Apid

[1 Day At a Time]

One of the speakers at the Autism conference (Stephen Shore) I just attended used this term. He says that it stands for "Autistic Parent in Denial". The speaker says that he is on the spectrum himself, and that he guesses "it takes one to know one"!

Some one in the audience had asked him for his personal opinion on the causation of autism. He said that he thought is was multi-factorial but that you couldn't deny the strength of the genetic connection. He teaches music to kids on the spectrum in his spare time and says that he encounters many , many APIDs.

We don't meet the full definition at our house. I guess we're just APs. The denial is long gone....

 

[1905]

I've never heard that term used, but we have one of those parents. It's sad how they think their son is typical-yet of course he's not, so they can't/won't get him extra help he deserves. Then again, unless we walk in their shoes, nobody should judge.

Honestly, my heart goes out to the parents. All of our students are serverely autistic, yet are all so different from one another. We always have boy students, it has to be genetic in some way for that to happen. easy child did a report on autism, and he said when a boy has it, a gene was passed down from 1 parent. When a girl has it, a gene was passed down from both parents. Who knows? It's pretty much brain damage, nothing that can be fixed or cured.

 

[Marguerite]

It's pretty much brain damage, nothing that can be fixed or cured.

I wouldn't say that.

First, is it brain damage? Or simply different brain wiring? I think the jury is still out.

As for not being curable, I'm with you on that. But a lot can be done, often much more than you would perhaps think. Even if someone has brain injury, the brain is amazing in how it can heal and adapt. The important thing is to keep on providing stimulation, to exercise the brain and make it work. We've done the same thing with our autistic kids - we make them work at the things they need to, but we have to be careful to not overwhelm them. It's like walking a tightrope.

But what we've observed - our kids have adapted well, the autism is far less obvious.

Marg

 

[Fran]

I call it a brain wrinkle. The info somehow misses the plugs it is supposed to connect to. Different wiring or wrinkle. It's all just supposition.

 

[Sheila]

Thanks for keeping me updated with-the most recent alphabet soup. APID -- another word for describing my husband.

 

[Fran]

I meant to mention that I corresponded with Mr. Shore in hopes it would help me find a way for my difficult child to find his way in the world. Very nice, kind man.

 

[Hound dog]

Marg

With a great many kids.........it is due to brain injury, either during birth or after. Travis has a strong genetic component, yet he also has the brain damage component which docs believe made his so much more severe than the other males in the family. Grandson Alex also has genetics and brain injury.....and is as severe as Travis.

But with brain injury/damage it would depend on the areas of the brain that were affected as to whether or not it would cause autism, or make it more severe if already present via genetics.

I agree it can't be cured, and I shudder everytime someone says that to me. But I also agree the condition can be greatly improved within the individuals limits to make them a better all around adjusted person.

Travis at 22 may have reached those limits and may not progress further. It appears to be the case. BUT even so, he has amazed docs at how so very far he has progressed and improved since childhood.

K was in denial about Alex in the beginning. Makes me sad he missed out on early interventions that might have made a huge difference for him in the long run. Grandson Evan also shows strong autism behaviors....and she is working on getting him outside help she didn't get for Alex.

 

[1905]

I agree with you Marg. I work with K-3rd grade,non-verbal Autistic children. We are all about teaching communication and life skills. (We have children using PECS (picture exchange), and kids using a voice output system) They need a lot of support, and we lovingly help them. I have never seen anyone become cured. I do see kids make a lot of progress, and at times, I'm so proud of them that I cry. Once the kids learn how to initiate, and "tell" their wants and needs, it's amazing how far they can go- and they are smart! My difficult child has ADHD, and I think he's not going to "grow out of it", or become better, it's his personality, and the way his brain is wired. You're right Fran, differently wired is a better way to put it.

 

[Marguerite]

I just did an advanced Google search. I typed in "autism" and "brain injury". I got a site which was looking at a number of conditions related to brain injury, including autism. I clicked on the autism link and got the following:
http://www.healing-arts.org/children/autism-overview.htm

One of the first statements on this lik was, "Nobody knows what causes autism." they then had a list of differential causes under consideration.

I do accept that in some cases, brain injury is a known cause. A classmate of difficult child 3's has brain-injury which has led to functional autism. Her brother has Asperger's and had no known brain injury. Of the many people I have talked to about this, a wide range of possible causes has been canvassed. The classmate with brain injury is the only acquired autism case I know of, among people we've met.

With the search I did - it would only have included intial links which mentioned both "autism" and "brain injury" in the same article. If I just Googled "autism" I would have got a vast number of hits, and rorm past experience with reading, the majority of articles actually DON'T claim the cause to definitively be brain injury.

Not that it would make much difference to me if it DID turn out to be due to brain injury - the cause doesn't really matter, when we're still dealing with the outcome. But this really is a lot bigger, I feel.

Summary - some articles may say that autism is caused by brain injury, but most don't make such a committment. Instead, they leave the door open for a wide range of possibilities, none of them locked in.

Marg