This article gives me the wobblies for some reason.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

http://www.today.com/moms/farewell-aspies-some-families-reluctant-let-go-aspergers-diagnosis-1B7821891

[Cain]

Oh dear.

As far as I know, Aspergers has always been considered the lowest or mildest level of the autism spectrum (I may be wrong here, but I have always operated under that assumption).  It seems to be something of a Aspergers snobbery - "I'm not one of those freaks who rocks back and forth while crying because my routine got disturbed.  Now excuse me, I must index my pens in alphabetical colour order".

And because so many people with Aspergers seem to consider themselves geniuses, they clearly know more about the diagnosing and classification of mental afflictions than, say, psychological professionals.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Oh dear.

As far as I know, Aspergers has always been considered the lowest or mildest level of the autism spectrum (I may be wrong here, but I have always operated under that assumption).  It seems to be something of a Aspergers snobbery - "I'm not one of those freaks who rocks back and forth while crying because my routine got disturbed.  Now excuse me, I must index my pens in alphabetical colour order".

And because so many people with Aspergers seem to consider themselves geniuses, they clearly know more about the diagnosing and classification of mental afflictions than, say, psychological professionals.

What gave me the jimjams were the parents. 

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Oh dear.

As far as I know, Aspergers has always been considered the lowest or mildest level of the autism spectrum (I may be wrong here, but I have always operated under that assumption).  It seems to be something of a Aspergers snobbery - "I'm not one of those freaks who rocks back and forth while crying because my routine got disturbed.  Now excuse me, I must index my pens in alphabetical colour order".

And because so many people with Aspergers seem to consider themselves geniuses, they clearly know more about the diagnosing and classification of mental afflictions than, say, psychological professionals.

What gave me the jimjams were the parents. 

Parents OFTEN give me the jimjams. 

[Cain]

I hadn't even gotten that far.

I see some of the stuff I said was brought up in the article, which is good.

But yeah, it does seem to be an excuse for the parents to continue in denial about how their child is "gifted" and not suffering from a mental condition.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Countdown to "Indigo"...3..2... :puke:

[Mangrove]

http://www.today.com/moms/farewell-aspies-some-families-reluctant-let-go-aspergers-diagnosis-1B7821891

I see it's finally being made 'official'. I remember reading an article many moons ago that suggested that the mental health care professionals were pushing to retire Asperger's as a separate diagnosis. Seems that they got their wish.

One of the most jim-jam inducing statements I've heard from parents lately is the phrase "My kid is on the spectrum." I've noticed this phrase is getting more traction, so be fully prepared to have this shoved in your face with increasingly regularity.

I might have said this before, if so, excuse the repetition. I had a client that used to work in a care facility for autistic kids. She said it was an absolute fucking nightmare because the residents ranged from 'profoundly unable to communicate' and were frequently violent and unable to even go to the bathroom without help all the way to 'bolshy teenager who won't clean his room'.

Her job was made difficult by the fact that there was a lot of noise, and not enough signal - too many cases that really didn't meet proper criteria for being classed as autistic. She said that part of this was driven by social workers making diagnoses. [horror]. I guess part of it is driven by parents wanting their kids to be 'brilliant' and also by the media who keep insisting there is an 'epidemic' even though that has not been established statistically. Add to that the ease with which information (good/bad) that is available online and the modern tendency towards self-diagnosis and the popular diluting of medical terms and boom, you've got yourself some very muddy waters to plumb.

So far, I've met only one genuinely autistic kid and a gazillion smug, hypochondriac, trend-surfing parents who have overdosed on flimsy pop-culture science.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah, the whole "My child's diagnosis makes him a special unicorn fairy sparkle princess, I don't want him lumped in with those icky autistics" attitude is disgusting. I'm glad there were also comments from people like these:

"Hey, even if your child is diagnosed with Asperger's, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're some gifted savant," says Deborah Knutesen, a New Jersey mom whose 7-year-old son Grey has autism. "It doesn't mean they're Temple Grandin." (Grandin is a scientist, professor, bestselling author and noted autistic who was the subject of a 2010 Hollywood biopic.)

Knutesen believes parents should accept the APA's decision to classify Asperger's under the umbrella of autism (where it's always been clinically) and that parents with children on the autism spectrum should focus less on labels and more on advocacy.

"I think if there's a definition of Asperger's and you fall into that, then you're part of the party," says the 52-year-old advertising sales executive. "If a different name makes you feel better, okay, but you're still part of it. And you should be an advocate for it.

"Our society always has to have a class system," she adds. "It makes me laugh. [Asperger's parents] consider themselves the upper class of autism."

Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and a presidential appointee on the Council on Disability, says he's seen children with Asperger's reassured by their families, "you're not really autistic."

"That's why the single diagnosis is a good thing," he says. "You can no longer play those kinds of games."

[Mangrove]

"It makes me laugh. [Asperger's parents] consider themselves the upper class of autism."



So let me guess, next is the 'Hierarchy of Cancers'?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The thing that bothers me most is the "because/despite of" dichotomy. Hey, man, your kid is neither bright because OR despite of having autism... your kid is just bright, and also has autism, and is fortunate that the autism isn't severe enough to shut him down so much that he can't exercise his intellect in a functional way.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Yeah its like theres a correlation between high intelligence and alcoholism. That doesnt mean geniuses are by necessity tiplers or that there arent a number of people who are both dumb and drunks. Likewise i imagine there are plenty of high functioning autistics with average intelligence and telling them that theyre smart because they have aspergers makes little if any sense.

[Cain]

"It makes me laugh. [Asperger's parents] consider themselves the upper class of autism."



So let me guess, next is the 'Hierarchy of Cancers'?

Colon cancer is clearly the cancer of well to do, upper class people with good manners.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I remember when I was a kid with ADHD, the growing number of people who were convinced that having ADD made you smart.

Um, no. It makes you have ADD. It's just that there were a whole lot of correlations to being diagnosed with ADD that are also correlated to having a higher IQ, including performing below your abilities in school, and being middle-class, and people having high expectations of you. Poor kids in shitty schools with low expectations didn't get diagnosed, they dropped out and ended up in jail... which is why research shows that ADD is overrepresented in the prison population.