Autism ‘epidemic’ may be all in the label - Mental Health - MSNBC.com

Interesting ...

I have always felt that that the numbers weren't necesarily rising, just that it was being diagnosed more......

__________________
"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

I agree.

My DH would probably have been diagnosed with Aspergers. My son was diagnosed with it.

Twenty years ago, these were the kids who were really into their Commodore computers, spent days building with their legos and could care less about playing with their friends. Today they are our computer programmers and engineers!

The BEST thing we ever did for our 13 year old was to pull him OUT of the Special Ed. program. We had to fight the teachers to do it. They were very insistant that he was not capable of handling the work that they do in a "typical" classroom. They were giving him double digit addition problems in math, in the 7th grade! They had him in only 2 typical classes. I learned that they wanted to remove him from those classes too, I put my foot down and took him out of Special Ed. all together.

He's doing great in all typical classses this year. Got A's & B's this quarter And the math he's doing now, Algebra in 8th grade.......he's getting an A!

I agree as well...

I believe that my brother and possibly my DH would have been diagnosed with the same when they were children. It now has a name (label, if you will) and some good interventions that were not applied as heavily in *those* days. Maybe we can give partial credit to No Child Left Behind but it pains me to do so since NCLB bugs me so much in so many ways!!! LOL.

My DS has been diagnosed as on the Pervasive Developmental Disorder spectrum (the umbrella term for Autism/Aspberger's and everything between and beyond...). We had him diagnosed by a Pediatric Neurologist and know that he will receive the extra help that he needs from now through college... possibly beyond. So hard to do but so glad that we did it.

I think the article hits the nail on the head.

That is awesome!!! We have to be our childrens' advocates -- I truly believe this. Way to go being on top of things like that! I am willing to bet it has boosted his self-esteem incredibly.