Aspie Dad

Driving to work today, I was daydreaming at a traffic light (no, not quite like Jackson Browne’s The Pretender) and kind of abstractly thought of absent-minded professors forgetting where they lived and such. Probably because I was near the University.

Since we are now fond of saying that Uncle Al (Einstein) was likely on the spectrum, should the term be, “Autistic Minded Professor?”

Just a thought…

[edit: reminder to self: learn how to spell 'Einstein']

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I had not heard of either Shadow Traits or Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP) before. Big Orange over at The Vision Splendid began the process of clueing me in. Paradiz’s Elijah’s Cup has been added to the ‘read’ pile. I reccomend his whole post…

I was reading Valerie Paradiz’s book “Elijah’s Cup: A Family’s Journey into the Community and Culture of High-Functioning Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome” when suddenly my heart nearly skipped a beat. I believe I found myself in her book when she introduced me to the topic of autistic “shadow traits”. She says “Geneticists call this BAP, or broader autism phenotype. Their studies show that BAP features occur at a higher incidence among parents and siblings of autistic children than they do in families with no autistic member.”

Hmmm… So, what then is a “shadow trait” and BAP?? In her book she quotes researchers Susan Folstein and Susan Santangelo:

“[i]n concept, BAP is similar to both autism and [Asperger's syndrome], but the traits and the behaviors are not usually severe and sometimes have adaptive value; it usually does not come to clinical attention. Individuals with BAP generally lack the markedly restricted interests or striking difficulties of getting along in the workplace that plague individuals with [Asperger’s Syndrome].”

I could not resist commenting:

[I]t sounds like any get together of either my wife’s or my families.

Our wedding was ‘interesting,’ with so many people who get overwhelmed and need to retreat and decompress. At any given time (except for the vows) someone essential was not to be found…

I ended up at The Vision Splendid and learned about these things because of Mom-NOS’s Do you speak Babaganoush?. Thanks, Mom-NOS.

This should not have needed to be written. I’m sorry I can’t do a better job on this, Katie, but I am having a real hard time with this. I keep thinking about myself at your age and my beautiful little Aspie Boy who is only a year and a half older than you. Ballastexistenz has done a good job for you today, so has Kristina and Kevin and a whole bunch of people at the Autism Hub. [update: Autism Diva has penned a must read.]

For those of you that don’t know, Katherine McCarron was an autistic three year old girl. Not much more than a toddler, really. Her mother was a medical doctor (a pathologist), but she took a plastic bag and suffocated Katherine with it. Her last few minutes must have been terrifying. I really can’t imagine.

Friends of Katherine’s mom say that she spent time helping other people in online forums. As far as Katie was concerned, it seems she was involved with the so-called ‘treatment’ option. Which, to my mind, means that she thought Katherine could be ‘fixed’, that something in Katherine was ‘broken.’ And I guess when she realized that the treatments and cures would not help, she took her own action. I’m tempted to call it her ‘final solution.’ I guess I just did. I don’t think that term is inappropriate here because I think a lot of people would like for us to go away.

I am sorry I will never get to know you or see you play with my little boy. I think the two of you would have had fun together. I am sorry I could not have helped, Katie.

I will give my little Aspie Boy an extra couple of dozen hugs tonight when I see him again. This will bug him a bit because he gets annoyed if he gets touched too much. He will ask me, “Daddy, why are you hugging me?”

And I will say, “Because I can.”

Some will parse that I was referring to the murder of 3-year old Katherine McCarron in that previous post.

On Wednesday the 24th some of the Autism Hub members will be making special posts as part of a memorial day for Katherine. Participation is completely elective…

These special posts will appear normally on The Hub on Wednesday. The Hub will be ’shut’ for the day on Thursday the 25th and will re-open for normal business on Friday.

Just to get the prenatal genetic testing thought/discussion ball rolling, Kristina points to Dr. Arthur Caplan’s article “Would you have allowed Bill Gates to be born?“…

[later:] Woo Hoo! Autism Diva has a great post (the comments are not to be missed either) in this vein, Allison Tepper Singer and Rett Girls.

Autism Speaks commissioned a video called Autism Every Day to be made for a fundraising gala, presumably to impress upon the potential donors the nightmare that autism is, to cancel out any positive views of autism they may have developed from watching the J-Mac video, to hint at autism being caused by an external agent of some kind, and to send the message, “help us figure out how to stop autism because it may be your child next.”

Ms. Singer is senior vice-president of Autism Speaks, the big charity corporation run by Bob Wright of General Electric and the National Broadcasting System (NBC). Ms. Singer apparently has an older brother who is autistic and has 2 girls, one autistic and one apparently normal. (more)

It would seem that Ms. Singer was instrumental in the production of the Autism Speaks movie…

You know the one I mean.

Great Ghu. I have been ignoring it, but I finally succumbed to morbid curiosity and watched Autism Every Day at Autism Speaks. [that's right, no link.]

I feel like I’ve been kicked in the head. I don’t know what to say. I have no idea what was passing through their heads when they made this (actually, I *do* have an idea.) Eugenics or Murder/Suicide would seem like a logical option if you took this short film to heart. What a grave disservice…

Aaargh! I have to go take a walk… How do you wash you brain out with soap?