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Is it the posters in this thread showing selfishness, or the people who are going out of their way to force kids into a diagnoses that they do not need so they can get additional government services, money in some cases, and remove their responsibility as parents, while the kids that truly need the help are stuck on wait lists and losing out on programs that may improve their lives even somewhat and ultimately save the government money by keeping them out of homes much longer than in the past? Personally I think those that are pushing kids into a diagnosis because they are a little different are much more selfish than those asking why.
NO ONE is pushing children who do not need help into a diagnosis. Read any autism support board and you will see most parents hoping their child does not get dxed unless it is truly needed. Yes, they will push for autism instead of some other dxes as other dxes do not get the services, but most of these children need services, Moderator cut: personal attack
At our school we had the horseback thing pulled on us. That was dead in the water.
If a school/school system is lucky...well, not lucky, but diligent...they have special ed chairs and administrators who take their roles as gatekeepers seriously. And it's not an easy job. "No" is rarely easy. And, once, we (meaning the department chair and me (principal)) were required to testify for a federal review panel about one case. But we had "our ducks in a row", had conducted every IEP conference to the letter of the law, documented well our communications with the parent...and we won the case.
I know things are handled a little differently in El Paso county than they are many other counties in Colorado, in both Weld and Larimer county the horse back riding comes through the waiver program and is administered by nonprofits supported through the United Way, and things like horseback riding are readily available.
Basically the way it works is every kid that gets the waiver is allowed a certain amount of money, and the parents and case manager decide how that money is spent. We have spent on average of half of the money every year for the last 3 years, which provide 3 hours of weekly housecleaning help, 9 hours of respite care, behavior therapy for 2 hours a week, speech therapy (outside of school) 2 hours a week during summer to keep her progress going, and music lessons for 2 hours per week. That is a ton of help, and a god send, and yet we spend about half of the allocation, as we try to still spend time together with just our family and out doing things. According to 3 case managers I know outside of the case managers we have had and that I have spoken too we are not a real rarity as most spend about the same as us, but the less severe the medical problems the more the parents reportedly spend on services. They complain that those parents like my wife and I who try to balance everything to give our kids a balanced life will not take all the help we could, while others are complaining that even double what we take is not enough. Which to me is really sad.
NO ONE is pushing children who do not need help into a diagnosis. Read any autism support board and you will see most parents hoping their child does not get dxed unless it is truly needed. Yes, they will push for autism instead of some other dxes as other dxes do not get the services, but most of these children need services, .
Moderator cut: - I will say it again, pushing for autism due to the services that means is not only dishonest, but it is being extremely selfish, and hurting those that need the help the most.
I especially love how you complain about the wait lists, while defending those who are not autistic having the right to take the services and enlarge the wait list, you think that is fair and being kind to the people who those programs were designed and developed for?
Last edited by Oldhag1; 10-25-2015 at 05:46 PM..
Reason: Direct response to edited portion of quote
Conclusion
The results of this study suggest that some children with developmental delays, attentional flexibility problems, or other conditions may be receiving provisional yet inaccurate diagnoses of ASD from nonspecialists, even when their parents do not present with concerns about verbal skills, nonverbal communication, learning, and unusual gestures. This could be a natural consequence of changes
in ASD awareness among healthcare professionals and the push by national organizations such as the AAP to increase the use of developmental screening tests by general pediatricians with all young patients regardless of parents’ presenting concerns (CDC, 2014b; Johnson and Myers, 2007; National Center for Medical Home Implementation, 2012). However, this cross-sectional study cannot be used to determine whether overdiagnosis and other reasons for lost diagnoses have recently become more common. It should also be noted that their estimated prevalence is too low to explain recent increases in the estimated prevalence of ASD (Blumberg etal., 2013; CDC, 2014a). Nevertheless, this study confirms that ASD diagnoses can and some-times do change as children mature and overcome delays, and as new information is assimilated by their healthcare providers.
Many parents are relieved to obtain a diagnosis for whatever condition, so that they know it's not their fault that the kid is acting a certain way and know that they have some guidance on the path of treatment. This could lead to some parents demanding their kid be diagnosed with something . . . anything . . . that they read up on on the Internet.
Mick
Ain't that the truth. My sister told me yesterday that the school diagnosed her 9 year old son with ADHD and started him on medicine to help his concentration I was stunned. Her son is the best behaved child I have ever met. He acts like a boy as he should, but is respectful, obedient, but from what I've seen, has no trouble calming down and accomplishing tasks when the situation calls for it. I am aware that I am not around her child much and am no child psychologist, so I wondered what it was that made her/the school believe he has ADHD. He has a lot of difficulty reading and writing and is falling behind his grade level, which can be caused by numerous issues, and in his case, they're suspecting it's dyslexia.
She explained the test the school gave him that "definitively" diagnosed him as ADHD was this: They had her son sit in front of a computer and stare at a blank white screen for 15 minutes. He had only one task: to push the space bar whenever he saw a black star appear on the screen. The black star appeared at random intervals throughout the test. She told me that he hit the space bar as he was supposed to for a minute or two, but then hit the spacebar indiscriminately, wiggled in the chair, twirled around, and generally got restless during the test. Considering this was the pathetic excuse for an ADHD test administered by the school, I find it surprising so FEW kids are diagnosed. If I, an adult middle aged woman, was put in front of a blank white computer screen for 15 minutes, I'd be wiggling in my chair, hitting the spacebar repeatedly too
Ain't that the truth. My sister told me yesterday that the school diagnosed her 9 year old son with ADHD and started him on medicine to help his concentration I was stunned. Her son is the best behaved child I have ever met. He acts like a boy as he should, but is respectful, obedient, but from what I've seen, has no trouble calming down and accomplishing tasks when the situation calls for it. I am aware that I am not around her child much and am no child psychologist, so I wondered what it was that made her/the school believe he has ADHD. He has a lot of difficulty reading and writing and is falling behind his grade level, which can be caused by numerous issues, and in his case, they're suspecting it's dyslexia.
