothers who had older fathers when they were conceived might pass Fragile X or tuberous sclerosis genes etc. Many disorders are called autism and there is also familial autism; there are quite a number of known causes.
This is a topic which is very dear to my heart. I actually worked for the Ealing Leap Centre in London many years back. This was a centre for autistic students between the ages of 16 and 21.
What amazing talents some of the students had and others so very loving. It was a great pleasure to have spent part of my life working with them.
Sadly I was led to believe that one of the causes was that there was not enough communication between the child and the parent at the first crucial weeks of the child’s life. Having met some of the parents, I cannot believe that this could be a valid reason for this handicap.
I look forward to reading more on this.
I’m interested in reading more on this topic. I know that there is a lot of controversy over what part vaccines play in causing this disease. I’m also curious about repeated ultrasounds during pregnancy. It seems like there was a link between ADD and a lot of pre-natal ultrasounds, but I can’t remember much about it now.
Knowing you, Brennan, you’ll cover this in some detail, and do a great job, too!
Brennan,
Fragile X has nothing to do with mothers who had older fathers when they were conceived with passing FX on.
If a mother is a carrier, she has a 50/50 chance of passing the gene on to her sons or daughters, with each pregnancy. If a father is a carrier he will pass the premutation on to all of his daughters, they will be carriers.
It’s estimated that 1 in 130 women and 1 in 800 men are carriers of FX.
Visit fraxa.org and fragilex.org if you want the facts on Fragile X.
having older fathers when it comes to passing the gene on to children
If you’re looking at causes of autism the first thing that needs to be looked at is genetics for things like Angelman Syndrome and Fragile X syndrome. Reliable and accurate information on Fragile X can be found at FRAXA.org or FragileX.org.
I got so many wonderful comments from readers that I just have to thank each and everyone who shared such valuable info with me.
@ Leslie - Yes, further studies revealed the link with FragileX (although others say a father’s age is not an issue), tuberous sclerosis, and also congenital rubella syndrome. There is so much to learn, isn’t there?
@ AnneMarie - What a joy it must have been to you to be able to DO SOMETHING to combat the results of this disorder. I am learning more daily, even though some of the information conflicts with other info. Guess that’s always the way it is with something as mysterious as Autism. But there’s lots of people working on it!
@ Darlene - You raise an interesting question with the ultrasound hypothesis. I have not found anything relating to that in my reading thus far, but I am a newbie to autism studies, although I was suspected of a form of autism as a child. There is so much more information available now than 55 years ago, Thank Goodness!
@ SallyN - Thank you so much for the reference to the sites on Fragile X. I included the info you shared in my Friday article, as I do NOT want to pass on misinformation. Again, Thank you! I’m learning more every day!
@ FXSmom - Thank you for reinforcing the genetics link in so many cases of autism. I have referred all my readers to these excellent sites, and I am so glad to be able to do so. Thank you for sharing “Angelman Syndrome”. I have so much more to learn.
Ladies, I want to thank you so much for your caring and informative comments. This topic is far greater than the month of April can cover.
I appreciate your help,
Brennan