Editorial #250: Autism Politico is Qutting
Autism Politico is quitting.
We haven’t made any significant difference in the autism world, so we don’t see the point in continuing.
Comments will remain open.
Thanks for reading.
Autism Politico
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Autism Politico
Rats! I just got here!
I sure hope there are other blogs that discuss autism. If only there were some way to search for them …
Anyway, enjoy your time off.
Thanks for your message.
I’ve enjoyed reading your blogs. I wish you wouldn’t quit. It may not make a visible difference, but you have certainly given me things to think about. Blessings to you!~~Jeff
We’ll leave the comments open on all posts so people can still discuss topics. Thanks for your comment, and thanks for reading.
w0000000000000000000000000000t!
Autism Politico thanks you for your comment.
I came across this post through google: http://autismpolitico.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/editorial-227-gluten-diets-fail-now-go-quack-somewhere-else/
It is unfortunate that this blog has been discontinued. I am glad more people are writing about how GFCF diets do not work. I have many friends who swear by this diet but they cannot see that it is not helping at all..
While I agree with this post: http://autismpolitico.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/editorial-227-gluten-diets-fail-now-go-quack-somewhere-else/ , I strongly disagree that parents should “accept their autistics the way that they are and not want to change them and make them more manageable and compliant”
There are MANY therapies and educational approaches that help TEACH children on the spectrum. Beliefs such as this allow for many school systems to get away with not providing an education that children on the spectrum deserve and allow for insurance companies to get away with not covering therapies that have been proven to help.
There are many disabilities and needs that come with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). For example, if a child is having problems processing visual input, then therapy might be in order and DOES help. If a child has dyspraxia (something that can be comorbid with ASD http://www.dyspraxia.org.nz/index.php?page=what-is-dyspraxia) then OT will help and is CRUCIAL. If a child has trouble has problems organizing thought or producing speech sounds (aparaxia which occurs in ASD), then speech therapy will help. If a child has auditory processing issues (determined by an audiologist), then speech therapy is needed to help the child process speech/auditory sound better..
These are not CURES, they are teaching the child to work around their needs to function in life and society.
Basically therapies covered by insurance companies (OT, Speech, etc.)are the ones that should be sought because they HELP the child work around their needs.
These therapies do not cure autism, they “teach” the child to work around the need to make life more manageable.
One should note that these therapies are MEDICAL therapies not educational ones. Many parents don’t understand this and think Speech therapy/OT in school is the same sought medically. Here is a link to the difference between the two: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCEQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sdcoe.net%2Fssp%2Fspeced%2Fscs%2Fot%2FOT_Educational_Versus_Medical_Models.pdf&rct=j&q=occupational%20therapy%20educational%20vs%20medical&ei=_4VjTpmfGKupsAKzw_nQCg&usg=AFQjCNEwQpYp80aXyFXBWUzxlBteODHazQ&sig2=HfzgJgG0B4umDk43si3wyg
The same goes with speech therapy.
Also, just like good doctors and bad doctors, there are good therapists and bad therapists even if they have degrees in OT/speech, etc. Often times parents think because no progress is made that the therapy is not needed when it is actually the therapist or practice itself.
Rule of thumb is that if a therapist or practice starts therapy without taking a baseline (e.g. testing, etc.) and isn’t willing to write up a report/treatment plan about the issues, you should RUN!!! Any therapy should start with a plan and a reputable practice should spend the first few visits coming up with the plan in writing.
I am glad that the word is getting out about GFCF because it doesn’t work. But this does not mean that therapies for MEDICAL conditions should be ignored all together. Take for example a child who is dyslexic ( a MEDICAL learning disability that results in a reading disorder and other disorders). Should families/schools/insurance companies simply “accept” that the child cannot read? No!!! Because there are educational approaches and therapies that DO work and help children work around the dyslexia in order to read, etc.
Believe it or not, many school systems get away with not providing scientifically based reading programs because Dyslexia is “medical”.
The same approach is being done to children with ASDs even though there are educational programs that can be put together to help education, teach and manage, it’s just needs to be more comprehensive. Just like Dyslexia, there are no cures for ASDs, but there are ways to educate, teach and manage.
Autism Politico thanks you for your comment keyserteaches.
The thrust of the Autism Political post you cited was that many parents seem to want subservient and compliant robots for children rather than free-thinkers who are self-reliant and functional. To this end, they subject their children to unproven treatments that may do more harm than good.
Your comment gives people some good ideas about what proper and useful therapies look like.
keyserteaches, the blog ended because we received enough criticism from all sides that we felt our messages were not getting through.
One additional determining factor: As you can see from the entries, we do not sign our names to the posts. This is a deliberate experiment. In our real lives, we may be influential people who espouse the exact same opinions, but with tact…and these opinions are accepted by the very same people who criticize us here and elsewhere. We can only assume that the people engaging in this hypocritical behavior are ones that are “sucking up” to us in our real lives but actually think very poorly of our opinions, or alternatively, just like to stir up trouble on people’s blogs in their spare time.
At some point in the future, we may elect to return, but for now, we are just leaving comments open but putting up no new posts.
Sorry it took so long to put up your comments. We at Autism Politico have been busy working on other projects.