15/5/06 Sunday Times Scotland

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-2177218,00.html

The Sunday Times - Scotland

The Sunday TimesMay 14, 2006

Grant: Some ‘autistic’ children aren’t ill, they’re just badly behaved

‘Autism cases soar.†The headlines this week have been dramatic, as well

they might be, given a reported 600% rise in diagnosis of autistic spectrum

disorder.

The statistics are alarming. In 1999 there were 114 autistic children in

Scotland’s secondary schools; now there are 825. In primary schools over the

same period the numbers have risen from 415 to 1,736. But while I have no

doubt that Bill Welsh, the chairman of Action Against Autism, is entirely

well intentioned when he labels the recent statistics a “public health

crimeâ€, he is scaremongering in the most sensational way. Look behind these

stark figures and reports of an “epidemic†of autism are grossly exaggerated

The plain fact is that autism has attained a certain notoriety, particularly

after the MMR scare — and despite the fact that the study by

Wakefield linking the condition with the triple vaccination for measles,

mumps and rubella was so thoroughly discredited in this newspaper. Since the

publication of Mark Haddon’s excellent novel The Curious Incident of the Dog

in the Night-Time — whose hero is a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome — it

has become even more fashionable.

To the great distress of parents whose children really are on the autistic

spectrum, the condition has been adopted by many other parents on behalf of

children who are not ill, just badly behaved. If a child is described as

“autisticâ€, nobody can be angry if he or, more rarely, she throws a tantrum

at school or consistently irritates the neighbours.

Children know that if they suffer from some kind of behaviour “ismâ€, good

things result: reduced expectation, indulgence instead of punishment, safety

from even the gentlest rebuke. At the first sign of a teacher’s impatience,

the child can rush home and cry “abuseâ€. Autism, a serious condition when

real, is being exploited by others for all it’s worth.

And it’s worth quite a lot. A diagnosis of some kind of behaviour “ismâ€

might result in £80 a week disability living allowance. If a parent has to

become a carer, it is worth even more. I stress again that there are

families who absolutely need and deserve the state’s help with children who

really do suffer from neurological disorders, but there are also families

whose children are not ill and therefore deserve no such help.

Grahame, the SNP MSP who has taken it upon herself to brandish the

autism statistics about, needs to be careful she is not being taken for a

mug. “Autism-specific inspections have been negligible,†she says. “Those

pupils with autism deserve to have the right level of support in place, not

just from educational staff, but also from supporting health professionals.â€

Indeed they do. But we also need to understand that inspection will not be

synonymous with accuracy. An inspector’s job depends on giving bad news.

Create an autism-specific inspectorate and, within moments, without children

being any different, the 600% increase in autism will become a 1,200% rise.

Some say that the MMR vaccine should be delayed until the child is between

18 months and two years old. However, what we should really be doing in the

face of the “autism epidemic†is not showering “isms†on children, but

finding out the true reasons they are doing badly at school and are unable

to communicate. Nine times out of 10 it will be family breakdown, community

paralysis, hopeless parenting or, perhaps more controversially, putting a

child into a large nursery from the age of six weeks so that one-to-one

communication is minimal from the word go. If a child cannot concentrate,

why automatically blame autism? It is not autism that makes so many children

fidget all the time, it is habit. Children unused to staring at anything

static, or making conversation that does not consist of grunts, are bound to

appear strange.

However, although some may be autistic, I doubt that most are really ill.

Some may just be clever and bookish while others are simply suffering from a

peculiarly modern kind of neglect and adapting their behaviour to cope.

There are no perfect parents. But it must surely be the worst kind of damage

to label your child with an “ism†when there is nothing wrong except that

you’ve not done a great job at child rearing. With effort, you can often

remedy your own failings, but once you place your child in the hands of the

“ism†authorities, who knows where they may end up? For the sake of all our

children, let’s treat these “shock, horror†autism statistics with extreme

care.