Dachel Media Review: Communication Breakdown
Best of: White Suburban Moms Public Enemy #1

Early Autism Diagnosis No Substitute for Prevention

NewbornDec 30, 2013, CDC study says children with autism could be diagnosed earlier

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released new project findings on the prevalence rate of 1 in 32 Somali children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Minneapolis. While the report says that Somali children with ASD are more likely to have cognitive disabilities and more significant disabilities than all other racial groups, the data say that the rate of autism in the Somali population is about the same as in the white population (1 in 32 vs. 1 in 36). The report also states that children who have autism aren't identified as early as they could be.

"This new data from the CDC indicate potentially higher rates of autism spectrum disorders in distinct populations than the national numbers, clearly show that more research is needed to better understand autism, and again makes the case that additional funds must be made available for services and supports for children with autism and their families.

"The CDC continues to do important work in this area, shining a bright light on what families associated with The Arc and our chapters experience everyday - autism spectrum disorders touch so many people, of all cultures and backgrounds, and we must do more to support them to achieve their goals and to foster an inclusive society. The Arc is committed to families of all backgrounds in our efforts to serve and support people with disabilities, through our network of 700 chapters across the country," said Peter Berns, CEO of The Arc.

"About a third of individuals and families using advocacy services from The Arc Greater Twin Cities are from multicultural families," said Kim Keprios, The Arc Greater Twin Cities' chief executive officer. "We have been working hard to make connections in the Somali community because
we know Somali children who have autism are not being diagnosed as early as they could be and therefore not getting critical services. Anyone who might benefit from The Arc's assistance in getting a diagnosis, receiving help with special education issues and more, is encouraged to call us at 952-920-0855 or visit www.arcgreatertwincities.org."



"These data provide further evidence of the need for organizations like The Arc to continue advocating for policies and funding to ensure the needs of children with ASD and their families are being met," said Steve Larson, senior policy director for The Arc Minnesota, the state office of The Arc in Minnesota. "We were pleased that state elected officials approved new funding in 2013 to help children with ASD improve their communication skills and increase their inclusion in their communities, and we strongly supported passage of legislation this year requiring health insurance plans to cover needed behavior therapies for these children. We will continue to work to make further progress in serving all Minnesotans diagnosed with ASD."

Amy Hewitt, director of the University of Minnesota Research and Training Center on Community Living and primary investigator on the project, is also a member of the board of directors of both The Arc Minnesota and The Arc Greater Twin Cities.

The Arc advocates for and serves people with I/DD, including Down syndrome, autism, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, cerebral palsy and other diagnoses. The Arc has a network of 700 chapters across the country promoting and protecting the human rights of people with I/DD and actively supporting their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes and without regard to diagnosis.

 

Comments

Benedetta

Jennetta as Nhokkanen said in her comment further on down;

"Look Busy, Jesus is coming"

I take her meaning that there is coming a time they many will have to answer for this mess.

I so hope she is right.

Jeannette Bishop

There are so many good comments on this thread that resonate. I most struggle to reconcile comparison of the response to the autism epidemic with polio. I recently looked into polio's history a little and became less enlightened. There seems to have been at least one striking similarity though for both autism and paralytic polio, which is that no explanation for either increase has been scripted into the Encyclopedia of Official Narrative. But it's hard to notice that possibly very important point when the differences stand out so much more, such as the past concern (at least the narrative suggests there was concern, much concern) over the increase in polio paralysis to as high as 1 in 2700, fifteen percent of these cases involving longterm paralysis more than three years, to today's rather feigned perplexed musing over whether we really have an epidemic of disabled children at, oh we're not sure what the current rate is, 1 in 50 according to a parental survey, possibly? You know it's hard to say, we weren't as good at recognizing in the past, we're pretty certain at this point, and we're getting so good today that it's really very likely we're over-diagnosing now, but we'll let you know when we get a better method of detection.

And what's the longterm prognosis of today's we're-not-really-sure-we-have-an-epidemic-at-1-in-50 epidemic?

Well, oh, look! We've just finished weaving, um conducting, ANOTHER really important, definitive, "safety study" that failed to find anything, to confidently clothe the vaccine emperor, which, oh yes, which has nothing to do with autism, vaccines have nothing to do with autism, so back to autism... Um, yes, we are now also very engaged in meetings, many, many meetings, at least quite a few, to plan plans, weave weavings, uh-hmm recommendations, for coordinating initiatives, research even possibly, of how we might look at the feasibility of looking into how we might best coordinate a plan to answer that question, or perhaps some others, about autism..., at the very least, we'll definitely decide, yes, we've already decided, that's definite, to NOT recommend looking at something (vaccines) that has nothing to do with autism...

