想知道华人圈子里大家都认识有自闭症的孩子吗？

[sage]

作者: 温哥华

只限于北美移民家庭-因为我自己瞎猜这里的自闭症有可能跟文化差异给孩子带来的冲击有关系。

我认识两个华人孩子有自闭症，是对家长极大的考验。

其中一家是教徒，老大是自闭症，之后又生了两个孩子都正常。

另一家小的是自闭症，妈妈简直就崩溃了，在家歇了好一段时间的病假。孩子爸爸也是，挺大个儿的男人说着说着话眼泪就啪啪掉。

对自闭症的研究很多。现在的说法是因为脑部发育跟常人不同，特别是连接脑部各个区域的部件。具体什么我也说不太清楚，但决不是单纯的环境因素。

[sage]

作者: 红樱桃，绿芭蕉

一个问题，一般自闭症大概多大能够看出来了？

至少一岁半。一岁半以前的确诊很少见，因为孩子一岁半之前一般都不太会说话。
有一些征兆，比如喜欢垒东西，一个一个地垒成行。眼睛不看人，不会用手指东西等。

[sage]

Parents of autistic individuals often report that as an infant/toddler their child displayed the following:

• appeared as if he/she were deaf (e.g., did not react to noises in their environment);
• did not develop a social smile;
• did not play peek-a-boo or other baby games;
• did not follow people with their eyes or engage in eye contact;
• was either an extremely content or an extremely difficult infant;
• did not show any anticipation of being picked up;
• became rigid when picked up;
• did not "coo" back and forth with others (e.g., did not engage in vocal play with others);
• did not use words to communicate their wants and needs or suddenly stopped using words;
• engaged in unusual repetitive behaviours (e.g., hand flapping, toe walking);
• insisted on having or carrying around a specific object;
• tended to use toys in a rigid/repetitive fashion (e.g., insisted on playing with a toy in a certain way);
• engaged in self injurious behaviours; and
• did not display interest in the activities of others.

Source: http://www.autism.ca/detect.htm

[sage]

作者: superobot

小孩的自闭症很大可能是因为自己的父母给打疫苗，打预防针而造成的。各种疫苗里面含有
水银（汞）的保鲜剂（Thimerosal(汞硫代水楊酸鈉)，一種含汞的保存劑，自1930年代起即被用於疫苗，以防止細菌及黴菌的孳生。但在1999年，美國食品藥物管理局指出多次注射含thimerosal的疫苗可能會在嬰...

呵呵，疫苗导致自闭症还没有确认呢。
现在对自闭症最好的解释是脑神经病变。

[sage]

作者: 红樱桃，绿芭蕉

我给米花糖确诊不是自闭症了，上面说的，她都100%反了。

你还担心这个？那米花糖笑得跟朵花一样还能是自闭症?!

[sage]

作者: superobot

现在没有确认难保以后不确认。。。
很多药的附作用是很严重的，看看美国那些药厂和FDA经常自打嘴巴的行为吧，先是批准药品上市，过几年后又禁止。这样的例子还少吗？

疫苗已经有了很多年了，预防的疾病也不计其数，是得到医学界广泛认可的。想当年，天花，脑膜炎，小儿麻痹，麻疹，水痘，白喉，百日咳等都是可以致命的疾病，如果没有疫苗，会有多少孩子死于这些病症？

疫苗导致自闭症还仅仅是一个说法，没有得到证实。据我所知，还没有哪个权威机构能证实这一说法。所以只能忽略不计了。

[sage]

作者: 玄峰

我好朋友姐姐的儿子就是到了４，５岁得了自闭症。后来多次带孩子上下广州治病，最后在车站把孩子给丢了。

什么？不是故意的吧？

[sage]

作者: redboy2000

wiki 你所知道的自闭症真的一点相关家族史和家族倾向都没有吗？我很怀疑这个问题。

有，好像有１０％左右的家族联系。而且自闭症在男孩里的发病率比女孩高三四倍。

[sage]

作者: 玄峰

谁会故意把孩子丢了啊？
那孩子总是随便牵着别人的衣角就跟着走了，还被别人送回家过。孩子长得很好，又是男孩，妈妈一个没留意，就在车站不见了。

天呐！真让人哭死了。

妈妈呢？没疯了吧？

[sage]

