I am SO ANGRY at Rush Limbaugh right now!! In his last segment he really bashed and basically made fun of people who have Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. He apparently has not done " his homework" on this one.He read from a article, but I didn't hear who had written it. My granddaughter and husband both suffer from Aspergers.It has been a very difficult journey for our daughter and son in law. Rush will get LOTS of angry emails concerning this!!!
"Is there a group in existence that isn't worthy of ridicule from time to time, or often?"
Many groups like that. How about kids with cerebral palsy? While they do get ridiculed, I can't imagine why anyone would do that. What about kids with Down's Syndrome? You find them amusing?
Rush should leave illnesses alone. There's plenty for him to ridicule without picking on folks who have problems over which they have no control.
I agree. I grew up without it, and no doubt, i would have been diagnosed ADHD. Too many parents haven't done the research and beleive the doctors that see them for 5 minutes and write a scrip. that's dumb.
I have 4 duaghters, 3 are fine, but one has bigtime ADHD. I know the meds have saved her life. We did over a years rresearch/alt methods before starting low dosage drugs. Without it, she would be DEAD. I thank the shrinks/Pharmo companies for their help.
I have one child they wanted to zombify, we said no. He's fine and way ahead of grade level. He was always fine, just bored with crappy teaching.
I don't believe the disease exists as they diagnose it. I'm sure the drugs that they prescribe are not the answer if there are kids who need help. I'm sure I won't change your mind.
http://www.aspennj.org/plank.html My Experience with Asperger Syndrome
by Alexander Plank
I am 15. "Having a dash of autism," is how author Uta Frith describes
individuals with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). Twenty to twenty-five people
per 10,000 have AS. I am using my own experiences with having Asperger's
Syndrome to help people better understand me and other people with this
mild form of Autism.
Hans Asperger, an Austrian pediatrician, published the first definition of
Asperger's Syndrome in 1944. He identified a pattern of behavior and
abilities that he saw mostly in boys. The pattern included "a lack of
empathy, little ability to form friendships, one-sided conversation,
intense absorption in a special interest and clumsy movements." (Attwood
p. 11) Asperger called children with AS "little professors"
because of their ability to talk about a subject with such detail.
Asperger died in 1980 before Asperger's Syndrome became widely
recognized. The first person to use the term "Asperger's Syndrome"
in a paper was Lorna Wing. Her paper was published in 1981. Asperger's
work was not internationally recognized until the 1990's.
Asperger's Syndrome is a form of autism. People with AS usually have
normal or above normal IQ's. AS is a pervasive development disorder. It
is described as an inability to understand how to interact socially. Many
adults with Asperger's go without being diagnosed. In fact, an estimated
30-50% of adults with Asperger's have not been diagnosed. People usually
are not diagnosed with Asperger's until school because of social
interactions.
AS is usually diagnosed by a psychiatrist. The first stage in diagnosing
the syndrome is using a scale. In the scale numbers are used to describe
how frequently certain AS characteristics occur in a person. The second
stage is diagnostic assessment, which usually takes an hour or more. In
this second stage, a clinician examines the behavior of the patient. The
clinician also looks at information from parents, teachers, and therapists.
Other skills examined include language, speech, learning ability, and
movement.
People with AS have certain characteristics. The characteristics which I
will discuss below are defined by the American Psychiatric Association in
the fourth edition of its diagnostic manual, Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).[1] AS comes under the category of
pervasive developmental disorders.
A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction.
Examples of impairment in social interactions include 1) problems with
non-verbal behaviors such as eye contact, facial expression, body posture,
and gestures; 2) failure to develop age-appropriate relationships; 3) lack
of interest in sharing interests or achievements with other people; and 4)
lack of emotional or social reciprocity.
People with AS usually do not talk with people. They talk at people.
Conversations are usually one-sided. People think that AS people are
being rude on purpose. People with AS are not trying to be rude. They do
not realize that they are doing this. They do not understand how people
interact.
Children and adults with Asperger's Syndrome tend to interrupt
frequently. They have a hard time understanding social cues that tell them
when it is their turn. Sometimes they see two people talking about
something they are interested and automatically think its ok to just join
the conversation because they know about the subject of which the people
are talking.
