Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research Amanda Baggs-brilliant or hoax

Yes, I do see. She isn't typical of autistic people I know either.

CNN was conned by some pretty smart people. A lot more is involved here than simply Amanda Baggs. Amanda Baggs plays the role of a spokesmodel for Neurodiversity, a group of people associated with Quackbusters whose goal is to prevent anyone from curing autism.
The whole thing is a propaganda con job to deny the truth about how vaccines caused the autism epidemic. And yes, it is funded by the pharmaceutical industry.

Wow!!!!!!!!! Thanks for posting this. I'd love to believe it was all Amanda Baggs. Do you have any links you would be kind enough to share. I am an information cruncher junkie! I would love to read your sources for myself!

Thanks!

Incog

apologize, just went back and re-read all the comments.

Calizepher, I mean no disrespect to you or bettwice33. I am not knowlegable about the autism community at all.

The little I do know is that a person can fall anywhere on the spectrum and autistic people can also fall on any range in terms of IQ.

I know a little girl with an immeasurable IQ whose mother is convinced she is on the spectrum. She has had OT and other therapies since birth, basically. She has other issues as well. Mother reports that she had many autistic behaviors that had subsided with extensive therapy. I absolutely believe her high IQ has contributed to her being so high functioning. To see her you would never imagine that at any time anyone would have considered her to be on the spectrum at all.
This is anecdotal, but true. I'm just wondering if the impossible sounding story of Amanda Baggs could be possible, given my limited experience with another "autistic" child.

Admittedly, I don't know much.

Incog

Can we write CNN to check this out?
If she indeed went to Simon's Rock it should be fairly easy to check.

I left a comment for Anderson Cooper. We will see if there is any response :-)
Personally don't know a lot about autism. I know one boy who is highly functional.
That video looks a little too good to be truth, but who knows?

Amanda has a blog. She has written about her experiences at SImon's Rock. It's not too hard to check, just ask her yourself. She's on the internet all the time, apparently. To clarify, of course I think Amanda Baggs is real, and I think she is very intelligent, I think she makes her videos, because she's been posting for years and years in the autism community. My one tiny point is that I don't like how the media trots her out like some kind of miracle, like she has found a way to communicate with the world.

I'm afraid that I haven't been able to actually watch the video of Amanda Baggs on youtube,(rural area, horribly slow dial up!) but I have seen the CNN report and read the Wired article. And I have to say, being a health care professional who works with children and adults with autism, I am VERY skeptical. The level of "severity" that appears to be there - social disconnect, lack of language, hand flapping, stimming behaviors, etc - do not *typically* appear at the age of 14. Behavior like that would be present from birth or developed around 18 to 24 months of age. And no medical professional could have missed calling it autism from about the age of 5 or 6, tops. IMHO, there is NO WAY that Amanda Baggs could have symptoms that severe and not been diagnosed until she was 14. Autism does not develop at the age of 14. I recently read an article about a child diagnosed with regressive autism symptoms at 4 y/o and the article expressed shock at the delayed onset and questioned whether it was truly autism.

I don't take blogs and Wikipedia as my resources, either. I don't have a clue who bettwice33 and calizephyr are. But I am also not surprised that CNN and Wired could be taken in. I don't take ANY media report without a grain of salt. Perhaps neither one DID check out her story. Where are her parents? Where is the biographical information? Where is the reporting of her development and milestones and how she learned to type? When did she regress? Comments like "she didn't cry as a baby" and "she had to be taught how to nurse" do not indicate or support a diagnosis of autism. Check out this website that Amanda Baggs has been involved in: http://isnt.autistics.org/index.html
Interesting sense of humor. Definitely gifted. But I'd wager to say that much of her behavior is an act. If she is autistic it might be more like Asperger's and then the behaviors are all a put on.
And who wrote the Wiki entry on her? Perhaps Amanda Baggs?????

My suggestion - do the autism community a favor and learn more. Even if by some remote chance Amanda Baggs truly does have autism she does NOT represent the autism community at large. This I know from personal experience. No resources to offer.

(The above rant has been the sole opinion of this writer)

I just took a look at Amanda Baggs website. My impression is that she has some other diagnosis - I won't even venture a guess what. She is definitely gifted. But I do not buy a diagnosis of autism.

Anyone ever hear of Temple Grandin, PhD? She is an adult with autism you can respect and believe. I just recently saw her speak - she is amazing. Read her work. Find her books on amazon. Try "Thinking In Pictures" if you want to learn about what it is like to have autism.

I repeat, Amanda Baggs is NOT representative of the autism community. She *might* have aspergers. But then again, a lot of highly intelligent people who want an excuse for behaving badly are "self-diagnosing" with asperger's. For some reason that diagnosis has become a badge of honor in some bizarre circles or subcultures. And Amanda Baggs is not associated with any mainstream autism organization or agency that I can see. See for yourself on what she now offers at her website:
http://amanda.autistics.org/

Temple Grandin is highly respected by those of us who raise livestock. Here is a quote from her website: