Joan- I don't see any suggestion in your data that "blaming" is a part of the research. I do see the danger that some who hold that opinion would jump onto your data for a free ride (if you see what I mean). On the other hand, such is not justification for ignoring pursuing the information. I would welcome a discussion on a couple of aspects of what you said:
"One statistic that I'm discovering is that the rate of autism is far higher in families in which the child is placed in day care with in the first few months of their lives. Shouldn't this be worth sharing?" Well, yes. It is interesting. But shouldn't one be very very careful in wording this as the mere presence of such correlation is causally ambiguous. It may well be, and logically so, that infants who display such tendencies are more likely to wind up being placed into daycare earlier. I know that the normal argument is that children who become autistic don't display abnormality till later. However, research suggests that careful screening can find indications - if that is the case then people may well be using those same "cues" (or stressors if you prefer) to move those children into care. I'm just aware that some hold positions one way or the other and won't wait on conclusions - possibly even if we are careful in wording, etc. You also said: "The other statistic that is totally mind-blowing is that the rate of autism throughout our country is 1 out of 166 children but is 1 out of 15,000 within Amish communities." Yes, that is one statistical estimate. A quick perusal of the statistics available online showed rates of between 1 150 and 1 in 2500 (NIMH) - probably based on differing criteria. Again, I think we have to be careful. It is fairly well documented that autism's spectrum interacts with access to medical care and with familial support. Thus a family with many resources may well keep a child in the home without care for a variety of reasons and thus participate and even resist the receipt of diagnosis (and simultaneously, families with lower support and/or greater access may increase the likelihood of the same diagnosis). 6000 vs 67 diagnoses per million children (again roughly a 100 fold increase) certainly is interesting and even shocking. But if you use the NIMH number it moves to 400 vs 67 per million- still large but not quite so shocking. Being a psychologist does predispose most of us to the environmental for explanation. But I also think we need to look beyond the family. Again, it isn't my area but those are the kinds of questions that popped immediately to mind for me. Tim _______________________________ Timothy O. Shearon, PhD Professor and Chair Department of Psychology The College of Idaho Caldwell, ID 83605 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] teaching: intro to neuropsychology; psychopharmacology; general; history and systems "You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." Dorothy Parker -----Original Message----- From: Joan Warmbold [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thu 6/5/2008 5:26 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Amazing variation in rates of autism I have been conducting research on how early experiences differ between children who do and do not develop autism. Please understand that this is not an interest in pursuing that dreadful pursuit of "blaming" the parents. But I'm beginning to believe that our intent on totally ignoring early experiences impact on emotional disorders is doing a tremendous disservice to parents in our country. One statistic that I'm discovering is that the rate of autism is far higher in families in which the child is placed in day care with in the first few months of their lives. Shouldn't this be worth sharing? The other statistic that is totally mind-blowing is that the rate of autism throughout our country is 1 out of 166 children but is 1 out of 15,000 within Amish communities. The reasons for such could be multi-faceted and it would take a very thorough and rigorous analysis to determine how their early experiences differ. But certainly worth analysing. Joan [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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