A
Antegin
Guest
The disorder, then called infantile autism, was first described in 1943. Eleven cases were identified. Your friends who had been diagnosed in the fifties were lucky enough to have very progressive doctors or educators because in the fifties and sixties, academia was still debating the existence of autism. In the 70’s, it was the education community that started to advocate for criteria to identify persons with autism but it started slowly and mostly in major urban areas. It wasn’t until 1980 that autism was added to the doctors’ DSM III diagnostic manual and assessment tools were written and made standard of care. Asperger’s was added to DSM IV in 1984. Only at this point was there universal assessments for autism and Asperger’s.There were people diagnosed with AD going back to the 50s that I know of personally.
Thank heavens they are because the needs of people who have MR are very different from people with ASD.They do tend to reevaluate them, even the older ones.
What I was saying is, if you compare the ASD population with the general population, not an absolute but a disproportionate number of ASD father were more than 50 y/o. This establishes a correlation. The discussion about sperm viability suggests a possible cause, but these matters are the subject intensive research right now.There is no reason to factor older men into the equation unless it’s true that so many older men are fathering children now than they did 50, 60 years ago.
It is a double edged sword. The ARCs, March of Dimes and too many parents grass roots organizations push diagnostic genetics instead of therapeutic research so “defective pregnancies” can be “terminated”. What a nice way to say you are killing someone.Let’s hope they don’t find a genetic factor to make the preborn baby more of a target than they already are.
It’s not because the array of genes behind ASD is evil, what we do with that knowledge may be. This information could be used for genetic therapy to restore lost abilities.
Ever notice in Genesis, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is never called wicked. Only Adam’s decision to eat the fruit against God’s will was.