I can't tell if our "government" bureaucracies are the weavers, minion-weavers maybe, or just the vapuous (word? it is in the urban dictionary), or maybe vaporous, threads in the emperor's illusory garments. The funny thing is, with all this transparency, it's still hard to see who the "emperor" is, but it seems pretty clear his or her prevention priorities are pretty messed up.

jen

Carolyn, I loved your generational summary.

Cherry Sperlin Misra

I am sure the public health people dont intend it that way, but early diagnosis can have one extremely beneficial effect on the autistic child- It might be called the Internet Effect- This occurs when the parents get on the net and learn that autism is caused by mercury in vaccines, and refuse the next flu shot.

Cherry Sperlin Misra

To Carolyn Flannery- That is an excellent comment. In the crazy world of autism, it is a crime to give a pregnant woman or a child a vaccine with mercury in CALIFORNIA - but it is OK in other states, apparently. Why are doctors not ashamed of this ? Here I would like to quote Dr. Boyd Haley, mercury toxicologist, speaking at a conference- (something like) - " And if anyone here is from the AAP, - You should be ashamed of yourselves... History is going to come and get you"
And I would like to add- Please please, do not dismiss the fish mercury. The methylmercury in fish is readily absorbed into the human body and it is NOT excreted easily. Instead of being excreted , it goes into a loop - Leaving the body through the small intestine, undergoing transformation and then being reabsorbed through the large intestine. You can learn about this by watching the youtube videos of Dr. Chris Shade, mercury toxicologist.

Eileen Nicole Simon

John, thank you for providing the full parable of the Emperor’s New Clothes, which clearly illustrates the importance of childhood innocence.

Carolyn Gammicchia, thank you for the reminder to submit comments to the IACC. I submitted one right after the conference call on December 15. As I have many times during the past 10 years, I pointed out that developmental language disorder is the most serious handicap for autistic children. Language disability is mentioned only in passing in the current “strategic plan.”

I submitted a second comment on December 31. I pointed out the “core values” statement on the IACC meeting page, and then asked why they do not discuss issues raised in public comments? Once more I pointed out the research on asphyxia at birth in which evidence of damage to the auditory system was found. If this evidence had been taken into account, developmental language disorder might have been understood decades ago, and the present epidemic prevented.

Look at the objective chart for Question 3 (risk factors). Risk factors for language disorder are absent. But just look what gets more funding than any other objective:

$169,806,458 to identify genetic risk factors in at least 50% of people with ASD by 2014.

Don’t we have an obligation to express outrage?

Linda

You are so right, John. I haven't read that story in many years. Swindlers claiming the medicine is not only good, but essential for everyone, setting and defending the policies designed to make everyone take them, while the rank and file doctors go along, either without questioning or knowing or sensing that it's wrong, but afraid to call the swindlers out.

There are a lot of people currently filling the role of the children in the story, but the mothers at the last IACC meeting especially come to mind as they bravely stood up in front of the large network of swindlers to tell the truth about the medicine, the swindlers selling it.

John Stone

Linda

Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on being well dressed. He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day, and instead of saying, as one might, about any other ruler, "The King's in council," here they always said. "The Emperor's in his dressing room."

In the great city where he lived, life was always gay. Every day many strangers came to town, and among them one day came two swindlers. They let it be known they were weavers, and they said they could weave the most magnificent fabrics imaginable. Not only were their colors and patterns uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid.

"Those would be just the clothes for me," thought the Emperor. "If I wore them I would be able to discover which men in my empire are unfit for their posts. And I could tell the wise men from the fools. Yes, I certainly must get some of the stuff woven for me right away." He paid the two swindlers a large sum of money to start work at once.

They set up two looms and pretended to weave, though there was nothing on the looms. All the finest silk and the purest old thread which they demanded went into their traveling bags, while they worked the empty looms far into the night.

"I'd like to know how those weavers are getting on with the cloth," the Emperor thought, but he felt slightly uncomfortable when he remembered that those who were unfit for their position would not be able to see the fabric. It couldn't have been that he doubted himself, yet he thought he'd rather send someone else to see how things were going. The whole town knew about the cloth's peculiar power, and all were impatient to find out how stupid their neighbors were.

"I'll send my honest old minister to the weavers," the Emperor decided. "He'll be the best one to tell me how the material looks, for he's a sensible man and no one does his duty better."

