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What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning?
Posted on Wednesday, March 26 @ 17:10:36 EDT by | 
I recently read a review by David Kirby of Autism: The Musical published in the Huffington Post. You've likely never heard of him but Kirby is the author of a factually dubious book attempting to link the mercury that was once in vaccines to a perceived increase of Autism diagnoses. While Kirby is not a doctor, he claims to be an expert and has a habit of writing incredibly misleading articles about autism and frequently compromises any semblance of journalistic integrity he once had. Consequently he's not the type of person I'd usually respond to.
However, in his review of Autism: The Musical, Kirby is worried that people might be concerned that the movie's depiction of "the two high functioning boys -- so bright and charismatic... will leave the mistaken impression that most children with autism are like this."
He then made the exceptional claim that most individuals with autism are not "high functioning."
The question I'd like to raise is, "really?"
No, not really. Based on studies conducted throughout the last two decades, it would appear that Mr. Kirby is completely wrong to say that most autistics are "low functioning." The most recent studies which look into the official number of individuals diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome paint a very different picture.
According to a study conducted in England during the 90s (Asperger's was only recognized in 1981, a decade earlier), one in three hundred people had already been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. However, a study conducted in Sweden a little more recently found that the rate of Asperger's Syndrome diagnoses has increased to 1 in 250. 1 Since the CDC says that 1 in 150 people have Autism, those with Asperger's would make up considerably more than half of all autism diagnoses.
Already, it appears that more people have Asperger's than any other autism diagnosis. But we haven't even factored in the number of people with classic autism who would still be considered "high functioning." I was unable to find any studies addressing the number of people with high functioning autism but it's clear that there are quite a few people meeting that criteria on Wrong Planet alone, much less the entire world.
What's interesting to note is that Asperger's clearly makes up more than half of autism diagnosis alone. Considering this fact, why would anyone get the impression that high functioning autistics are in the minority?
The simple answer is that people such as Kirby and organizations such as Autism Speaks benefit from the public incorrectly believing in a picture of autism that is completely wrong. How do they benefit exactly? Think about how many people donate to autism organizations because they want to help the "poor autistic children." Granted, Asperger's Syndrome isn't the easiest thing to be diagnosed with. But would as many people donate money if they knew that more than half of the 1 in 150 'sufferers' are actually not suffering from anything other than social skill problems, sensory issues, and mainly being misunderstood by society?
By deceptively equating autism to the likes of cancer or polio, organizations such as Autism Speaks bring increased attention to the issue of Autism and raise more money than they would under normal circumstances. While awareness is generally good, these organizations are creating a negative stigma and a culture where parents' violence against autistic children is viewed under a sympathetic light.
Why is this tolerated? I don't know the answer to that question. It puzzles me just as much as autism puzzles those parents who didn't get a kid who acted as normal as they thought he should. Unfortunately, those parents are getting all the attention right now while autistics themselves are not being listened to. Hopefully this will change in the future but all of us with autism need to increase our volume to make more noise before we can begin to be heard.
1 Bjorn Kadesjo, Christopher Gillberg, and Bibbi Hagberg. (1999) Jr. Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29, 327-331.
Author Alex Plank founded WrongPlanet.net while he was in High School. Since that time, the site has gained more than 17,500 members across the globe.
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by Bunni Friday, August 01 @ 23:56:36 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) http://home.comcast.net/~somebunni/ | | I saw this movie very recently and it angered me to no end. While I realize the movie was supposed to be "oh how wonderful" what I saw were children not able to communicate effectively and parents not trying all that hard to listen. I saw the face of one who believed she was damaged by autism. Another non-verbal boy reacted during a birthday party scene to obvious sensitivies to the noise of the party, he ran as the crowd cheered him for blowing out a candle. In the next scene you see him gently touch a younger child and then pull him to the ground. Mom was quick to admonish the behavior, but never validated what was obviously (to me anyway) being communicated. He was telling them that the lovely gentle event they put on for him was making him feel pain. Later when given the chance to finally use some assistive technology, his first "words" are: "Mom I need to put you on the spot. You need to be a better listener." We all need to be better listeners!!!
I didn't see understanding. I saw parents feeling unsupported and struggling. I saw kids reacting to that and so much else around them. I saw kids wanting so much to communicate and be heard.
