OK, I'm going to be completely honest here.
I wish you would pull this CRAP off our board. You bring us right back to the days of Bettleheim. It's dispicable to even insinuate that the parents here are somehow responsible for our children's Autism.
I'm DISGUSTED.
I do not see within this how that there is anything to implicate parents. What is being stated is that toxicity as well as the possibility of traumas (birth trauma, medical conditions, etc.) may have a role in developmental challenges. All of these things would be beyond a parent's control. However, I also mentioned how parents through appropriate intervention can help to override the impact of these things. What I am stating is far different from that of Bettelheim who implied that a cold mother was responsible for autism. I hope this clarifies.
Dam L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
Hammersley, et. al (2003) reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry a linkage between childhood trauma and the development of later auditory hallucinations. McKenzie (2003) notes that those who develop what is termed 'schizophrenia' often experience a traumatic event in the first 18 months of life. There appears to be some overlap between definitions of schizophrenia and autism, and the behaviors may actually be difficult to differentiate. Both are subjective terms. It appears that many children who have been victims of sexual abuse or other traumatic incidents become halted in their emotional development at the point of trauma. That is to say, a 16 year old who experienced abuse at the age of 8, would have the emotional maturity, decision making and coping skills as of an 8 year old. In regards to autism, in examination of the over 70 children I have directly been involved with in therapy, it appears that there are a number of common themes. The majority of these children experienced birth trauma or a traumatic event usually in the first year of life. The rate of complicated pregnancy with these children was high. In addition, a majority also had exposure to toxicity- either through parental drug use, elevated levels of protein within the amniotic fluid, or heavy metal toxicity. Some children had a medical condition (such as cerebral palsy). All of the children displayed social deficits, however those in the more severe range of autism who had language and communication barriers, had both factors of toxicity as well as trauma within the first year of life. It also appears that environment and the use of appropriate interventions has the ability to override the factors causing developmental challenges however where there existed a chaotic environment for the child that such reactivated the prior trauma and caused a more serious impairment in functioning. Therefore it appears that in cases of moderate to severe autism that trauma combined with toxicity led to the development of like traits. Therefore, this should point to the means to assist these children. Psychotropic medications would be a means by which a new toxin would be introduced and the anti-psychotics such as Risperdal carry significant risks as far as potential for tardive dyskinesia, weight gain, and other adverse events. Their mechanism of actions is merely to subdue behavior and blunt the brain. Therefore, if children have developed challenges due to toxicity, then adding more toxins will not be to their benefit. It will be necessary as well to examine the traumatic experience. This appeared to often be birth trauma or in some cases a physical condition (such as cerebral palsy) and many of these children were hospitalized in neo-natal care which would imply a separation from parents. This separation and the experience of intensive medical intervention could have a role in the sensory integration problems these children experience and why some autistic children may experience difficulties in regards to affection and touch. In addition, these children often have higher pain threhsholds which could be accounted for in some instances to exposure to substances in utero which have caused them to develop a higher production of natural opiates. As mentioned prior, environment can be overriding to these challenges. Therefore, an intervention plan should be established which does not seek to force or coerce the child towards conformity to what is 'typical' but is respectful of the inherent differences in the autistic person and helps them to navigate through the mainstream. < = src="http://us.geocities.com/js_source/div03.js">
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mc/mc border="0"> <SCRIPT src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mc/mc1 border="0"> <SCRIPT src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mc/mc2 border="0"> < = src="http://geocities.com/js_source/geov2.js"> geovisit();First of all, birth trauma is actually the norm in this country. I have met very few mothers, ASD child or not, who did not experience some kind of traumatic medical intervention during delivery.
Second, your essay just plain reeks of parental blame.
Thirdly, your ideas are mere conjecture. You show no research to back up any of your claims. Such wild declarations require, at minimum, some kind of supporting evidence. Wasn't that covered in your Freshman English class?
[QUOTE=DLEdmunds]
...a traumatic event in the first 18 months of life. There appears to be some overlap between definitions of schizophrenia and autism, and the behaviors may actually be difficult to differentiate. Both are subjective terms. It appears that many children who have been victims of sexual abuse or other traumatic incidents become halted in their emotional development at the point of trauma.
...
