Just a warning, this is TL: DR material.... but then again, you can't squeeze a complex subject into a Tweet....try as the WLB might.

http://www.factcheck.org/2017/02/has-aut...increased/

Quote:Has Autism Prevalence Increased?

Quote:President Donald Trump said there has been a “tremendous” increase in autism in U.S. children. There has been a large increase in the reported cases of autism, but scientists don’t know if this is due to a broadening of the disorder’s definition and greater efforts in diagnosis or an actual increase in the number of individuals who have autism.

One point that is not covered in this article, probably because it is highly subjective, is the desire for our schools to be run like prisons.  Anyone who slips outside of the desired norms gets branded.  In minority schools, they call the cops.  In white schools, they call doctors to give them a pill.

For me, eye contact doesn't really come naturally, and for many on the spectrum, it's stressful, and for me specifically (at least partly due to a hostile grade school environment) it's taken on the connotation of an expression of power. You ever went to the zoo and got told to not look the monkeys straight in the eye because it can make them crazy? They'll treat is as a challenge. Take this video:





To quote the video description: "I was mesmerized by this animal. The eyes and face are so haunting, I couldn't help but stare. Instead of looking down at my camera, I did look directly at its face and eyes, and whether as a humorous stunt or as a challenge for dominace or both, it sprang up and made it very clear who was keeping an eye on who." From what primatology tells me, General Ursus here is more likely to have done what he did as a legitimate challenge than just a stunt.

The instinct can be seen to a lesser extent in humans, as one of many relics from our common ancestry with the less intelligent apes (goose pimples are a somewhat related one), but it seems that, for whatever reason, the feeling got more pronounced in those of us on the spectrum. Whether or not there's some sort of survival advantage to it or if it's just some genes drawing the short straw, I don't know, but it's the best explanation I can give.

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(August 12, 2017 at 4:32 pm)Minimalist Wrote: One point that is not covered in this article, probably because it is highly subjective, is the desire for our schools to be run like prisons.  Anyone who slips outside of the desired norms gets branded.  In minority schools, they call the cops.  In white schools, they call doctors to give them a pill.

And then, by a strange irony, they latch onto one of the childhood mental disorders that can't actually be medicated...

Do you have aspergers or classical high functioning autism?

Give 'em Ritalin, anyway.  Can't hurt, huh?

Many kids on the spectrum do have ADHD.

(August 12, 2017 at 4:54 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Do you have aspergers or classical high functioning autism?

It's closer to Asperger's. My official diagnosis is hyperlexia, which, despite being something akin to a developmental superpower (specifically, learning to read ex nihilo before anyone bothered to teach you), has a heavy comorbidity with autism spectrum disorders. I suspect I was diagnosed just before Asperger's Syndrome made it into the DSM.

An interesting thing to note that my girlfriend mentioned when i asked her for more information, today, is that apparently some may have a serious aversion to the colour green, and will dislike anything that is green coloured. She says it's more common than one would think, so it might be useful to know.