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Cecelia Taylor-HuntCOMP 401 – Directed WritingFinal Draft

Autism – A Matter to be discussed

Introduction:

What intrigued me about the topic on autism is the reality that has finally hit me in my

mid-20s: I still have a learning disability after my speech impairment disappeared a long time

ago. My autism is now in control, but I still receive help from SUNY Potsdam’s Student Support

Services for certain classes. With a wide variety of awareness organizations such as Rethinking

Autism (http://www.rethinkingautism.com) that can help educate the masses by giving their

knowledge about the Autism Spectrum Disorder and other developmental disabilities, autism is

now under the spotlight by parents, families, and the education system. In this essay, I will

present these key factors: The basis of the disability and my experience with autism, the

‘treatments’ to watch out for, and how to help autistic individuals live productive lives in today’s

ever-changing society.

What is Autism? An Overview:

Autism affects 1 in 88 of American children, according to a 2008 report published by the

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (DeNoon, 2012). After spending a lot of years of

research, medical professionals are still asking this same question: What causes autism and why

are the numbers rising high all of a sudden? The reason why more and more cases are being

reported is because these reports go unnoticed, ignored, and abandoned by friends and family.

Let’s not forget about the doctors as well because some cases for autistic children can go

misdiagnosed by their intuitions or their tests in clinics or hospitals (i.e. MRI and CAT scans).

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Autism is part of the Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD,

is presented as a scale where it measures how high or low the autistic individual’s functioning is.

A low functioning individual with autism carries these features: non-verbal, socially impaired,

and unable to connect with relatives, family, and friends. A high functioning individual with

autism carries these features: very verbal, stays to him/herself, and can visually connect with the

outside world by interacting with people – even though this kind of person is still dealing with

the social stigmas of autism (Newschaffer & Curran, 2003, p. 393).

The ASD with strong connections of the high function is the Aspergers Syndrome, which

is considered by many people, a mild case of autism. The regular case of Autism is known as the

Classic autism. It has all the signs of autism, from speech delays and less communication with

his/her peers. The Pervasive Developmental Disorder – None Other Specified is somewhere in

the middle between the classic autism and Aspergers. It’s also called the atypical autism with

fewer symptoms than the autism disorder.

As a parent, detecting the signs of autism in a child is a tedious process. When a child

stops speaking or babbling at 12 months old, unusual changes occur (CDC, 2012). It’s a sign of

early detection if an autistic child is acting strangely with a few of these characteristics: ignoring

the caretaker’s name after hearing loud and clear and not being able to have interests in anything

playful or fun (2012).

The second way to identify visible symptoms of autism is the intense amount of play

therapy. In play therapy, a room will have a variety of items that children are often attracted to

from the time they enter – from building blocks and puzzles to boxes of crayons and coloring

books. Children are taught how to use their five senses: smell, taste, touch, hear, and speak. They

are also taught how to communicate well with other children and adults (Kaneshiro, 2011). It’s

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also important to note that not all children think alike and some autistic children use

differentiated learning from their families and the public (Grandin, 2011, pp. 172-174).

A child with autism would have some trouble learning the basics of communication while

in play therapy. There are times where the autistic child is ignoring the teacher and the students

while becoming bottled up into the world using imagination. Eye movements are complicated

because an autistic child can have trouble focusing on the activities given by the teacher or

counselor. He/she might have trouble concentrating on an academic subject or a conversation

with someone. For example, an autistic child might face his/her sights onto a ceiling instead of

the television – or if the child stays glued to the television instead of participating in group-led

activities (Klin, Jones, Schultz, & Volkmar, 2003, p. 350).

Speech delays and poor social/communication skills are very common, too. Other features

are noticeable including repetitive ritualistic behaviors, behavior that is out of control (doesn’t

have to be repetitive, but a new behavior can occur every day), and slurred speech patterns. It

includes unusual features such as head banging on hard surfaces to a point of severe head injuries

(mostly on tables and walls), uncontrollably crying and screaming, having trouble speaking in a

complete sentence, and violent outbursts using body language (Grandin, 2011, p. 145).

