The CDC just released last week information on it’s long awaited study on autism in various states. Some key things from the finding include:
While more detection is a cause for the raise in rates, it can not be said to account for everything.
Hispanics were by far the heaviest hit with a nearly 150% increase in places like Arizona. Whites only experienced a 55% increase in that time. This is a major issue with language barriers and cultural issues already keeping these individuals from early intervention services.
This was a study based on children diagnosed before 8, so this does not include higher functioning children who often get a diagnosis in school with the Aspergers condition.
Boys are affected officially at a rate 4.5 times to that of girls.
Prevalence may be even higher in places without the proper diagnostic facilities.
Overall, the report had little information that the community wasn’t already aware of, but the increase in Hispanic population is something to watch moving forward. We feel at the Tommy Foundation we are well positioned to help this community and hope that others will continue to meet this need with us.
Here is the embed for Sugey’s speech on autism. Be sure to check it out. She comes in about 2 minutes in after an introduction, plays a quick video (Which you’ll need to skip) and then talks for about an hour. There’s also a Q&A section at the end. Enjoy!
Sugey Cruz Everts, President and Co-Founder of the Tommy Foundation will be giving a talk this evening on Autism to a group of nurses, social workers, and medical representatives on Autism. It will begin tonight at 6pm and be broadcast live on our Livestream channel. Be sure to tune in!
“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.” Pablo Picasso
I want to talk today about perceived ability in our children and the limits we as a society place on them based on various external criteria. Perhaps I am just tired of hearing all too many of us tell our children—regardless of ability—what they can and can’t EVER do. We tell them that they will never have relationships; that they may never leave home and perhaps even that they may never speak. See as I see it, the problem with having a child or loved one with an Autism Spectrum Diagnosis isn’t the diagnosis—for all you have to do is meet certain criteria on a psychological test to get that—but the prognosis we feel is appropriate to pigeon-hole these children’s ability.
Perhaps it is me being naïve, a bleeding heart, or an eternal optimist—Lord knows that I have been called all three—but I never want to confine a child or anyone by the person that stands before me today. See life is a beautiful, wonderful journey with hills and valleys, and the best way to motivate any person is to find that which motivates them and passionately shine a light under them that they may achieve their full potential.
We have become a society so intrinsically fixated on “results” that we take away art, dance and cultural programs from our kids’ schools in order to focus on that which will make our children “functional.” Don’t get me wrong being a functional member of society is certainly important for the sake of the society, but I would take a child in passionate pursuit of their purpose in life any day over one miserably sitting in a cubicle wondering what they did with their life and replaying that Muppet Treasure Island song “There’s gotta be something better” in the back of their mind.
Just today I read an article concerning the rising rates of autism. (In case you have been under a rock the last few years it has sky-rocketed from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 91 in less than 20 years). The article itself was not all that bad, but the comments afterwards in part inspired me to do this blog. The ignorance—for that is all that you can call it—from third parties unaffected by the condition or who know no one YET with the condition, isn’t surprising. The argument goes for many of these people that the rise in autism is simply that it is finally being diagnosed more accurately or that it is being over-diagnosed. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a huge fan of the current diagnostic criteria for the condition, however, people that say this have obviously never encountered the serious issues—social, developmental, sensory—that our children or loved one anywhere on the spectrum face each day.
But alas, I am used to the ignorance of those that don’t know what they don’t know. What does kill me a bit inside each time is the ignorance of a child’s own parent. I apologize if perhaps you get offended and this has been you in the past, but I hope you will take what I am about to say to heart and change for your own mental and emotional sanity as well as your child’s. In this particular article, a mom was claiming that her child diagnosed with what she terms mild autism would probably never fulfill his dream of becoming a pilot because he has a label now and that it is this label that will somehow chase him for the rest of his life and stop him from achieving his dreams. This is not only sad but also is enabling this child to develop avictim mentality when he has all the ability and potential to do whatever he wants. The only limitation this child could have for piloting is if he has vision or other physical issues. There are plenty of well-known people with Autism in history and today who were much more severe—Raun Kaufman, Temple Grandin, Wiliam Stillman to name a few—who defied and defy this every day.
