Asperger's and attachment

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That's only one site. I read several sites and they said RAD is relatively rare and if that's the case, how is it blaming refrigerator mothers? Are they rare also? I never read refrigerator mother at any sites I visited.

It's true that RAD mostly shows up in foster kids and children who spend their first few years in understaffed orphanages. This is why it is rare. In the developed world, such places do not exist and care is taken that younger children stay in one foster home as long as possible. At one time terribly understaffed shelters did exist in certain Eastern European countries. American parents who adopted children from such places were shocked to learn they had RAD. There was a case of a Russian boy murdered by his adopted motherin Colorado. He had been diagnosed with RAD. Another case involved another orphaned boy from Russia who was placed on a plane alone and flown back from where he came by his adopted mother. He very well could have had RAD as well. This caused Russia to suspend adoptions while it reviewed its policies.
So RAD does seem to prevail under very harsh conditions where little if any nuturing is given to children, along with developmental delays that can improve once a child is placed in an appropriate setting, a foster home, for example.

Are you kidding me? It's the Mayo Clinic. Every heard of it?



Oh, goodness...your train of thought is so difficult to follow, yet it's still clear that you haven't read (or forget, or are ignoring) what I've already written.

Why is everyone on this forum so...oblivious? You take the time to reason something out, express it accurately and clearly, and the response you get is just a waste of time on behalf of both reader and writer.

Like, here's an idea. What's if the label of autism is often times given to kids who might be better described by RAD in an effort to relieve the parent(s) of the burden of guilt? I believe there's a country in eastern Asia where the culture is such that autism and similar conditions are more acceptable when construed to be a product of their environment (rather than genetics). Interesting how it's the other way around just about everywhere else, right?*



It's true that RAD often occurs in kids who grow up in an orphanage setting, but that's not why it's rare. It's rare because the vast majority of people have normally functioning brains.

Here's an example of where I don't think you understand what I'm talking about. You keep banging on about this orphanage stuff. Do you realize why RAD occurs in such settings? The way you talk, it almost sounds like it's some sort of virus you can only catch if you don't have a permanent home as a child. In reality, RAD is associated with orphanages because they're big batches of kids (which is the opposite of the isolation you expect to find in a kid without a stable home today) who don't have parents who will live with the stigma of being told that their child is the way that they are because they didn't provide the right environment when they grow up.

Either you don't know what the Mayo Clinic is, or autism is largely a matter of politics.

*ETA: I forgot to say that, in the east Asian country that considers genetic causes more shameful than environmental, most cases of what we would call autism are diagnosed as attachment disorders or similar conditions.

So what. It's the Mayo Clinic. I am not mesmerized! They have a website but so do thousands of other places. Would you exclude the others just because it's the Mayo Clinic and beyond reproach?
So, you are saying the cause of RAD is genetic and not environmental? I disagree. Certain genes need to be activated by environment. Touching, cuddling, holding, talking to, nuturing, all factors in activating certain genes. If genes are not activated, developmental delays and conditions like RAD occur. When these kids are placed in nuturing environments, they improve. However, people with Autism might not improve to the same extent but they do say the earlier someone starts working with an autistic child, the better the outcome. So we do know that parents play a critical role in their child's development, regardless of their diagnoses. That's not blaming anyone. It's just stating a fact.