Some children may "outgrow" Autism

[Mr Allen]

Link, this just came up on my Facebook feed so I thought I'd share it with you guys.

Thoughts?

 

[clg114]

These kids were probably misdiagnosed to begin with.

 

[Theta.G]

I think with HF autism it's possible. Neuro-plasticity. If they are surrounded by NT's and a lack of ND or ND activities, escapes such as gaming it's possible that the brain could be reshapen in an NT environment. This is especially true for children since their brains are still developing. A large part of this possibility would lay on the parents shoulders. To be effective and informed teachers... who understand the brain, psychology, physiology, NT's and autism. And have the ability to put into action what they know even when faced with parental stress. Which is very rare.

 

[Suzanne]

I could barely read the STUPID reasoning and well, incredably prejudiced write up. That is the overall sense I got from reading (scanning) the article.

It is only gaining more and more knowledge regarding aspergers, that I realise now, so much of my behaviour patterns as a child!

 

[pjcnet]

Interesting, I was severely impaired as a very young child common with being on the lower end of the autistic spectrum with extremely slow speech development, unlike both my brothers however who remained lower functioning, I significantly improved and recovered, but I still kept numerous autistic traits on the higher functioning end of the spectrum. It is feasibly possible however that a child could grow up and recover so much that they don't have any obvious autistic traits at all, especially if unlike myself they already started on the higher functioning end of the autistic spectrum when they were very young. This may have been missed in the past since only children who were low functioning were normally diagnosed. We are still only amateurs with limited understanding of the workings of the brain and the brain itself goes through a vast amount of development and growth while we are children, especially at an early age.

We have to be very careful however that people who are only emulating NTs aren't classed as truly NT because even though they might be-able to pass as an NT and fail to meet the criteria for being on the autistic spectrum, they are still truly autistic and it uses a lot more energy to emulate because it's not their true self, plus this could also have adverse effects in the future. A child that is still quite young however probably wouldn't be old enough to emulate so well and this adds to the likeness that there is something to this. Since this phenomenon is most likely related to childhood development of the brain, it's very unlikely that they will be-able to replicate what they might call a "cure" however, certainly not in the foreseeable future anyway.

 

[Beguiling Orbit]

Color me unimpressed by this study. It took until adulthood, but I can mimic NT behavior well enough to fool untrained undergraduate students.

 

[WereBear]

Studies suggest that people with autism tend to be less extroverted, agreeable, conscientious and open — and more neurotic — than typical people are.​

Huh. I must not have autism, then.

 

[Katleya]

It took until adulthood, but I can mimic NT behavior well enough to fool untrained undergraduate students.

Oh, Beguiling Orbit, I'm sure you're downplaying your chameleon abilities: many of us can mimic well enough to fool even seasoned psychiatrists

 

[the_tortoise]

Depends on whether you consider autism to be the symptoms, or whatever brain differences may cause the symptoms.

I read about a study where autistic children who appeared to have developed the same abilities as typically developing controls, when brain imaging studies were done while they were doing tasks it was demonstrated that the autistic children had very different patterns of brain activity. (Having trouble remembering any useful keywords to find the article or the study, but if I can find either I will post a link. Can't remember if the autistic children were considered to show no autism symptoms or if this was just looking at a particular symptom or group of symptoms, but it's still relevent.)

 

[onlything]

I think that it is fully possible for these children, if diagnosed correctly to begin with, to become chameleon-like in behaviour under the pressure of getting rid of the 'undesired' traits and behaviours.

 

[Voltaic]

one of my theories is that autism is something that makes people lack knowledge, and through learning, can be overcome. I think that we can act normal at times, trying our best to use what we know to fit in, or doing so at subconsous level. Some overcome thier disabilities better than others. maybe becuase of how bad the disability is to begin with, or the persons ability to change.

I dont think people outgrow outism, they overcome it.