A repetitive ritualistic behavior is probably the first thing parents will notice besides

violent outbursts. For example, your child is heavily concentrated on stacking items on top of

each other such as toy cars or canned goods. The autistic child picks a day without taking notice

to stack canned goods into towers on, let’s say, every Thursday afternoon. It becomes a ritualistic

and weekly activity for the child. The ‘going off on a tangent’ is also popular. This kind of

process means a child is not able to focus with the ears and eyes. It’s possible that autistic

children can get sidetracked from a conversation with other people. These are the symptoms on

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the surface that parents and neighbors notice when an autistic child is, in their own words, very

dysfunctional (Kaneshiro, 2010).

Autistic children use self-injury, sometimes on a daily or weekly basis. If they feel that

they haven’t received any attention from their loved ones, it’s either breaking things in a room or

breaking their bones just to grab the loved ones’ attention. You can find an autistic child going

out of control by causing injuries to other children or adults for no reason. This problem includes

falling on floors and stairs; head banging on walls, tables, and hard furniture; even cutting and

biting onto the surface of the skin. That could signal that this kind of child is very hard to train

(CDC, 2012).

In the early to late 20 th century, the public viewed Autism as a form of mental retardation.

Mental retardation is when the brain’s functions are slow and not developed correctly, causing a

mentally challenged person to not provide for him/herself in the future (Probably an example of

this situation is Downs Syndrome, or Trisomy-21). Since the early 1990s, the Center for Disease

Control and Prevention (the CDC) started keeping track of skyrocketing cases of autistic children

(DeNoon, 2012).

Keep in mind that the 1990s was the decade where equal rights for children with

developmental disabilities are still important concerns. Being part of the NYC Board of

Education system as a student myself (from 1990 until 2005), having an IEP (Individualized

Education Program) is a major thing since the Individuals with Disabilities Education act was

passed and signed into law in 1990. Documentations of special education students show some

charts, statistics, scores of citywide exams, and a list of requests on what the child’s special

needs are.

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When I was in junior high school taking mainstream classes between 1997 and 2000, I

have to visit my guidance counselors and speech counselors in order to be trained how to

function my brain properly using abstract and visual thinking. Before junior high school, I visited

counselors every morning as a requirement for my school curriculum. It was a difficult process

for me to take in. I watched ‘typical’ students try to grasp with the fact that I receive extra help

on major exams and tutoring sessions. Some of the typical students were very accepting, but

others were not.

Doctors, to this day, are still trying to figure out the part of the brain that causes autism.

There are brain scans that differentiate between the normal human being and the autistic human

being. For counselors (private practice or the education system), it’s easy to see the actions

between the normal versus the autistic. At the same time, counselors have to be aware of how

their brains function differently from each other. In all hospitals, doctors identify the colorful

spots that are part of the brain to detect tumors and other diseases.

In the case of the Autism Spectrum Disorder, the concerns for this situation are: the size

and the number of the spots to detect which part of the brain is affected by autism. (Hill & Frith,

2003, p. 281). Autism affects speech patterns, motion of the human body, mood/emotion

patterns, and can sometimes trigger slight health related issues from family history. To this day,

finding the answer on the cause of an autistic child’s brain to function differently is difficult and

troubling, but early detection is still practiced and recommended (Newschaffer & Curran, 2003,

pp. 395-396).

An autistic child’s brain functions differentiate from a typical student because of the lack

of abstract thinking and more visual thinking (Grandin, 2011, p. 28-29). To identify symptoms of

autism, doctors, parents, and friends need to avoid making assumptions and stigmas about

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autistic individuals. They should also raise important questions. Why autistic children cannot be

accepted under societal standards? Does sending them into strict institutions can ease the

parents’ burdens without having a second thought or an ounce of research on what they are doing

to their autistic children?

Having autism as a person can sometimes cause you to lose some interests in anything fun

and exciting You’re completely locked into one non-existent world of his/her in any

environmental setting (i.e. house, apartment). If you have an autistic child who is locked into this

non-existence ‘world’, then this problem is very frustrating to many parents, including my

mother who took me to therapy every day because of my PDD-NOS. From my experience,

family involvement and therapy programs altogether can create wonders for autistic children to

become more productive in today’s society. With this frustration of raising an autistic child,

parents often wonder when they are going to become ‘normal’ again.

Is There a Solution for this disorder?

Medical professionals continuously acknowledge the fact that there is no cure for autism.

