I am one, actually. I was diagnosed with autism, despite not really having any difficulties. I'm a little odd, I myself admit, but I object to being labeled as something, simply because they dramatically expanded the definition in the past decade.
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Apple Celebrates Autism Acceptance Month With Two New Videos
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I really hope there is a new Age to get us out of the current state of "Dark Ages/witch hunt" thinking so many people have since the internet enabled anyone to pretend to be an expert. There needs to be more Neil deGrass Tysons and Bill Nyes to explain scientific principles in an easy-to-understand way for people without scientific backgrounds. And the media needs to be more discerning about the content they pass off as scientific to people who will take no time to look into further and have little ability to question.
Me too. Our daughter is on the other side of the spectrum, and we had to learn how to work with her needs.
Good on Apple for their work.
This should make even the Apple haters proud of this company for what they've done here. These individuals are truly unique and one of a kind, and I encourage anyone to find out more about them.
There are a lot of people who have a degree from Google University... or they slept at a Holiday Inn Express.
Some of the best advice I ever got from a boss I had at P&G was "If something someone says doesn't sound right to you, ask for their data". I use that advice ALL the time.
In a way, I'm glad they did. My 8 year daughter is on the edge of the spectrum, and she is incredibly smart, but is missing out on social skills. I used to think that she was being obstinate, but after I learned her needs, I am better able to take care of her. That expansion of the definition allows her to get the help she needs, both at school and through our insurance.
For her, it is short, directive sentences, and in the early morning, when we are both awake, we have conversations about time, why airplanes fly, how we can design a house that looks like a castle, and that she wants to be a ballet dancer. Also, before she does her homework, she just needs to run about a 1/4 mile, and then she's ready to go.
I just hope she's learning as much from me as I am from her.
No controversy here ... or maybe there is .... like the pharmaceutical companies artificially inflating the numbers to sell drugs. hmmm.
You are not that stupid, are you? Vaccination is a European invention of the late 19th century. Names like Edward Jenner, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch come to mind. Nobody gives a damn about ownership of universities in today's USofA. During the 20th century smallpox killed between 300-500 million people and the disease is now completely eradicated thanks to vaccination. Get some knowledge!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox
Which is likely part of why it was redefined to include millions more people. I once asked a psychiatrist to define "Aspergers", part of the autism "spectrum". Long story short, she couldn't. I refuse to be diagnosed as something which cannot be defined.
Apparently and perhaps ironically, Steve Jobs limited his own children's exposure to them. He wanted to ensure they became exposed to to nature. To interact with the outside world. To be physically active. All things in moderation. That includes tech too. Let us not rely too much on the magical brain in a box. Variety, choice and adult input is paramount to a balanced outlook. No excuses. The iPad. Or indeed any electronic device or aid should be welcomed. But not to the exclusion of real life either. 
I'm digging where you're coming from... it seems everything has to have a medical condition label when it's just someone is different.
Boy did you miss his point big time. Come on man wake up, it's not the vaccines but what's in the vaccines. He was right on all his points
And there is a similar phenomenon with the perceived "increase" in food allergies. Many of the claims of food allergies being logged are simply anxious parents thinking they see some kind of allergic reaction in their kids that's not actually there. And so many parents actually provoke peanut allergies in their children because they are so afraid of it they don't give their kids peanut butter in that crucial early period when kids need to be exposed to all things to get their body's immunities developed.
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I'll bite. What's in the vaccines? You know they have already removed the mercury preservatives from all but a couple uncommon vaccines to make the scaredy cats happy, right?
At least 80 percent of victims of smallpox were under the age of ten.
What's in the vaccine is what stopped children from looking like this:
What's in the vaccine is what stopped children from looking like this:
Side effects from vaccination may include, not dying from smallpox.
Now please repeat your story about scientists working for evil corp.
I somewhat agree. As someone else mentioned, the diagnoses for autism have spiked in recent years, but it has nothing to do with autism: It has to do with parenting and how we deal with who we or our children are in recent years. Instead of just trying our best without feeling particularly entitled, we now pathologize every part of who we are and try to get the bonuses we think we deserve. It's a foul practice and I strongly believe that this teaches our children wrong concepts of personal responsibility.
But again, I do not believe this has anything to do autism — autism is just targeted because it's one of those diseases/developmental disorders that are defined as a spectrum. It's sad, but there are many other examples.
Man I wish I knew what was in them now a days. Who knows what big pharma puts in them. And yes I'm sure to an extent one of the reasons autism has skyrocketed over the years is more awareness and doctors who now know what to look for. But I still don't feel it explains the vast number of cases vs say the 1980s etc. or even the 90s.
There is a problem and it's not being addressed. Why? Because somewhere someone what's it that way.
