Lori Alexander's Ramblings About Autism

[GeoBQn]

Lori has a weird rambling post about not letting your babies watch TV and somehow connecting that with autism, and other offensive things.

lorialexander.blogspot.com/2013/10/baby-kenny-loves-television.html

I was talking to a friend recently. Her grandbaby was diagnosed with autism. Her doctor told her to never let the baby stare at a computer screen or television. It is not good for the development of the brain.

But my parents let me watch TV from a young age and I turned out TV.

A friend of mine who works with autistic children said that children need a lot of movement. As soon as they start to crawl, let them crawl all over. This is the best thing for ensuring a smart child. She encourages couples not to put their babies in jumpy or walking things. When they get older, make sure they are outside playing a lot. They should spend very little time watching television or playing computer games and none when they are babies.

I know little about the relationship between movement and child development. I know that when I was born with dislocated hips, the body casts and braces impeded my movement at a time when I wanted to crawl. Later, I had a language acquisition disorder. Were these things related? That could be. Some stages of development need to happen before other stages can begin. But here, it sounds like Lori is autism on parents who don't let their kids move around enough.

More and more children are being diagnosed with autism. I'm not sure what is happening; too many vaccinations, too many chemicals in the environment overloading a poor baby's immune system, I don't know but it is becoming way too common.

NO NO NO NO.

So, dear mothers, be good role models for your children. Don't spend too much time on the computer, iPhone, or watching television, especially when they are young. Take them on walks, play games with them, read to them, and put puzzles together. It will help insure your child the best possibility of doing well in school.

Interacting with children and making sure they are active is good advice, but her placement of this after talking about autism, again, makes it seem like mothers are to blame for autism because they aren't providing enough stimulating activity for their kids. I also thought Lori's advice about letting children crawl around the house and explore was odd considering she endorses the Perls.

[FloraKitty35]

The bitch has balls of brass. She is going on about autism and yet she is fucking mental.

[Verin Sedai]

Her musings on autism are baloney, but she has been told correctly about the avoidance of screen time for small children and not using walkers, jumpers, or exersaucers. None of those are going to ruin a baby, of course, but we were told pretty firmly with our high-muscle tone preemie that he needed to really develop crawling before artificially developing standing skills through walkers and the like. The cross body movement involved in crawling (right hand, left knee; left hand, right knee) builds pathways between the hemispheres of the brain that are foundational to good development later on.

But yeah... people who yammer out their butts on autism drive me crazy.

[Miggy]

More children are being diagnosed with autism = yes.

Children watch more tv than in the past = yes.

Proof of a relationship between the two = ??? (Silence)

My son has Aspergers autism. Fifty years ago he just would have been weird. Today his condition has a name. I am sure this a accounts for at least some of the increase.

I've heard the crawling theory too. Does my son has Aspergers because he only crawled for 2 1/2 months before he walked? My MiL certainly thinks so. Me - I don't think it matters. He walked at 8 1/2 months. He wasn't diagnosed until a couple of years later. The cause is irrelevant as it was too late to avoid it. Interestingly, my daughter didn't crawl at all and walked at 8 months and she has no problems.

[guidedbybobafett]

Laurie. Other idiots who think they're intelligent because they have a blog. Please listen. You are a not a scientist. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO IS ALSO NOT A SCIENTIST? A random physician that you've heard of who validates your nonsense beliefs. Many of the things you posit are, essentially, plausible I guess. Television MIGHT be bad for language acquisition*. Can you point me to the conclusive study that proves that television ~causes~ autism? No, of course you can't. You also can't point me to the study that says that vaccines cause autism. Would you like to know why? I'm sure you wouldn't, but I'll tell you: THERE ISN'T ONE. That is a falsehood propagated by idiots like yourself who [think they're smart, and therefore feel that they're perceptions on life are fact. That's dumb. I feel a lot of stuff, and you know what? It's just feelings. I am able to get by in the day to day while still understanding that every little twinge I get doesn't represent legitimate facts. It must feel pretty good to know that you're capable of understanding things that some people attend years of schooling to only slightly comprehend. Ugh. I'm pretty sure God or whatever isn't a huge fan of overblown nightmare people who think they're smarter than everyone because they got their husbands to tell them to stop crying and start submitting.

*Would like to point out that I don't really see how this follows, but I'm interested in knowing other people's thoughts. This is in radical opposition to my ~opinion~ that I absolutely don't want to hear your ~opinions~ on vaccines causing autism. Because that's wrong.

