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I have AS - could my children develop full-blown Autism?

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UDG
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04 Jun 2013, 3:43 pm

daydreamer84 wrote:
UDG wrote:
daydreamer84 wrote:
whirlingmind wrote:
daydreamer84 wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
If you were neurotypical, and you married a neurotypical, you could still have children who were full blown low functioning autistics. Most autistics ARE born to NT parents. So why would you be exempt from the possibility?

Are you more likely than the average parent to have autistic kids because you have aspergers? Probably slightly more likely.


Your children are probably more likely to have autism of any kind than the average person's children but it;s still a low chance. Hypothetically say there's a 1% chance that an autistic child will be born to a normal couple in the general population - you might have a 2 or 3 or 4% chance. It's still a greatly increased chance, hypothetically (at-least double) but there;s still a 90 something percent chance that you'll not have an autistic child-most likely you still won't.


I don't know where you got your figures from but I would say that is wholly incorrect. If you consider, that (as you yourself said) an autistic child can be born to NT parents, and that many Aspies/auties have a strong likelihood of having a child on the spectrum, then I would say that makes it a lot more probably than the % you state.

I may be totally off-base here, but if you imagine what % of the world population is on the spectrum, and then add to that the % of autistic children born to NT parents, I think it would be a high risk for someone on the spectrum already.

I have been reading that autism is highly heritable because of the studies they have done on twins, and families exist with many members on the spectrum (mine included) and they are known as something like "multiplex" families (if I have that terminology correct). It is far from rare to read about families with many members on the spectrum.

And when you think how many thousands if not millions of undiagnosed Aspies and auties there are because of some countries being 3rd world or behind the times with diagnosing, there are a lot more on the spectrum than any current figures would suggest.


Well, like I said it was only a guess , what we think it might be based on the current figures of people with ASD in the general population (no more than 2% ) in the highest estimates. I don't think there would be that many more when you add undiagnosed who actually have it. So in my personal opinion the rate in the population is close to what current figures show. There's no point arguing this as it's speculation. Now for the research done on Schizophrenia which is also highly heritable, the % chance with a parent s with Schizophrenia will have a child with Schizophrenia is still low in terms of pure numbers - still under 10%. This I can find a source for if you'd like because I took neurophychology of abnormal development and looked at the heritability of schizophrenia in depth. There's still a greater chance the person will have a normal child than a schizophrenic child even though the disorder is highly heritable because the % of people in the whole population that have it is low.


The child of a one parent with schizophrenia is several times as likely to develop schizophrenia than someone with no parents with schizophrenia. The statistics vary somewhat, for various reasons, but as a guide if the based prevalence of schizophrenia in the general population is 1% then likelihood of a child of one parent with schizophrenia is around 13%. The risk is increased for the child of two schizophrenics to around 46%.

I don't think these can be readily extrapolated to ASD as different conditions, and groups of conditions, have different patterns of causation. However, it is likely there is likely a significantly increased prevalence of ASD children to ASD parents relative to non-ASD parents.


Sorry, I saw 9% instead of 13% for the increased chances of having a child with Schizophrenia if one parent has schizophrenia but that data was a few years old ( from when I took a course on it) which is why I said under 10%. Still if there's a 13% chance that a child will have Schizophrenia because dad has it , say, then dad is Still WAY MORE LIKELY to have a child without Schizophrenia in pure numbers, which was my point . I know having 2 parents parents with it increases chances a lot more but since he has ASD and his wife doesn't I was only referencing the one parent data. Still it's under a 50% chance that even with 2 parents the kid will have Schizophrenia , even then it's only about a 50/50 chance. Therefore 2 parents with it would be just as likely to have a kid w/o the disorder as they would to have one with it. As for extrapolating, I know you can't use this data and talk about ASD and know exactly but I'm making a general somewhat educated guess based on the fact that the 2 disorders have about the same estimated heritability. SO, 13% vs. 1% is a significantly increased chance , I agree with you there- that someone with ASD is SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to have a child with ASD than an NT is but they're also SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to have an NT child than an ASD child. Say the chances are higher that one parent with ASD will have a kid with it then with Schizophrenia , maybe 20% or 30% -that's a ridiculously increased chance compared to the chances of any old person in the general population having a kid with it. Nevertheless there's still an 80% or 70% chance the person will have an NT child and not a child with ASD- they'd still be more likely to have a child without it-WAY more likely.