作者: 红樱桃，绿芭蕉

天哪，心疼死了。
去年，有一个妈妈从美国回武汉，带着两个儿子，结果在火车站，孩子丢了，两个都丢了，要我就不活了。

我光想想都肝颤。

[sage]

作者: 玄峰

算了，我这大嘴巴，不说了。

唉这种事遇上一次就万劫不覆了。
上天保佑我女儿平平安安庸庸碌碌地过一辈子。

[sage]

作者: redboy2000

理论上，基本上特征都是有遗传的，变异毕竟是少数。那你认识的个例来讲设这样吗？我知道的，不是直接认识的，还是有些倾向的。自闭症也是一个很大的谱，所以有些程度只表现为倾向。

头一家似乎没有迹象。第二家据妈妈后来回忆, 孩子爷爷似乎是轻微自闭。这个妈妈坚决不许大女儿找朋友，将来更不许结婚生子，免得再遗传下去。
唉，我知道这个事的时候刚赶上怀孕，也担心得不行。
对，自闭症的症状变化多端，很难确诊。

[sage]

作者: redboy2000

这也残酷了。 如果能达成共识，干吗连结婚也不让啊，最多不生孩子。可是我也想不出更好的办法。

妈妈经受了这样的痛苦不想让女儿重蹈复辙吧。
不让结婚我想是为了女儿今后不会因为身体里这颗定时炸弹而被夫家歧视吧，索性断了这个念想。

[sage]

作者: superobot

呵呵，我没有劝别人不要打，我也只是提供信息，打之前考虑全面，了解疫苗的正面（from 当前主流权威医学）和负面（from 非权威）资料，仅供参考。因为孩子是自己的。

我刚听说MMR导致自闭症也很紧张。着实研究了一下才略微安心。House MD里头一集就提到这事。还调侃了一番。

[sage]

作者: superobot

自闭症是否遗传目前没有任何所谓权威机构确认。但是人体内汞超标会伤害神经系统，导致出现那些自闭症特征的是经过权威机构确认的。
如果你不相信汞中毒，那算我没说。
另外，就概率而言，这个概率也太高了。。。
Epidemic numbers: In the past decade, autism sp...

这跟美国精神医学学会更新对自闭症的诊断标准有关。

[sage]

作者: 十之八九

介个，疫苗是强制打的吧，好象不打不能上学的～

可以，需要签个什么文件。

[sage]

作者: 温哥华

听说，每个孩子都或多或少的有自闭症的表现， 可能有轻重多少的分别， 我另外认识三个家庭的小孩，虽然没有被诊断自闭（也可能父母没有意思到）， 但是我个人认为，已经很很大的倾向。 这个就是让我吃惊的地方，我身边大概认识有孩子的华人家庭并不多，这个比例在我的圈子里真的不小了，这也是我问你们的原因。 各位父...

这是您对自闭症不了解。自闭症的诊断标准虽然不是很明确（有judgement call在里面），但也不能说每个人都有自闭症。您是把内向的性格（introversion)跟一个严重的由于神经系统失调导致的发育障碍(pervasive developmental disorder)病变混淆了。

如果您怀疑朋友的孩子是自闭症就应该立刻跟他们的父母交流。自闭症的治疗时间非常关键，越早越好。没有这方面的专业知识也就不用臆想了。

[sage]

Sunday, May. 07, 2006
Inside the Autistic Mind
By Claudia Wallis

The road to Hannah's mind opened a few days before her 13th birthday.

Her parents, therapists, nutritionists and teachers had spent years preparing the way. They had moved mountains to improve her sense of balance, her sensory perception and her overall health. They sent in truckloads of occupational and physical therapy and emotional support. But it wasn't until the fall of 2005 that traffic finally began to flow in the other direction. Hannah, whose speech was limited to snatches of songs, echoed dialogue and unintelligible utterances, is profoundly autistic, and doctors thought she was most likely retarded. But on that October day, after she was introduced to the use of a specialized computer keyboard, Hannah proved them wrong. "Is there anything you'd like to say, Hannah?" asked Marilyn Chadwick, director of training at the Facilitated Communication Institute at Syracuse University.

With Chadwick helping to stabilize her right wrist and her mother watching, a girl thought to be incapable of learning to read or write slowly typed, "I love Mom."

