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Autism is a function of a malfunctioning mirror-neuron system and other neurological differences. People with autism can also have tics. When the autistic child's emotions are out of control, their reactions are often involuntary. They tend to have mood and anxiety symptoms, difficulty with sleeping (try being sleep deprived and see if you become aggressive), and difficulty with paying attention. Aggression in children with autism tends to be impulsive. New studies suggest that alleviating problems with sleep, attention or anger rumination (the tendency to dwell on negative, hostile feelings) might be a first step. There is a lot we don't know, but there is a lot that can be done. Schools need to be in the forefront of dealing with this.
For aggressive children, it is certainly possible that they need a special school where the teachers are trained to deal with them. OTOH, if the behavior is precipitated by the aide or teacher behaving badly, then it is the responsibility of the school to change that and to allow the child to get his education in a mainstreamed setting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nana053
Have you ever heard of Temple Grandin? She was nonverbal when she was 4 and the doctors did suggest she should be institutionalized. She now has a degree in psychology, a masters in animal science and a doctorate in animal science. In 2009, she was named a fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. Thankfully, her mother never considered institutionalizing her.
Have you ever heard of Donald Triplett? He was autism's first diagnosis back in 1942. He was institutionalized for a short time, but his parents came to take him out and keep him at home. He is 82 now and still living in the home he grew up in. His parents had money which makes all the difference. They were able to give him an independent life.
The world is a difficult place for children with autism to navigate because they do not get the social cues that others understand intuitively. They have to be taught to do this. They can be dazzled by sensory overload and thus push and hit because they have someone in front of them. Autistic people are much more likely to be victims of violence than to be offenders.
Absolutely! When people say that, I am like..."what?". The prison and even death row is full of people with severely low IQs, and people who would have a variety of diagnoses. Even schizophrenia. The prison is the new mental hospital.
And then the "how did he make it to age 10" blah blah blah. The "in between" kids, with features of learning struggles, behavioral struggles and mental health struggles, who aren't *obviously* X are at the greatest risk to fall through the cracks and end up in prison, or in other rough situations.
Exactly.
A hallmark of autism and ADHD is impulsivity. Anyone with two neurons to rub together can deduce that a child with impulsivity control issues AND without behavior therapy is probably going to grow up continually doing ... impulsive things. Impulsivity rarely has desirable outcomes. That's just one of the many characteristics of autism and ADHD, if left unchecked, can manifest themselves into criminal behavior later on.
The problem in today's society is that parent's want their child to be part of the crowd and not treated different until an episode of this nature occurs, and all of sudden, the child's medical condition is thrown up as a defense. Keep them at home or educate them with like children or be prepare to accept consequences when they act up....autism or no autism!!
I agree totally. If a child is diagnosed with autism or severe behavioral problems from fetal alcohol or drug syndrome, there should be special schools for these kids with teachers and assistants trained to halt and handle these behaviours immediately. There would be no arrests for assault because these children actually DO have a justified reason for their aggressive behaviour. Yes, Autism IS a justified reason for behavioural problems. They cannot help themselves once they become upset. Some of you don't seem to understand this.
So, IMO they should NOT be put into regular school systems. I saw it happen in my son's grade 3 class when one fetal alcohol syndrome child went off the deep end. He went crazy swinging a yard stick at everyone in a fit of anger. It took 45 minutes out of the other children's day to calm him down and get him out to his mother's car to take him home. I found out that this happened on a regular basis. There were two of them in that classroom alone.
Behavioural problem children and autistic children not only disrupt the classrooms and pose safety risks for other students and teachers, integrating them into regular schools do nothing to help the child who has the problem in the first place.
Do you have any facts to substantiate this? Or just because you want to believe mentally ill get punished for assault and property damage, and being a sexual predator that they're all in prison?
The fact is: One cannot be convicted if they cannot participate in their own defense. They may get charged, but if their IQ is so low, or their mental illness is such that they cannot participate in their defense they get convicted of nothing.
The prisons are not the new 'mental hospital' as you so eloquently put it, the State facilities that are the last stopping place for the mentally ill and criminally inclined, after they have been kicked out of every other home and facility is the new prison system. Except: There will be no solitary confinement allowed, no restraints, no holds unless documented and approved by the state, and no punishment. Just 'respectful redirection'.
ETA: I personally know a nurse who was kicked in the head by a powerful (autistic) young lady, she was immediately unconscious, then diagnosed with a concussion, which actually turned into Traumatic Brain Injury. The perpetrator is NOT in jail, and the nurse can no longer work in her profession.
According to a 2007 U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics study approximately 59% of all prisoners - federal, state, local - have some sort of mental health issue or illness.
