Autism Street

I don’t have anything against twins - really (I happen to be one myself). I recently ran across this video on YouTube, and it got me to thinking.

Consider this quote:

“I thought it was weird.” (@ 1:49)

Diversity is “normal”. Thoughts?

Over at one of my favorite blogs, Neurodiversity, there’s a brand new article titled:

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud to Estée Klar’s comment in the discussion section that follows:

Oh sorry… I read the title and just wanted to yell out… “ME!”

I had the pleasure of meeting Estée in California last year (along with Bev, Steve D, and Autism Diva) and I have to say, in my opinion, Estée is one of those truly positive people forces in the world - thoughtful, and a real team player. If Kathleen Seidel were giving away millionaire status, Estée Klar would be a hopeful with my vote. (If you’re a lurker parent, and you haven’t read Estée’s new “The Joy Of Autism” blog, you’re missing out on some good stuff there too).

Back to Neurodiversity…

Kathleen’s latest article is subtitled:

“An investigation of the promotion of ‘EMR shielding’ products as a quasi-
medical treatment for autism and chronic illness”

This is one fascinating article. Even though it’s thoroughly researced (as usual), some of the details within seem so outlandish, that it was hard for me to think some of the cited parts weren’t fiction. Oh sure, there’ll be the usual anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists who claim that what Kathleen Seidel writes is fiction regardless, (and regardless of the exhaustive detail and source material she provides), but then again, they’ll tell you that thousands of pediatricians want to poison kids too.

Seriously though, some of the activities and claims described in Kathleen’s latest post, seem about as “out there” as such things can get.

Go over to Neurodiversity and enjoy, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

Side note: I sat extra close to my wireless router while reading the article, and while I jotted this down too!

From VLogger Christschool

By now, many of you have heard about a new study from California’s UC Davis MIND Institute that shows a continuing increase in autism caseload. There has already been a lot of speculation about what this study may mean in terms of potentital autism etiologies, but I’ve also seen some good critical thinking about what this study is really capable of telling us.

Is the Rise In Autism Rates Real?

The MIND Institute’s Second Attempt: More of the Same Type of Reasoning

Some Facts of Interest About the Numbers From the MIND Institute Study

Why is David Kirby grasping at straws? - Comment

Questioning the new MIND study on prevalence of autism

In fact, what the study’s authors apparently conclude in the paper itself seems appropriately skeptical:

Autism incidence in California shows no sign yet of plateauing. Younger ages at diagnosis, differential migration, changesin diagnostic criteria, and inclusion of milder cases do not fully explain the observed increases. Other artifacts have yet to be quantified, and as a result, the extent to which the continued rise represents a true increase in the occurrence of autism remains unclear.

Emphasis mine.

I haven’t read the paper yet, but as I understand it, it’s also noted that the study does not account for increased awareness -  which is something that would  be very difficult to quantify, but also something that has a potentially huge confounding impact on determining whether or not any increase in autism caseload represents a real increase in autism.

It’s clear to most, that autism caseload in California is not descriptive epdiemiology in a strict sense, but rather a measure of the numbers of autistic people receiving services from the CDDS, and that interpretations based on such measurements are also subject to some serious limitations. However, if for the moment (and with acknowledgement of these limitations), we accept the information as potentially useful, can we learn anything else about this California data?

It would seem that many an “autism advocate” has warned us of an impending “crisis” that looms for California’s healthcare systems and schools. If autism caseload is increasing, and it represents a real increase in autism itself, then a next logical conclusion is that, ceteris paribus, similar increases will also be seen in the total numbers of children in special education in California’s schools, right?

Wrong - well, maybe wrong.

Read more…

- By Prometheus and Do’C

In the last week of December, Orac weighed in on what is probably a pretty disturbing (to some) post over at AoA. The post, by AoA’s legal editor, Kent Heckenlively, chronicles the apparently uncritical seeking of several dubious autism treatments (chelation, stem cell therapy, and alternative energy pathway activation) over the past few years. In the post, “I Officially Join the Mercury Militia“, Heckenlively claims:

“But now I finally have some proof that my daughter is mercury poisoned. And I can proudly declare myself a card-carrying member of the mercury militia.”

Prometheus and Do’C have teamed up this week to take a little bit of a closer look at Heckenlively’s ”proof” (available online). We’ll start by looking at the data, but we also intend to ask what we think are some important questions along the way, and we’ll introduce some alternatives for consideration too. Does Heckenlively’s data prove (as he asserts) mercury poisoning? Let’s try to find out.

Read more…

The Unwritten Code Of The Parent

In response to a post, “Contact Jenny McCarthy”, from April of last year, I still receive at least a few e-mails or blog comments (on that post) a week - from internet surfers who seem to think they are writing directly to Jenny McCarthy.

I thought the original post was fairly clear that search engine referrer phrases showed people searching for stuff that I think is largely nonsense with respect to autism. Aside from links to specific Autism Street articles, here’s how the post concluded:

Good grief. It would be tempting to hope that it’s mostly college boys thinking they’ll be e-mailing with Jenny, but it’s probably not. It’s probably more likely to be the type of person who saw her on Larry King.

If you are here looking to contact Jenny McCarthy, you may or may not find this link relevant.

“Good grief” indeed!

I typically don’t publish these e-mails or comments, simply to spare the people who send in their often desperate pleas to Jenny the embarrassment of looking like a silly star-struck regular person without a clue, who didn’t read the actual article. Some of the letters have been pretty damn ridiculous. Yeah, that’s my cynical take on things, but it’s got me to thinking. What if these people, who seem willing to turn to the internet and seek out a  B-list celebrity with no apparent medical education, have forgotten where they should turn?

Read more…

Happy New Year Autism Street Readers!

Did you know that Mirosoft founder, Bill Gates, retired in 2008? Okay, you probably did. But, did you catch this video?

Of course, he’s not really retired.

As Microsoft’s non-executive chairman, Mr Gates will devote most of his efforts to his charitable foundation, where he will pit himself against malaria and poverty, rather than Google and the Department of Justice.

Source