I thought that mentioning that 13% chance meant a high probability of not having schizophrenia was obvious enough to not require mentioning. I have more statistics but I didn't think them relevant enough to warrant mentioning. I can send you my dissertation on schizophrenia if you want more information.



chlov
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04 Jun 2013, 4:07 pm

whirlingmind wrote:
Well, I don't believe I am bucking the trend, by being someone with an ASC with an NT husband having both children with ASCs...

My father has many AS traits but my mother is an NT (she developed depression later in life but not because of genetic factors) and both me and my brother are autistic (but my brother has full-blown autism while I don't).



daydreamer84
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04 Jun 2013, 6:47 pm

chlov wrote:
whirlingmind wrote:
Well, I don't believe I am bucking the trend, by being someone with an ASC with an NT husband having both children with ASCs...

My father has many AS traits but my mother is an NT (she developed depression later in life but not because of genetic factors) and both me and my brother are autistic (but my brother has full-blown autism while I don't).


Yeah, but then my dad has ASD and I have it but his 3 other children definitely don't and I don't think that;s bucking the trend either.



Last edited by daydreamer84 on 04 Jun 2013, 6:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

daydreamer84
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04 Jun 2013, 6:51 pm

UDG wrote:
daydreamer84 wrote:
UDG wrote:
daydreamer84 wrote:
whirlingmind wrote:
daydreamer84 wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
If you were neurotypical, and you married a neurotypical, you could still have children who were full blown low functioning autistics. Most autistics ARE born to NT parents. So why would you be exempt from the possibility?

Are you more likely than the average parent to have autistic kids because you have aspergers? Probably slightly more likely.


Your children are probably more likely to have autism of any kind than the average person's children but it;s still a low chance. Hypothetically say there's a 1% chance that an autistic child will be born to a normal couple in the general population - you might have a 2 or 3 or 4% chance. It's still a greatly increased chance, hypothetically (at-least double) but there;s still a 90 something percent chance that you'll not have an autistic child-most likely you still won't.


I don't know where you got your figures from but I would say that is wholly incorrect. If you consider, that (as you yourself said) an autistic child can be born to NT parents, and that many Aspies/auties have a strong likelihood of having a child on the spectrum, then I would say that makes it a lot more probably than the % you state.

I may be totally off-base here, but if you imagine what % of the world population is on the spectrum, and then add to that the % of autistic children born to NT parents, I think it would be a high risk for someone on the spectrum already.

I have been reading that autism is highly heritable because of the studies they have done on twins, and families exist with many members on the spectrum (mine included) and they are known as something like "multiplex" families (if I have that terminology correct). It is far from rare to read about families with many members on the spectrum.

And when you think how many thousands if not millions of undiagnosed Aspies and auties there are because of some countries being 3rd world or behind the times with diagnosing, there are a lot more on the spectrum than any current figures would suggest.


Well, like I said it was only a guess , what we think it might be based on the current figures of people with ASD in the general population (no more than 2% ) in the highest estimates. I don't think there would be that many more when you add undiagnosed who actually have it. So in my personal opinion the rate in the population is close to what current figures show. There's no point arguing this as it's speculation. Now for the research done on Schizophrenia which is also highly heritable, the % chance with a parent s with Schizophrenia will have a child with Schizophrenia is still low in terms of pure numbers - still under 10%. This I can find a source for if you'd like because I took neurophychology of abnormal development and looked at the heritability of schizophrenia in depth. There's still a greater chance the person will have a normal child than a schizophrenic child even though the disorder is highly heritable because the % of people in the whole population that have it is low.