The key to the autism epedemic is simple. Presume intellect. Do all you can to find ways to communicate. Whether verbal or non-verbal they are in there, thinking and feeling and unable to share their pain, their joys, their needs. We make so many wrong assumptions instead of finding ways to listen. Respect people for who they are not what you think they should be. Do your very best to understand and communicate, and I can't say it enough...Presume Intellect always. |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by beentheredonethat Thursday, June 26 @ 13:14:09 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) | | And then (this'll make me popular) there is a high incidence of misdiagnosis. Also, from my perspective, I'm not so sure Autism is a useful term. Just as I happen to think that there's a good possibility that Hans Asperger was WRONG. However that gets into a lot of political stuff, and I don't have time for that. Work done in the 1940s has mostly been revised today.
btdt |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by navi Tuesday, May 20 @ 15:49:07 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Isn't functioning level relative and not in any way, shape, or form related to intelligence? My son is nonverbal, can't 'tie his shoes' or 'control his bowel movements,' but he's certainly intelligent. He's fully capable of figuring things out as well. His Godmother took him to an open house, where he got to ride a horse at one of the local schools, and she warned the woman he was 'low functioning' and the woman informed her that by no means was he low functioning (needless to say, he handled riding the horse for the first time quite well) |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by qaliqo Wednesday, May 14 @ 21:09:17 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.myspace.com/qaliqo | | There is a broad spectrum of autism, no doubt, and the research is still coming in; Autism Speaks has made the spectrum a cause celebre, and as such the cameras rush to zoom in close on the worst-case scenario. There is some disrespect in treating autism as a condition characterized not by savants (AS and HFA), but by idiots (pardon the historical descriptor) and idiot savants (Rain Man). Autism has a huge social stigma, and many of us who can simulate NT behavior tend to avoid the label.
Personally, I was so high functioning that despite seven years of going to therapy as a child and adolescent in the late 80's and early 90's, not one party suggested Asperger's Syndrome until fifteen years later, when my wife had a pottery student whose son had AS and it all matched up. I never learned to ride a bike, and I can barely swim, but I was always an A or high B student (I never had straight A's, but always a majority), so my parents urged me to be "normal". I have a friend who has a similar story. Neither of us are officially diagnosed.
Am I a "real" autistic? I think more like Raymond in Rain Man than NTs, and I don't have to think to do math once I've learned the relationships. Savants are autistic people, too, and we may be more common than we individually thought.
q/p |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by Shadowcat Friday, April 11 @ 03:09:20 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) | | It doesn't matter. This musical was a triumph because it showcased diffrent aspects of Autism. Non of them were screaming headbangers, like you usually see on tv when the word "Autism" comes up in a discription of a child who has this problem.
It's a start, and things will only get better. the reason why people will get a false idea of Autism being high functioning, is they weren't paying attention in the first place. |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by quicksilver Friday, April 04 @ 05:59:43 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | I am not an expert on autism but I understand that most people who are autistic cannot do simple things like tying up their shoelaces. They cannot control bodily functions. They are in need of help and cannot hold down jobs even if they could get one.
The number of people who are functioning normally are in the minority.
Having said that there is an element of everyone wanting to be on the autism spectrum for whatever reason.
The people I know would come at the level below that of tying up shoe laces. Some infants mostly boys die after a vaccine or have their heads blown up by a vaccine so that they have to be fed via a tube and afterwards their heads stop growing and eventually become small.
The proof that vaccines and their chemical contents can harm came from work done more than 100 years ago by Professor Charles Richet Nobel Prize winner and by hundreds of other scientists around the world.
We ignore the danger of repeat vaccinations at the peril of such mayhem.
To add the worlds most toxic non radioactive element at the level when evenly diluted throughout the body it acts in a catalytic way to destroy brain cells is bizarre if not criminal.
The history of autism commenced with a pyschological cause to the dismissal of the genetic theory.
Today the genetic theory takes precedence.
The chemical cause of autism laid out 100 years ago has been totally forgotten.
David Kirby cannot get everything right but he certainly has brought the chemical view of illness to the fore again.
I think it is not just careful reading of his book but repeat reading to get the message now far behind current knowledge of the exquisite and puissant danger of mercury.
Until we recognise its simplicity and truth we will not prevent more autism and similar illnesses let alone cure them. |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by ASPowerations Wednesday, April 02 @ 23:36:10 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) | | I would like to make one small correction to your data. You cite one study done in Sweden that said that around 1/250 children have Asperger's, and a different study in the United states showing that 1 of 150 children is autistic. However, these data are from two different studies, and therefore cannot be compared. The following link contains data from a British study that addresses how many people are autistic, how many have Asperger's, how many have Kanner Syndrome, how many are low functioning, how many are high functioning, etc. The results, for those of you who do not wish to follow the link, are:
91/10000 (1/110) are autistic
71/10000 (1/140) are high functioning, making up 78% of the Autistic community.