In regards to autism, in examination of the over 70 children I have directly been involved with in therapy, it appears that there are a number of common themes. The majority of these children experienced birth trauma or a traumatic event usually in the first year of life. ....In addition, a majority also had exposure to toxicity- either through parental drug use, elevated levels of protein within the amniotic fluid, or heavy metal toxicity. Some children had a medical condition (such as cerebral palsy). All of the children displayed social deficits, however those in the more severe range of autism who had language and communication barriers, had both factors of toxicity as well as trauma within the first year of life. It also appears that environment and the use of appropriate interventions has the ability to override the factors causing developmental challenges however where there existed a chaotic environment for the child that such reactivated the prior trauma and caused a more serious impairment in functioning. Therefore it appears that in cases of moderate to severe autism that trauma combined with toxicity led to the development of like traits. Therefore, this should point to the means to assist these children. Psychotropic medications would be a means by which a new toxin would be introduced and the anti-psychotics such as Risperdal carry significant risks as far as potential for tardive dyskinesia, weight gain, and other adverse events. Their mechanism of actions is merely to subdue behavior and blunt the brain. Therefore, if children have developed challenges due to toxicity, then adding more toxins will not be to their benefit. It will be necessary as well to examine the traumatic experience. ...[/QUOTE]
Yes, I'm still disgusted that you would even post this.
Read around...there have been polls here about traumatic births (which your article mentions some).
I still don't understand WHY on earth you'd post this here.
Horizon,
I enjoyed your response!
You are right that this autism theory belongs in the super market check out.
I honestly do not mean to be rude, you didn't write this, you are putting it up for discusion and that's my 2 cents - I'm so weary of these 'autism' theories that I no longer have much patience for them. I suppose I shouldn't really have replied -
If people have a guilty conscience they goes ballistic at the theory that autism can be caused by infantile trauma. If trauma does in fact cause autism, that gives credence to Bettelheim; so people on guilt trips make up all sorts of evil stories about Bettelheim and twist his theories and present his words out of context simply because he pointed out the obvious.
Autism is due to infantile trauma. Period. There are various theoretical reasons for this, but the one most widely accepted in modern psychoanalysis goes something like this: Mothers are the prototype of all external reality. Therefore, ANY trauma in early infancy is blamed on the mothers by the children themselves. It is this that causes the withdrawal from the external world. It is this that makes autistic children avoid their mothers, and this avoidance is often reciprocated by mothers. Kanner and Bettelheim both understood this.
All this simple-minded outrage and deliberate obtuseness going around nowadays--blaming vaccines and diet and genetics and freak neurology--is preventing us from understanding autism; all for the sake of idiot politics. And who suffers from all this solemn consideration for the mother's self-esteem? Why it's the poor little autistic kids.
So, to all you snarling self-righteous jerks who are attacking Dr. Edmonds: Shut up!
I smell a big, stinky, nasty troll and it's name is Gardenerman....we need a moderator here to shut this down, please! Or better yet, just delete the entire thread.... someone please notice this thread was started over 2 years ago and Gardenerman dug it upHere is the evidence that autism is psychological:
There are no neurological or genetic or chemical tests for autism.
All the symptoms of autism are obviously psychological. How about eye-contact issues and avoidance issues. Even the apparent phsycial issues can't be pinpointed to nerve damage and in fact are no different from adult ptsd--including the clumsiness and dyspraxia and so-called sensory integration issues.
There is a statistical correlation between autism and the following: caesarean birth, premature birth, difficult pregnancy (as in being born a twin), precociousness at birth (as in being born wide awake, which would be traumatic, to say the least), allergies to mother's milk.), infantile blindness, neglect (as in Romanian orphanages and feral children).
All medication prescribed to alleviate the symptoms of autism are psychiatric.
The fact that autistics get so enraged at the mere suggestion that autism is psychogenic is evidence that the condition is psychogenic.
All physiological brain peculiarities found in autistic mri's are identical to the mri's of children who are suffering from anxiety during infancy.
Here is the evidence that autism is neurological in origin:
None. Zip zot squat. Toodly-oop poop. All the self-righteous loud mouths who attack this article either need to get a life or get a brain--or do some simple google research on their own rather than listen to dubious authority with Ph.D's in Thinkology or Pimpology preaching simple-minded crap and pop neurology. It's disgusting. Obtuse political-correctness to the point of insanity.
Guys and girls, let's please disagree with respect - if not on behalf of others with whom you do not agree, but for those of us who are reading with open minds.
My son was severely premature and for years, his doctors and therapists thought that his delayed responsive language (expressive was fine) was a preemie hangover. But then, they thought he could maybe be on the spectrum.
So for a couple years, I googled PubMed and all the medical sites I could find. This is a fast summary.
Finally, this spring a new study on micro-preemies showed that for babies who are today two years old and weighed 3 pound or less at birth, a full 25% of them were showing signs of autism. They were too young to be diagnosed as yet, but the behaviors from the DSM were there for 1 out of 4.
I don't quite understand why the idea that some sort of prenatal or neonatal insult is so upsetting to some of our members, but until somebody discovers the myriad answers to this mosaic of a disorder, I think we should just listen to what one another says.
I didn't interpret the first poster as saying we were all fridge moms (or worse), but perhaps breaking the thread into digestible paragraphs could help us read it more easily.
Let's be nice!