I feel your pain man, I really do. I got razed and picked on until finally I moved to Ohio and was considered normal I guess.

Kids can be cruel but so can Teachers too and I hope there is a special place for these folks, God forgive me.

Not one child should ever be fearful of going to school!

It is very, very painful to watch my son have go through the same living hell I did as a kid, being picked on, bullied incessantly, not being able to “connect” with the other kids in school, being the “odd one,” the nerd, geek, etc. Not having any friends, feeling like, as my son puts it, “All of the other kids hate me.” Dealing with the tantrums, the depression, the anxiety and paranoia; it hurts like hell. To add insult to all of that is all the pseudo-science and quackery that one has to wade through to find help.

If I come off angry, it’s because I am. We are directly affected by the con artists, quacks, and pseudo-science pushers who seem to be able to outshine, shove aside, and elbow their way in between the real science that offers real potential for help. Things like the Time Magazine article just add to this crap. And the only voices out there to counter the high-profile nonsense are blogs like this one — with much smaller audiences and far less influence and impact than outlets like Time Magazine.

It sucks folks. Yes, being a parent to a child with autism sucks. Being an adult with autism sucks.

Great lines at the ending of the entry, BA. So very true.

Also, wouldn’t playing Ouija exclusively with people that are illiterate bring better results?

At any rate, it might be worth trying. Who knows, perhaps a little success in one area might feedback to improvement in another. Don’t know ’til we try.

GAry 7

Tara’s post yesterday about Mercury and Mythology about how mercury in vaccines does not cause autism and about a recent story demonstrating tht mercury as used in dental amalgams is safe, coupled with Phil Plait’s discussion of an article in……

It’s kind of telling that (as far as I know) nobody in the FC field seems to be trying to make such a breakthrough.

If this new idea is correct, then the deficits are deep and structural, and unlikely to be helped much by anything like FC.

Jess Tauber

“I realize it’s easy to slam FC, but it’s not a good idea. More kids should be using it to learn to communicate independently as much as possible.

Well, then it’s not “facilitated communication” is it? It’s “teaching to type”.

Until the client actually learns to type there is no communication beyond the influence of the “facilitator”, so FC is still a useless concept.

Most FC practitioners are probably not con artists. In fact, most purveyors of useless treatments mean very well. They honestly do not realize the harm they are doing, or that their treatments are ineffective. They are a case in point of the statement that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. They know enough to convince themselves and others, but not enough to really understand what’s going on.

There was a family who wanted their severely retarded child admitted into the high school marching band. This child could not play a musical instrument. This child was barely responsive to the outside world. The child was not autistic; this child had other problems. They claimed to be able to communicate with him because he could get yes/no questions right 50% of the time by signalling with his eyes.

Sadly, a lot of people don’t see what’s wrong with that claim. (For the statistically challenged, it means the child is performing exactly as well as a tossed coin — there is therefore no evidence of intent.) And that one’s much easier to see than the problem with facilitated communication.

I have every respect for autistic people. I am related to a high-functioning autistic person. Some can pass for normal. Some cannot feed themselves. There is a huge variety. Indeed, some can read. But not all. And while you may not find the word “devastating” to be particularily PC, in some cases it is quite accurate. If your child will never be able to function independently, your future has now been proscribed in a way you never expected. Is it selfish to feel devastated? Should parents of autistic children be made to feel guilty for dreading such a diagnosis? Absolutely not. It *is* a devastating diagnosis. But after you learn about it, you deal with it. Should the kids feel guilty for being a burden? No. They can’t help it, and their parents generally would not want them to feel guilty for it. But it is what it is, and deluding parents will not help the situation at all.

“Scientists are a bunch of killjoys, but they have a disconcerting habit of backing up their arguments with actual evidence” — Robert Merkel (he’s a Wikipedian)

Pretty much sums it up.

If you go to http://www.gettingthetruthout.org and read through it all the way, you’ll learn what autism is and why people shouldn’t be using phrases like, “devastating.” Autistic people read. How would you like to read that the effect *of you* was devastating on your parents. Autistics don’t separate autism from who they are.

http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=85

http://www.gettingthetruthout.org/pagee001.html

I think that’s on this week’s Skeptic’s Circle.

I realize it’s easy to slam FC, but it’s not a good idea. More kids should be using it to learn to communicate independently as much as possible.

“What’s the harm with people believing in psychics or being able to talk to dead relatives? It makes them happy.”

With FC we are finding out what the harm is.

Skepticism is a very healthy thing to have even if it’s not pleasant at times. The truth is something that should always be attained even when what it’s saying isn’t what we want to hear.

Nice site. Keep it up.

In more than 90% of cases the responses were found to be influenced unwittingly by the facilitators rather than the clients.

It was a good episode, and it ends with some of the laywers feeling bad for the mom who has just discovered that she has been typing to herself for quite some time.