My message to this mom is simple and two-fold. First, get down on your knees right now and thank God that the worst that you have to worry about with your child is a label following him for the rest of his life. What if you still had to clean dirty diapers on a 20 year old? What if you had no way of communicating with your child or still had no definitive way of doing it? What if your child was taller and bigger than you and terrified you because you didn’t know how to control them? What if your anxiety and concern for your child affected every area of your life—from your marriage, your other children, your friendships with others, your ability to even leave your home because you just are not sure how your child will react and whether or not they will be so over-stimulated that they will have a huge meltdown?
You my friend are selfish and not only that you are ignorant yourself. Ignorance is “lack of knowledge, education or information.” Your son will not be limited in his dreams and aspirations because of a label, he will be limited because of your lack of faith in his abilities! If all he ever hears is you—his own MOTHER– tell him that this label placed on him by others will keep him from doing the things he loves, than he will never try and he will never exert himself to a position of giving it his all.
I am so eternally grateful that I have been blessed to help people who have children all over the spectrum and who are on either side of the mild versus severe category. I thank you for sharing your children with me every day and showing me what these kids can all accomplish with love, determination and a bulldog mom and dad. I thank my son for showing me unconditional love. That little boy and his dad are the best things that have ever happened to me and his laugh warms my soul and his eyes pierce my very core. I thank my husband for being a good dad and educating himself about autism and being proactive. He hasn’t escaped into other tasks to avoid the hard work with our son, but has been my partner in the entire process and has taken it upon himself to personally meet with other dads to give them advice and show them how much their wives need their support—not just financially but as an understanding and passionate advocate for their child or children. I am grateful and blessed to have a supportive team around my child who understand him and love him and fight with me to show him that this world of ours is a safe and fun place to be and that when it is scary, we will be here to help him through it. And lastly, I am eternally grateful for my movement friends, who understand the monsters we are fighting all over the place for our children and who are putting aside our differences and preconceived notions to work together and make sure that this rate does not continue to increase. You are awesome warrior moms and dads and I love every single one of you.
So, random mom from article comment, please take heed and realize that your son is a gift to you. I hope that since you obviously are not the one doing it that somewhere along the line, he finds a mentor or coach that will inspire in him the seeds of greatness to go out and do all that his heart desires and he realizes his full potential. For your son, I wish only that he knows no limits and that you realize that you are a unique, beautiful, incredible marvel. A marvel that like Picasso said has yet to be defined and whose potential for greatness is limitless.
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The CDC just released last week information on it’s long awaited study on autism in various states. Some key things from the finding include:
We have become a society so intrinsically fixated on “results” that we take away art, dance and cultural programs from our kids’ schools in order to focus on that which will make our children “functional.” Don’t get me wrong being a functional member of society is certainly important for the sake of the society, but I would take a child in passionate pursuit of their purpose in life any day over one miserably sitting in a cubicle wondering what they did with their life and replaying that Muppet Treasure Island song “There’s gotta be something better” in the back of their mind.
But alas, I am used to the ignorance of those that don’t know what they don’t know. What does kill me a bit inside each time is the ignorance of a child’s own parent. I apologize if perhaps you get offended and this has been you in the past, but I hope you will take what I am about to say to heart and change for your own mental and emotional sanity as well as your child’s. In this particular article, a mom was claiming that her child diagnosed with what she terms mild autism would probably never fulfill his dream of becoming a pilot because he has a label now and that it is this label that will somehow chase him for the rest of his life and stop him from achieving his dreams. This is not only sad but also is enabling this child to develop avictim mentality when he has all the ability and potential to do whatever he wants. The only limitation this child could have for piloting is if he has vision or other physical issues. There are plenty of well-known people with Autism in history and today who were much more severe—Raun Kaufman, Temple Grandin, Wiliam Stillman to name a few—who defied and defy this every day.