[jaynie]

Crawling is apparently a lot more variable than you'd think. Some kids only do it backwards, some skip it entirely - my infant development prof even reported a kid she knew who only did a weird upside down crab crawl. All fine. Having freedom to move matters, but there is a huge amount of individual variety in how that freedom is used. And I've no idea how that'd related to ASD in any way...

As for increasing diagnoses, inasmuch as there is an actual increase in prevalence (which is debatable) it may relate to external factors like parental age (NOT vaccines :x ), but doesn't relate to parenting style, except that good parenting can improve outcomes for children with ASD. DSM V has it as a strictly neurobiological disorder.

[RosyDaisy]

Lori, you just got on my last nerve! Who the hell died and make you an expert on autism? You have just insulted every parent (and this aunt) of an autistic child.

YOU ARE A MOTHER FUCKING MONSER! GO TO HELL YOU CRAZY BITCH!

:twisted: :angry-cussingblack: :angry-devil: :angry-fire: :angry-screaming:

[August]

The cross body thing and crawling has been debinked.

Also, autism is largely genetic.

[FreeJosie]

More children are being diagnosed with autism = yes.

Children watch more tv than in the past = yes.

Proof of a relationship between the two = ??? (Silence)

My son has Aspergers autism. Fifty years ago he just would have been weird. Today his condition has a name. I am sure this a accounts for at least some of the increase.

I've heard the crawling theory too. Does my son has Aspergers because he only crawled for 2 1/2 months before he walked? My MiL certainly thinks so. Me - I don't think it matters. He walked at 8 1/2 months. He wasn't diagnosed until a couple of years later. The cause is irrelevant as it was too late to avoid it. Interestingly, my daughter didn't crawl at all and walked at 8 months and she has no problems.

My son has Asperger's too; he started crawling at 7 months but didn't walk on his own until 16 months.

[Verin Sedai]

The cross body thing and crawling has been debinked.

Also, autism is largely genetic.

Do you mind linking a source? I find this curious, since I've been hearing it within the last year from early childhood specialists. Who can, of course, be wrong.

[lilwriter85]

Lori mentioned her grandson in this post. I guess she will start talking about her grandchildren again. The ramblings on autism are crappy. I admit that I don't know much about autisim, but I do remember a documentary on autism that featured people in their 60s and 70s with it.

[thoughtful]

Gee, Lori, if you are going to spew false crap about autism being the fault of the parents, why not go right back to the old "refrigerator mother" crap?

Seems right up your asshole-ish alley.

[frumper-rump]

My son has high functioning autism. He's another one that would have just been "weird" years ago. He never crawled and didn't walk until he was 16 months. However, he used that amazing autistic brain of his and figured out how to get himself from point a to point b. (he either rolled or did an inch-worm type crawl)

One thing I can't stand is someone who has no clue about autism spouting off a bunch of nonsense, BS theories that she probably picked up from a shared 500 times Facebook status quoting some friend of a friend's cousin's neighbor who happens to know of an autistic kid who's mother dared to put him in a bouncy seat to soothe him and BAM- he caught the autism! :angry-banghead:

[Sumeri]

So in other words, Lori, blanket training isn't a good idea?

[docmom]

So in other words, Lori, blanket training isn't a good idea?

I think what she's saying is you can catch teh autism from bouncy seats and walkers but not blankets. It's because the blankets are wool (a natural fiber) whereas teh bouncy seats are full of plastics and other artificial stuff. Also when you hit the baby with a wooden spoon, that's a natural thing too. Not like vaccines which are completely unnatural.

You know it's scary how easily all that came out!

[Conuly]

Do you mind linking a source? I find this curious, since I've been hearing it within the last year from early childhood specialists. Who can, of course, be wrong.

You mean aside from Kanner?

Anecdotally, I can't tell you how many people I personally know of who found out they were autistic after a younger family member got diagnosed.

We also know that men who have children later in life tend to have autistic children and grandchildren, though we don't know why this is so. (I personally suspect that people with autistic traits tend to wait until later to have kids, but it is also possible that something happens to sperm production later in life.)

As far as the so called epidemic goes, lets look at the facts. I ought to get going, so I won't cite any particular source, but all this is check able.

1. Prior to the DSM-IV, the criteria for autism was fairly difficult to attain. If you sorta met it but not quite you might get a diagnosis of mental retardation or childhood schizophrenia. After the DSM-IV came out, autism was the more likely diagnosis.