AS children frequently make comments that are very irrelevant. This is
because they blurt out the first thing that comes to their mind. People
think that this is odd, but is important to remember that they do not
understand that it is important to keep some of their thoughts in their
heads.
B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior interests and
activities
Examples of this include at least one of the following impairments. 1)
Preoccupation with one or more patterns of interest, which is abnormal in
either intensity or focus. 2) Apparently inflexible adherence to routines,
which are non-functional. 3) Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerism
(hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements) 4)
preoccupation with parts of objects.
Another characteristic of a person with Asperger's Syndrome is that he or
she frequently gets obsessed with things for a certain amount of time and
then move to another subject. My friends call these obsessions
"phases" because I grow out of them. They who have Asperger's
Syndrome spend all their time doing things to satisfy their interest in
their obsessions. As I mentioned before, they talk at people. This
talking at people is most frequently seen in conversations about the
subject that they are obsessed about.
In addition to being obsessed about something, Children with AS tend to
make rapid movements with parts of their bodies. When I was younger, I
always spun my arms, flapped my hands, and twirled my body.
C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social,
occupational, or other areas of functioning
The biggest problem for me is that I am misunderstood by teachers and other
people. They think I am purposely being rude, or being lazy (as with my
handwriting). They think that I don't care about things. I do care. I
just don't understand. I am not trying to make people's life hard. In
addition, I misinterpret things that people say and get my feelings hurt.
People don't see a wheelchair or any other visual sign of disability so
they assume nothing is wrong with me.
D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language.
E. There Is no clinically significant delay in development of
age-appropriate skills (other than in social interaction).
Other Things Associated with AS
Another symptom of AS is motor clumsiness. AS people tend to bump into
things more often than other people do. In addition, handwriting can be
terrible. Their handwriting usually consists of mixed cursive/print
letters and mixed upper/lowercase letters. I have such bad handwriting,
that I have to carry around a keyboard and a palm pilot to type most of my
assignments. This "different" handwriting is caused by Dysgraphia.
Some people with Asperger's Syndrome demonstrate extremely odd posture.
For example, I usually sit with my feet on the chair. I sit like that so
much that I don't notice it. In fact, I am sitting on my chair in Indian
style as I write this.
Also, AS causes a person with it to be irritated by certain by certain
sounds, textures, tastes, and even smells. I sometimes get so irritated by
the high-pitched whistle of my computer monitor, that I want to (or even
do) scream. I hate the texture of jeans, which is why I don't own a
single pair of them. Some foods I cant eat at all. Its not always that
they taste bad but sometimes it is the smell of foods that makes me so
irritated. I can't eat Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn because of
its terrible smell.
Another feature that has to do with hearing is the inability to focus on
something when there is background noise. I sometimes get so distracted
when I read where other people are, that I just read the words and I
don't even know what is happening in the book. I then have to go back to
where I was before I was sidetracked.
There are actually some benefits to this disorder. If you have it, you
usually are very bright. In addition, having it makes you very resistant
to peer pressure. You do not care what others want you to do if you do not
want to do it.
I am fine with having Asperger's Syndrome. If I had a choice of not having it, I wouldn't change. I like who I am and I do not want to change it. I think AS makes me a stronger person.
LOL,, I'm just wondering why people have to write this stuff on FR,, what happened to no vanities?,, why doesn't she just write and email Rush and leave us some bandwith to work with for something important?,, FR ain't for rants and raves!(the obituaries and prayer requests need their own forum room too) The moderators need to put them in their own room unless they deem it news most everyone would like to hear,,,,,the next thing we hear is,, "Rush is making fun of dumba**es!",, my neighbor and wife have the dumba** syndrome and it's not right to make a funny about their plight,,, of course you have to distinquish the difference of just having just a case of the dumba**es or a lifelong affliction,,,,,
I saw the article early today on an autism website and again on another thread here, so I think I'm well informed. Oh, and the fact that I have a daughter with Aspergers.
You obviously haven't heard Neal Boortz cut up ADD on a regular basis.
Sean went easy.
Boortz' ADD test:
Place your child in a room with an X-box, PS2, GameCube, etc. Come back in two hours. If that child is still there, no ADD. It is simply a matter of behavioral adaptation, i.e. that child's brain needs constant, rapid stimulation to keep focus.