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Exactly. That sounds like just not being like everyone else.
There have always been introverts and extroverts, and loners and geeks.
Aren't those just other labels? It's not that we've started labeling things. It's just that people are coming up with new labels. But labels have been used in one way or another since the beginning of language. That's what language is--an intricate and developed system of labels and how those labels can be used together.
Why is it all the sudden a big deal now? Anything that has a name has a label. But that doesn't mean we're giving a rosebush benefits and medication just because we have a label for a rosebush. Calling it by its name doesn't mean you're treating it special. It just means you're telling it like it is.
Someone please explain to me why parents of so called aspergers kids say it is so very difficult to live with those kids, and on the other hand, they say that no one would be able to identify an aspergers kid by observing or being around them, which leads one to believe they are so normal you can't tell the difference.
These kids are supposedly very bright, but they are provided with one on one aides at school. It doesn't matter that some other kids have trouble organizing, these kids get someone to do it for them.
The more I hear about aspergers, the angrier I get because it is the latest designer affliction used to get benefits and medication to quiet someone who might just have a lot of energy. It used to be ADD, then ADHD, now it's aspergers.
I know for a fact that some of these kids are labelled because the parent wants special accommodations at school or extra income or insurance. I know this.
Until you have been around an Aspergers or Austic child you have no idea what you are talking about. There is no "designer affliction" about having a child that displays no emotion other then anger/frustration. There is no "designer affliction" about having a child that has self mutilation (biting, hitting, scratching, pinching, cutting).
Aren't those just other labels? It's not that we've started labeling things. It's just that people are coming up with new labels. But labels have been used in one way or another since the beginning of language. That's what language is--an intricate and developed system of labels and how those labels can be used together.
Why is it all the sudden a big deal now? Anything that has a name has a label. But that doesn't mean we're giving a rosebush benefits and medication just because we have a label for a rosebush. Calling it by its name doesn't mean you're treating it special. It just means you're telling it like it is.
But those labels like introvert, extrovert, loner, geek and so on don't imply a disease or disability.
Too often kids who just can't sit still in a boring classroom are getting doped up and labeled as disabled when really in the right environment, they are perfectly able, perfectly intelligent and capable of learning.
Some kids could be labeled and drugged when they're actually very capable of self-paced instruction, or would do great in a science lab.
They simply aren't wired to get up in front of a bunch of people, and they aren't wired to sit still for hours on end.
Until you have been around an Aspergers or Austic child you have no idea what you are talking about. There is no "designer affliction" about having a child that displays no emotion other then anger/frustration. There is no "designer affliction" about having a child that has self mutilation (biting, hitting, scratching, pinching, cutting).
But more and more the Asperger's label isn't limited to kids with serious mental disorders where they bite, cut themselves and so on. It's being given to kids who are just very introverted or asocial, who have social anxiety and social phobia and keep their desks cluttered and don't care about grades.
To me an asocial kid is driven from inside and since they aren't driven by societal demands, grades don't matter to them. They could get good grades if they internally motivate themselves to get them but grades to these kids are a reflection of the outsiders' opinions which they don't care about.
I think the point of the OP is that if it's a disease then its really a disease or serious mental problem. Just being different than many others doesn't mean anything is wrong with you.
But those labels like introvert, extrovert, loner, geek and so on don't imply a disease or disability.
Too often kids who just can't sit still in a boring classroom are getting doped up and labeled as disabled when really in the right environment, they are perfectly able, perfectly intelligent and capable of learning.
Some kids could be labeled and drugged when they're actually very capable of self-paced instruction, or would do great in a science lab.
They simply aren't wired to get up in front of a bunch of people, and they aren't wired to sit still for hours on end.
So that's just a case of wrong labeling. The issue isn't with labeling--it's with labeling incorrectly--which can go both ways. My doctors and teachers didn't know I was legally blind growing up. They mislabeled me as sighted. That had detrimental effects. But does that mean the term "sighted" is a bad label? No. It's a good label for people who can see. It's a matter of using the label properly, but there's nothing wrong with the label itself.
