PegasusWing's Blog

There use to be just the severe autism like Dustin Hoffman in the Rain Man. That occurred 1 in every 2000 to 3000. The "New Autism" is 1 in every 100.

This new autism is less severe and occurs most frequently in professional families. My daughter, a school psychologist, every time a child was diagnosed with autism, noticed that the father was an engineer and the mother worked. Of course, this was Silicone Valley, home of techies.

It is well known that babies who use to have extended stays in the hospital or who were born into understaffed orphanages, for lack of tactile stimulation and lack of being touched and held, would literally turn their faces to the wall and die.

Today hospitals have nurses, volunteers, and parents making sure that the babies are held, cuddled, and talked to. I had enough psy classes in college, that I observe everything.

When I held my babies, I played a game. If I hold you, you must stay awake and entertain Mom. When she got tired, she wanted me to put her in her bed. When my husband held her, he managed to read the newspaper at the same time. Very little one on one stimulation, often she fell asleep in his arms. Differences in parenting styles. We balanced each eachother.

I watched an educational show on autism. A woman's second child had the "new autism." Both parents were professional, the baby had sitters. She kept telling the doctor that something was wrong, finally about age 3 the doctor agreed.

They found a place, maybe, in Wisconsin that did critical intervention. They had the parents crawl around a gym with the baby crawling under them. The parents were to make the child put one hand and knee forward, then the other, until the baby was putting in serious distance.

The communication changed. The parents got right in the face of the baby and forced eye contact, attention, and communication. This child on the program, came back from Never Never Land and developed normally.

When they brought the autistic child home, they hired college babysitters. The babysitters were trained to interact properly with the child.

Also, crawling is necessary. Babies who skip the crawling stage, often have trouble reading. Some reading programs have games where the kids are crawling on the floor, moving one object from one place to another.  Even prison reading programs, found that the non-readers skipped the crawling stage.
Interesting?

I was a primary care giver for a child with Asburgers (a form of autism) and Tourettes. In brain scans, the whole left side of her brain showed no electrical activity at all. In the report, her mother reported that about 8 months, the child became less engaging. Mother was a social worker; father an engineer. This case may have been entirely physical rather than social onset.

Since cases of this new autism are 1 in 100, I would expect to see a great deal more information on this subject. I imagine that most people have better manners than I do and are concerned not to cause offense.

This information is not meant to instill guilt.  However, the numbers of children with the new autism are rising.  This is to alert parents to be self critical.  Hugs count.  Facial interaction counts.  Physical exercise for the babies count.

Get rid of that wind up swing.  The babies need to be on a quilt on the floor waving and kicking the arms and legs with plenty of attention from their parents.  Kids go from crib to strapped in high chair, to car seat, to shopping cart, to baby carrier.  All strap in's that restrict movement.  Baby exercise somehow stimulates the brain's normal development.  Lie on the floor beside a baby and try to keep up with those seemingly effortless movements.  You won't last!