Views of Autism

Yesterday I saw a notice from Ari Ne’eman from the AutisticSelfAdvocacy Network. He has a list I belong to at
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
which I highly recommend. The notice spoke of Dr. Eric London’s resignation from one of the AutismSpeaks committees. His letter spoke of decisions being made with out input from the scientific committee. This was the committee on which he was a member.

This brings up some interesting questions and thoughts.

1. Do you think people with autism need to be “fixed”?
As you may know from previous posts I have two daughters. One has autism and one has asbergers. No I do not see either one of my children as someone who needs to be fixed. On the other hand do I want to maximize all of my daughters’ experiences? You Betcha!

2. Do you think that therapies for people who have autism are over priced?
Sometimes. Parents of children with autism have to be very creative to keep their children engaged. I am not sure they should pay for every therapy that comes along. That is a really good way to break the budget for years to come, especially without investigating the free resources available. Then supplementing those resources with their own resources would be wiser.

3. How do I buy all the equipment I am told is necessary?
There are many ways to cut costs of equipment. Make some your self, borrow some, and explore agencies set up to help with the costs. Some parents even invest in one or the others education to learn how to do therapy themselves. I will make a separate post on this at a later date.

I would like to see other blogs on autism respond to these questions, particularly the first question. Knowing exactly what mindset people come from is so important in the area of autism and aspergers. So how about it?