Excuse Me While I Rant....

An article on the cover of last week's Newsweek has sparked a lot of commentary in the Autism chat room and blog world this weekend. And it has sparked a lot of thought in me as well. The article is really talking about what happens to our Autistic children as they grow into adults. There is little to no support out there for Autistic adults. And everything developed, funded for, talked about, researched, etc is all about diagnosing children and/or finding the right treatments for children. While I feel that we DEFINITELY need to put the bulk of all this funding for research (what little there is!!) into better understanding what causes Autism in the first place.... I do think that the future of our children needs to be looked at more than it is. There needs to be better programs for job assistance in place. Assisted living plans, extended education (not college) etc. There are tons of things that adults that are not able to be self-sufficient will need help with. I don't even want to think that through very clearly, as I pray that will not be Zachary. But we don't know that at this point. The point is that all of the focus is on children right now.

And in talking about Autistic adults... Where are all the Autistic adults???? Chances are everyone knows someone with Autism. Or someone who knows someone with Autism. And the chances are even greater that that "someone with autism" is about 10 or under. Maybe 15 or under. But not 40. Or 50. Where are all the Autistic adults? Surely they're out there!!! This only leads me to believe that we possibly don't have an epidemic on our hands, but rather a better method of identifying the symptoms and traits of Autistic individuals than they did 20+ years ago. So now kids don't get passed off as a little different, or just odd, or a slow talker anymore - they are quickly given a label, a formal diagnosis. Is this good? Maybe. With the diagnosis you can get services through the county. It scares us into doing more than we possibly would have for our children if they didn't have the diagnosis.

But the adults out there now that were not diagnosed as Autistic 30 years ago... where are they? Most likely they are the shy, quiet computer programmers, or accountants, or maybe the public park groundskeeper (a nice private, quiet job) The point is that since we don't have/know an abundance of Autistic adults, like we do children, but we know that they've got to be out there - then this really tells us that they are blended into society and doing fine. And if that's the case, why are parents today spending thousands and thousands of dollars on therapies, schools, some on medications or special diets, for our kids? Because we are desperate for a way to make our child blend in in the future - to be the best they can possibly be - to bring out absolutely everything the child is capable of, to give them the best jump start possible - and to hopefully protect them from the cruel world by taking their Autism away. Is that even possible? Not sure. But I do have to wonder about all the "autistic adults" out there today...

Just some Sunday food for thought!