So that's just a case of wrong labeling. The issue isn't with labeling--it's with labeling incorrectly--which can go both ways. My doctors and teachers didn't know I was legally blind growing up. They mislabeled me as sighted. That had detrimental effects. But does that mean the term "sighted" is a bad label? No. It's a good label for people who can see. It's a matter of using the label properly, but there's nothing wrong with the label itself.
And also it should not require some label or being drugged to have your educational needs met.
Some kid that never turns in homework is left alone becaue he's labeled, while another kid gets a bad grade. Or the kid drugged with ritalin gets A's for his ability to sit still with hands folded while the non-drugged kid bored out his mind gets bad grades.
The educational system should just accept that kids aren't all the same, stop trying to pound square pegs into round holes, make more hands-on learning and allow for different kinds of learning.
And also it should not require some label or being drugged to have your educational needs met.
Some kid that never turns in homework is left alone becaue he's labeled, while another kid gets a bad grade. Or the kid drugged with ritalin gets A's for his ability to sit still with hands folded while the non-drugged kid bored out his mind gets bad grades.
The educational system should just accept that kids aren't all the same, stop trying to pound square pegs into round holes, make more hands-on learning and allow for different kinds of learning.
Again, I agree. But how to treat Asperger's is a whole other issue entirely. I can't speak for others cause everyone's case is different, but for my own Asperger's, I use alternative therapies. When my senses get overwhelmed, I retreat to a quiet place and meditate. I socialize a bit but I do so in small chunks and give myself a lot of breaks. Just because someone acknowledges they have Asperger's doesn't mean they automatically buy into the whole Ritalin/extra-time/SpEd frenzy. Some do, but not everyone does. For most people, it just means they face reality and deal with it the best they can.
I also agree that trying to stick square pegs into round holes explains a lot of the issues we have in the educational system. Not everyone can sit in a desk 8 hours a day without fidgeting. Not everyone learns the most they can in a classroom environment. The tendency for people to over-attach themselves to labels has risen out of the fact that the only way you can get a pass for not fitting in is if you have some label. But if we diminish the pressure to fit in, the need to come up with labels so that people are allowed to be different will diminish too.
Asperger's is just a label. It has as much or as little power as you give it. The more people get annoyed with the label, the more power they give it. Use it as a means to achieve a goal and nothing more. If realizing they have Asperger's is what it takes for someone to figure out what they need to go so they can function in life, then that label is a good thing. It's a path to solutions.
Labels can be used to help or to hinder, to accommodate or to discriminate. But it's up to you, me, and everyone else to use make use of the advantages of labels without buying into their disadvantages.
And also it should not require some label or being drugged to have your educational needs met.
Some kid that never turns in homework is left alone becaue he's labeled, while another kid gets a bad grade. Or the kid drugged with ritalin gets A's for his ability to sit still with hands folded while the non-drugged kid bored out his mind gets bad grades.
The educational system should just accept that kids aren't all the same, stop trying to pound square pegs into round holes, make more hands-on learning and allow for different kinds of learning.
Labels help people find others who share their experiences or understand their situation. If there were no word for Asperger's, communities and forums around Asperger's that provide solutions could never be found, because there would be no word to search. You'd have to search a paragraph and you would come up with a ton of completely unrelated results. It's much harder to do a search of "well, you know, it's like when you have a hard time socializing, and sometimes things bug you a lot, and sometimes you have a hard time with certain textures, etc." "Asperger's" wraps all that information up in one word. This applies for anything. It allows people to write books about shared experiences with titles that are a phrase long and not a page long. Can you imagine trying to find a book called "The series of events that occurred concerning people who believe Jesus is the Son of God and believe that Mary had a Virgin Birth and believe that wine and bread become Jesus' literal blood and flesh during communion." Wouldn't it be easier to look up a book that's called "History of Catholicism"? The words "history" and "Catholicism" encode concepts in one word that would otherwise take a paragraph or a page, or sometimes even a book, to fully explain.
That's all "Asperger's" is. It's one word that is used to refer to a set of shared experiences, so that people who share those experiences can come together and come up with solutions together, and also relate to people who have similar experiences. If doctors and pharmacies jump on the label and use it as a means to make money and get patients, that's their doing. That's not a result of the label. You don't have to jump into the sensationalist boat with everyone else just because you recognize a label. A label is just a label. The rest is what people do with it.
