"Billy, No!"
"I said no Billy!"
It feels like I say this a lot. One of the struggles with autism is children with it sometimes don't understand what you're saying. Billy on the other hand, understands what no means but, takes advantage of it. When Billy gets really though he gets angry. When Billy gets angry...
"Billy, no jumping on the table!" I yell.
He continues to jump on the table so I go over to grab him. As I grab him he dead weights himself so that it hurts to pick him up. For those of you who don't know, Billy's a big boy full of a lot of bone and muscle. It's hard to pick him up in the first place so, when he dead weights himself...it's even worse. I put billy on the floor and kneel down. Looking him at eye level I say, "No Billy! No jumping on the table."
Now as Billy smiles he pinches my arm and says "Say ouch Blanna! Say ouch Blanna!"
"No ouch Billy stop it." I say holding his arms.
This is the started cycle of Billy's anger and it's goes on and on. My parents have brought him to a behaviorist to see what they say about it. He thinks it's the funniest thing in the world and especially when he goes into time-out.
Autism Discoveries
So, I was online looking at any new articles I could find about autism for this part of my blog and this one stood out at me when I read the title. I'm in an Infant/Child Development course at my school and I find it very interesting but, when I see the title: New Research Tool Can Detect Autism at 9 Months Of Age I get confused. At 9 months old you aren't even one years old yet. This article is rather old and from 2008 but, I find it interesting and thought I should share it with you. In the article it says a professor from McMaster University can say if a child has Autism in 10 minutes. How this happens you ask? I do not know. He claims that he can figure this out by looking at the way the child looks at things. By looking at their eye contact as a baby. Now a days most children don't get the diagnosis for Autism until they are around the age of two. This professor says that this could make things easier on families if they find out about their child having Autism this early. Well, what if they do the wrong diagnosis? What if they child is really "normal" and the test was wrong? What happens then? You tell me.
Here's The Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080520112133.htm
Bibliography
McMaster University (2008, May 21). New Research Tool Can Detect Autism At 9 Months Of Age. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 15, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/05/080520112133.htm
Another article I found was named Siblings Of Autistic Children At Risk For Developmental Problems, Study Shows. Whatever this study is, must be wrong because I really don't thing siblings of someone with this disability have developmental problems. That was my first thought when I read the title. I then read the article. This was the first line,"Younger siblings of children with autism are at risk to suffer from delayed verbal, cognitive and motor development in their early childhood years." Okay, I agree with this to an extent. Yes, if you have an older sibling with Autism you may pick up on some of the habits they have but, they will go away. you won't have them forever. I read on some More and I see that younger siblings of children with Autism have been diagnosed with delays in developmental areas such as speech, cognitive and motor developmental skills. My sister is older than my brother by a couple years. She doesn't have Autism but, he does. Did he pick this up from her? No! I then read on and see a professor from the college this was studied at (Professor Yirmiya) says "Siblings of children with autism are likely to inherit genes that will cause a weakened expression of autistic symptoms," So does this mean Billy would've inherited some genes from Madelyn and they turned into Autism? I have another question though. Is Autism Genetic? I don't think it is. I think it's a environmental or medical issue that you develop as time goes on from different things such as sicknesses at a very young age. What are your thoughts on this?
Here's the article. Read it for yourself.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070423100907.htm
Bibliography
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2007, April 24). Siblings Of Autistic Children At Risk For Developmental Problems, Study Shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 15, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2007/04/070423100907.htm
Is it genetic? I believe it could be and I also believe its environmental and medically induced. My father's twin brother was autistic and he himself has learning disabilities and so do I and Brian and Maryellen these learning disablilities is it nature vs nurture or maybe forms of autism? I don't know? There are even very few doctors as your mother will tell you who even enough about Autism that can diagnose Billy let alone determine its origins. Not unlike cancer there many different forms, there are certain types cancer that run pretty perdominate in families,like in ours Breast and Gastro. And then there are some that are possibly caused from the enviroment like your Grandmother Florence. Then there's technology radio waves,microwaves,cell phones,tv,chemicals in our food,shampoo,medications and yes even vaccinations all those things we use everyday... But like cancer there's no blue print there's no test to say "this is how you got it" to say it's learned from a sibling I don't believe. Is that younger child more than likely autistic too probably. I guess we just keep watching and listening to our medical professionals and see what delevopes.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly my son's neurologist told us at the last visit that many children with Tourette syndrome will develop some form of Aspergers Sydrome because of the social problems related to having Tourettes. This would play on the nurture over nature because that child developed it as a secondary condition to having social issues. I believe autism is a combo of the two. I think there has to be some sort of preexisting disposition to having the disorder, which may lie dormant) then something int he environment sets it off. Billy for example could have had his set off at birth when he was lacking oxygen. Who knows....and just like the nature vs nurture debate we may never know. Even though my other kids do not have autims, madelyn did have speech delays and bill has learning disabilities which is all mentioned in this study. There could be some relationship and maybe the nature part did not set off thier brains they way it did to Billy.
ReplyDeleteBrianna: your Blogs have really gotten people to think more and more. I,am sure your book will be great. I,am so looking forward to reading it.You are such a wonderful big sister too both Billy and Maddy.
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