Poll: Autism. Bad or Good?

[DELTA x WOLF]

I'm going to start off saying this "My little brother has autism", he wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old to help him from receiving the flu, but all of the vaccines in that year had expired and had mercury inside of all of the expired bottles and effected hundreds of kids within those years.

My younger brother learned how to speak speak 3 language(Spanish,French,German)by watching is favorite movies in different languages ,is doing 9Th grade math, reading 12Th grade books and hes only 10 years old, but he has no social skills. The only people he "enjoys" hanging out with is family, but he also enjoys playing on Xbox LIVE with his online friends. We found out when he was 4 that he has Aspergers syndrome

Asperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder. Children with the condition want to know everything about their topic of interest, and their conversations with others will be about little else. Other characteristics include problems with nonverbal communication, clumsy and uncoordinated motor movements, and the inability to interact successfully with peers. Treatment involves social skills training, cognitive behavioral therapy, medication for coexisting conditions, and other measures.

So my question is. Is Autism good because of the learning boost or bad because they don't have any social time because they cant deal with others?

 

[Drakmeire]

I guess we might be bad people to ask since I'm pretty sure that most people on the escapist value knowledge over people. I suppose it's an interesting trade-up I guess if he absolutely terrible with people he should get some social skills training so he can put his knowledge to good use with others. but I do think being educated is more important than "hanging with the cool kids"

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Well from an individualistic stand point I would say it's a bad point as of the social problems and the way other people may look down on that person. They really need to be able to grow socially and have new experiences, but as long as they are happy with what they're doing I suppose that's second best.

But from another viewpoint I would say that it is useful, if you have an autistic child who is interested in computers he will learn those computers inside out and his knowledge will be very useful and he could potentially go on to further those things he's interested in. But this is more of a 'cold' view of the situation...

 

[Drakmeire]

I'm going to start off saying this "My little brother has autism", he wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old to help him from receiving the flu, but all of the vaccines in that year had expired and had mercury inside of all of the expired bottles and effected hundreds of kids within those years.

ok, I didn't even notice this at first... no... thats not... that's not how it works, autism and aspergers is genetic and not caused by vaccines I did a report on why that's not true for a college essay. mercury is never in harmful doses in a vaccine and I'm not even sure if mercury can expire.

 

[NoMoreBurninashun]

i have aspergers syndrome and this makes me wonder what your own personal opinion on autism is mostly, i would like to say that its really not as clear cut as a learning boost and no social skills i personally think (and hope) that people dont consider me too wierd a guy but on the other hand, you never know. through my own experiences i did have some obsessions especially when i was younger but they never stoped me from making friends or learning how to interact socially. as far as education goes the only topic i was ever any good at was english so congrats to your brother on being so gifted academicly =). also this is probably the most long winded comment ive ever made and probably seems kind of pointless when i could summerise it in "its different but it has its perks"

 

[DELTA x WOLF]

OK then how did a healthy child at birth become slow to learn until he was 6 and then out of nowhere have the education of a 11th grader at 10, he didn't get out of dippers until he was 5. Not bad parenting

 

[rokkolpo]

It's neither good nor bad.

It's up to him. is he happy?
if yes then it's good.

Also many of the greatest scientists in history were Autistic.
It gives them the ability to think outside the box and observe the box from a different perspective.

If only they could isolate the brilliant part of autism and discard the social one.
I say Autism is good, it brings color in this world, and one that might matter instead of skin color.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

this thread reeks of flame bait. why would you start off with such a controversial (and unfounded) statement as "vaccines cause autism" and then ask a different question, as if the vaccine debate weren't really what you were trying to focus on?

but, to give you the benefit of the doubt, my answer to your *stated* question is this: depends on how lucky a given autistic person is. if they are a rare autistic savant, then you might consider it a good thing. but most of the time they receive little to no benefit while suffering crippling social problems.

 

[JoJo]

I think it depends on how severe the autism is, I have Asperger's symdrome and I generally view it as a positive, but then I've learned over the years how to socialise almost normally (though after a while of knowing me people realise that I'm not completely "normal".) Hopefully your brother will learn eventually how to socialise well enough to keep a job and make some friends, as long as you can get to that level then it doesn't really matter.

And it's been proved that there's no link between vaccines and autism, that was just a media-hyped scare story. Trying to blame the condition on something won't help your brother in the long-term.

 

[TheUnchosenOne]

I'm going to start off saying this "My little brother has autism", he wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old to help him from receiving the flu, but all of the vaccines in that year had expired and had mercury inside of all of the expired bottles and effected hundreds of kids within those years.

Okay, first, I registered solely so I could tell you how completely and utterly wrong you are. There is no connection whatsoever between vaccines and autism.

Also, Asperger's causes very little to no change in mental development or cognitive abilities. That's one of they key differences between it and other autism spectrum disorders. Asperger's didn't make your brother smart, his genes did. Just like his genes gave him Asperger's.