A year and a half later, Hannah sits with her tutor at a small computer desk in her suburban home outside New York City. Facilitated communication is controversial (critics complain that it's often the facilitator who is really communicating), but it has clearly turned Hannah's life around. Since her breakthrough, she no longer spends much of her day watching Sesame Street and Blue's Clues. Instead, she is working her way through high school biology, algebra and ancient history. "It became obvious fairly quickly that she already knew a lot besides how to read," says her tutor, Tonette Jacob.

During the silent years, it seems, Hannah was soaking up vast storehouses of information. The girl without language had an extensive vocabulary, a sense of humor and some unusual gifts. One day, when Jacob presented her with a page of 30 or so math problems, Hannah took one look, then typed all 30 answers. Stunned, Jacob asked, "Do you have a photographic memory?" Hannah typed "Yes."

Like many people with autism, Hannah is so acutely sensitive to sound that she'll catch every word of a conversation occurring elsewhere in the house, which may account for much of her knowledge. She is also hypersensitive to visual input. Gazing directly at things is difficult, so she often relies on her almost preternatural peripheral vision. Hannah's newfound ability to communicate has enabled her intellect to flower, but it also has a dark side: she has become painfully aware of her own autism. Of this, she writes, "Reality hurts."

MORE THAN 60 YEARS AFTER AUTISM WAS first described by American psychiatrist Leo Kanner, there are still more questions than answers about this complex disorder. Its causes are still uncertain, as are the reasons for the rapidly rising incidence of autism in the U.S., Japan, England, Denmark and France. But slowly, steadily, many myths about autism are falling away, as scientists get a better picture of what's going on in the bodies and brains of people with autism and as more of those who are profoundly affected, like Hannah, are able to give voice to their experience. Among the surprises:

• Autism is almost certainly, like cancer, many diseases with many distinct causes. It's well known that there's a wide range in the severity of symptoms--from profound disability to milder forms like Asperger syndrome, in which intellectual ability is generally high but social awareness is low. Indeed, doctors now prefer the term Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). But scientists suspect there are also distinct subtypes, including an early-onset type and a regressive type that can strike as late as age 2.

• Once thought to be mainly a disease of the cerebellum--a region in the back of the brain that integrates sensory and motor activity, autism is increasingly seen as a pervasive problem with the way the brain is wired. The distribution of white matter, the nerve fibers that link diverse parts of the brain, is abnormal, but it's not clear how much is the cause and how much the result of autism.

• The immune system may play a critical role in the development of at least some types of autism. This suggests some new avenues of prevention and treatment.

• Many classic symptoms of autism--spinning, head banging, endlessly repeating phrases--appear to be coping mechanisms rather than hard-wired behaviors. Other classic symptoms--a lack of emotion, an inability to love--can now be largely dismissed as artifacts of impaired communication. The same may be true of the supposedly high incidence of mental retardation.

• The world of autism therapy continues to be bombarded by cure-of-the-day fads. But therapists are beginning to sort out the best ways to intervene. And while autism is generally a lifelong struggle, there are some reported cases in which kids who were identified as autistic and treated at an early age no longer exhibit symptoms.

THE CURIOUS INCIDENCE

DR. THOMAS INSEL, DIRECTOR OF THE National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which funds much of the nation's autism research, remembers a time when the disorder was rarely diagnosed. "When my brother trained at Children's Hospital at Harvard in the 1970s, they admitted a child with autism, and the head of the hospital brought all of the residents through to see," says Insel. "He said, 'You've got to see this case; you'll never see it again.'"

Alas, he was mistaken. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in 166 American children born today will fall somewhere on the autistic spectrum. That's double the rate of 10 years ago and 10 times the estimated incidence a generation ago. While some have doubted the new figures, two surveys released last week by the CDC were in keeping with this shocking incidence.

No one can say why the numbers have soared. Greater awareness and public health campaigns to encourage earlier diagnosis have surely played a part, since in the past, many such children were probably labeled retarded or insane and hidden in institutions. But environmental factors may also be contributing to the spike. To get to the bottom of that mystery and others, federal funding for autism research has more than tripled in the past decade, to $100 million, although it pales in comparison with the estimated $500 million spent on childhood cancers, which affect fewer youngsters.