However, opponents to all vaccines, including the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, say

otherwise. There is overwhelming evidence that there is no link, not one, between autism and the

MMR vaccine, but some still believe the opposite (Gross, 2009, p. 2). By being fed with false

claims and extremely weak evidence, concerned citizens with autistic children continue to deny

vaccines to their offspring. To explain this further, here is an honest look of this situation.

The anti-vaccine movement existed since the 1980s during the Ronald Regan and George

H.W. Bush, Sr. Administrations, which have built up a lot of conspiracy theories over the years.

In 1998, British doctor Andrew Wakefield published an article about linking vaccines to the

causes of autism for an academic journal titled the Lancet. Almost a decade later, the British

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Medical Journal (BMJ) called out Wakefield for fabricating the studies with 12 children who

were given the MMR vaccine (Gross, 2009, p. 1). The Lancet could not find any evidence of the

12 children developing autism instantly after receiving the MMR vaccine.

In 2010, Showtime Networks aired a Season 8 episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit to focus

on the anti-vaccination movement and its opponents of all vaccines, including the MMR, using

research and comedic relief. The episode is very enjoyable because the hosts Penn and Teller

(Penn Jillette and Raymond Joseph Teller) are willing to take on this issue within one episode.

Penn begins the episode with this very important quote: “Studies falsely linking vaccines to a

skyrocketing rate of autism, high profile celebrities are joining with a leigiance of concern

parents in a rapidly growing anti-vaccination movement.”

What caught me during the episode is that some doctors let parents decide whether or not

their children should receive vaccines at an early age. If I’m part in the medical field, such as a

Surgeon, I personally would explicitly tell the families to get the vaccines right away if there is

an outbreak of a curable disease that people can die from. Because of the damage that has

already been done to mislead parents wanting to know about what causes autism and giving fuel

to conspiracy theorists worldwide, Wakefield lost his medical license in the spring of 2010 and

the study from the Lancet was immediately retracted (Cohen & Falco, 2011). The MMR-vaccine

link is not the only subject to receive mixed feedback from the public eye. The treatments that

claim to ‘help’ or ‘cure’ autism are listed as it follows: shock treatments (still exists to this day),

diet plans, and chelation.

In the situation for shock treatments, there are ways to ‘shock’ a mentally challenged or

emotionally disturbed person to get him/her ‘back in order’. In the early and middle of the 20 th

century, shock treatments were being conducted by giving the most powerful shock to the body

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and the vital organs to maintain an ‘out of control’ psychiatric resident (Behrman, 2005). They’re

still being performed in psychiatric wards and hospitals.

Particularly, electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) is controversial because of the side effects

including memory loss and low adrenaline (Zajac, 2011). These days, current shock therapies are

not as harmful as they were back in the 20th century. Modern shock treatments do not use much

electricity as the old ones from the previous century, but it’s powerful enough to shock the body.

Some people claim that ECT’s are helping their severely autistic children; others are questioning

this practice performed by some programs that highly depend on ECT’s (Pilkington, 2011).

ECT’s are used as the ‘last resort’ to shock individuals with severe cases of autism, mentally

challenged (formerly mental retardation), or mentally ill if they are not under ‘control’.

In reality, ECT’s are very expensive and they’re more than a thousand dollars a session. A

carrying case with the shock machine inside is within the same range (Zajac, 2011). Parents and

families should think twice before giving permission to doctors to perform shock treatments on

their children because the electricity can trigger their heart rate and brain activity at the same

time. That’s why patients were given anesthetics before the first shock treatment goes further

(Behrman, 2005).

Diet plans for autistic children will help if there is a medical condition that is affecting

them (Kaneshiro, 2010) such as child-onset diabetes (TYPE I). Apparently, there is an ongoing

trend that dieting can lower the behavior symptoms of autism by eating gluten-free and casein-

free foods. Gluten is a protein found in processed foods made with wheat, rye, and barley

(Painter, 2008). Casein is a protein found in most milk products. Researchers have found when

the diet was implemented by parents to their children for six months or less, it’s has very little

effect in reducing an autistic child’s behaviors (Penn State, 2012).

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To be fair, I have tried out gluten-free foods for curiosity and they were very delicious. If

you have an allergy to gluten or casein, it’s completely understandable. About a year and a half

ago at my college, I watched a 20-something year old woman ordering breakfast without the

gluten and casein because of her medical condition (she has a gluten allergy). Parents should be

careful with restricting food into diet plans for children because a child needs calcium, protein,

and an adrenaline rush to make them healthy and happy. There’s always a food pyramid

available at your local clinic or at a school where your child is currently attending. You can also

print out a free copy by finding the image of the food pyramid in your own home.

