How bad does it get?

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What are the worst cases of autism you have seen or heard of?

The ones in the 1950s, when I was a kid. It was called "ret*d" and the children were put in institutions whether the parents permitted it or not. We had a neighbour who was autistic, she was a couple years older than me, she ran around all day flapping her arms and yelling. Then she was gone.

Once the ability to function reaches a certain low beyond that it becomes impossible to guage so no one really knows.

The worst case I ahve ehard is when I was in 6th grade, my mom worked in special ed and they had this first grader who was autistic and he didn't talk or anything. All he did was shrieked and screamed and had violent behavior. he even would attack my mother so she had to take self defense training. He even liked climbing on things so they all had to Keven (his name) proof the room so he wouldn't hurt himself and they also had to keeop their eyes on him too. I don't the kid was ever treated for his condition by the way he acts. His dad did work in the army or soemthign so he was always moving so I don't think they ever had the chance to give him therapy to cope.


When I was 6, I was in this special ed classes with the other ret*d kids and there was this one boy who was maybe a couple years older than me and his name was Sammer. I think he was autistic. he never talked but said a few words. He always said "best" and everytime we would count with our teacher, everytime we got to any 9 number he yell out "twenty nine.....thirty nine."
I say his autism was very bad because he didn't cokmunicate at all. But he wasn't violent. In fact he never harmed anyone and he never had any emotions. he didn't show any is what I mean.


those are the only worst cases I have heard and seen of autism.


Temple Grandin was lucky she was never put it an institution but her doctor suggested to her mother she put her in one but she refused and placed her in a class instead with other specal need kids. Even when I was a baby, kids were still put in them because my parents have been told to put me in one and were told by the time I'm ten, I'd be in an insitution already. But I'm not. I'm still here and out here. Those doctors probably don't even know I am talking now and driving a car and holding down a job and living on my own.

So not all auties in the 50's were placed in one. Are there still insitutions today?

Unfortunately yes.

I've worked with profoundly autistic kids and teens before. We're talking very low functioning, completely nonverbal types largely unable to care for themselves. They had to wear diapers and be hand-fed. They usually had extreme dyspraxia, and sometimes they had to wear helmets in case they feel down or ran into a wall head-first.

They would be highly dependant on routine, and for some, the ones that appeared to learn any skill at all for their teachers and caretakers, learned simply from routine and repetition. In many cases the kid did qualify to be considered "low intelligence" due to the amount of repetition it took for them to learn a skill. Others caught on a little faster, but none of these kids could be considered average intelligence.

The only other way of effectively communicating was through nonverbal yelling, screaming, spitting/throwing spit, biting, pushing, kicking, grabbing and running away. If you weren't very sympathetic, it'd be easy to see these kinds of autistics as "subhuman" or "animals."

However, I think these kids were often more aware than they were given credit, and did form bonds with the people they worked with. It may not have been the kind of bond formed between two higher functioning people, but I believe it was there and it was significant for that kid.

A boy in my school grades 7-8, totally non-verbal with occasional violent outbursts; one I saw on a documentary, non-verbal, non-stop meltdowns, he had to be fed a chain of candy bars to sit still for a haircut and not freak out.

When I was 11, I spent the summer locked up in a state institution 'Ward' with five kids who had varying degrees of profound autism. Of the five, two of them were prone to Grand Mal epileptic seizures. One of the others could repeat words, and the occaisional phrase.There was a period of one week when I was the only fully verbal person there.

One of them had been there since the building had opened 8 years previously.