I completely believe that there are not only two, but probably many sub groups. For instance, my son was this way from birth, he didn't appear NT and then regress. He did not get it from a vaccine or anything else that happened as a toddler, as is a possiblity with many cases.
Also, my son does not exactly fit any of the diagnosese, but having a catch all label "PDDNOS" just does not service children well, since in our experience almost no one has heard of it (teachers, School district Spec Ed personnel!!) and some of those who have, don't take it as a real diagnosis (our school for instance).
I hope they will someday better refine and define the various diagnosese, causes and treatments. It is frustrating being somewhere in the middle, more severe than certain disorders in some aspects, and less in other aspects, and now knowing what to call it, and having people stereotype you or not believe that their is anything wrong with your child if he is not just like what they heard in the media. I don't think it is a line from less severe to more, I think it is much more complicated than that.
interesting......my dd is one who regressed. Normal developement until about 15 mos. then she started to retreat into herself.
I'm actually kind of glad to hear that I'm not crazy in thinking this then. I'm also glad for the attention paid to autism lately in the media, but it certainly makes it seem like "well, if you just did this....." then she'd be 'cured'. Not that easy is it?
Does anyone else here see that there seem to be 2 sub-groups of autism? Jenny McCarthy and so many others say how the cf/gf diet changed their children, yet for some of us it has no affect at all. Could it be that some people just have a severe neurological reaction to certain foods that cause similar symptoms to autism? I'm glad that these diets help so many kids, but I don't like the fact that it's being put out there like a cure-all.
Yes, you're right, probably many more sub-groups of people that get lumped under one dx. Doesn't seem hopeful that there will ever be "A" cure then. There are multiple causes out there to be discovered. There is primaryI agree with Chaos. Adam was affected since birth, and didn't regress. We haven't tried the diet, but I am happy if it works for some people.
Adam was also dx'd with PDDNOS. However his pysch recently sent a letter for school stating his dx as Aspergers. We have had a much easier time getting help for him with that dx even though he is the same kid with the same defecits he was before.
I definitely think there are many subgroups. The biggest being those born with autism vs those who regressed into it. It seems to me that for those who developed normally and then regressed that something in the environment triggered it whether it was diet, vaccines, a virus etc. And, it makes sense to me that those kids would see more improvement from biomed interventions.
I think the medical community is just beginning to even acknowledge that "regressive" autism even exists. When we first asked the doctor about it 4 years ago we were told that there was no such thing and that the parents were in denial or just missed the signs. I think with all of the videos people have now they finally have to admit that it exists and that it's a different disorder or at least a subset of the autism spectrum that probably has different causes and treatments.
Yeah-watching Jenny makes me feel like I tried the diet wrong, but I know in my heart it had no effect. I wish she put more emphasis on therapies, because these kids are teachable. I know their symptoms have to be resolved, but we need to focus on educating! JMHOI also think that in the future they will come up a name for the differentI think that my story is a little unique in that I think it's both genetic and environment induced. I'll give you my two different stories with two very different little boys.
Brendon - Had SID from birth. Not a doubt in my mind that this was the case. He was probably in the autistic from birth category. I don't know. I do know he did have advances and then seemed to just "lose the light". Literally. The last word he learned to label was light. He said the word for about a week and then it went away. This was at 18 months. I just don't know with him. I say genetic and the shots didn't help.
Jacob - No problems really. In March I was strong armed by my ex husband into getting him his last round of immunizations. There were 3 shots and one was the MMR. Two days after the shot, he starts picking at the skin around his fingernails. He stops saying new words. His language didn't regress...but it didn't develop anymore either. He stops smiling. He loses some eye contact (not all though because this was when we started ABA. Even after the ABA he only scored in the 4th percentile on the Vineland II. He's picking back up now and learning things. Today he learned circle. He's not saying the word, but he will put an apple jack in the circle when I ask him to.
If you read the Jenny McCarthy article in PEOPLE, you can read the note from a well-known autism doc. He says that only about 10% of kids reach the functioning level of Jenny's son, no matter what the intervention. He also says that he's seen DAN! protocols work for some, but those are the kids who started out with gut issues and that fixing the gut so that the child is more comfortable will, of course, help with development. It's hard to concentrate on learning if your gut feels bad all the time. That is what most likely accounts for the "two subgroups." Some of our kids are plagued with allergies or gut issues and some are not.