Autism – old or new?

If we have had a deluge of ADHD diagnoses in recent years, there has been a veritable tsunami of autism cases. However, my belief is that ADHD is not really an illness but a collection of symptoms that result from many other causes (see here). In the case of autism, however, it seems that the levels of autistic individuals in the community have remained stable for many years, and it is the older, lower figures that should be questioned, not the current ones. 

The cause of the seeming epidemic is the ever-refined ways of finding and labelling such children. According to anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker who has just published Unstrange Minds: A Father Remaps the World of Autism, the prevalence of autism is to be seen as a virtue, maybe even a prize. 

How so? Well, to condense a 300-page analysis into a sentence or two does him an injustice, but the bottom line is that our methods are more rigorous and sensitive and the dramatic increase in numbers is due to several changes acting in concert – the key players for change being scientists, clinicians, parent advocates, philanthropists, educators, speech therapists, psychologists amd behavioural intervention specialists among others. On their own, none could have caused this welcome level of visibility. Together they have become a “movement” to be reckoned with. Significantly, Grinker stresses the role of culture. One fact of our own culture is that new research hypotheses are “diffused globally with a single keystroke, creating a force that is unstoppable”.

While finishing reading this tome, I was interested to come across new research that found infants of three months capable of processing social signals. The lead researcher commented that “these advancements are also important in eventually being able to target when infants may be at risk for atypical communicative developments such as autism”. Grinker may well applaud this new knowledge. 

He lists the kind of help that worked best with his daughter (I have chosen links that are short interesting reads in themselves rather than dry theory):

1. ABA – Applied Behavioural Analysis (intensive therapy using incentives and rewards)

2. PECS – Picture Exchange Communication System (self-explanatory)

3. Sensory Integration Therapy – some children are hypersensitive to certain sensations

4. Floortime – trying to interact with the child by sitting with him and following his lead

5. Rapid Prompting – eliciting responses through intensive prompts.

He reckons that many of the successful therapies involve a common element of being “in your child’s face” – refusing to allow them to withdraw. 

Grinker’s book is a readable mix of detailed, researched facts, global examination of the autism phenomenon (it’s amazing how autism is viewed in other countries) and life with his daughter Isabel who was diagnosed with autism back in 1994, way before the progress that has now been made with treating this condition.

The autism spectrum is pretty wide in its current formulation so we may well come across clients who stand within its umbrella even if we are not autism specialists. So I thought you might like to know about this book!