So the honest old minister went to the room where the two swindlers sat working away at their empty looms.

"Heaven help me," he thought as his eyes flew wide open, "I can't see anything at all". But he did not say so.

Both the swindlers begged him to be so kind as to come near to approve the excellent pattern, the beautiful colors. They pointed to the empty looms, and the poor old minister stared as hard as he dared. He couldn't see anything, because there was nothing to see. "Heaven have mercy," he thought. "Can it be that I'm a fool? I'd have never guessed it, and not a soul must know. Am I unfit to be the minister? It would never do to let on that I can't see the cloth."

"Don't hesitate to tell us what you think of it," said one of the weavers.

"Oh, it's beautiful -it's enchanting." The old minister peered through his spectacles. "Such a pattern, what colors!" I'll be sure to tell the Emperor how delighted I am with it."

"We're pleased to hear that," the swindlers said. They proceeded to name all the colors and to explain the intricate pattern. The old minister paid the closest attention, so that he could tell it all to the Emperor. And so he did.

The swindlers at once asked for more money, more silk and gold thread, to get on with the weaving. But it all went into their pockets. Not a thread went into the looms, though they worked at their weaving as hard as ever.

The Emperor presently sent another trustworthy official to see how the work progressed and how soon it would be ready. The same thing happened to him that had happened to the minister. He looked and he looked, but as there was nothing to see in the looms he couldn't see anything.

"Isn't it a beautiful piece of goods?" the swindlers asked him, as they displayed and described their imaginary pattern.

"I know I'm not stupid," the man thought, "so it must be that I'm unworthy of my good office. That's strange. I mustn't let anyone find it out, though." So he praised the material he did not see. He declared he was delighted with the beautiful colors and the exquisite pattern. To the Emperor he said, "It held me spellbound."

All the town was talking of this splendid cloth, and the Emperor wanted to see it for himself while it was still in the looms. Attended by a band of chosen men, among whom were his two old trusted officials-the ones who had been to the weavers-he set out to see the two swindlers. He found them weaving with might and main, but without a thread in their looms.

"Magnificent," said the two officials already duped. "Just look, Your Majesty, what colors! What a design!" They pointed to the empty looms, each supposing that the others could see the stuff.

"What's this?" thought the Emperor. "I can't see anything. This is terrible!

Am I a fool? Am I unfit to be the Emperor? What a thing to happen to me of all people! - Oh! It's very pretty," he said. "It has my highest approval." And he nodded approbation at the empty loom. Nothing could make him say that he couldn't see anything.

His whole retinue stared and stared. One saw no more than another, but they all joined the Emperor in exclaiming, "Oh! It's very pretty," and they advised him to wear clothes made of this wonderful cloth especially for the great procession he was soon to lead. "Magnificent! Excellent! Unsurpassed!" were bandied from mouth to mouth, and everyone did his best to seem well pleased. The Emperor gave each of the swindlers a cross to wear in his buttonhole, and the title of "Sir Weaver."

Before the procession the swindlers sat up all night and burned more than six candles, to show how busy they were finishing the Emperor's new clothes. They pretended to take the cloth off the loom. They made cuts in the air with huge scissors. And at last they said, "Now the Emperor's new clothes are ready for him."

Then the Emperor himself came with his noblest noblemen, and the swindlers each raised an arm as if they were holding something. They said, "These are the trousers, here's the coat, and this is the mantle," naming each garment. "All of them are as light as a spider web. One would almost think he had nothing on, but that's what makes them so fine."

"Exactly," all the noblemen agreed, though they could see nothing, for there was nothing to see.

"If Your Imperial Majesty will condescend to take your clothes off," said the swindlers, "we will help you on with your new ones here in front of the long mirror."

The Emperor undressed, and the swindlers pretended to put his new clothes on him, one garment after another. They took him around the waist and seemed to be fastening something - that was his train-as the Emperor turned round and round before the looking glass.

"How well Your Majesty's new clothes look. Aren't they becoming!" He heard on all sides, "That pattern, so perfect! Those colors, so suitable! It is a magnificent outfit."

Then the minister of public processions announced: "Your Majesty's canopy is waiting outside."

"Well, I'm supposed to be ready," the Emperor said, and turned again for one last look in the mirror. "It is a remarkable fit, isn't it?" He seemed to regard his costume with the greatest interest.

The noblemen who were to carry his train stooped low and reached for the floor as if they were picking up his mantle. Then they pretended to lift and hold it high. They didn't dare admit they had nothing to hold.

