Yes, I assume it is. A main reason being the idea that has been established for about 30 years now since the 1980's by science and psychiatry in particular that autism is a disability, a developmental disorder, and something that children suffer from (often science says parents suffer just as much from their child's autism).
Probably that is the image of autism that most of you reading this also have. You experience autism as the child that has the problem! The problem you assume is born within the child. And that is how science has been also researching autism, in the hope for a cure!
Somehow, my idea of autism and the way I understand autism and have been helping many parents for the last 5 years to also comprehend, is that autism is not all of the above. And science knows that for a very long time. Science chooses not to disclose what is known. It has to do with profit.
Autism is not a disability.
It is a way of being, a different way of thinking, functioning and understanding the world around us. It is not something the child has, but something the child is. And it is autistic because the autistic gene exists in its family. The parents (at least one if not both) are autistic -most probably high functioning as they do use verbal language, have managed to lead independent lives and have married and made children. Also most probably according to research, its siblings have a 50% chance to also be autistic. There are many families with 2 or more autistic children. The genetic base of autism, is a fact.
Most of the parents of these autistic children, grandparents and greatgrandparents do not know they are autistic (autistic meaning they have the gene and the different way of thinking and lifestyle as many already diagnosed adults of same or similar age and gender). Many of these parents might even realize this and seek (and receive) a diagnosis often of Asperger;'s Syndrome or High Functioning Autism. Some realize they are also autistic, but do not not see as necessary to seek a diagnosis.
The fact that they have not been diagnosed, does not mean they are not autistic.
In can also mean that science has focused the idea of autism, so specifically on the child, and childhood diagnosis and early intervention, that is not eager to diagnose adults so high functioning that they (seem) to manage just fine without a diagnosis.
Science is not interested or eager in diagnosing parents, as science prefers to keep autism as the childhood "illness", disorder, and disability they have established it to be.
It is greatly profitable!
Billions of dollars worldwide end up in the pockets of those who research (70 years now 1943-2013), those who treat (therapists such as psychiatrists especially), and those who sell medications (farmacutical companies) in the name of false hope. Autism is the biggest scam of the 20th-21st centuries!
In the past 4 almost 5 years I have met hundreds even close to a thousand families with autistic children. Their idea of autism was the same as yours is at this moment. They thought that their child was suffering from a disability, while they the parents were the "normal" ones!
When I explained to them that what they see as autism is not something "born" from within the child, but rather "born" within them and REFLECTED in an enlarged and sometimes distorted way by the child, they realized that they can change the outcome. If the parents decided to accept this fact and subsequently changed their ways of talking, behaving and accepting the different way their child thinks and functions, within months to a maximum of a couple of years, their child changed clinical profile.
Many of the families that I encountered, had children with a diagnosis ranging from severe non-verbal autism, to Asperger's syndrome or high functioning autism. It did not matter what the child's diagnosis was, once the parents changed how they nurtured and treated the child, the autistic child reflected back to them the behavior that was shown to it.
Badly behaving autistic children, react violently (from around 6-7 years of age) with anger and hostility because they come to realize that their emotional and intellectual needs are not being met.
Science instead of helping parents synchronize their lives and behaviors with the specific emotional and developmental needs of their child (any child not just one that is labelled autistic), split the parent-child bond by claiming that the child is damaged. Though it is not the child that is damaged or distorted, but the INTERACTION BETWEEN the parent(s) and the child.
Why not all children then in an autistic family are not diagnosed as autistic?
Because not all children (their individual personality) is equally sensitive of intro/extroverted. Those children that are diagnosed are mostly the more sensitive ones, the more introvert ones, and the ones that had more traumatic experiences such as a more difficult pregnancy, difficult emotional situations of the mother during her pregnancy with this specific child, more difficult birth, premature birth, physical illnesses after birth and the first 2-3 years of life, children who were not breast fed, children who were breast fed only for a very short period (a few months instead the 2-3 years that is actually normal for a human child), post-partum depression of the mother, other mental of psychological issues of the mother, or even a mother and/or father that are abusive or neglectful towards the child's emotional needs while covering the physical needs (food, schools, clothes, toys, etc).
All of the above causes when combined (for example: a child that has experienced a difficult pregnancy + mother's post-partum + a father that is neglectful) will result eventually in an autism diagnosis by the age of 6-7 years (either sever autism or low functioning). The more the events that a child experienced as traumas, the more the severity of its diagnosis.