Last, but not least, a treatment that is supposed to be affordable and claims that it can

“cure” autism: Chelation (KEE-LAY-SHUN). Chelation can be helpful to people whose bodies

are actually poisoned with heavy metals from battlefields (i.e. World War I) and gas exposures

while working in worksites under dangerous conditions (i.e. coal mines). Metal poisoning is very

dangerous because it affects the nerves of your brain and the rhythm of the human heart due to

the exposure of a particular powerful metal. One of the precursors to chelation was the

introduction to leeches as alternative medicine. During the middle Ages, leeches were introduced

as an early medical treatment to suck to blood out of the host’s body from any form of blood

poisoning (Alchin L. K., 2006).

In the 1890s (the later part of the 19 th century), chelation was experimented as a procedure

to inject a fluid in the body so the chemical bonds can bind and disintegrate the traces of

poisonous metallic such as iron, zinc, and plutonium (Lee, 2008). It was also used as a response

to people who have poisonous gas in their system such as carbon monoxide. Chelation is also

used for lead paint poisoning victims. The FDA approved chelation as a process to control metal

poisoning of the body for more than four decades. The American Cancer Society explains that

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chelation is not for alternate treatments for other problems that are not connected to poison gas or

heavy metals such as cancer and even autism (Rosen & Rosen, 2008).

In the case for children with autism, vitamin supplements are used and needles with EDTA

(ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid) are injected to remove the toxic metals from the body. It’s

done more than once to the bodies of autistic children. The truth about this treatment: you can

actually have a variety of health problems from chelation. The damages from the treatment

include kidney failure and death (Brownstein, 2010). The connection between poisonous metals

and autism has been discredited many times by members of the medical field, including a

website that overseas useless non-scientific medical procedures called Quack Watch

(quackwatch.org) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The most unfortunate thing I had encountered is that some parents are gullible enough to

believe that autism in children is caused by the toxins/metals in the body. The reason why I have

autism is because for the first 6 years, I experienced a slurred/delayed speech pattern from my

mother’s TYPE III diabetes (Gestational). Parents making statements on chelation curing

children with autism made me very suspicious about their claims and less evidence.

How to help an Autistic Child?

It’s not as easy as it may seem for many caretakers. It’s very difficult while the frustrations

from caring for an autistic child and dealing with the stigmas from other people are blocking in

your path. If you’re questioning about morality and beliefs while caring for a child with ASD

(Autism Spectrum Disorder), ask yourself this question: Can autistic individuals have their own

morals? Morals on how autistic individuals are treated are still in questioning, even though some

have very useful answers. Researchers such a Deborah R. Barnbum, author of presented

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examples of other writers who are giving their arguments in their articles about autistic people

having morals in her book The Ethics of Autism (2008).

There’s still an issue on where, when, and how to cure children who have autism

(Barnbaum, 2008, p. 137). The chance of preventing a child from being born with autism is

impossibly low and having an autistic child is usually unexpected (2008, p. 149). While reading

Barnbaum’s third chapter, I had to ask myself this question: Do parents, friends, and family want

to outcast autistic individuals as being “not one of them?” I have watched typical members of

society outcast autistic individuals if they are receiving help (or not) but are eager to become

successful and it is very unacceptable. I had support from a few teachers who believed in me

including my family, but it was not enough for me to live in a life as the child with autism.

To control the symptoms of autism, the autistic child must go through an intensive amount

of therapy that cannot harm the child physically in any way. To understand autism on the

surface, a concerned parent or caretaker should take a good look for the irregularity of skills that

a normal child would use every day without stopping (NINDS, 2012). If parents want to get their

autistic child cured from of autism, I have the most unfortunate news to tell them: there is no

cure for autism.

The good news is that all hope is not lost. In order to help your autistic loved one become a

productive member in society, you have to make major steps to help out the people who you’re

reaching out to. Find legitimate counselors – private practice or in public schools – to meet your

autistic loved one’s needs. If it’s working, then keep going. Also, search awareness groups on

how to care for an autistic individual by providing the tools he needs to keep him occupied.

Finally, try to be patient. Raising an autistic child is very challenging, but it’s worth it at the end

if he/she becomes successful.

