I was asked recently what I thought about the large number of children diagnosed with autism and ADHD today. “What do you think it’s up to? It wasn’t like this when we were kids, was it?”
It’s a topic I’ve been asked many times when someone politely asks about my children and I tell them that one of them, my 11-year-old son Eddie, is autistic.
I don’t think the trend of self-diagnosis, which Anthony David, director of the UCL Institute of Mental Health, described as “a huge and growing problem” earlier this week, will help either. While increased awareness of neurodiversity is largely a positive thing, I agree that it is still something that needs to be identified and diagnosed by a professional.
The comment about diagnosing children came from someone I thought was pretty knowledgeable, so I found this quite disappointing. The subtext suggests that we are doing too much “stuff” about neurodiversity. And these labels aren’t really necessary. Focusing on looking for the “cause” or worse, the “cure” implies a sense of blame and also means that being neurodiverse is fundamentally wrong.
There is nothing “wrong” with my son. He is thoughtful, funny and kind. He has a slightly different structure than my other two children. She has no filter and, as my husband Dom puts it, says “what everyone else is thinking.” He doesn’t always grasp social conventions, and can mostly talk about his favorite subjects – Star Wars, Minecraft, and anything Lego-related – rather than about people.
Craves familiarity and routine. He hates crowds, queues, and being forced to sit still for too long. The sound of his sister crunching her cereal “hurts” his ears. The sound of the chair scraping against the floor sends him running into the next room. Having anything soft in texture, such as yoghurt or sauce, on his plate will cause him to feel nauseous. She can’t tie her shoelaces or ride a bike, but she spends hours building extremely complex Lego designs. She’s not very good at love, but she’s also ironically a space invader.
Before I had my son, I was probably one of those people who was reluctant to “label” a child and mistakenly believed that a child’s behavior was mostly due to poor parenting. This could of course be a factor, but in the case of my son and other neurodiverse children it is more complex and nuanced than that.
The word “A” was first mentioned to us when Eddie was a toddler, when he was experiencing speech and developmental delays in preschool, and it came up once again when he entered elementary school. I was appalled and upset that it was referenced so casually. “How would you feel if this was your child?” I wanted to tell the head.
Eddie was overwhelmed by the large classes and the demands placed on him. As a result, his behavior worsened. I knew he was a little different, but I thought he needed more time to grow and develop. I remember thinking, why do we have to put a label on it?
So I guess I can partially understand that people who don’t have any experience with neurodiversity might wonder why autism and ADHD seem to be so much more common than they were years ago. I might have thought the same thing before I got Eddie. But the simple answer is that in the past we didn’t have the science, knowledge or skills to diagnose it.
In fact, a recent study suggested that the number of people diagnosed with autism increased by a staggering 787 percent between 1998 and 2018.
Researchers compared autism rates recorded in GP records covering more than nine million patients in GP practices in England. Published in the study Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatrysuggested that the increase may be due to increased reporting, awareness and enforcement of autism diagnosis.
long waits
Latest NHS figures show that children now face a wait of at least 10 months for an appointment after an autism referral (I think that’s generous) and then you have to navigate a difficult minefield of services, abbreviations and medical teams to get the right support. . And the holy grail is an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), which sets out the measures that should be taken in the educational environment for a child with additional needs. For example, Eddie’s, which we had to reference, states that he is visually impaired and may need a larger font and colorful background to read. He has an average IQ, but has trouble concentrating in noisy environments and his behavior can be very repetitive.
But autism itself is nothing new. The concept was first introduced in 1911 by German psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who coined the term to describe the symptoms of the most severe cases of schizophrenia.
When Eddie was diagnosed at the age of seven, after waiting for almost three years to be examined by the overstretched and underfunded CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), I was forced to review my medical history with a clinical psychologist. I mentioned that my late brother Charlie suffered from schizophrenia (which ultimately led to his untimely death).
The psychologist then told me, in what I thought was quite insensitive and arrogant, that autism used to be called “childhood schizophrenia”.
However, although autism and schizophrenia are classified as neurodevelopmental disorders, they are quite different. One is a neurological condition and the other is a mental illness.
ongoing stigma
Unfortunately, the stigma and lack of understanding around autism means that children like my son become targets of bullying in mainstream environments. A boy at his last school, a small primary school in a beautiful village, called my son “brain damaged.” Another called him an “autistic idiot.” He was always the kid least likely to be invited to a party. So much for inclusivity. I think that says a lot about parents, right?
This is one of the reasons why it is so important to have a basic understanding and awareness of autism and other neurodiverse conditions. The right support can make a big difference; It might actually change your life, but it took me a while to figure it out.
We fought to get Eddie into a specialist school after almost a year of being on a shortened timetable in mainstream primary schools because they “couldn’t get it”. [his] needs”. He has made great progress since starting his new school in June last year. Like a different child; engaged, happy, talkative and relaxed. He’s finally gotten to a place where he’s accepted for who he is, and that’s all any parent wants for a child, right? And every child should have the right to education.
The idea that children are now being over-diagnosed is also “genetic or trauma-related?” I think it also affects the subject. contention. The second theory, even more worrying, comes from renowned psychiatrist Dr. who believes there is a link between early trauma and the development of ADHD. Discussed by Gabor Maté. Dr Maté wrote in his latest book: Scattered MindsADHD and autism are rooted in intergenerational family stress and disruptive social conditions in a stressful society.
“Ninety percent of brain development occurs after birth, in the first two or three years of life. “During this time, the genetic material is triggered to express itself in healthy or irregular ways,” he says. “The most important of these inputs are the subtle and often unconscious emotional interactions between the infant and their caregivers.”
In other words, neurodiversity depends on the neurological pathways formed in the first few years, largely determined by the interaction of parents. Therefore, Dr. According to Maté, if a child experiences a traumatic period during these developmental years, they are more likely to develop ADHD.
But this is just a theory.
And since Eddie was diagnosed almost five years ago, I’ve been subjected to a lot of theories and rude comments; especially the outdated and outdated idea that neurodiversity was once “not a thing.” It certainly was. We didn’t know this at the time.
Awareness brings acceptance, and as a mother, I hope and pray that my child grows up in a world that accepts him for the wonderful person he truly is.
Five things I’ve learned as the parent of an autistic child
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The world can be a difficult place for anyone who doesn’t conform to a limited idea of what is and isn’t socially acceptable.
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Wearing a sunflower lanyard to show that your child has a hidden disability usually makes people nicer.
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Meltdowns aren’t always caused by bad behavior.
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We are not all “on the spectrum.”
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We have a long way to go before we can fully integrate neurodiverse people into society.