What I am saying here is already known by science. They know what and how parental based events that are experienced as traumas by the child affect the outcome of autism.
Here are some links for further reading!
http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/1405190/autism-not-a-mental-illness/?cs=11
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/06/medicalresearch.genetics
http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/health-a-healing/fathers-age-is-linked-to-autism-and-mental-illness
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080505072829.htm
http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2013/03/25/abuse-of-mom-in-childhood-and-autism-risk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_mother_theory
Severity versus degree of "warmth"
Yes, the good ol' theory of refrigerator mothers was not so far fetched after all!
Both Leo Kanner who diagnosed (severe) autism and Hans Asperger after whom the Asperger's Syndrome is named, had already since the early 1940's first encounters with autistic children and their families had seen the parental behavioral symptoms that end up reflected by their (autistic) child's behaviour.
Their theory of parental "fault" in autism was never proven wrong with any scientific research! It was rather "silenced" by angry parents that felt attacked and accused when faced by the truth.
Science and in particular psychiatry, endorsed the angry parents, and discarded the cold and distant mother theory as they realized that angry parents cannot become an easy profit!
A fearful parent convinced that their child is disabled, will do everything and anything to have a child that is normal and healthy.
These parents are cows ready to be milked!
And they have been milked intensively already for the last 30+ years since the 1980's when autism appeared in the DSM as "childhood schizophrenia"!!!!
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/schizophrenia/content/article/10168/1822823
From that moment on, autism became a money making machine, propelling pharmaceutical companies to produce more and more drugs that psychiatrists then made sure that were sold by the millions and given to unknowing victims by their own parents. A multitude of drugs such as anti psychotics and others that were never tested on children could now be "tested" as parents bought them and gave them to their children thinking they were helping them!
http://voices.yahoo.com/psychiatric-fraud-psychiatrists-making-disorders-8290147.html
http://www.cchr.org/cchr-reports/massive-fraud/introduction.html
http://www.cchr.org/videos/psychiatry-an-industry-of-death/inventing-mental-illness.html
http://www.cchr.org/videos/psychiatry-an-industry-of-death/kids-in-psychiatrys-cross-hairs.html
http://www.cchr.org/videos/psychiatry-an-industry-of-death/drugging-for-profit.html
My grandson was labelled as autistic at three years old.
Many autistic children are diagnosed between the ages two and three years of age. The rise in diagnosing autism in children is almost catastrophic, and I am unsure how truly helpful it is for the child. Diagnosing a child with autism without diagnosing also the surrounding situation and people (parents, siblings, grandparents, etc) that the child acts/reacts to, is not only unhelpful but also utterly stupid. But as I mentioned above, psychiatry/science are not interested in helping the child or the family, their interest is to create a market that needs them and to earn more money and power for themselves. The few that have not yet been corrupt, they speak out but are rarely heard or taken seriously. Parents follow the trends also were autism is concerned and believe the empty promises.
Especially after the fiasco when mothers (mainly middle class) believed the triple MMR vaccines were responsible for autism. Even after the main doctor involved was shown to have produced false results many parents still choose to believe this myth rather than assume responsibility. Unfortunately, most parents do not know that psychiatry manufactured this whole issue about the MMR vaccines to divert the public further and further away from the real cause of autism.
The real cause being the parentl-child interaction that is problematic.
We assume that it is the child causing the problematic interaction while it is the parent causing the problem! The parent is not sufficiently covering the child's mental, emotional and psychological needs while being mostly engaged in covering the child's physical needs (mostly and predominantly material needs and wants).
Science has known that too! Research has shown that children who experience parental (mother mostly) neglect -meaning emotional neglect- had problems with development!
Funny enough, autism is a developmental disability, but in autism parents, parental behavior and parental neglect is a taboo. No one talks about that parameter.
Yet, it is known that the brains of autistic children exhibit the same "shrinkage" as the brains of neglected children. They also show the same developmental delay as neglected children, and also the learning difficulties of a neglected child!
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/29/brain-size-loved-neglected-parents-_n_2037610.html
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue_briefs/brain_development/effects.cfm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2224393/Why-mothers-love-really-priceless-Shocking-scans-maternal-care-determine-size-childs-brain.html
http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/blog/2012/shrinking-brains
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/dec2006/nimh-04b.htm
http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/news/2011/brain-expands-too-fast-shrinks-too-soon-in-autism (this article is especially interesting as it shows that autistic children actually have a excelled development from birth on, as their brains grow faster than non autistic children, and then the brain starts shrinking!)