Why do you think it's not being addressed? After all, this thread is about an Autism Acceptance/Awareness day. Remember that meeting I referred to earlier? There was a chart predicting when major diseases will probably be mostly cured and autism was on there. They ARE working on it. Assuming the anti-GMO people don't ruin the process and make gene tech a complete pariah and no one wants to be involved in it anymore. THOSE are the people you should be angry with. People who are irrationally fearful of gene technology, want to keep cannabis illegal and people obstructing fetal tissue research. It's the anti-science people who keep us sick, not scientists.
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Awareness is great! But are we addressing the cause enough? The root of the problem. Why so many cases in such a short period of time. Why such a drastic increase of diagnoses it's 1 out of every 10.
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At least 80 percent of victims of smallpox were under the age of ten.
What's in the vaccine is what stopped children from looking like this:
Side effects from vaccination may include, not dying from smallpox.
Now please repeat your story about scientists working for evil corp.
It's not fair to compare the two.
There will always be those people that don't want the latest medical innovations. I can only imagine what the people thought of the original smallpox vaccine:
You cut yourself, take the puss of someone infected, and smear it into the cut. There, now you're inoculated. By the way, that's an order, from the General.
It helped us win the Revolutionary War... http://www.celebritydiagnosis.com/2011/02/george-washington-smallpox-and-the-american-revolution/
Do you know why it is so easy to be irrational about vaccines and food additives? Because no one alive remembers how bad it was before they existed. Do we really have to return to the days where kids get polio and whooping cough and our vegetables are full of bugs, bug poop and mushy spots and everything spoils before we can eat it to understand what all these technological advances were developed for in the first place?
I'm not against vaccinations at all. Again that's not the issue. What worries people is what's in the vaccines. What we don't know, maybe I'm just nuts though lol
80's and 90's was when you started to see articles on being Aspergers on the Internet, and the 90's was when you started to see more internet tests for diagnosing those on the spectrum. That's how I learned I was Aspie. I read up on Aspergers on the internet, thought, "Hm, am I that?" Then took an online test (yep!). Anyway, these articles, and then tests allowed parents read up on the "symptoms" of this condition and say, "oh, that's why my kid acts the way he/she acts!"
I mean, Apple just discussed how their HealthKit app got HUGE numbers of people with Parkinson's giving researchers information that they'd ever gotten before when they put up flyers asking for study volunteers. That same thing happened in the 80-90's with autism when the internet gave frustrated parents a chance to read up on autism, and chat with hundreds, even thousands of others with kids like theirs. Suddenly, these parents had a name for this condition, could get their child labeled that (and counted in the numbers). Organizations sprung up, further spreading information, commercials appeared, and parents, teachers, even medical professionals became much more aware of autism's range and symptoms.
But you don't have to trust me. There's been a new study that shows that 2/3rds of the kids labeled as autistic would have been labeled as something else just ten years ago: "In the new study, Girirajan and colleagues combed through data collected in each state for approximately 6.2 million U.S. school children with disabilities who are enrolled in special education programs. The information is collected each year under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Based on his or her diagnosis, each child was assigned to one of 13 broader categories, ranging from autism to physical challenges such as blindness.
Between 2000 and 2010, the number of children in the autism category more than tripled from 93,624 in 2000 to 419,647 a decade later. Yet nearly two-thirds of that increase was matched by a decline in the rate at which children were labeled as having an “intellectual disability.” The number of kids in that category fell from 637,270 to 457,478."
That explains it. But I'm pretty sure you're not going to agree. Which leads me to wonderet if there's any explaination that you would accept OTHER than that there's some secret chemical creating us Aspies, one that if removed would leave every newborn Neurotypical and erase Autism from the face of the earth? (Hm, this is sounding a bit sinister. Is there no other explaination for us Aspies but that we are Frankenstein monsters created by evil modern science? And, thus, in need of eradication?) Because it's pointless to give you so many easy answers to this question if you're only willing to hear the one you want to hear.
I would read it.
I would read what you have to say...I'm sure it's more profound and enlightening than half of the comments on this forum so don't be afraid to make your statement. People on macrumors are still getting over the baby iPad pro having 2 GB of ram or their iPhone 6s Plus lagging so your comments will definitely help.
No, please share!
I really do appreciate the statements, so thank you.
To be honest with you, in my original post, I wrote all of what I wanted to say and was about to hit “Post Reply”, but I hesitated, deleted all but the first paragraph of my original post and added that second paragraph saying I had a lot to say but I’ll end it here. (Also, I do have a habit of typing very long and almost essay-like messages and I know that’s almost always met with annoyance so I wanted to avoid that, too.)
I truly do sincerely apologize if you did want to read more of what I said. But seeing that many of you are interested in reading what I have to say, I'll certainly consider doing so once I've figured out what I want to say again.