Difference or Disease?
In the 2010s, autism was rebranded as neurodiversity. Ari Ne'eman was the darling of the decade. In the 2020s, gender identity is the new kid on the block that we must accept. The autism puzzle piece has been replaced by a rainbow infinity symbol, which implies sexuality. Anne Dachel shares a "disease or difference" story below. It's semantics. EVERYthing is a disease today, right? Except autism. And yet, schools tell a different story.
By Anne Dachel
Loss of Brain Trust update. ’
On November 12, 2022, a story came out from KCRW radio in Santa Monica about autism. The title was Autism is a different way of being, not a disease.
I’m sure many parents with children on the spectrum can only sigh reading this. “A different way of being” is an effective red herring. It promotes acceptance. Just agree that all the autism out there is a good thing, and we can all enjoy life.
Of course we also have to agree that autism is nothing new.
The article asked the question: So does the increase in autism diagnosis mean that autism is on the rise?
Unfortunately the question is never answered in the story.
Meanwhile more autism is in the news, especially in the schools in the U.K. The stories are not about neurodiversity and autism acceptance. They’re about the disaster unfolding in British schools. Inflation costs are a nightmare for schools and predicted to get worse.
I keep going back to the story I put out here last week. On November 5, 2022, Schools Week ran the story, SEND [Special Education Needs and Disabilities] isn’t on the precipice – it’s tipped over the edge.
It was about how bad the picture is for schools in the U.K. The predicted special ed budget deficit will be $2.7B by March, 2025. The piece talked about the “phenomenal rise” in special education students and the role autism has played in this disaster.
Rising costs worsened by short-termism and under-investment have left the SEND system incapable of meeting demand, writes Alex Dale
There is no doubt that the SEND system that supports our most vulnerable children is broken and needs fixing… fast.
…the number of children with SEND has continued to rise. Over half of the children and young people in special schools have a primary or secondary need of autism. For children in early years specialist settings, the figure is 65 per cent….
In other words, autism is the driving force behind the special ed numbers. So if autism is just “a different way of being,” as we were told by KCRW, it is a very expensive way of being and the cost is only increasing.
Stories from the past week confirm this.
We’re told that Britain is struggling with horrendous inflation numbers that are overwhelming ninety percent of schools. At the same time the special ed numbers only increase.
One source described the impact like this:
Headteachers around the country have told Sky News they face the choice of cutting staff or going into the red as they struggle to pay for rising food and energy bills and a wage increase for teaching staff that has to come out of existing school budgets….
"We are going to have to make huge cuts to staffing," she said.
"At the moment we pay for speech and language support... we will have to cut that and that is really needed by our younger children."…
"We're in crisis, every school is in crisis, cost of living is going up, cost of wages is going up, energy prices, transport, you name it, it's going up," she said.
Over the past 18 months, three teaching assistants have left her school for better paid work. She hasn't been able to afford to replace them and says she can't cut staff numbers any further….
"The vulnerable children are the most affected," she added. "It's heartbreaking."
Another source said this:
Majority of schools face making 'catastrophic' staffing cuts to stay afloat
A survey of more than 11,000 school leaders in England by the NAHT union laid bare the brutal cuts that schools are grappling with in the face of rising costs and funding cuts
The majority of schools face having to lay off staff or slash hours in a desperate bid to stay afloat.
The survey found that with just 5% of heads saying they can pay their costs next academic year.
Over half (54%) of schools said they would go into deficit this year unless they make further cuts….
Services such as counselling, additional support for children with special education needs and Covid catch up tutoring are likely to be in the firing line….
Here are more examples of just how bad thing are:
Warwickshire: Waiting years just for an autism diagnosis.
“The longest waits have reduced considerably down from 242 weeks at the beginning of the year to 195 weeks so that is on the trajectory that was set - but just to say that referrals were a lot higher than forecast, being 70 per cent up. …
Committee chair Cllr Yousef Dahmash (Con, Hillmorton) asked how many referrals there had been and if there was a reason for such a big increase.
Ms Barnes said: “There have been more than 1,500 over the past 12 months and that’s versus an expected level of about 1,000….
Doncaster: $14M a year to transport special needs students.
Hundreds of children in Doncaster with special educational needs are being forced to travel to schools outside the city due to a shortage of local places.
The council will spend almost £12m [$14M] this year to send more than 300 young people to be educated in other areas.
It comes after Doncaster's specialist schools have been unable to cope with a "significant rise" in pupils with, according to a council report.
Liverpool: 46% increase in special ed plans in 3 years.
Liverpool has seen a 46 per cent increase in pupils with education and health care plans since 2019. The rise in numbers means that sometimes children are placed out of city school or in school in the independent non-maintained sector.
Cllr Tomas Logan, cabinet member for education and skills said: “In Liverpool, there is a pressing need to increase the number of school places for children and young people with SEND and we are reaching a point where we are not able to offer the range of school places that children, young people and their parents deserve….
Teesside: New autism school serves 20 students.
Parents of autistic children on Teesside have branded a new specialist school as a “game changer” for their families, just weeks after it opened its doors.
The school has taken on 20 pupils so far, some of whom have been out of education for years….
The school has six teachers and 25 teaching assistants all trained in autism and other neurodiversity conditions.
Herefordshire: New special school to open
Its pupils include those with autism, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), ADD (attention deficit disorder), and anxiety with trauma related diagnoses.
