Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Atlantic piece about 1 in 68 autism rate

So many of the social and practical life skills that were once taught in elementary school are now pushed out because of the focus on developmentally inappropriate academics. (I know that sounds ironic on this forum!) Many schools no longer give kids enough opportunities to develop these skills in a structured environment. For example, there isn't enough time to play with Play-doh, string beads, or learn to tie laces. There isn't enough time to play board games, work on fun group projects, or play house/blocks with others. There isn't enough time to learn to skip rope, dig a hole, or roller skate.

I'd like to see a study of elementary children that compared fine motor skills, social skills, and gross motor skills to those of kids from the 1970s. My suspicion is that these skills would be lower overall. What a difference that would make for the kids to the left of the curve for these skills!

Obviously there are kids that do need special services, but MANY kids could benefit from more school time spent on practical life and social skills.

Kathryn my aspie child did preschool through to gr1 at a school that heavily emphasized free play and explicitly taught social skills (think summer hill type school). It was extremely therapeutic, but diasterous academically and she's still aspie... And we also need to keep in mind that lots of those 70s or earlier kids simply went undiagnosed, which has pros and cons. It's not at all uncommon for a parent to be diagnosed in the wake of a child's diagnosis, or even if they don't get formally diagnosed to have a major private "OH!" moment...

I feel that a lot of schools are putting kids into the "educational ASD" category to get services. The kids do not necessarily meet the DSM criteria, but the school system can put them in that category even if there is no medical diagnosis. All that the kid has to display is delayed social skills and a few other things, all of which neurotypical individuals may have as well. So a child with social delays and sensory issues could get an educational ASD label. Parents don't understand this distinction. But even medical professionals misdiagnose it quite often, in my opinion. DS's neuropsych (who is with a large university) thinks that the huge rise in autism in recent years is because of over-diagnosis. Quirky kids with delays (who are not significantly affected) get the label even if they do not have the core features in the DSM.

DS was put into the "physically impaired" category for the school system and does still get services like speech and social skills group. We had to have an outside eval/diagnosis though to get that PI classification (in his case developmental coordination disorder). So it is useless to most kids unless the parents are lucky and knowledgeable enough to get their child into someone smart enough to figure it out and give that diagnosis. I am guessing that DS is one of the only kids in the entire district to have a DCD IEP even though the disorder affects 5-6 percent of kids and is a lot more common than ASD. In fact, probably many kids with an ASD diagnosis really have DCD. So many of the symptoms overlap.

I totally agree with this. I think if I had let it happen my kid would have gotten an ASD dx. In fact, I know he would have at least gotten at least a PDD-NOS. The medical profession around here is very unfamiliar with DCD and they literally kept telling me that an "autism diagnosis would get more help and more services." The schools don't even know what DCD is but they are very, very comfortable with ASD dx and ADHD. I think it is so odd, how it works. I do feel my kid does have the "correct labels" now; but, let me tell you, it took some doing.

Definitely agree with this too.

My child has a educational asd classification. I agree schools can be quick with the label. But what I found they are even more quick to do is place the youngest children in the most self contained pre k classrooms even when the ASD traits are not so obvious and severe. If I had not been a informed parent and denied the placement suggested at first I know my child would not be where he is today.
3 years later and mainstreamed in K he has been identified twice exceptional. His private psych. says yes to him being an aspie or what is now just asd. But very mild so no need for any formal diagnosis. I have the documentation if we decide to pursue it later.
I noticed a tend of parents wanting a asd classification instead of emotional behaviour disorder for their kiddos. They think this will get their child more services and keep them mainstreamed.

I hope my post didn't come across as dismissive of kids who really do need special services! I was thinking more about kids who fall into the gray/borderline area addressed in the article.

Interesting.

I agree that no one knows what DCD is. I only know because of my job. Other disorders, like nonverbal learning disorder, could also look ASD-ish.

I was talking to my DD about the importance of eye contact the other day and was totally shocked to hear my not-at-all ASD DH say to her that he had to be told to make eye contact more as a teen. In his case, as we privately discussed later, it was anxiety and shyness causing the issue. I don't actually think this is why DD isn't great at eye contact--her issues do feel spectrumish--but it just made me think about the complexity of it all.

The more I think about, the more I see other kids I know who don't fall anywhere on any diagnosable curve that I can think of but who could use social skills help...

I took in DS for a speech assessment and after the woman spent literally 1 minute talking to him she asked if he has Aspergers. Simply because he was not making eye contact with her that often. He was very chatty and friendly, the eye contact just wasn't there. He DOES make eye contact with us and other people that he knows well. And he was making eye contact with her by the end of the appt. It just annoys me that people are trying to label kids with ASD based on such superficial characteristics after just talking to them for a minute. I have troubles making eye contact as well and have to force myself but I don't fit ASD criteria in any way. DS had a teacher who got right in your face with a direct stare--I thought that was just as weird as not making eye contact.

The claim is often made that early diagnosis and treatment/intervention will lead to better outcomes, and dire warnings are given that this is a limited window of opportunity that will close forever if you wait too long.

But there is a "how-to-lie-with-statistics hall-of-shame" aspect to this. The more that the pool of autism-diagnosees is diluted with kids who are not really autistic, the more successful their treatment/intervention will appear to be, because a larger proportion of them will appear to have been "cured" of a condition that they didn't have in the first place.