Strollerderby : autism spectrum

Special Court Says Vaccines Don't Cause Autism

Brett Singer — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:15:00 GMT

In a decision that will infuriate many parents (including readers of this web site), a special court has ruled that the MMR vaccine did not cause autism in three children.

Special Master George Hastings of the Department of Justice wrote that, "The evidence does not support the general proposition that thimerosal-containing vaccines can damage infants' immune systems." The ruling comes from The Vaccine Court Omnibus Autism Proceeding. (Aside: "Special Master"? "Omnibus"? It sounds like a comic book.)

Addressing one of the children whose parents say became autistic after receiving the MMR vaccine, Hastings said, "I further conclude that while Michelle Cedillo has tragically suffered from autism and other severe conditions, the petitioners have also failed to demonstrate that her vaccinations played any role at all in causing those problems."

There have been over 5,000 cases filed by parents seeking compensation from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a $2.5 billion fund that was created through a "75-cent-per-dose tax on vaccines," according to Reuters.

Everyone's least favorite vaccine guy Dr. Paul Offit hailed the decision, saying, "it's a great day for America's children when the court rules in favor of science." I think there are a few parents out there who will disagree with him.

Does this put the issue to rest? I doubt it. I myself am highly skeptical of the notion that vaccines "cause" autism, mostly because so far the studies that I have read about can't find a link between the vaccines and autism. Of course, it doesn't help the anti-vaccine movement's case that the doctor who conducted a landmark study on the matter faked his data.

I know that many of you have strong feelings on this issue. Does this court ruling change your opinion at all?

Source: Reuters

Image: USA Today via Babble

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Researcher Fabricated Autism Link in Vaccine

JeanneSager — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:01:00 GMT

The man who launched a decade's-long fear for parents heading to have their children vaccinated has been proven a forgery.

The Sunday Times revealed the results of an investigation today showing Andrew Wakefield, the man who posited that the MMR vaccine was at the root of the increased autism diagnoses, fabricated his research.

Published in 1998 in The Lancet, the study claimed eight out of twelve children vaccinated with the MMR innoculation began showing symptoms that fall somewhere on the autism spectrum within days of getting the shot. It was performed at the same time as another study, for which Wakefield was paid, that was supposed to help parents who believed there was a link between the two put up a legal case. Some of the kids were used in both studies, and Wakefield has often been accused of crossing a clear ethical boundary in performing both studies.

The study has borne numerous attacks over the years - in part because it included just twelve children - but it is the most-often quoted piece of evidence by parents who point a finger at pro-vax parents as risking their kids' lives (this despite studies published in the time period since that have debunked his story). The investigation by the Times is just another nail in the coffin for that line of thinking. The investigation revealed that in most of the twelve cases, the ailments described in Wakefield's published reports were different from their hospital and general practitioner records.

From the Times: "Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the jab, in only one case did medical records suggest this was true, and in many of the cases medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated."

I feel for parents of autistic children who are searching for a reason. Autism is very real and equally terrifying, but as a parent who has vaccinated her child, I have always bristled at the inference that I am a bad parent for making that choice - with so little evidence to support their claims.

Image: USA Today

School Has Autistic Child Arrested

JeanneSager — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:08:00 GMT

Charges of battery against an eight-year-old with Asperger's syndrome have been dropped, and her parents are now pursuing legal action against the Idaho school district that called law enforcement.

What's wrong with this picture?

Evelyn Towry was told she couldn't wear her special jacket in class last week, prompting the little girl (whose diagnosis of Asperger's falls on the autism spectrum) to become resistent and act out in the classroom. But instead of telling the child she could just wear her jacket, school officials said they called the cops, alleging she assaulted school staff during the incident.

She's eight. And autistic.

Shouldn't school officials, of all people, understand that?

While Asperger's syndrome falls on the milder end of the autism spectrum, its symptoms are akin to what many people identify with autism - a need for structure, difficulty identifying and expressing feelings. It's also classified as a disability, allowing children who have been diagnosed to qualify for special services from their local school district, including special consideration for their special needs.

So why should a jacket on a child with Asperger's syndrome become an issue? Even if this child were to have become violent, the details of the case would indicate that school officials set this child - who they knew had a difficulty expressing feelings - off. They caused the problem. That would seem a direct violation of civil rights section 504, which protects kids in schools from discrimination for their developmental disabilities.