So off went the Emperor in procession under his splendid canopy. Everyone in the streets and the windows said, "Oh, how fine are the Emperor's new clothes! Don't they fit him to perfection? And see his long train!" Nobody would confess that he couldn't see anything, for that would prove him either unfit for his position, or a fool. No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever such a complete success.

"But he hasn't got anything on," a little child said.

"Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?" said its father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, "He hasn't anything on. A child says he hasn't anything on."

"But he hasn't got anything on!" the whole town cried out at last.

The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, "This procession has got to go on." So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn't there at all.


http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html

The story of the vaccine program indeed (from Denmark). It has nearly everything, opulence, vanity, court corruption - even if we don't get to death and injury. The media are the preening courtiers.

AussieMum

We need to keep repeating that Autism is Iatrogenic.


Elizabeth Gillespie

Carolyn Flannery

Give me a pregnancy in a family with a history of vaccine injury, ADD, and/or autism, and I can diagnose autism "before the infant is born." How do you like THAT CDC?

Give the Mom a mouth full of amalgams, a flu shot a year from the age of 25, then two flu shots 6 months apart (2 in the pregnancy) and a Hep B at birth. Voila. Autism.

1930's generation: Quirky, restless but functional . . . (maybe one shot? mercury from coal?)
1960's generation: ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia. (1-4 shots, thimerasol in medical items)
1990's generation: Regressive Autism starts appearing (1-30 shots)
2014's generation: Autism before you are born--because SHOTS before you are born! ! If the baby is even born and doesn't succumb to a miscarriage

I went to a a DAN conference and the speaker had all the Moms who had had RHOGHAM with mercury and flu shot before child's birth stand up. 1/2 of all the Moms with autistic kids had this profile.

The DAN dr then asked the Moms who had no RHOGHAM or RHOGHAM with out mercury and flu shot to stand up. Now it was 1/3 of the room.

My point being, EVERY BIT COUNTS. And WATCH THE BOLUS. RHOGHAM had 25 micrograms mercury. Add it to flu shot and the fetus gets 50 mcg mercury. All at once.

I can't take it any more!

Carolyn

The recently release GAO report is a must read for everyone on what is transpiring in autism research and what is not being done my the IACC as many of us have been trying to say for many years.

Additionally for those of us who are parents of adults, this tidal wave into adulthood came crashing in about five years ago. The first increases in autism started in 1989-1991 when many of us that have children first injured where born. Know additionally that is the only area of research where funds were not utilized fully but our federal agencies who are suppose to be responding to this need. The IACC has done very little to broach this even though there are three adults with ASD on the committee, though no female to represent gender specific issues. Even though our children will spend more time in adulthood than as a child, this seems to be of less interest to researchers.

It's time to voice your thoughts in the IACCs lack of coordination and what their mission is as well as the failure of those appointed to be representative of the autism community to serve without self interest.

Please read this blog, read the GAO report, watch the IACC Nov. 15th, 2014 meeting and get involved. Now is the time to do so more than any other time because the GAO has called out the IACC finally and we need to show we want changes within research that is done and provides results for those living with autism and their families.

http://tacanowblog.com/2013/12/31/if-the-iaccs-strategic-plans-were-ieps-would-they-be-in-non-compliance/

Thank you all and Happy New Year to you and your families.

Carolyn Gammicchia

Linda

To everyone who writes and comments here, I have learned so much from all of you and want to thank you.

Eileen, a special thanks to you for bringing inappropriate cord clamping to my and others attention. I'm sure that many babies will be spared that harm because of you. It wasn't on my radar, but definitely is now. There are many who know how to help others, but keep silent. I am very grateful for your generosity in sharing your knowledge and experience.

Linda

Is there a children's book like "The Emperor's New Clothes", except where the Emperor repeatedly calls for more money to find the answer to a serious question, where the answer is sitting at the end of his nose, so large that it is just about blocking his vision, where he sees it but refuses to acknowledge it and where he deliberately contorts himself to look past it choosing to look anywhere else?

nhokkanen

Minnesota Nice means never uttering any harsh truths that may interfere with the inert status quo of your nonprofit and government cronies -- and their funding connections.

To paraphrase a sacrilegious T-shirt about Jesus...

Autism is coming... everyone look busy!

jen

The CDC "shining a bright light?" I don't think they've even struck a match.

Eileen Nicole Simon

Cia Parker, thanks for telling your story. The autism epidemic is just as serious as the polio epidemic was decades ago. Would anyone have deliberately insulted parents of a child afflicted with polio that spinal paralysis had always been around, just not diagnosed?

