Continuum Concept , or Bring back Swaddling

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I'm going through another doubt-moment about the degree to which the most "disabling" aspects of autism ( those which Temple Grandin includes in her description of Autism as "sensory problems") are in fact unavoidable. Perhaps we could prevent the worst. What if an aggravating, or even determining, factor in their existence (for a genetically susceptible group) is the widespread practice in the West of " putting baby down" ?

What I mean by that is being left in your cot from birth onwards, for long periods of time between feeds and baths and nappy changes, in the stillness of the cot, out of contact, straining ones ears for the slightest sound of human presence, feeling nothing but the lifeless sheets and mattress. Nothing moving. On ones own. Suspended in stillness.

What a disorientating experience, after 9 months in a living body, to be placed somewhere for seemingly endless (not even measured by the mothers heartbeat anymore if she is not holding you!) periods of each day in isolation, nothing but you, while your brain is STILL forming, and needs data urgently. Just out of the womb ; it needs to know about the new environment and about its physical boundaries so that it can correctly construct response systems etc!! !

I first read " The Continuum Concept" by Jean Liedloff 17 years ago,( and tend to forget about it; it's almost TOO simple!), but today was thinking about Temple Grandin, and her "squeeze-machine" , and how AS people talk of wondering what to do with their arms , and how many of us identify with horses etc, and how perhaps we are like that because we are "dropped" like a foal at birth ( not immediately perhaps , but very soon after ! ! ), and not held , as would be natural, like a chimpanzee at every moment , either in carriers or arms by someone , until we can crawl.
Perhaps we are feeling like animals who can not hold because our mothers didn't hold. I'm not talking the classic and exploded " cold, neglectful mother" thing, but the "almost every mother in the western world thing' which leaves the baby alone for hours every day in its motionless unchanging environment , in which all there is to do for stimulation is be aware (by turning the volume up ) of the minutest variations , of the minutest noises , of the bodys internal goings on, of distant vibrations, of the feel of objects, of the passage of time , of the insides of our minds.

Here are some articles :

http://www.continuum-concept.org/reading/in-arms.html

http://www.continuum-concept.org/cc_defined.html

http://www.continuum-concept.org/readin ... ature.html

When humans sedentarised , and it seemed safe to put children down ,in buildings with doors etc , babies were still wrapped in tight swaddling . Until relatively recently too! It was considered VERY important for the healthy growth of the child. Why? I think it may have been because it made up , slightly , for the hold of the mother , and meant that the baby would "feel" its "bodied self" clearly at least , even if it was not in contact with a moving being.

Autism so often "appears" around the age of 6 months , which is when the babys "in-arms" stage of development begins to shift to one of rolling and crawling. It has passed the moment for all the brain development which should have gone with first few months IN- ARMS, in which babies for several million years rode around with their mothers/elder siblings and were truly alive, rather than in this terrible ante-room to life which so many babies are consigned at birth. And stay in , unless very lucky !

PS: Alice Miller also describes this endless isolation and stillness of waiting very well , and in that respect I would wholeheartedly agree with her use of the word " mistreatment" of children. It is a feature of most babyhoods in the West.

And on top of this sensory deprivation of babyhood ( I knew there was some reason why the film " Altered States" meant something to me!! The sensory deprivation tank which starts the transformation into earlier and earlier lifeforms, those with less and less contact with parents in babyhood !) add the opiate-similar effects of gluten in wheat etc , and casein in dairy ! ! Addiction to this out of body spaced out alienated over-sensitive, totally alone state of being ! !

Well, with the internet it doesn't matter if we turn into multi-ciliate amoeba anyway , DOES it ! !?

Last edited by ouinon on 29 Oct 2007, 4:36 am, edited 16 times in total.

It's funny that what were experiments in rearing the master race in WW2 have become normal child-rearing practise, and the "brilliant minds" which the fascists in germany wanted to create are now here . Suffering from all the personal problems and difficulties and alienation you would expect from such early sensory deprivation in humans.

Interesting.
I'm sitting here with a stocking on my head because the proprioceptive input from it makes me a thousand times calmer and more focussed.

I didn't mean that you should try swaddling yourself now ! ( Come back to say I've realised you aren't necessarily being sarcastic, sorry!! Seriously ,that IS interesting.)

It's probably too late to change anything permanently now, though apparently deep-pressure therapy or something can be useful up to a point with autistic children, as can the "squeeze-machine". Some AS people also sleep better with heavy blankets etc.

About the role of sensory deprivation in development of autism here is a good classic article by Temple Grandin herself !

http://www.autism.org/temple/visual.html

She doesn't seem to be aware of just how much a child raised in a perfectly "normal" way in our society experiences between birth and 6 months of age exactly the kind and degree of sensory deprivation that she believes is more than half responsible for the sensory problems of autism . The descriptions, as she says , of behaviour by sensory deprived animals and of autists, are strikingly similar. The effects of such an absence of sensory data on the still growing, forming brain are catastrophic for many functions.

Imagine how wonderful it would be if could eliminate all those symptoms of total overload , of meltdowns, of distress, of isolation, etc etc etc , "just" by making sure that babies are held , carried , or perhaps wrapped , in their first 6 months of life. The language difficulties might be more easily helped then.

