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It was 1981I have never heard that before, "environmentally retarded." That must have been some time ago since "retarded" would not be considered PC these days, though it does make sense.
There are stories of children being kept in horrific conditions in Romanian orphanages, neglected of the most basic human contact who, when removed for those environments, show autistic-like traits. When given proper levels of attention and love these qualities then diminish. It illustrates that autism isn't solely an environmental factor, more proof that the outdated idea of "refrigerator mothers" was very incorrect.
I don't know about autistic children developing more autistic qualities through neglect though. It would certainly hamper any chance of intervention from occurring naturally.
Any behavioral challenges that arise from dysfunctional environments or traumatic upbringing will fall more into the Post-Traumatic Stress disorder category. Many of the sensitivities and social difficulties are similar, as is the emotional abnormalities. With proper therapy these people can learn or relearn normal thinking, feeling, and coping skills. but PTSD and Asperger's are two very different disorders. PTSD is more environmentally caused, while Autism Spectrum Disorders would be more genetically caused.
karen70
"Refrigerator mother theory is a widely discarded theory that autism was caused by a lack of maternal warmth."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_mother_theory
[Link provides additional information/background, but that's the gist of it.]
http://www.pbs.org/pov/refrigeratormothers/fridge/
http://www.autism-help.org/points-refrigerator-mothers.htm
'Refrigerator mothers', can you please explain this, sorry but not heard the expression... and this particular topic is very interesting to me.
Thank you.
Although it has been long since proven that refrigerator mothers don't cause autism, could they create such an environment to cause a child to emulate autism; hence, Artificial Autism (Asperger's)?
A specific situation came to me when I read this; my ex(who probably has AS) raised our dog under all his strict norms. He would give him 10 pieces of dog food. Exactly ten lol. And he would congratulate and reward him when he sat straight. So, consequently, all the people who met my dog told me "your dog isn't like a normal dog, right? he doesn't run around, he is very still all the time... he seems serious" lol.Has anyone seen or know of any studies on Artificial Asperger’s? That is to say, can someone grow up from birth until they leave their environment in such a dysfunctional home that their way of thinking, including difficulties with stimuli and/or sensory overload, can emulate Asperger’s even to the point of fooling clinical exams?
If you do not believe that Artificial Asperger’s could occur, could one have mild Asperger’s, but have it become exacerbated over the years by living in a dysfunctional environment?
There are much smarter people on here than me, so I’m looking forward to some lively discussion on this.
yeah I think it makes a lot of sense that a kid raised by and aspie parent would appear to be aspie himself. After all, we do emulate our parent´s(or the people who we are closer to) behaviour.That's one of those things that make you go, "Hmm." I'm sure some of the eggheads where I work would have a field-day studying that. Seriously, it does make me wonder, because I know of a young man that was raised in a VERY dysfunctional home to the point that his mother forced her personality on him; he now emulates his mother and acts almost like an Aspie.
Lol i agree, I have tried my whole life not to be like mine in a lot of senses.Oh man, but I hope I don't emulate mine!!! I'm quite content being Aspie if that's the case.
Lol might start doing the same thing in order to avoid telling the long storyI usually tell people that I was raised by wolves.