2. Additionally, the new diagnosis Asperger's entered the world, and with it the concept of an autism spectrum.

3. So on one end of things you have people who might have been diagnosed with schizophrenia or mental retardation being diagnosed autistic, and on the other you have people who might have been diagnosed with ADD or gotten no diagnosis being diagnosed as Asperger's, not to mention HFA or PDD-NOS. Obviously, this translates to an increase in diagnoses.

4. Doctors are taught to look for more common things instead of less common, horses instead of zebras. When more children (and adults!)were being diagnosed as autistic, it became more common and thus they were more likely to diagnose it. Increased diagnoses drive increased awareness, which in turn raises the number of diagnoses. That's even without taking the media into account.

5. At the same time, the reporting of autism rates became more consistent among states. Guess what, that made it seem more prevalent, which made people more aware of it, which....

[Verin Sedai]

You mean aside from Kanner?

Anecdotally, I can't tell you how many people I personally know of who found out they were autistic after a younger family member got diagnosed.

We also know that men who have children later in life tend to have autistic children and grandchildren, though we don't know why this is so. (I personally suspect that people with autistic traits tend to wait until later to have kids, but it is also possible that something happens to sperm production later in life.)

As far as the so called epidemic goes, lets look at the facts. I ought to get going, so I won't cite any particular source, but all this is check able.

1. Prior to the DSM-IV, the criteria for autism was fairly difficult to attain. If you sorta met it but not quite you might get a diagnosis of mental retardation or childhood schizophrenia. After the DSM-IV came out, autism was the more likely diagnosis.

2. Additionally, the new diagnosis Asperger's entered the world, and with it the concept of an autism spectrum.

3. So on one end of things you have people who might have been diagnosed with schizophrenia or mental retardation being diagnosed autistic, and on the other you have people who might have been diagnosed with ADD or gotten no diagnosis being diagnosed as Asperger's, not to mention HFA or PDD-NOS. Obviously, this translates to an increase in diagnoses.

4. Doctors are taught to look for more common things instead of less common, horses instead of zebras. When more children (and adults!)were being diagnosed as autistic, it became more common and thus they were more likely to diagnose it. Increased diagnoses drive increased awareness, which in turn raises the number of diagnoses. That's even without taking the media into account.

5. At the same time, the reporting of autism rates became more consistent among states. Guess what, that made it seem more prevalent, which made people more aware of it, which....

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. I was looking for a source on the cross-body crawling brain link thing I quoted up thread being debunked. [ETA] I was told this by several pediatricians, neonatologists, and early childhood specialists within the past year, and before I take the word of somebody on the internet above theirs, I'd like a little more proof.

I have no quibbles with the idea of autism being genetic, since I have seen that play out in my own family. [ETA] On a side note, hasn't Asperger's been removed from the DSM 5?

[Khiwanean]

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. I was looking for a source on the cross-body crawling brain link thing I quoted up thread being debunked. [ETA] I was told this by several pediatricians, neonatologists, and early childhood specialists within the past year, and before I take the word of somebody on the internet above theirs, I'd like a little more proof.

I have no quibbles with the idea of autism being genetic, since I have seen that play out in my own family. [ETA] On a side note, hasn't Asperger's been removed from the DSM 5?

[link=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/05/autism_spectrum_diagnoses_the_dsm_5_eliminates_asperger_s_and_pdd_nos.html]According to Slate[/link], Asperger's and a few other conditions have been lumped into "Autism Spectrum Disorder."

[Kailash]

As far as I can tell, Lori prefers to blog about stuff that she knows nothing about. :cray-cray:

[dairyfreelife]

As far as I can tell, Lori prefers to blog about stuff that she knows nothing about. :cray-cray:

pretty much, yes

[GolightlyGrrl]

As far as I can tell, Lori prefers to blog about stuff that she knows nothing about. :cray-cray:

Lori acts like she's an expert on everything because she and the Bible are tight. But to be honest, she is a damn moron, a dangerous moron.

[dairyfreelife]

Lori acts like she's an expert on everything because she and the Bible are tight. But to be honest, she is a damn moron, a dangerous moron.

And you know if there a god, like she thinks there is, s/he has to be constantly :doh: :roll: at Lori and Ken.

[lilwriter85]

In today's post, she has rambled about anti-biotics. I know there is quite a bit of debate regarding the use and how much anti-biotics are used. But with Lori she acts like a huge expert. I agree with someone else, she did insult parents of autistic children with the autism post.

[Jana814]

I can't believe that people actually believe what she says!!

[smittykins]

I almost never use language like this on a message board, but...

Go fuck yourself, Lori.