Labels help people find others who share their experiences or understand their situation. If there were no word for Asperger's, communities and forums around Asperger's that provide solutions could never be found, because there would be no word to search. You'd have to search a paragraph and you would come up with a ton of completely unrelated results. It's much harder to do a search of "well, you know, it's like when you have a hard time socializing, and sometimes things bug you a lot, and sometimes you have a hard time with certain textures, etc." "Asperger's" wraps all that information up in one word. This applies for anything. It allows people to write books about shared experiences with titles that are a phrase long and not a page long. Can you imagine trying to find a book called "The series of events that occurred concerning people who believe Jesus is the Son of God and believe that Mary had a Virgin Birth and believe that wine and bread become Jesus' literal blood and flesh during communion." Wouldn't it be easier to look up a book that's called "History of Catholicism"? The words "history" and "Catholicism" encode concepts in one word that would otherwise take a paragraph or a page, or sometimes even a book, to fully explain.
That's all "Asperger's" is. It's one word that is used to refer to a set of shared experiences, so that people who share those experiences can come together and come up with solutions together, and also relate to people who have similar experiences. If doctors and pharmacies jump on the label and use it as a means to make money and get patients, that's their doing. That's not a result of the label. You don't have to jump into the sensationalist boat with everyone else just because you recognize a label. A label is just a label. The rest is what people do with it.
I can agree with that. And if teachers could understand that some kids aren't wired to sit still all day and that some kids do better in self-teaching environments where the student can explore somewhat independently it would help.
And for parents with a child that behaves perfectly fine when alone or with the family actually melts down in large social groups and can even act crazy, it might help to understand that they really aren't wired to handle large noisy groups of people. It probably has something to do with how their brains process information. Put them on a hike through a forest with the family and they are more than behaved, they are perfecty happy, but put them in the front of a large group of people or even church even like First Communion and they'll end up running off or acting nuts. In time they will grow up and adapt to what they must adapt to and it helps that as adults they know they aren't forced but can make a decision to leave if they want but they'll never really be the social butterflies that extroverts are.
I think the point of the OP is that if it's a disease then its really a disease or serious mental problem. Just being different than many others doesn't mean anything is wrong with you.
Exactly. Years ago, when Spock started the trend that all children needed to be understood and psycoanalyzed, there weren't labels and most got along fine. All kids were expected to keep up and most did. Those who didn't, failed and took the grade over. Somewhere along the way, people started labelling kids with ADD when they had extra energy and didn't pay attention because they were thinking of other things. That didn't mean something was wrong with them, it simply meant that they didn't pay attention like the teacher preferred.
Later, it became ADHD. That refined the boredom and distracted mind a little further and so all kids who couldn't sit still through an entire day of school became ADHD and meds were prescribed.
Now it's aspergers. I don't need to understand a label that means nothing to me. I do understand autism. I worked with autistic kids for 5 years. There was no 'spectrum'.
Because a child is unorganized, doesn't mean they are autistic.
Because a child is distracted, doesn't mean they are autistic.
Because a child has trouble sitting through a 6 hour school day doesn't mean it's autistic.
Because a child dawdles and doesn't get through tests as fast as others doesn't mean it's autistic.
In the parenting forum there are threads that actually ask what states and school systems give the most assistance.
There are parents who claim aspergers children are impossible to identify unless you know what to look for.
There are parents (the same ones) who claim that aspergers kids are impossible to live with.
There are parents who don't understand that the government assistence they receive for their 'aspergers' child is welfare, yet they take whatever they can get.
There are parents who are in denial that the medicaid they receive for their 'aspergers' child is welfare, yet they take whatever they can get.
There are parents who say 'aspergers' kids are brilliant but they still use taxpayers good nature to provide their child with a one on one aide all through school.
It seems to me that aspergers IS a disigner affliction, the same as ADD and ADHD used to be. It seems that 'normal' is a very fine thread and anything outside of it is the spectrum of autism. There is no spectrum of normal anymore.
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