Other studies cited by National Center for Biotechnology Information, places the rate of ADHD among prison inmates somewhere between 20% and 45%. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16669717
Studies of ASD in the offender population estimate that the prevalence rate is much higher than that of the general population, notably for individuals with ASD who are higher functioning.3 Although individuals with profound autism are more readily identified, those on the milder end of the spectrum may have strengths that can mask significant social and communication deficits.4 In reality, they are functioning at a much lower level socially and developmentally than their neurotypical (non-ASD) peers.
Some more information about mental health illness and cognitive disabilities in American prisons:
An estimated 32% of prisoners and 40% of jail inmates reported having at least one disability.
Prisoners were nearly 3 times more likely and jail inmates were more than 4 times more likely than the general population to report having at least one disability.
About 2 in 10 prisoners and 3 in 10 jail inmates reported having a cognitive disability, the most common reported disability in each population .
Female prisoners were more likely than male prisoners to report having a cognitive disability, but were equally likely to report having each of the other five disabilities.
Non-Hispanic white prisoners (37%) and prisoners of two or more races (42%) were more likely than non-Hispanic black prisoners (26%) to report having at least one disability.
More than half of prisoners (54%) and jail inmates (53%) with a disability reported a co-occurring chronic condition.
Sometimes I sit back and think...wow, there are some really terrible people in this world.
I prefer to think of them as just woefully uneducated on autism, ADHD and other cognitive disorders. If nothing else, threads like these show how long we have to go in educating the general public on these issues.
But I understand where you are coming from. I felt physically ill reading some of these replies and some - even those quoting me - I'm ignoring.
State hospital is still a consequence. They don't get off scot free.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2sleepy
What state hospitals? There are almost none left anywhere in the US.
Yep.
And even so, we shouldn't be so quick to chuck people into them. State hospitalization should be the VERY last step in a long line of treatments, therapy, medicines, etc. I know too many people who would have been thrown away in state hospitals fifty years ago who are intelligent, productive members of society who just happened to function differently than we do.
One of her daughters told me that she had learned that when her mom was a teenager, she would constantly seek attention and get absolutely furious if she was ignored, she had huge mood swings, she loved everyone one minute and the next was convinced that everyone was out to get her. But she had 5 kids and the kids all recall being loved and well cared for by her, none of them ever felt that she was cruel. She would get drunk when her husband was working, dress up 'like a movie star' and run around the house dancing and singing with her kids until she would collapse from exhaustion. The kids were not told about the circumstances of her arrest until she had been in Napa for several years.
That sounds like RAD (Reactive attachment disorder), schizophrenia, or severe bipolar disorder.
I agree totally. If a child is diagnosed with autism or severe behavioral problems from fetal alcohol or drug syndrome, there should be special schools for these kids with teachers and assistants trained to halt and handle these behaviours immediately. There would be no arrests for assault because these children actually DO have a justified reason for their aggressive behaviour. Yes, Autism IS a justified reason for behavioural problems. They cannot help themselves once they become upset. Some of you don't seem to understand this.
So, IMO they should NOT be put into regular school systems. I saw it happen in my son's grade 3 class when one fetal alcohol syndrome child went off the deep end. He went crazy swinging a yard stick at everyone in a fit of anger. It took 45 minutes out of the other children's day to calm him down and get him out to his mother's car to take him home. I found out that this happened on a regular basis. There were two of them in that classroom alone.
Behavioural problem children and autistic children not only disrupt the classrooms and pose safety risks for other students and teachers, integrating them into regular schools do nothing to help the child who has the problem in the first place.
LOTS of over-generalizations here.
Before replying further, are you contending that ALL children with ALL cognitive disorders and mental health disorders be banned from mainstream schools?
Do you have any facts to substantiate this? Or just because you want to believe mentally ill get punished for assault and property damage, and being a sexual predator that they're all in prison?
The fact is: One cannot be convicted if they cannot participate in their own defense. They may get charged, but if their IQ is so low, or their mental illness is such that they cannot participate in their defense they get convicted of nothing.
The prisons are not the new 'mental hospital' as you so eloquently put it, the State facilities that are the last stopping place for the mentally ill and criminally inclined, after they have been kicked out of every other home and facility is the new prison system. Except: There will be no solitary confinement allowed, no restraints, no holds unless documented and approved by the state, and no punishment. Just 'respectful redirection'.
ETA: I personally know a nurse who was kicked in the head by a powerful (autistic) young lady, she was immediately unconscious, then diagnosed with a concussion, which actually turned into Traumatic Brain Injury. The perpetrator is NOT in jail, and the nurse can no longer work in her profession.
You have a very rosy view of our judicial system. I suggest you watch a few documentaries on it, maybe read a couple books. Google "mental illness in prison" or "low IQ death row". I am not going to do the work for you because I realize people here just want to argue, not learn.
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