At the Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention at the University of California at Davis, toxicologist Isaac Pessah is studying hair, blood, urine and tissue samples from 700 families with autism. He's testing for 17 metals, traces of pesticides, opioids and other toxicants. In March Pessah caused a stir by releasing a study that showed that even the low level of mercury used in vaccines preserved with thimerosal, long a suspect in autism, can trigger irregularities in the immune-system cells--at least in the test tube. But he does not regard thimerosal (which has been removed from routine childhood vaccines) as anything like a smoking gun. "There's probably no one trigger that's causing autism from the environmental side," says Pessah, "and there's no one gene that's causing it."

Indeed, most researchers believe autism arises from a combination of genetic vulnerabilities and environmental triggers. An identical twin of a child with autism has a 60% to 90% chance of also being affected. And there's little doubt that a vulnerability to ASD runs in some families: the sibling of a child with autism has about a 10% chance of having ASD. Gene scientists working on autism have found suspicious spots on chromosomes 2, 5, 7, 11 and 17, but there are probably dozens of genes at work. "We think there are a number of different autisms, each of which could have a different cause and different genes involved," says David Amaral, research director of the MIND (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute, also at U.C. Davis.

Amaral is heading MIND's efforts to assemble a database of clinical, behavioral and genetic information on 1,800 autistic kids. One goal is to clearly define autism subtypes. "It's hard to do the genetics if you're talking about four or five different syndromes," says NIMH chief Insel. "Does the presence of seizures define a separate illness? What about the kids who seem to develop normally for the first year and a half and then regress--is that a separate thing?" And what about the large number of autistic kids who have serious gastrointestinal problems and the many with immune dysfunctions--are they distinct subtypes?

Amaral and colleague Judy Van de Water believe they are onto a major discovery about the origins of at least one type of autism--a strongly familial variety. They have detected aberrant antibodies in the blood of kids from families with a pattern of ASD and, significantly, in mothers with more than one autistic child. "These antibodies are actually raised against proteins in the fetal brain," says Amaral, who recently submitted a paper on the discovery. The working hypothesis is that these antibodies may alter brain development in ways that lead to autism. If correct, the finding could lead to a maternal blood test and the use of a therapy called plasmapheresis to clear antibodies from the mother's blood. "You get a sense of the excitement," says Amaral, "if you could prevent, say, 20% of kids from getting autism. But we don't want to raise false hopes."

THE AUTISTIC BRAIN

WHETHER THE CAUSE IS MATERNAL antibodies, heavy metals or something else, there is no question that the brains of young children with autism have unusual features. To begin with, they tend to be too big. In studies based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and basic tape-measure readings, neuroscientist Eric Courchesne at Children's Hospital of San Diego showed that while children with autism are born with ordinary-size brains, they experience a rapid expansion by age 2--particularly in the frontal lobes. By age 4, says Courchesne, autistic children tend to have brains the size of a normal 13-year-old. This aberrant growth is even more pronounced in girls, he says, although for reasons that remain mysterious, only 1 out of 5 children with autism is female. More recent studies by Amaral and others have found that the amygdala, an area associated with social behavior, is also oversize, a finding Amaral believes is related to the high levels of anxiety seen in as many as 80% of people with autism.

Harvard pediatric neurologist Dr. Martha Herbert reported last year that the excess white matter in autistic brains has a specific distribution: local areas tend to be overconnected, while links between more distant regions of the brain are weak. The brain's right and left hemispheres are also poorly connected. It's as if there are too many competing local services but no long distance.

This observation jibes neatly with imaging studies that look at live brain activity in autistic people. Studies using functional MRI show a lack of coordination among brain regions, says Marcel Just, director of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging in Pittsburgh, Pa. Just has scanned dozens of 15- to 35-year-old autistic people with IQs in the normal range, giving them thinking tasks as he monitors their brain activity. "One thing you see," says Just, "is that [activity in] different areas is not going up and down at the same time. There's a lack of synchronization, sort of like a difference between a jam session and a string quartet. In autism, each area does its own thing."

What remains unclear is whether the interconnectivity problem is the result of autism or its cause. Perhaps all that excess wiring is like the extra blood vessels around the heart of a person who has suffered a heart attack--the body's attempt to route around a problem. Or perhaps the abnormal growth of the brain has to do with the immune system; researchers at Johns Hopkins have found signs that autistic brains have chronic inflammation. "It's impossible to tell the chicken from the egg at this point," Just says.

