teen autism: diagnosis, a hitchhiker's guide

Confusion is never good when it comes to support and help. From the outside looking in, yes, teen autism is beyond confusing.

Teen autism has been around. It just may have been diagnosed differently and certainly treated differently. Yet this is now and this is our time.

Autism (from the greek word meaning “self”) was first used in psychiatry in the early 1900’s as a symptom of schizophrenia.

In 1994, the American Psychiatric Association revised their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

Following this, the number of students aged 6-21 with ‘autistic spectral disorders’ increased by 885% between 1994 and 2006, while during the same period the population of the United States only increased by 14.7% “New Data on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) from Multiple Communities in the United States.” CDC 2007

Debating semantics of a health problem is a bit like everyone standing around pointing fingers about what to call the hole in the dyke while the little Dutch boy spends the night plugging it with his finger.

At the crest of this growing wave of children are now teens and young adults unable to care for themselves or even communicate. They need dramatically different resources.

Lacking any psychobabble initials after my name I put together an amateur visual aide for myself with types of teen autism and more familiar IQ scores to better understand.

This hitchhiker has only shared living with severe teen autism and moderate/mild mental retardation to the left of the pictured spectrum. That is what teen autism means to me.

Teen autism resources and services are limited and must be mined by families, too often competitively. A parent living with lower functioning teen autism and unable to leave their teen unattended has less time. Is it fair, no!

Then again, who should get the limited resources? That’s playing God time, and way out of my league.

Bottom line there needs to be more help and support and a lot less confusion.

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer

a caregiver reflects on the R-Word

     As a caregiver you are both a shield against 'others' and an educator to 'others' especially when the person you care for is never unattended.

     Special Olympics unquestionably edgy campaign to end the R-Word today, 03.31.09 frankly is confusing to me.

     Long ago in a language no longer spoken the Latin word for slow, tardus, would eventually evolve to many variations of the R-WORD.

     Trying to draw attention to correct language usage is a tough line to walk at the risk of political correctness in absurdum.

     Oddly the Special Olympic promotional videos depict people using the R-Word as teenage ‘who’s in’ or ‘who’s out’ slang of social status or cliques not directed at or intended to hurt anyone with mental retardation.

     To me, a concern with such a campaign is that others are inadvertently painted with the same brush. State departments of Mental Retardation and The ARC of the United States (aka Association for Retarded Citizens) greatly benefit and assist those who need their help.

     Mental Retardation is a medical diagnosis and people and families NEED help. Lacking adaptive skills or the abilities to speak and understand, a person can be overwhelmed by the simple tasks of everyday life. In living with Autism, Mental Retardation can be comorbid for some.

     Yes, I used an IQ based graph for a visual to DEMONSTRATE the impact of mental retardation. MOST reading this fall between the two tallest blue and green bar ranges.

     I created the inserts for Mental Retardation from Assessment Psychology Online and for Austim Spectrum from Autism, IQ, and the Stanford–Binet.

     Maybe I just do not get the bigger picture or am just too pragmatic in these economically challenged times but millions spent over words could have helped some people and families in need.

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer

web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/

videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer

musings: Patrick Ponders...