I’m a voracious reader so I’ll probably tackle a few of your suggestions.

Then we will get along just fine!

Thanks for the list of suggested reading material. Some of your selections look very interesting. I actually read one of V.S. Ramachandran’s books titled “Phantoms in the Brain” -a very good read. I’m a voracious reader so I’ll probably tackle a few of your suggestions.

Happy Holidays!

Indeed. Basically, a socio-cultural approach. As culture becomes more reliant on textual production and storage of its knowledge, it becomes more reliant on the skills involved in reading and writing, and this places emphasis on the teaching and learning of these skills. When these skills were not ordinarily needed, there was no emphasis on learning them and so there could be no problem with learning them: there was no dyslexia, regardless of the existence of the kinds of neuro-developmental issues that contribute to its aetiology in literate societies. There was no dyslexia because there was no problem… good example to demonstrate the contribution that culture makes to any sort of developmental, learning or educational difficulty (and, indeed, to anything that might be considered to be a psychopathology). THis is the approach I took when doing the work for my CPSE.

It would not be nice for me to tell you not to embarrass yourself because you haven’t read “Evidence of Harm”.

Except I have, at the library. Lately though, the copy of that book is no longer at the library, thought there are more copies of Dr. Offit’s book.

It was quite obvious you had not read the book, due to the statements you were making. I am sorry if I was rude, but I am very glad to see you are willing to correct that oversight (by the way, his other books are also interesting from “The Cutter Incident”, which is how a vaccine was mis-manufactured and caused death and injury, and “Vaccinated”, a biography of a man responsible for several vaccines—- it includes all the blemishes of the industry, including the testing of vaccines on disabled children in institutions).

Other suggested books to read, you may be sorry you asked for that. I have been reading up on disabilities, vaccines, diseases, neurology, and science since my son had his first seizure over twenty-one years ago. I actually keep a list of the books in a spreadsheet (oh, and really, the library is a great place to get books that you will only read once, use the book store gift certificate for something you will continue to use like a cookbook or a book on a hobby like gardening, woodwork, etc). One good resource is at http://www.neurodiversity.com/books.html , but here is a short list of books I have read:

Unstrange Minds by Roy Grinker (see his webpage, especially on the changing of the diagnostic criteria, http://www.unstrange.com/dsm1.html )

Not Even Wrong by Paul Collins (a parent of an autistic child, who goes into the history of the syndrome, unfortunately my library no longer has it)

Any book by Oliver Sacks (a neurologist who dwells on the various types of brain disorders, I have read all of his books, I really enjoyed his autobiography “Uncle Tungsten, Memories of a Chemical Childhood”... Robin Williams played him the movie “Awakenings”)

The Science and Fiction of Autism by Laura Schreibman

Vaccine by Arthur Allen

A brief tour of human consciousness : from imposter poodles to purple numbers by V. S. Ramachandran

Aquamarine blue 5 : personal stories of college students with autism edited by Dawn Prince-Hughes

The Elephant in the Playroom: Ordinary Parents Write Intimately and Honestly About Raising Kids with Special Needs edited by Denise Brodey

Now here is a book to help you evaluate how to deal with all the controversial subjects: Lies, Damned Lies, and Science: How to Sort through the Noise around Global Warming, the Latest Health Claims, and Other Scientific Controversies by Sherry Seethaler

There are a couple of good fiction books that are useful:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (who has a son with autism, and a blog about the book and autism)

Have fun.

Oh, another suggestion: I have found it handy sometimes to listen to audio books as wmv files (and lately mp3 for iPods). Many library systems let you download audio books from a website for free. This is what I did for Oliver Sacks’ latest book “Musicphilia”, and another fictional book on a child who was sent to an institution for Down Syndrome, except the nurse who was given the task decided to raise her instead, “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” (which is what I listened to while in lines at Disneyland last year).

Thanks for the info.

Zeke

It has probably always been that high. My theory is that the rapid rate of change and the complexity of modern society mean that it is more apparent rather than more prevalent. Dyslexia is another modern condition. When most people were illiterate who was to know?

I hope you enjoy Dr Offit’s book.

Okay, you’ve sold me. I don’t want to carry around a head full of false ideas. I just received a Barnes & Noble gift certificate for X-mas so I’ll buy the book.

Tell me one thing though: if the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders is closer to 1 in 100, that is awfully high. What is the best current theory for what is causing all this? I’m just curious; maybe too curious. I suppose that curiosity may have led me down some wrong paths.

single dose vials were introduced following an agreement between the vaccine manufacturers, the American Association of Pediatrics and the US Public Health Service in 1999. Between 1999 and 2002 at the latest all stocks of thiomersal containing vaccines in the childhood schedule were exhausted and replaced by single dose vials that do not contain thiomersal.

The rates are rising because we now include the whole autistic spectrum and not just the most severe cases. The diagnostic criteria have changed over time. Awareness and training has improved. Education services have been mandated to record autism as a category of special educational need.

I live in the UK. Our National Autistic Society estimated that the true rate of autism spectrum disorders was closer to 1 in 100 back in the 1990s. They did this by combining studies of autistic children in special education (1 in 500) with previously undiagnosed children in mainstream schools with normal intelligence (4 in 500). Modern prevalence figures in the UK and the USA are now reflecting that reality.

I do not want to argue either. I am just correcting the false information that seems to inform your ideas.

I don’t feel embarrassed. People disagree. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. You are right though: I haven’t read the book. There have been other books written on this subject with the opposite stance. It would not be nice for me to tell you not to embarrass yourself because you haven’t read “Evidence of Harm”. I tell you what, I will read this book, because I want to learn all that I can on this subject, and you can’t accomplish that by reading just one book. Have you read any other books on the subject? It’s been my experience that you can read five books on any given subject and get five different viewpoints. The truth is somewhere in the middle.