The school plans to hold 30 children, which is 10 per cent of those diagnosed in Herefordshire.
Bloxham Grove: Public opinion sought on plans for new special school.
As we previously reported, plans have been out forward for the new 'Free School' for 100 children with complex special needs and disabilities to be built next to The Warriner School, on land used by The Warriner School Farm in Bloxham Grove.
Under current proposals, the new school would open in January 2024 with 41 pupils and would grow gradually over four years reaching capacity at 100 pupils.
Suffolk County: Millions more for “much-needed specialist places.”
Last month, the Council agreed a £10million [$11.4M] support package last month to provide much-needed specialist places for children and young people with special needs.
The package comes as Suffolk faces insufficient places to meet growing demand, with the need significantly outweighing capacity.
£3million [$3.4M] will be spent on three additional specialist units that will provide 42 additional places, while a further £7 million [$8M] will be spent on the development of units attached to mainstream schools to support students with social, emotional and mental health problems and speech, language and communication needs.
Peterborough: $13,000 a year to transport each special needs child.
New plans to provide school and social transport services for eligible children with Special Education Needs and, or, a Disability (SEND) for the next three years have been tabled by Peterborough City Council….
"But we’ve seen significant growth both in the mainstream and SEND population of children and this is having a significant impact on the services that we are able to deliver because of budget pressures, coupled with inflation rises associated with the cost of transportation.
“There are 42 routes that carry only one child, costing £13,000 [$15K] a year to run. Each child goes to school for 190 days, with a journey to and from school equalling 280 journeys per annum…
…We have young people who need high levels of care in a specialist ambulance provision where the journeys are costing around £400 [$461] per day. There is only one of those in Peterborough, but we have eight in Cambridgeshire….
Haslingden: New special school proposed.
Beacon Light Schools has submitted a planning application to change the use of the office building at Hazeldene on Bury Road to a SEND school.
The proposed school will cater for 24 children with social, emotional and mental health needs and autistic spectrum condition.
Cornwall: New special school proposed.
Plans for a new special educational needs school in Bodmin would see the facility open in less than two years’ time
The plans were submitted to Cornwall Council by Nexus Planning on behalf of Bowmer & Kirkland Building Services and the Department for Education, who said that the site would “address the need for a new local SEND school.’…
“Bosvena SEND will be a 65-place school for children aged four to 16 with Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) needs along with severe autism….
There are more shocking stories on Loss of Brain Trust, including one about a 12 year old girl in Ireland with two autistic brothers. Little Cara Darmody addressed the Irish Parliament and called for more autism services. She pointed out the sad reality that, in Ireland, little is done about autism.
Cara said, ‘I am also here to stand up for the almost 18,000 children [with autism] who have been left to rot on waiting lists.’
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism.
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You might as well go back to saying Autism is caused by "refrigerator mothers'.
Posted by: Hoinest | November 15, 2022 at 06:23 PM
What exactly is a personality disorder" Alzheimer's could be considered a personality disorder. Personality disorder is a term used by people who don't understand what is happening. There is no real thing as a personality disorder. The problem is people that tell us they know say that all is determined in the subconscious and fail to consider that the same dysfunction the the biology that disrupts the conscious mind just as easily disrupts the unconscious mind. Personality disorder is a meaningless name to make people think they understand a condition.
Posted by: Honest | November 15, 2022 at 06:12 PM
The ASD and trans eruption will never go away, as long as politicians on both parties refuse to abolish the childhood snakebite schedule or disallow only new radically lethal snakebites while letting others (DTP/DTAP/MMR/Flu/etc) stay on the radar.
It seems very disturbing that mainstream news/MSN is openly talking about alien (fallen angel/demon) invasions coming to Earth and that all these massive and sudden bills everywhere "to protect children and babies" - by these same provaxx goons - weren't passed prior to Operation Warp Speed, which is creating a new hybrid Nephilim race of "human" babies resembling the Human Drone from a DARPA presentation in 2018, when the snakebites were secretly being created by the US (and China too) two years ahead.
These bills will dissolve and the right wingers, including Desantis, will proudly abandon such laws after much violence, anger, rages riots emerge from them - ordo ab chao - and once Earth is a host to the new Nephilim babies and giants/demon race being created by jabbed moms/those possessing female organs who are unknowingly giving birth to a new demonic A.I. hybrid race with Hydra Vulgaris and CRISPR causing them to be immortal Luciferase monsters. It sounds like hardcore dystopian sci-fi but it's real, and where were all the "grey alien/black eyed" hyper-developed babies prior to OWS? I had a very strange dream where Desantis will be kicked out of office, very shortly after having dreams about a jabbed zombie invasion and Nephilim giant clowns terrorizing a village.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 14, 2022 at 12:44 PM
Autism should be viewed as a personality disorder. Some with autism are serious disabled other not significantly disabled. The legal and medical term "Disability" is not just about Low IQ or paralyzed limbs. Disability is also about poor hearing and vision as well as those with medical issues or even other mental illnesses, so stop obsessing on IQ "autism" parents. Have empathy for the blind women with Asperger's syndrome mentioned in a disabled advocate documentary a decade ago or a man HFA person who also has life threatening medical issues like the person writing this response.
Posted by: Bill | November 14, 2022 at 10:09 AM