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Speaking of success, autistic children are also very interesting thinkers. They have a way

of interpreting their thoughts on paper, sign language, and even by their words and sentences.

They tend to think visually instead of abstractly. I found this example while reading Dr. Temple

Grandin’s The Way I See It, which was released in 2011 – a few years after her biography

Thinking in Pictures. I will run through all the four types of thinking, made by Dr. Grandin, and

give you an example on each: Visual, Mathematics and Science, Music, and Verbal.

A visual thinker is thought to be the most creative out of the bunch. This type of thinking

leads to different types of careers: appreciation of The Arts, Creative writing (if you enjoy poetry

and short stories), Architecture, and Industrial Engineering (if you have interests in inventing or

fixing machines). I enjoy art because of the colors and the drawings themselves. I also like to

write poetry during my spare time. Sometimes, artists are viewed as the most misunderstood

because of their own style. Over the years as a high school student in Manhattan, I had trouble

expressing my thoughts on paper until I ended up having a few art teachers who taught me to

how to express my thoughts on sketchbooks and gigantic drawing pads.

A great example of a visual thinker is a well-known British visual artist named Stephen

Wiltshire. Of West Indian (Caribbean) origin, he was diagnosed with autism at a young age

while being raised in the United Kingdom. He can create amazing scenes of urban and suburban

life by looking at buildings, houses, and streets surrounding him. Also, he can create exact copies

of the overhead of cities just by looking at them over a helicopter at least once or taking a trip

through a town (Treffert, 2011). He was also a subject for the BBC (British Broadcasting

Corporation) documentary in 1987 The Foolish Wise Ones.

Thinkers who are into mathematics and science are considered as nerds, but are willing to

help you with your homework as tutors in schools. Their targets are numbers, formulas, and how

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they play their roles in math and science. Another example of a math and science thinker is a 13-

year-old child named Jake Barnett from Indianapolis, Indiana. On January of 2012, 60 Minutes

was aired on CBS discussing a topic about the rise of autism using Jake as the main subject. Jake

is a math and science prodigy and is currently the youngest college student at Indiana University

Purdue campus. News Anchor Morley Safer mentions that Barnett was diagnosed with autism at

the age of two years old.

Music helps an autistic individual shield him/herself away from other distractions that he

needs to escape from in order to concentrate on how to play a piece of music that attracts him/her

every day. For me, I’m on my headphones playing music every time I’m writing up my

homework assignments. Instrument playing without reading notes is common with children who

are autistic or not. I play electric guitar just by following the sound and its pattern, but I’m not

very good at reading music. For me, reading guitar tabs is easy, but reading music notes is

virtually impossible.

Verbal thinkers have a passion for learning new things in their lives. When it comes to

having a favorite school subject, it could be one or more that targets the autistic individual right

away such as History, Geography, and any Foreign Language. Academic Writing is one of them.

For some reason, I can write a very good paper with little or no sources, but I add them while

typing it for any subject that I’m interested in, such as Art History. First, I read or skim through

the chapters picking up key facts. Second, I write rough drafts by using pen and paper. Third, I

start my research immediately and learning a few more things for Art History.

There is another way to help your autistic child besides identifying the thinking skills

he/she can have: targeting the speech patterns. In my experience, having something to target the

speech pattern can increase the chances of having a non-verbal autistic child speak for the first

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time. After turning 6, my mom played a lot of reggae, including the late legend Bob Marley. The

track that made me speak my first few words was listening to Look Who’s Dancing, a 1989 hit

by Ziggy Marley (Bob’s son) and the Melody Makers. I guess that is why I enjoy different

genres of music as a person who thinks visually every day. The easy way to trigger the speech

pattern is finding something that an autistic individual might enjoy, such as watching children’s

television shows, reading books, or listening to music. It takes time for the autistic child to adjust

to the interest that he/she chooses.

Final Message:

The reason why I’m working on this project is because I’ve never had a chance to conduct

any research about autism when I was a child growing up in New York City in the 1990s until

earlier this year. I have never had the chance to be part of organizations that advocate the voices

of successful autistic individuals, but my life as one is getting better as the years go by. I hope

this analysis on Autism can make you go out and find people who have the Spectrum to learn

more about it and wanting to help them. It will probably make you a better person just by lending

the autistic individual an amount of support and a helping hand.

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