A good antidote to this way of thinking is the book "Mistakes Were Made (But not by me)" by Carol Travis and Elliot Aronson. It will help you also understand how autism was created to deceive parents into working more to earn more and spend more on "treating" their autistic child and cure it from its autism. I also disagree with the term autism and autistic. The so called "autistic" children are actually children exhibiting anger and antisocial behavior, language delay and learning difficulties of a child whose urging need for emotional security and a healthy emotional bond with the nurturer/parent was never fulfilled or satisfied!
So now that we know what causes the so called autism, lets see how it can be cured!
Restoring the missing link, the missing bond, the missing sense of security! Sensory integration and particularly that part of Sensory integration that deals with the sense of Touch is the ONLY true way to help a child recreate or complete building the emotional bond it needs.
Activities shared by the parent and child (NOT a therapist!!!) that include all forms of physical contact such as: massage, deep pressure of the skin (back, arms, legs), hugs (as tight as [possible), tickling, wrestling (parent/child), and many more. For more info check Ayres Sensory Integration, Dunn Sensory Integration, Infant and Toddler massage techniques, etc.
Apply these during the day at regular intervals, especially before and after stressful activities or activities that hold potential sensory over loadig for the child. Do not use practices such as ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis), do not use PECS, or other communication devises or models. Talk to the child, engage it in activities around the house, play with it more, and touch it hug it kiss it, massage it (before going to sleep at night is one of the best medicines). If the child is sensitive to touch it means that it has developed a sensory defensiveness to help it cope with the sensory (touch) deficiency!
Never touch the child as a satisfaction to your own need for reassurance.
The child needs to be touched when it needs it, when it will cover its own need not the parent's. The child will know the difference and if it sees that touch means satisfying another's need than its own, it will become defensive and develop an unwillingness to be touched!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlaFgOGH1y4
http://gentleconnections.com/massaging-your-baby-as-he-grows/
http://www.pediatrictherapy.com/images/content/208.pdf
http://paei.wikidot.com/dunn-winnie-dunn-s-model-of-sensory-processing
Why particularly the sense of touch?
Oxytocin is a powerful hormone. When we hug or kiss a loved one, oxytocin levels drive up. It also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. In fact, the hormone plays a huge role in pair bonding. Prairie voles, one of nature's most monogamous species, produce oxytocin in spades. This hormone is also greatly stimulated during sex, birth, breast feeding—the list goes on. Obviously, the emotionally starved child (autistic) once it receives the emotional nutrition in needs through Touch of Love (Love in its pure form), will start regaining lost ground and develop!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120519213236.htm
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/you-illuminated/201210/oxytocin-improves-emotion-recognition-in-autism
http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/the-love-hormone-autism-connection.premium-1.493759
http://www.science20.com/news_articles /nosetobrain_research_oxytocin_autism_spectrum_disorders-96209
As you can see Science and psychiatry knows the cause of autism already!
But instead of advising (as I do) parents to rebond with their children, they began producing Oxytocin as a drug, a pill to be taken orally! That is how corrupt and unethical they are! While the physical contact is beneficial and helps the bond of love and sense of security/trust in the child, the pill had again adverse effects...
http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01337687
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2012/07/oxytocin_is_not_a_love_drug_don_t_give_it_to_kids_with_autism_.html
Finally, to understand why an emotional bond is so important on a child's sense of security and courage (and act based on secure feelings) read this:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/29/visual-cliff-study/
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2006/12/26/what-are-babies-looking-for-wh/
For more reading...
A General Theory of Love draws on the latest scientific research to demonstrate that our nervous systems are not self-contained: from earliest childhood, our brains actually link with those of the people close to us, in a silent rhythm that alters the very structure of our brains, establishes life-long emotional patterns, and makes us, in large part, who we are.
Explaining how relationships function, how parents shape their child’s developing self, how psychotherapy really works, and how our society dangerously flouts essential emotional laws, this is a work of rare passion and eloquence that will forever change the way you think about human intimacy.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375709223/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=braipick-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0375709223&adid=0QCWVVXRD2DC66HKSJ40
Autism in other words, as I explain it to to the hundreds of parents I work with, is the incomplete self. The missing part being the ability or a dysfunction of the ability to bond emotionally with others.
This inability/dysfunction will then surface in the multitude of ways we see in autistic behaviors depending on the child's personality and idiosyncrasy.
Perla