Anyway, to the question: bad. Obviously. Just because autism is less bad in some doesn't make it good. If you'd ever seen an autistic child who couldn't interact with the world in any meaningful way you'd know that. EDIT: By "less bad" I mean a lot of people can function quite normally. But in general: bad.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

I guess we might be bad people to ask since I'm pretty sure that most people on the escapist value knowledge over people. I suppose it's an interesting trade-up I guess if he absolutely terrible with people he should get some social skills training so he can put his knowledge to good use with others. but I do think being educated is more important than "hanging with the cool kids"

It isn't really abotu "hanging out with cool kids" If ANYONE mentions planes, and someone with asberger's is interested in planes, there is a chance they will HOUND that person for all their knowledge and talk about nothing else. Trying to change the subject will usually get "eh... So what do you think about this plane's..."

Education is good, but this is about being able to hang out with anyone at all

 

[TheUnchosenOne]

OK then how did a healthy child at birth become slow to learn until he was 6 and then out of nowhere have the education of a 11th grader at 10, he didn't get out of dippers until he was 5. Not bad parenting

Parenting has nothing to do with it. He was born with it. It's just that symptoms generally don't start to show until 6 months, and aren't obvious until three years or so.

 

[PeePantz]

I'd have to agree with Ricky on this:

Spoiler

Being a savant has it's benefits but I never think autism is a "good" thing.

 

[Tekkawarrior]

I'm going to start off saying this "My little brother has autism", he wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old to help him from receiving the flu, but all of the vaccines in that year had expired and had mercury inside of all of the expired bottles and effected hundreds of kids within those years.

Okay, first, I registered solely so I could tell you how completely and utterly wrong you are. There is no connection whatsoever between vaccines and autism.

Also, Asberger's causes very little to no change in mental development or cognitive abilities. That's one of they key differences between it and other autism spectrum disorders. Asberger's didn't make your brother smart, his genes did. Just like his genes gave him Asberger's.

Anyway, to the question: bad. Obviously. Just because autism is less bad in some doesn't make it good. If you'd ever seen an autistic child who couldn't interact with the world in any meaningful way you'd know that. EDIT: By "less bad" I mean a lot of people can function quite normally. But in general: bad.

I'm in awe at "Okay, first, I registered solely so I could tell you how completely and utterly wrong you are."

Welcome to The Escapist, sounds like you might fit in pretty well by the sounds of it.

 

[Lord Kloo]

OK then how did a healthy child at birth become slow to learn until he was 6 and then out of nowhere have the education of a 11th grader at 10, he didn't get out of dippers until he was 5. Not bad parenting

Generally the symptoms cannot be noticed until about 6 months or later and sometimes they are even delayed to a later stage, depending on the level of Autism.

My younger brother has severe autism to the stage at which he has the mental age of a 3/4 year old at the age of 16, his wasn't recognized until he was 2 when most kids start to speak, I have to say, I assume that your brother has a very mild form of autism that may only have affected at certain stages, it could even be just a bad stage, I was put in special classes (8-10 years old) yet when I finished secondary school I was in the top 17 so it could just be struggling or more likely mild autism..

And people don't get it from the flu jabs etc, the top scientists reckon it is caused by a kind of selective virus, a bit like cancers, and only some are born with a DNA capable of supporting the autism 'virus'.. I'm not a scientist so I might be wrong..

 

[TheUnchosenOne]

I'm in awe at "Okay, first, I registered solely so I could tell you how completely and utterly wrong you are."

Welcome to The Escapist, sounds like you might fit in pretty well by the sounds of it.

He's possessed of an idea that is actively dangerous. It's not that I disagree with him (I've been lurking for a while, and have seen lots of posts I disagreed with). It's that he's part of a group of people putting children at risk because of their ignorance.

 

[KnowYourOnion]

He wasn't born with it he was given a vaccine when he was 2 years old to help him from receiving the flu, but all of the vaccines in that year had expired and had mercury inside of all of the expired bottles and effected hundreds of kids within those years.

They have disproved this SO MANY TIMES.

Drives me mad to hear it.

You get more mercury eating a single piece of tuna.

Thank a deity of your choice!!!
I don't get why that myth is till being perpetuated....................

OT: It's not black or white, it's not a necessarily a bad thing he has autism if he's happy.
For me it would be terrible thing because I rely on my social skills to function and to enjoy life. If he doesn't feel the compunction to go out, socialise and is comfortable as he is then leave him to enjoy himself

 

[TheUnchosenOne]

And people don't get it from the flu jabs etc, the top scientists reckon it is caused by a kind of selective virus, a bit like cancers, and only some are born with a DNA capable of supporting the autism 'virus'.. I'm not a scientist so I might be wrong..

Neither cancer nor autism is caused by any kind of virus. It's genetic.

 

[SaturdayS]

Animals with social skills are generally more advanced and successful on an evolutionary scale but it'll be the intelligent, obsessive types who have the most hope of surviving mass extinction.