None of us wanted to believe our child suffered brain damage, and too many people kept reassuring us that “neural plasticity” would lead to recovery. My son is now 51 years old. He learned to speak just before he turned 6, but was excluded from public school back then because they had no programs for children with limited language.

Language disorder is the primary handicap of autistic children, and it is shocking to have a child who does not learn to speak. Though considered “high functioning” my son still has an auditory processing disorder, and now lives in a group home for mentally ill (schizophrenic) men.

Developmental language disorder should have been understood decades ago. I will continue to urge people to lookup the October 1969 issue of the Scientific American, where William F. Windle provided graphic evidence of auditory system damage caused by asphyxia at birth. His research included damage caused by bilirubin, which only gets into the brain following breakdown of the blood-brain-barrier. He also spoke out against the growing practice of clamping the umbilical cord at birth, which can easily cause enough asphyxia to damage the blood-brain barrier and allow hep B components to get into the brain.

New research is not needed as much as recognizing evidence like that of William Windle, and more from decades ago. The autism epidemic could have been prevented.

John Stone

They only need more diagnosis to hide the fact that they have more cases. Folks, there's more on the way!

Rae

"More research needed" = "Gimme more grant $$. For whatever."

cia parker

This happy take on early autism diagnosis is disgusting beyond words. Autism is brain damage. It is absolutely criminal to tell people that preventing usually mild diseases like measles and chickenpox, even pertussis, is more important than preventing brain damage. My daughter, brain-damaged at birth by the hep-B vax, went through the ridiculous First Steps program. The OT therapist tried to get her to cut out clowns with scissors when she was two years, two months old. The speech therapist was unable to get her to say a single syllable, and told me earnestly that when there was simply no speech there, there was nothing any speech therapist could do to coax it out. After seven years of speech therapy at school, my daughter remained unable to say anything beyond Good, bad, and What's for supper? Their solution has been to proclaim that she's now on par in receptive and expressive speech with her typical peers, although they admit that she cannot say more than the above phrases. Maybe it's because typical now means low-verbal? Just put her in five typical classes a day with a para beside her to run interference, do her homework in front of her (a technique the autism resource specialist calls "scaffolding," but one which I believe to be ineffectual without the active participation of the pupil), and the best technique of all, raise her failing grades on tests and quizzes to A or B with the sleight of the hand. The county family services case manager said that he used to work in an admissions office at a college, and that it was impossible to distinguish genuine earned grades from sleight of the hand grades, so that much more emphasis was placed now on the results of standardized tests for the purpose of college admission. He also said that the county has no idea what it's eventually going to do to care for the overwhelming numbers of the autistic which have exploded just in the last few years. He said that at this time they're all being cared for at home by their parents, even the ones from the beginning of the autism epidemic, who are now in their mid-twenties.
So great, identify the autistic earlier, pull them into the system to achieve full employment for autism "therapists," who, unfortunately, do not have a clue how to treat the brain damage that has caused the autism. I believe that the way to improve speech in moderately-affected kids like my daughter is to teach them English from the basic rudiments, as though you were rehabilitating an adult stroke victim with the speech center of his brain damaged by a blood clot cutting off blood flow to his brain in the stroke, reprogramming the brain with the necessary circuits and pathways by relentless practice and drill. The autistic person had blood flow cut off by the inflammation of the vaccine-induced encephalitis, with the same result. We're using the Cambridge Connect series for ESL, and my daughter is making immense strides, for the first time expanding Yes and No with Yes, he is. No, it doesn't. She was intrigued by the neighborhood chapter in which she learned that she lives in a suburb, the opposite of downtown. I believe that without the language circuits in her brain, that she didn't have the capacity to understand the concept downtown/suburb, that the lack of words also meant to lack of ability to use all the blocks into which we have categorized the reality around us. But I believe that conventional speech and language therapy does not address this obvious solution because to do so would make everyone ask the question Brain damaged? How would a middle-class, well-cared-for baby become brain damaged? And so public school speech therapy still uses methods primarily designed for the psychologically, not physically impaired. And it is very hard to repair brain damage, it takes years, and, as all of us know, some stroke victims can be rehabilitated to varying degrees, and some can't. This is what ABA therapy does, practice specific, tiny behaviors over and over and over, making new neural circuits with the behavior hard-wired onto them, classically eight hours a day, five days a week, for several years, and even then, with imperfect and inconsistent results. MUCH better to just avoid the devastating, intractable brain damage to start with, which can only be done by saying no to all vaccines, to the immense detriment, of course, of the most powerful industry in the world.

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