State your source…

I don’t think all autistics are heroes. But, when we parents talk about our children’s achievements I think it is right to focus the acknowledgment on the child, not the parent.

I am incredibly proud of my child. I acknowledge that some of the achievements are at least as remarkable as those achievements conventionally considered outstanding by parents and teachers.

Certainly parental pride is acceptable. If admiring other kids with similar achievements is condescending, I am good with that.

Sheryl: “Every single autistic person gets disability payments their entire adulthood.”

Umm… that statement is just so bloody wrong that it’s hard to know where to start refuting it.

Correct. In fact, the NHS survey found that autistic adults in the UK are mostly not getting services. It’s also clear the vast majority do not live in institutions.

Other than that, I agree that autistic people should not be called “heroes.” That strikes me as condescending. My son is not heroic. He’s my son, and that’s remarkable enough.

Moms are also not “warrior moms” though. There are simply moms who assume their responsibilities as parents and those who do not. There are also those who moan all the time about the types of children they happen to have gotten. Experimenting biomedically on children with all sorts of completely implausible (and possibly dangerous) crap does not make one warrior-like.

Umm… that statement is just so bloody wrong that it’s hard to know where to start refuting it. Firstly, it is patently untrue: if it were true, then the not-yet-diagnosed autistic person would be getting them and clearly that cannot happen! Secondly, many people who are diagnosed with an autistic spectrum condition (F84.0, F84.1, F84.5) do NOT get disability payments throughout their adult lives. Many people don’t get them during childhood, even with the diagnosis. My clinical picture as a child was that of a high-IQ classically autistic child (basically, what Kanner described), but the typical thing that happens in autistic development happened to me (see Kanner’s 1973 30-year follow-up paper on the original 1943 paper examinees) – and I have an adult diagnosis of F84.5 (Asperger syndrome). I got disability payments in the UK for about a year, and then I moved to Finland, where I get absolutely nothing. And I am by no means the only one in this category.

For a doctor, you don’t show the reading or thinking skills one would expect of such a professional if you go about making such sweeping statements as you have done.

And Nightstorms’s question, based on your statement (“You parents who refuse to make the effort with trying anything that will help, no matter how difficult or expensive blows my mind”), is valid. Unlike your attitude.

thanks for demonstrating that some people don’t read for content.

“You parents who refuse to make the effort with trying anything that will help, no matter how difficult or expensive blows my mind.”

Where the hell does that statement come from, if you will excuse me for being rather blunt? You have zero idea how much effort I have put out. Zero.

If I chose the safety of my child over the gamble that some unproven “treatment” based on junk science may help, that is my choice and my responsibility as a parent.

If I chose to praise my child for the extreme efforts involved in overcoming challenges, that is my right as a parent. My child is a hero.

You are NOT warriors. Letting your kid “be themself” and putting them in an institution or private house is not the way of a warrior.

It is not my way either. Thank you very much. Where ever did you get that idea? But, as far as being a warrior goes, thank you. I accept that I am not a warrior.

Don’t let the spotlight you have placed on yourself blind you too much.

That is why the anti-vaccine hysteria won’t go away. The anti-vaxers need something to focus their feelings of anger and hatred on. It is a selfish act, an act that asuages their feelings rather than actually accomplishing something productive.