Autistic people have been shown to use their brains in unusual ways: they memorize alphabet characters in a part of the brain that ordinarily processes shapes. They tend to use the visual centers in the back of the brain for tasks usually handled by the prefrontal cortex. They often look at the mouth instead of the eyes of someone who is speaking. Their focus, says psychologist Ami Klin of Yale's Child Study Center, is "not on the social allegiances--for example, the longing gaze of a mother--but physical allegiances--a mouth that moves."

Do these differences reflect fundamental pathology, or are they downstream effects of some more basic problem? No one knows. But the fact that early intervention brings better results for children with ASD could be a clue that some of the odd brain anatomy and activity are secondary--and perhaps even preventable. Studies that look at whether early therapy might help normalize the brain are beginning at York University in Toronto, but results are probably years away.

AUTISM FROM THE INSIDE

IN THE MEANTIME, 300,000 SCHOOL-AGE American children and many adults are attempting to get through daily life with autism. The world has tended to hear from those who are highest functioning, like Temple Grandin, the author and Colorado State University professor of livestock behavior known for designing humane slaughterhouses. But the voices of those more severely affected are beginning to be heard as well. Such was the case with Sue Rubin, 27, a college student from Whittier, Calif., who has no functional speech and matches most people's stereotyped image of a retarded person; yet she was able to write the narration for the Oscar-nominated documentary about her life, Autism Is a World.

What such individuals have to say about their experience is offering new clues to their condition. It also conforms remarkably to what scientists see inside their brains. By and large, people with ASD have difficulty bringing different cognitive functions together in an integrated way. There is a tendency to hyperfocus on detail and miss the big picture. Coordinating volition with movement and sensation can be difficult for some. Chandima Rajapatirana, an autistic writer from Potomac, Md., offers this account: "Helplessly I sit while Mom calls me to come. I know what I must do, but often I can't get up until she says, 'Stand up,'" he writes. "[The] knack of knowing where my body is does not come easy for me. Interestingly I do not know if I am sitting or standing. I am not aware of my body unless it is touching something ... Your hand on mine lets me know where my hand is. Jarring my legs by walking tells me I am alive."

Such descriptions shed light on seemingly self-destructive behavior like biting, scratching, spinning and head banging. For people like Rajapatirana, banging against a wall can be a useful way to tell, quite literally, where their head is at. "Before we extinguish [such behaviors], we need to understand what they are telling us," writes Judith Bluestone, a Seattle-based therapist who is autistic, in The Fabric of Autism.

In his new book Send in the Idiots, British journalist Kamran Nazeer, who is also autistic, describes the need for repetitive motions or words as a search for "local coherence" in a world full of jarring randomness. He also conveys the social difficulties: "Striking up conversations with strangers," he writes, "is an autistic person's version of extreme sports." Indeed, at a recent retreat for people with ASD, attendees wore colored tags indicating their comfort level with spontaneous conversation: red meant don't approach, yellow meant talk if we've already met, green indicated, "I'd love to talk, but I'm not good at initiating."

Perhaps the worst fate for a person with ASD is to have a lively intelligence trapped in a body that makes it difficult for others to see that the lights are on. Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich at the University of California, San Francisco, studied an autistic boy who is unable to speak or even sustain his attention to a task for more than a few moments, and yet is aware of his condition and writes remarkable poetry. How many other autistic kids, Merzenich wonders, "are living in a well where no one can hear them"?

Luckily for Hannah, her voice and thoughts are being heard. Since learning to type, she has begun to speak a few words reliably--"yes," "no" and the key word "I"--to express her desires. All this seems miraculous to her parents. "I was told to give up and get on with my life," says her mother. Now she and her husband are thinking about saving for college.

With reporting by Dan Cray/Los Angeles

Click to Print Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...191843,00.html

[sage]

作者: kakevin2000

无聊。又来了。

不要随便传播一些道听途说的东西，害人害己。
记住，你将来也会有小孩子的，如果你不打算要下一代，你的亲戚朋友也会有的，你真的要用你的所谓疫苗理论去告诉他们马？

望lz好自为之。

楼主没提疫苗的事。

[sage]

作者: chovan

朋友的朋友有一个自闭症孩子。
小孩子我见过，如果不知道她有自闭症，你会认为她就是一没什么礼貌的普通孩子。
孩子的父亲在小孩确诊后扔下妻女回了中国，并另找了一个。钱倒是每月寄来。孩子母亲独立抚养了孩子5年后，找了个男友，计划如果治不好，就把孩子交给政府了事。

什么意思？怎么交给政府？