Do your Homework

So with my previous post you guys obviously understand that I am an advocate for autism. With the latest buzz about Mike Savage and his talk radio and what he stated on there about autism I have been to hurt to write or even talk about it. I know that it was not a personal attack on me but I feel that even though he is now apologizing for attacking children he was attacking anyone advocating for autism. Children who are autistic personally do not realize the kind of attack that was put on them. I love Google and looking things up so today on my break I was looking at some articles discussing Savage's talk show and some of the people's comments. What really surprised me was all the ridicule not only against Savage but also the medical world. People who are dissing ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders). They are saying how can there be mild forms of autism and other notions like that. And I also understand that autism is really hard to diagnose especially since there is no written documentation stating what classifies autism and what doesn't. However, if you are going to talk down about something do some research first. ASD is an umbrella that has many disorders underneath it. Along with Autism these include anything from Rett Syndrome, PPD-NOS, and Asperger's Syndrome. If you researched these you would find these are true disorders that since they are so similar to autism they fall underneath this umbrella. I do not have a child who has autism but I see first hand what it does to a family and to the child itself. And if you really did research on autism and all the different side affects you would too probably be advocating for it. Each case is unique and different in their own ways and many times some side effects will go away and new harsher or lighter ones will appear. Even though there is no cure right now for autism, by getting help from OT's , PT's, and SLP's there can be a future for children. So to you people who make fun of a mild form think for a second. Every parent's goal for a child that has severe autism is a mild form or even an Asperger's diagnosis. But it still takes a lot of work. Right now the child I know is a mild form (in my opinion) which means that she is able to communicate whether it be to close friends and family only or to complete strangers. She no longer has meltdowns (which is something considering she used to have over 10 a day and each lasted over 5 minutes long). She is mild and our goal for her is an Asperger's Diagnosis. Many people with Asperger's are able to live on their own and function almost "normal." Those with mild forms can either become Asperger's or severe again. So think before you start judging the medical world.