She explained the test the school gave him that "definitively" diagnosed him as ADHD was this: They had her son sit in front of a computer and stare at a blank white screen for 15 minutes. He had only one task: to push the space bar whenever he saw a black star appear on the screen. The black star appeared at random intervals throughout the test. She told me that he hit the space bar as he was supposed to for a minute or two, but then hit the spacebar indiscriminately, wiggled in the chair, twirled around, and generally got restless during the test. Considering this was the pathetic excuse for an ADHD test administered by the school, I find it surprising so FEW kids are diagnosed. If I, an adult middle aged woman, was put in front of a blank white computer screen for 15 minutes, I'd be wiggling in my chair, hitting the spacebar repeatedly too
Quick question: When did the term 'autism" originate? I first heard about it around 15 years ago.
The term "autism" comes from "autismus," which was a feature of schizophrenia used to describe the "aloneness" individuals with schizophrenia experienced. Kanner co-opted the term in the early '40s to describe individuals who behaved in unusual ways and appeared to be "in their own little world" and autism was first thought of to be a childhood form of schizophrenia. It eventually evolved into a diagnosis in its own right.
As others have said, it is very difficult in many places to qualify for state assistance for ABA or other therapies for autism. Not all insurance companies will pay, and those that do usually require there to be some indication that the child needs substantial support. Then actually acquiring the services can be very difficult because of wait lists or red tape. Some states will only take diagnoses from very particular places/ people in order to pay for ABA. SSI is also extremely difficult to get for any child, across disability categories. It requires persistence and careful completing of forms, and SSI is extremely cautious about where they hand their money.
With regards to parents of children with high-functioning autism demanding "pie in the sky" accommodations- isn't that a function of the parent? Anyone who has worked in schools has run across their fair share of parents who demand accommodations for their special snowflakes (and get them) when it's not clear such assistance in needed at all. This isn't limited to parents of children with ASD- those parents are across disability and non-disability categories. When school teams (including the parent) work as they are meant to, services are only given when there is documented educational need. There will always be parents who can circumvent that, and admin who will let them.
Scooby Snacks- the test you are talking about for ADHD has research behind it, but it's never meant to be used in isolation. And schools don't give "definitive diagnoses" of ADHD. They give educational categorizations that allow children to access services. They don't prescribe medications and aren't even supposed to recommend them in any definitive way (or they could be liable to pay for them, if they are indicating it is necessary for the child to function in the schools).
To the original topic- it wouldn't surprise me that ASD may be overdiagnosed; particularly at the early ages. After all, ASD diagnosis depends on behavior, since there is no definitive blood test, and there is a plethora of research indicating that early intervention is key. So an earlier diagnosis has better outcomes. ABA services would benefit just about any child, so a child who gets a diagnosis of ASD early on and then makes miraculous improvement may have had something else going on, or maybe the intervention was super effective. Diagnosing ASD is somewhat subjective. It depends on how parents report information, since that's an important piece of the diagnosis, and what behaviors the clinician sees and how those behaviors are attributed and applied to diagnostic criteria. It's not a perfect science.
Incidentally, with the DSM-5 in 2013, PDD-NOS and Asperger's were taken off the "list" and just ASD remained. In big part that was because clinicians were pretty consistent at diagnosing an autism spectrum disorder, but not at all consistent in which disorder they chose. The more there is demand for ASD diagnoses, the more people who might not have any training or qualifications to truly diagnose ASD get into the game to fill the demand. That means less consistency with diagnoses, imo.
Last edited by GraceKrispy; 10-25-2015 at 02:10 PM..
Yeah, I've been getting that idea for a while now. Seems like every other kid has it now.
Actually FOX News had this issue on it's Sunday "Housecalls" program today. 1 out of 68 kids in the US has Autism and the vast majority are boys.
It isn't being over diagnosed since it is a spectrum of disorders related to Autism and there are so many different levels.
30 years ago we used to call these kids other terms such as "slow" & "re*tarded".
Thankfully medicine and society has matured beyond that and early intervention has made many kids with Autism into functioning members of society.
How do I know this? I'm a Uncle of one!
I don't think it's so much family values and teachers wearing suits as it is parents who don't teach kids self control and try to find excuses for bad behavior. But, I am talking about children who function at a high level who may well be victims of being over pathologized. Severe autism is real and has been around for as long as I can remember it's just that those kids were usually institutionalized or kept home rather than put in public schools so we didn't see or hear about it.
When my Great Aunt was here visiting from France we had a large family dinner. One little boy would constantly interrupt to tell us some story and his parents would quiet everyone at the table so that he could continue because he has Aspergers and we need to encourage him to be verbal in group settings. A little girl threw her food on the floor and her mother said it was because she had ADHD. Later my Great Aunt told me that she wanted to wring the parents necks, she said in France that simply would not happen, or if it did it would only happen once.
The kid with Aspergers is one thing because you want them to be vocal but you do need to set boundaries, the problem is the where. Throwing the food into the floor isn't common with ADHD to my knowledge so it isn't as excusable as the storytelling and quite frankly is more disruptive than it.
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I was stunned. Her son is the best behaved child I have ever met. He acts like a boy as he should, but is respectful, obedient, but from what I've seen, has no trouble calming down and accomplishing tasks when the situation calls for it. I am aware that I am not around her child much and am no child psychologist, so I wondered what it was that made her/the school believe he has ADHD. He has a lot of difficulty reading and writing and is falling behind his grade level, which can be caused by numerous issues, and in his case, they're suspecting it's dyslexia. 
