watch "the veiw"

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:12am

the co-founder of "autism speaks" is on it

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:21am

bump cus she will be on in a few minutes... it's on abc
she'll he on after kate backinsale

Updated On: 1/18/06 at 11:21 AM

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 12:18pm

Damn, I missed it. Did you catch Dr. Phil yesterday? A family with a son with Asperger's was on. He seemed pretty violent. It was disturbing, but informative.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 12:28pm

it was ok... i didn't agree with something she said. she called autism a "devistating disease"
i don't even think of it as a disease more of a way of life. i mean i guess it is devistating to learn your child has autism or aspergers but for the people who have it, it's not really that devistating.
i didn't see the dr phil thing... are you sure he had just aspergers? people with aspergers generally artn't violent... maybe he had aspergers and something else... i'll have to see if i can find a trascript of the episode or something. now i'm really interested to see it.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 3:22pm

He was violent, but almost too high functioning to have autism. Being an outcast was something that pretty much controlled his life. It was very odd.

And autism is very devastating to the people in the child or adult's life. Thank god with something like Asperger's a person can have a typical life. Parents of kids with autism have to worry about what will happen to their child after the child completes their education. The kids I work with are usually happy, but will never live alone, cook for themselves or even get on a bus alone. I agree with the "devastating" statement. The disease is so puzzling. No one knows exactly how or why it happens. Everyone has opinions and clues but the who picture is just not together.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 3:59pm

i guess youre right... to me it's not devistating beacuse i never knew anythign else. i guess that's what i was trying to say. i didn't mean to offend you or anything by syaing that and if i did i apologize.
i know some people who have it and consiter it a disease that needs a cure, and some people who have it who don't think of it as a disease who think fuhnds should be put into things like helping families pay for evaluations and therapies than to trying to cure it. it's a very split issue. and i am not on one side or the other. i dont really care if the money i donate is ging to cure it, or to help with medical bills as long as a family of a kid with autism is being helped in one way or another.
i mean i do get bummed sometimes if i cant go somewhere really noisy or crowded liek a concert, but i get over it quickly enough that it doesn't consume me.
i'm happy to donate to a foundation to cure autism/aspergers/pdd (as you can see by the link in my sig i support the asoa) but i don't want to be cured, i'd rather have my needs met with services and function the way i am.
even with higher functioning forms though, the same issues still happen. i don't know if i couls ever live alone, but for the time being i'm happy living at home. it doesn't bother me that other people my age go live on their own and live at college and i dont. i'm not them so i should compare myself to them.
i was definatly an outcast at school, but i think i had it easier than someone who is an outcast and realizes it, beacuse as a kid i didn't care much that no one talked to me or played with me at school (save for special ed) and in high school i had my own mis-fit friends so it never really dawned on me untill after high school that i was an outcast.
this is one of my favorite websites about what autism is like.
http://www.geocities.com/growingjoel/index.html

Updated On: 1/18/06 at 03:59 PM

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 10:38pm

Oh, you didn't offend me at all, hon. I was just relating to what the speaker had said. I was with a kid this afternoon who got really sick. I couldn't even make him understand that if he leaned over he wouldn't vomit on himself. It was very frustrating. That's why they call it the autism spectrum. There are people on both ends of it and even the cases that seem similar are vastly different.

One student that I work with has Asperger's. After she was diagnosed, her father, who had been diagnosed with depression, thought, "Hey, that sounds like me, too." Turns out, he had it as well. He had been misdiagnosed. The funny thing is, he is brilliant. He is a college professor. Again, he is just a very mild case.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:00pm

it's interesting you talk about the misdaignosis thing...
when i was little, aspergers and pdd just didn't exist as a diagnosis, but add did, and that's what i was diagnossed with and was put on rittalin.
after my evaluations are all finished (the only thing i have as a "diagnosis" now is autistic specturm disorder, not a specific one yet) my uncle is going to be tested by the same doctor... as we're learning about this we're thinking "hey you know this sounds alot like uncle jack too" and talked to him about it.
i understand about the spectrum thing, beacuse my neighbor is autistic and he is alot lower functioning and has mental retardation along with it. he goes to a special school and i will probably be able to go to a regular college, just not one where i have to move away.
like some things i do i guess people would consiter a little strange but i just learned not to give a damn and be happy the way i am lol

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:04pm

Good for you...lol.

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:06pm

A close friend of mine has a son with Aspergers. He's also extremely bright. My friend has dedicated her life to the proper raising of her son so that he can develop to his fullest potential. He attended Montessori school for several years and then my friend took him out and home schooled him because he preferred not to be with the other children in school. I'm not an expert so I can't comment on the prudence of that decision. However, he did socialize outside of school. Now, at 11 years old, he's asking to go back to public school and I think that's wonderful. He's also in a rock band. He's very fortunate to have such caring parents.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:14pm

Great parents make ALL the difference. Even if the teacher sucks, the parents can fight for a better education. If the parents suck, there is little we can do about it.

A collegue of mine went into the home of one of her students to visit the parents. He was HIGHLY effected and had absolutely no commumication. They were trying to figure out what would be the best path for him. In the home, the parents basically ignored him. They interacted with the other children, but the son just sat in a corner in his room by himself. When it was time for dinner, the parents put his food on a plate on the floor. The child fed like a dog. They bathed him and put him back in his room. They never even spoke to him. It was the saddest thing she had seen. Children's services wouldn't take him because he was not being abused or neglected. It makes me love the parents that fight for their kids' rights even more.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:17pm

geeze... that's horrible.
what heppened to him after that? did the parents start being nicer to him and learn about it?
i think when i kid is diagnossed with something like autism the pearents should be required to take a class about autism and the doctor who diagnossed them should make a home visit like when you adopt a kid to make sure you're taking care of them.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:20pm

The teachers actually had a MAJOR breakthrough with him, no thanks to the parents.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:22pm

that's good to hear. i'm glad he is ok.

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:29pm

I agree. After teaching for 25 years, it's easy to see that no matter how hard you try, if the parents aren't cooperative there's not much we can do. Yes, we have the kids for about 5 hrs. or so a day, but what goes on in the home can undo the hard work. It's such a great source of satisfaction when you do succeed with a child! Too bad it happens so seldom.