The child of a one parent with schizophrenia is several times as likely to develop schizophrenia than someone with no parents with schizophrenia. The statistics vary somewhat, for various reasons, but as a guide if the based prevalence of schizophrenia in the general population is 1% then likelihood of a child of one parent with schizophrenia is around 13%. The risk is increased for the child of two schizophrenics to around 46%.

I don't think these can be readily extrapolated to ASD as different conditions, and groups of conditions, have different patterns of causation. However, it is likely there is likely a significantly increased prevalence of ASD children to ASD parents relative to non-ASD parents.


Sorry, I saw 9% instead of 13% for the increased chances of having a child with Schizophrenia if one parent has schizophrenia but that data was a few years old ( from when I took a course on it) which is why I said under 10%. Still if there's a 13% chance that a child will have Schizophrenia because dad has it , say, then dad is Still WAY MORE LIKELY to have a child without Schizophrenia in pure numbers, which was my point . I know having 2 parents parents with it increases chances a lot more but since he has ASD and his wife doesn't I was only referencing the one parent data. Still it's under a 50% chance that even with 2 parents the kid will have Schizophrenia , even then it's only about a 50/50 chance. Therefore 2 parents with it would be just as likely to have a kid w/o the disorder as they would to have one with it. As for extrapolating, I know you can't use this data and talk about ASD and know exactly but I'm making a general somewhat educated guess based on the fact that the 2 disorders have about the same estimated heritability. SO, 13% vs. 1% is a significantly increased chance , I agree with you there- that someone with ASD is SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to have a child with ASD than an NT is but they're also SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to have an NT child than an ASD child. Say the chances are higher that one parent with ASD will have a kid with it then with Schizophrenia , maybe 20% or 30% -that's a ridiculously increased chance compared to the chances of any old person in the general population having a kid with it. Nevertheless there's still an 80% or 70% chance the person will have an NT child and not a child with ASD- they'd still be more likely to have a child without it-WAY more likely.


I thought that mentioning that 13% chance meant a high probability of not having schizophrenia was obvious enough to not require mentioning. I have more statistics but I didn't think them relevant enough to warrant mentioning. I can send you my dissertation on schizophrenia if you want more information.


Well that was originally my only point that even though one parent having AS makes someone more likely to have a child with AS , significantly more likely, the person is still PROBABLY much more likely to have a normal child than to have a child with AS. In pure numbers someone with Schizophrenia is more likely to have a normal child than a kid with Schizophrenia and I'm saying I believe ASD would be similar even if it has a slightly higher chance. That was my only point.



dustyrose
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04 Jun 2013, 9:09 pm

I think it's not unlikely. And its a part of the reason why I'd be much more willing to adopt.

Both my parents are NT (I think) with some aspie-ish traits (natural loners essentially), my maternal aunt has Asperger's I'm pretty sure as well as other psychological concerns. My brother is extremely NT but he stims a bit, I'm not sure if its a genetic thing or he learned it from me.



the-comander
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22 Jun 2015, 9:11 am

i'm pretty sure you are unlikely to have a child with severe intellectual impairments if no one in your family has them regardless.



sorrowfairiewhisper
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22 Jun 2015, 9:44 am

Unfortunately like other genetic diseases/illnesses
theirs always that risk but only the chances will be increased slightly

Autism or illnesses can be linked to environmental factors amongst other things.

I have AS, my brother is autistic
my cousin has AS too

i'd be worried too if I was considering having a baby but since I'm unlikely to meet anyone it probably won't happen.
But if you do decide to have a child, then don't let it stop you.
Theirs a chance that the child won't have autism.
If you're that concerned then look into the genetic testing and go down that route.

Good luck.



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22 Jun 2015, 9:47 am

It's not inevitable that you would have a child with "full-blown" autism.

Many neurotypical couples have children with "full-blown" autism.

Autism can have both genetic and idiopathic origins.

When it is genetic, it is not "genetic" in the sense that Sickle Cell anemia is.