TIME Promotes Myth That Many With Autism are Highly Intelligent

In Could Amanda Knox Have an Autism Spectrum Disorder? TIME adds its influential voice to those who propagate the  myth that "many with autism are highly intelligent".

Amanda Knox is the 23-year-old American college student who was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Italy in 2007.  The TIME article makes a plausible case for the proposition that some of the evidence used to convict Ms Knox, including a forced confession, and some seemingly callous behavior, may indicate an un-diagnosed Asperger's Disorder condition rather than evidence of guilt. That possibility has become particularly important in light of revelations that DNA trace evidence used to convict Ms Knox may, after review by independent experts, be considered unreliable.  

In elaborating on the Asperger's Disorder possibility,  and explaining some aspects of Ms Knox's behavior including the confession, the TIME article states:

"like many autistic people, Knox was highly intelligent but also extremely naïve and gullible:

"She's the smartest person you'd ever know" but "dumb as a rock" when it comes to "street sense," [her stepfather said]. In conversations with her friends and family, a portrait emerges of a person with a childlike innocence. She was, as her mother, Edda, puts it, "oblivious to the dark side of the world.""

If the above quote said like many people with Asperger's Disorder", Knox was highly intelligent it might be an accurate statement.  Under the DSM-IV an Asperger's Disorder is excluded where the person has no cognitive development issues:

"E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behaviour (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood."

The lack of clinically significant cognitive developmental delay does not necessarily mean that a person has high intelligence but it does leave that possibility open. The article provided no studies to indicate that many persons with Asperger's are highly intelligent.

Where the article is flat out wrong though is in stating that many persons with "autism" are highly intelligent.  That information is contradicted by the Canadian Psychological Association 2006 brief to a Canadian Senate Committee stated that:


• Cognitive impairment is present in about 80% of persons diagnosed with Autism and general intellectual functioning is most often below average.  Persons diagnosed with Asperger’s Disorder have average to above average intellectual functioning. [underlining added]


As noted above the CPA reference to autism is a reference to the autism spectrum disorders except Asperger's.

The United States Centers for Disease Control, the CDC,  has conducted two surveys which looked at the entire spectrum of autism disorders, including those with Aspergers and found that:

"Data show a similar proportion of children with an ASD also had signs of intellectual disability than in the past, averaging 44% in 2004 and 41% in 2006."

Contrary to the view, expressed by TIME,  that many persons with autism are highly intelligent, the US National Institute of Mental Health states with respect to Autism Spectrum Disorders in the section titled Problems That May Accompany ASD:

"Mental retardation. Many children with ASD have some degree of mental impairment. When tested, some areas of ability may be normal, while others may be especially weak. For example, a child with ASD may do well on the parts of the test that measure visual skills but earn low scores on the language subtests." [underlining added]

If Amanda Knox does in fact have an Asperger's Disorder, and if the Disorder casts doubt on the confession obtained from her and provides an alternative explanation for the behavior that was used to convict her then I certainly hope the issue is fully explored.  To that end TIME's powerful voice could be of substantial value in overturning a possible wrongful conviction for murder.  That would be a great accomplishment if all those developments play out as indicated.  In reaching such a conclusion though it is unnecessary for TIME to proceed by promoting the myth that many persons with autism are highly intelligent.  This myth, while pleasant for many to embrace, in fact obscures the very serious challenges faced by the vast majority of persons with Autistic Disorder who in fact are also cognitively impaired or intellectually disabled.

TIME with its great influence should be more careful in how it portrays autism, including Autistic Disorder, and the challenges, including intellectual disabilities,  faced by persons with Autistic Disorder, to the world.

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Where Is the Evidence that Celebrity Autism Advocates are Causing Drop in Vaccination Rates?

Whenever information surfaces showing a drop in vaccination groups in any geographic area or social demographic group the media and public health authorities blame celebrity autism advocates for the drop. TIME magazine does exactly that in commenting on the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Report indicating   that a drop in vaccination rates is occurring amongst children of wealthier parents while rates  actually increased amongst children of poorer parents.

TIME Magazine,  in an article titled Vaccination Rates Drop in Wealthier Kids: The Autism Rumors Take a Toll, stated:

Wealthier families, meantime, are getting too much of their health advice not from doctors and epidemiologists, but from talk shows, the blogosphere and the rumor mill, all of which are filled with vaccine scare stories. Making things worse is that the kind of folks spreading the tales are precisely the kind we find hardest to ignore.

