Autistic Daily

Jewish Times

John Arking is an assistant professor at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he works to identify genes in diseases like autism.

The Baltimore Jewish Times recently did an interview with Arking to get his thoughts on the disease.

Arking thinks there’s not necessarily been an increase in the numbers of autism cases over the years, but rather medical professionals are beginning to recognize the disease better.

Has there been an increase in autism?
You have to be careful [to make a distinction] between incidence and prevalence. Incidence is how many new cases occur. Prevalence is how many cases we find. Prevalence has gone up, but studies so far have not found a rise in incidence.

The feeling is, we have better surveillance and my personal opinion is, there is a willingness to call someone autistic. That used to be a negative, although now they can get help.

So the public perception of autism has changed?
That’s the situation in all mental illnesses. There was a stigma, more so than physical illness. The issue [for autism] is that in the 1960s, the mom was being [identified] as emotionally distant. There was a stigma attached to the family. That’s not the case anymore.

There’s a feeling that we can help children with autism. Diagnosis is usually made at 2 to 3 years old. [That gets into] behavioral therapy, the earlier you get them into therapy, the better. The data I saw [about that] was quite striking.

Read the rest of the interview with Arking at jewishtimes.com.

via Autism and Parenting Examiner

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Pink Sherbet Photography

A 15-year old girl with Asperger’s Syndrome has written a letter to the UK Daily Mail that illustrates how we might be neglecting females on the autism spectrum.

Her letter came in shortly after the Mail started to campaign for hacker Gary McKinnon, also an Asperger, to stand trial for his alleged crimes in the UK versus being deported to the U.S.

“I’ve never been popular with my peers, and have missed out on fun experiences because of it.”

“I finished ‘hated’ school in early June: all my GCSE results are expected to be Bs or higher. I’m fairly attractive, but this makes me scared to go out because of unwanted attention from men.”

“The only time I feel happy is when performing on stage, but we have a strict director at the youth theatre and I am always close to tears, even if he ‘tells me off’ for the simplest thing.”

The last statement in her letter says it all:

“Please suggest something, because my life, not just my happiness, depends on it.”

The young lady has been through therapy, counseling, and has considered suicide due to her loneliness and isolation from her peers.

One has to wonder if the counselors she’s visited are equipped to handle Asperger’s, let alone Asperger’s girls.

It’s well documented that clinicians often fail to diagnose Asperger’s in girls, often giving stereotypical female diagnoses such as only depression, and failing to address the autism as an underlying cause for other superficial symptoms.

If these clinicians are barely able to recognize the syndrome in girls, can we expect them to properly give girls the appropriate treatment and therapy?

Visit the UK Daily Mail to read the girl’s entire letter and columnist’s response.

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festival.sundance.org

Hugh Dancy stars in Adam, one of the few films to be picked for the Sundance Film Festival this year, about a man with Asperger’s Syndrome that hits theatres July 29.

New York magazine recently interviewed Dancy, where he spoke about his thoughts on the film and the character he portrayed.

A few highlights from the interview:

Adam and his neighbor, Beth [played by Rose Byrne], fall in love. I hope you won’t be offended if I say that I spent most of the movie wondering what the heck she was doing with him.
I think, realistically, it would take a fairly unusual person to date someone with Asperger’s.

And I hope you won’t think I’m crass if I add that it would’ve been even harder to buy this love story if Adam had been played by someone unattractive.
That’s probably true.

How much did you study Asperger’s?
I had to do detailed and specific work about this guy so he didn’t end up being a series of quirks. When I initially read that first bit of script, I thought, Jesus, I hope this isn’t one of those scripts where it turns out he’s just a little off, but he’s kind of wonderful and is going to teach us how to be better and more simple people. Because I kind of hate that.

Read the rest of the interview at nymag.com.

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