Should autistic child bear some responsibility for their actions? By calling the cops and pressing battery charges, that's what the school district was suggesting - that Evelyn Towry was responsible for battery. But who's to blame? Should a school district be held liable for the action that caused the equal and opposite reaction?

Image: salem news

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Can Music Help Cure Autism?

JeanneSager — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:03:00 GMT

There's no moment in music history that any child of the eighties - female anyway - can rate higher for equating music and emotion. John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler, overeager teenager with a boombox the size of all eighties objects held high over his head, blaring out Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes."

If you've never seen it, get yourself to Netflix, immediately. Or at the very least, YouTube it. It's the scene that jumped into my mind when I heard about the new project at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, an attempt to make sense of emotions for the children who struggle every day to interpret facial expressions.

MELODY will bring music to autistic kids, devising therapies that will help the kids build up their abilities to recognize emotions and advance their success in social settings. In other words - they're giving kids who struggle to fit in another chance. It's not a cure of the disorders on the austism spectrum that UCLA neuroscientist Dr. Istvan Molnar-Szakacs expects to find, exactly. Instead, he'll work off of studies that have shown kids whose diagnosis fall somewhere on the autism spectrum react to musical stimuli much the way "normallly" developing kids react. His goal is to bridge the gap.

Considering how music makes people all different backgrounds, ages, intelligences, etc. react - even without lyrics - I wonder how no one thought of this before. Cher Klosner Lane, a singer-songwriter of kid music who's joined forces with the fundraising arm behind the MELODY project, points to years of performing in front of kids as proof that music has jumped hurdles that little else can. Kids calm down. They laugh. They get up and dance. Music has become the great common denominator in our lives. Can it help the kids who need help finding something in common with the rest of us?

Image:

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Life on the Spectrum

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:01:00 GMT

Find me a parent who doesn't analyze most everything his child does and I'll call him a liar -- or at least someone who isn't as neurotic as me (which isn't hard). OK, fine, I over-analyze everything. Which is why I was grabbed immediately by BabyCenter's newest "Momformation" blogger, Susan Etlinger, who wrote:

In every parent’s life, there is at least one heart-stopping moment when you wonder: is my kid normal? Is she on track? Shouldn’t she be talking/walking/reading/solving differential equations right about now? For most of us, that’s just what it is: a moment at a playdate, a casual comment from a stranger at the mall, and eventually it passes, usually to be replaced by different obsessions. But for others, that first terrifying moment is followed by more moments, and more questions, and sometimes a life-changing diagnosis.

In her family's case, the life-changing moment came with her son's diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified -- or "Not Quite Autism," as she calls it. With wit, wisdom and grace, Etlinger traces her family's life on the spectrum, and their story is a new must-read for any parent.

Autism: Can We Please Come Out From Behind the Shadow of "Rain Man"?

Karen Murphy — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:04:00 GMT

I admit it, I'm fascinated by autism. I think it's because there are elements of autism, elements of behaviors that used to be labeled as anything from "eccentric" to "very eccentric" to "downright weird", that strike a chord somewhere deep within me. I may be speaking naively and I know there will be those who disagree with me, but I think that in some ways there's a really fine line between what we think of as "normal" and what's on the autism spectrum. In other words, I think a matter of degree separates those with sensory issues and those who are immersed in a truly different world that most of us can't even imagine.

But I think for most of us, our idea of what autism is was deeply shaped by the movie Rainman, which although (to me) it gave a wonderful portrayal of a slice of one aspect of autism, it was limited by the fact that autism itself is a spectrum which means that a single portrayal cannot even come close to showing the amazing nuances and degrees of this maddeningly misunderstood and oft-debilitating malady.

A view of autism in childhood began for me with the movie Run Wild Run Free, which upon closer examination doesn't even purport to be about autism at all. But coupled with this amazing video it could explain, perhaps, my idealistic notion that the world of autism is really only frightening or "wrong" to those of us who can't see inside it.

Getting back to Rainman, the problem there was that it only skimmed the surface, as I see it. Yes, certain behaviors were mimicked and responses that parents all over are likely familiar with were shown. But what's missing is both the anguish experienced by families of these amazing people as they strive to connect with and otherwise force a fit to them, and the rich world inhabited by those who are autistic themselves.

With now 1 in every 94 boys being somewhere on the autism spectrum and a new diagnosis made every 20 minutes, I'm hoping that our incomplete picture of autism can be fleshed out a little somehow, and soon, to provide support for everyone concerned.

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