20/10000 (1/500) are low functioning, making up 22% of the Autistic community.
36/10000 (1/278) have asperger's, making up 40% of the Autistic community.
for the complete study, go to http://www.whale.to/v/autism3.html
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by krex Tuesday, April 01 @ 18:45:45 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://eyesoftime.blogspot.com/ | | Another "obvious" aspect that is seldom mentioned when discussing the tatistics of function levels in autism,is that only the individuals who have the most difficulty in indipendent living ever seek a DX for AS. Some individuals who have a great support system with their families or have found a working nitche that allows them to support themselves.
Others who will never be counted are the many adults who have been DXed with some form of mental illness before there was any understanding of AS(many adults)and those who killed themselves do to lack of any kind of support.
I hate that autism speaks is allowed to use HFA/AS in their statistics but if any of us try and speak of our experiences we are told we are not "really autistics". |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by Roxas_XIII Wednesday, March 26 @ 21:56:37 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://facebook.com/kelvin.of.the.rebellion | | Damn right, not really. Many of the autistic and AS people i've met, both online and offline, are exceptionally intelligent. As for this negative stigma that Autism Speaks portrays for funding purposes, my Al Bhed friends and I have a word for that kind of talk: pimmcred. (If you don't know Al Bhed, there's a handy translator at http://www.pixelscapes.com/twoflower/albhed.html) |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by natalia Thursday, March 27 @ 08:58:15 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Relative numbers of people at different "functioning levels" is not even what we should be discussing.
We should be discussing the elephant in the parlor: the fact that functioning levels aren't anywhere near as real as most people (both autistics and NTs) think they are. |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by taranstevenson Thursday, March 27 @ 17:13:43 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://freewebs.com/treacle-shlore | | Is he actually autistic? Or qualified in autism-based areas of expertise?
Because if he is not then he is very silly to go against the experts IN autism and the people who have HFA themselves. |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by JosephNV Thursday, March 27 @ 17:33:58 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Sorry for the pedantry, but you're actually mistaken. Not about the prevalence of "high functioning" autism, but about Asperger's, which is actually a rare diagnosis. The study you cite by Gillberg & Hagberg uses their own Asperger's criteria, which was never made an official criteria. The prevalence of DSM-IV Asperger's per se is sometimes cited at 2 to 10 in 10,000. Some studies say a true diagnosis of Asperger's is impossible, and it's likely something will be done about it in the DSM-V.
Now, what is called "high functioning" autism (IQ tested at 70+, although it's unclear what IQ test that refers to) is common. In California, for example, about 65% of all autistics served by the DDS system are "high functioning" under this definition.
Of course, when it comes to adults who did not have an autism diagnosis in childhood, an "Asperger" diagnosis is what we usually get, regardless of what the proper diagnosis should've been in childhood.
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by KissOfMarmaladeSky Friday, August 27 @ 12:48:49 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) | | What? We aren't monsters and people who don't understand what people do! We are just like everyone else! We're not aliens from another planet, not understanding anything that makes up humanity! |
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Re: What? Aren't Most Autistics High Functioning? (Score: 1)
by bjcirceleb Friday, December 31 @ 06:54:45 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) | | The crucial difference between Autism and Aspergers is communication deficits and delayed language development. This is where they all fail. As someone who does have Autism, I still very much struggle to talk and prefer not to. My best and most effective form of communication is through writing and it was pure luck that I was able to develop that as the only one one is taugh such things is if they are able to speak. If kids who don't speak are lucky they get pictures to communicate a few things, but if they are highly sensory and not visual and hence feel them, suck them, etc, they are labelled as more low functioning, not someone needing another form of communication. We do have special hand on hand signing for the deaf blind and I know of people with autism who once introduced to this method of communication suddenly were able to open up to the world. Still others would benefit from standard sign language, but the need to make these kids normal means that is not offered. At most they are offered Makaton a key word sign langauge with no more than 100 words in it. Traditional sign languages used by the Deaf involve all the words, letters of the alphebet, etc. Perhaps instead of trying to force these kids to talk, we focus on helping them to find a method of communication that works for them, we might find out just how high functioning many of them really are, and in the process take away the vast majority of behaviour problems that are more often than not caused by a lack of communication. |
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