 

[Fitzo]

I think you can learn to mimic behavior enough to fool people, but because you're only copying not truly understanding you'll still behave innapropriately at times. Then people will be scratching their heads and asking 'what's wrong with you'? I don't believe there will ever be a 'cure' unless they find a way to physically change people's neurology - and that is a very scary thought!

 

[Gracey]

Children without a diagnosis of autism also mimic demonstrated behaviour.
(Albert Bandura's BoBo Dolls experiment)



I'm going to guess that the previously diagnosed children in the link don't outgrow anything, they use their phenomenal intelligence to adapt.
(No conscious plan)
They observe and learn and adapt.


It would be interesting to know if there are any changes to those previously diagnosed children during the more 'hormonal' stages of their development (puberty, pregnancy, menopause)
That which is supposedly "outgrown" makes a comeback during these intensely hormonal stages?
(I have no facts or studies to support the above, my mind is wandering through curiosity)

 

[Progster]

I don't think that autistic people stop being autistic, they just learn to imitate their NT peers and develop coping strategies to fit in. They learn the environment they are in, but if they were to move into a new environment, or if they were put under stress or pressure, the autism would come back.

 

[SimplyWandering]

I have to disagree with this assertion that you can rid yourself of autism. It is very similar to " Autism Speaks' "ideology which is a fallacy.

Neuro plasticity is 1 thing, but fixing 1000s of synapses is something impossible at this point in scientific studies .

Autism is a Neuro Developmental Disorder with deficits in social communication among other areas.
It cannot be cured. It isn't a Virus.

Overtime, with behavorial therapy or ABA we can learn different ways of processing the information in a way we can understand to better ourself and lead a productive and fulfilling life.

 

[Katherine Rawstron]

I doubt very much that a child grows out of autism; if you've got it, you've got it for life. However, we do know that the condition morphs over time, so a child who appears to have grown out of the condition has probably just grown out of certain symptoms. They will be replaced by other symptoms though. Like all children (and adults for that matter), autistic children go through phases, so parents etc might not realise a "phase" is a symptom of autism unless it is very pronounced or prolonged. This might be especially true of girls, who we now know make more of an effort to hide or disguise any behaviour that is seen as abnormal in order to fit in with peers. This is probably also the case where the condition is relatively mild and therefore harder to diagnose.

 

[pjcnet]

I have to disagree with this assertion that you can rid yourself of autism. It is very similar to " Autism Speaks' "ideology which is a fallacy.

Neuro plasticity is 1 thing, but fixing 1000s of synapses is something impossible at this point in scientific studies .

Autism is a Neuro Developmental Disorder with deficits in social communication among other areas.
It cannot be cured. It isn't a Virus.

Overtime, with behavorial therapy or ABA we can learn different ways of processing the information in a way we can understand to better ourself and lead a productive and fulfilling life.

It's not really being cured if someone did grow out of it naturally however, it's the development and growth of the brain which could feasibly fix many 1000s of synapses and it maybe even partly spiritual development. As I stated in my previous post I know it's possible to partly grow out of lower functioning autism to become higher functioning and it's not just about learning to emulate either because if that was the case my brothers would have also overcome it with exactly the same upbringing.

 

[Origins]

Too much mimicking, masking my symptoms, and pretending to be NT causes me so much exhaustion at the end of the day. Like I hate the taste of beer but I try to endure it, I cant stand bright lights but I still smile, I dislike noisy places but there I am at a bar pretending to have fun. Yet, after that, Im so glad it’ s over.

 

[Drakanav]

All children develop differently. Some may be slow in certain areas, but not all the time it means they're on the spectrum. Some that are on the spectrum, see their social differences, and starts imitating of what others are doing "right".

I've have not outgrown autism, as in fact, I have bottled up my masking for too long, and now, I'm letting myself be.

 

[SunnyDay16]

People don't outgrow of autism in the sense that they have less autism as they get older. Autism isn't a quantifiable thing, so you don't "lose" it as you grow. People can learn how to deal with it and tolerate it better to where it may seem as if they outgrew it, but they really just learned how to deal with it.