"Very articulate, very good-looking movie stars or personalities ... are giving out information about how bad vaccines are," pediatrician Robert Frenck of the Cincinnati Children's Medical Center told the online health news service HealthDay. "Frumpy middle-aged doctors" find it awfully hard to compete with that.

   

The NCQA web site in a news releaase titled NCQA REPORT: QUALITY, SPENDING NOT LINKED; AUTISM FEARS SUSPECTED AS CHILDREN'S VACCINATIONS DECREASE IN PRIVATE PLANS states:

"Childhood vaccination rates in 2009 declined by almost four percentage points in commercial plans.

A possible cause of this drop is commercial plan parents may refuse vaccines for their children based on the unproven, but increasingly popular, notion that vaccines cause autism. Celebrity activists are outspoken advocates of this view. Interestingly, we see vaccination rates in Medicaid – the program serving the poor – continuing to steadily improve.

“The drop in childhood vaccinations is disturbing because parents are rejecting valuable treatment based on misinformation,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “All of us in health care need to work together to get better information to the public."

Neither  the TIME Magazine article, nor the NCQA news release, reference any studies which provide evidence that the drop in vaccination rates amongst children of wealthier parents is due entirely, or in part, to celebrity autism advocates and bloggers ....  good looking or not.

Insulting parents of autistic children (and celebrities) has not worked to restore confidence in parents that vaccines are safe generally or that they are NEVER involved in causing autism in ANY cases even amongst children of women injected with mercury containing vaccines while they were pregnant. I have commented previously (1) (2) on the insanity of continuing with this failed strategy while hoping for a different outcome yet the NCQA and TIME continue to do so.

Unlike the intellects at TIME and NCQA I will not assume that they will ever learn their lesson. I do not expect public health authorities, or TIME, to learn that maybe it is time to start treating the public with respect and make their case with solid, credible studies both as to the cause of drops in vaccination rates and on whether vaccines contribute to autism or any other disorders. Former NIH Director Dr. Bernadine Healey has stated that comparative studies comparing autism rates amongst vaccinated and existing unvaccinated populations should be done but no such study has been attempted. Instead excuses are offered by public health authorities who continue to dismiss, and attack, anyone who asks questions about the efficacy or the safety of vaccines.

There is no evidence that TIME or public health authorities will ever change their view of the public as ignorant, unwashed and incapable of understanding serious issues. It appears to be far easier for public health authorities to blame the public, or good looking high profile members of the public, than to convincingly demonstrate the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

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TIME and the Autism Crisis

I have often written of the major mainstream media institutions  glossing over the harsher realities of autism disorders as experienced by those with severe Autistic Disorder.

One of my friends, a determined autism dad/advocate  from British Columbia, re-posted on Facebook an exception to this tendency and I thought it appropriate to mention again this realistic coverage of the challenges faced by a severely autistic adult. 

In  Growing Old With Autism TIME  published an article by Karl Taro Greenfeld about his brother  Noah Greenfeld, 42 when the article was originally published, in May 2009:

"Noah, my younger brother, does not talk. Nor can he dress himself, prepare a meal for himself or wipe himself. He is a 42-year-old man, balding, gaunt, angry and, literally, crazy. And having spent 15 years at the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa, Calif., a state facility, Noah has picked up the con's trick of lashing out before anyone could take a shot at him.

Noah's autism has been marked by "three identified high priority maladaptive behaviors that interfere with his adaptive programming. These include banging his head against solid surfaces, pinching himself and grabbing others," according to his 2004 California Department of Developmental Services individual program plan (IPP). Remarkably, that clinical language actually portrays Noah more favorably than the impression one would get from a face-to-face meeting. (See six tips for traveling with an autistic child.)

Despite the successful marketing of the affliction by activists and interest groups, autism is not a childhood condition. It is nondegenerative and nonterminal: the boys and girls grow up. For all the interventions and therapies and the restrictive diets and innovative treatments, the majority of very low-functioning autistics like Noah will require intensive support throughout their lives. If recent estimates of prevalence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are accurate, then 1 in 150 of today's children is autistic. That means we are in for a vast number of adult autistics — most better adjusted than Noah, some as bad off — who will be a burden to parents, siblings and, eventually, society.

We are largely unprepared to deal with this crisis.  ..."

There are some who can flippantly ask ... autism crisis ... what crisis? Karl Taro Greenfeld is not one of them.  Nor am I as the father of a 14 year old  boy severely affected by his Autistic Disorder. In our house the Autism Crisis is very real and never out of mind.

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