Last edited by ouinon on 27 Oct 2007, 9:26 am, edited 5 times in total.

But I know it's not very fashionable to prevent problems in our society ; all the money is on, and IN , curing disorders or providing support systems for the disabled/ill. Preventative medicine really hasn't a chance. ( wrappings for swaddling don't cost much, and changing society so that could carry babies into work and AT work, would not earn anyone any millions of dollars!)

It's astonishing how little discussion there is on here about the two sides of the question.
Following up Kitsy's post about warnings on Autism Speaks I popped over there and I get the impression that most people who believe something can be done about it are over there.
If you think negatively about it on here you're out of formation, and if you think positively about it on ASpeaks you're out of formation there.
On WP autism is GOOD , and noone must talk about preventing it. On ASpeaks autism is BAD and noone must talk about enjoying it. ( I'm reminded of Orwell's "Animal Farm" and the sheep; " Four legs good...")

?

Last edited by ouinon on 29 Oct 2007, 4:37 am, edited 2 times in total.

Is it as Alice Miller would say in fact , that many adults who have been exposed to the "mistreatment"/deprivation , have great difficulty "seeing" what it is, and rather than face up to the sadness of what they have lost and fight to prevent it happening again in theirs or others children , they celebrate their own binding/excision , and hope for more people like them?! !

Last edited by ouinon on 29 Oct 2007, 4:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm sorry; I'm suddenly realised that you might have been serious, because I know how much I like wearing hoods/woolly hats . Sorry, I thought you were taking the piss back there!

And I'm not saying that Autism is entirely the result of sensory deprivation just that a large part of it may not have to happen at same time as the language difficulties etc.
Oddly enough someone answering the thread about the Aspergers Industry just now , Githoniel ( Emu egg, hello , and welcome to WP !) clearly and explicitly splits them up; doesn't include the sensory symptoms in with the ASD . Refers to them as " Sensory Processing Disorder" ,separate from the "skill set" of Aspergers .

So if the sensory symptoms are NOT in fact a part of AS then why are they so often referred to as "signs" of having aspergers? As "proof"? And why do they so often form part of the questions on ASD tests? And are included in Temple Grandins description of autism, even if she does seem to be suggesting that that element is susceptible to treatment , independently of the language issues. (! !?)

Please?

Sensory defensiveness is one of the things that leads me to believe that I have AS, but it is not listed in the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria.
Also, it is part of the culture in Iceland (so I have read) for women with new babies to return to work, with the infant carried on the back- the opposite of what has been described here- exposure to nothing vs. everything.
From what I understand, Iceland is one of the most highly literate cultures and one of the most feminist, but then I've never been there.

Does anyone on here ever think that a huge part of the autism thing might be like an unconscious , or not, cover-up for the miserable mismanagement and ballsup of childcare by western white people ?

That it might be, like has so often been the case in the past , a welcome , unplanned but brilliant vehicule for another avoidance of responsibility. What a relief ; it's genetic! Like how diabetics has been dealt with. Creating a multi-million dollar industry out of peoples bodies collapse/exhaustion/intolerance to refined white sugar. Because it would be a shame to threaten the sugar industry, start another one instead with insulin.!

I think it's noteworthy that despite the "cold, neglectful mother " theory already having been dumped the Japanese are following up that aspect of things. They are still interested in what role the environment in babyhood might have on autistic brain development.

Last edited by ouinon on 29 Oct 2007, 5:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Wow, that is interesting. I wonder whether their stats for Aspergers , ASD , Autism show any significant differences from the "norm" then!

Last edited by ouinon on 27 Oct 2007, 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm reading this and wondering. It doesn't work for me and my son as far as AS. My son was a chronic cryer and therefore was held almost 24 hours a day forever. But he is a cocooner, meaning he wraps himself in blankets like a little burrito and he does have a thing for hats. He has taken to wearing a woolen hat in the last few months (that have been highly stressful for him). He also will layer his clothes to a ridiculous extent if I don't regulate it.

So....could it be right symptom, wrong cause? I wear hoodies and other soft "inside" jackets all the time in environments where I don't feel totally safe. But I don't think I was neglected in the holding department when I was an infant. And I know that my son definitely wasn't. Maybe it's just a return to what feels safe knowing how every sensory input in our world makes us crazy. We long for that transition item that makes us temporarily okay.

I sense a doctoral dissertation. "Cultural differences in infant socialization and rate of ASDs." Except it would be impossible to control for genetics.

So simply put. I fought with my mom about clothing constantly. She didn't get it, why certain items were intolerable.

I'm ruminating on this one. (Get it? Ruminants?) I don't know if anything is all good or all bad in this world.

Well, that's why I think the Japanese have a chance of finding something out about it because it's a relatively recent phenomenon there , at least the disabling sensory-processing disorder aspect of it , and may well have coincided with radical changes in childcare as more and more women entered the office style job market , and as old practices , like swaddling , were abandoned virtually overnight. Even their latest wave of horror films suggests that they are aware of some element of womens new routines creating freaked out living dead ! ! ( That's a joke , sort of !)

But I agree that generally would be difficult to find cultures in which the two systems existed side by side
without it being a difference caused by race or race related class factors or class-linked gene pools.

Last edited by ouinon on 27 Oct 2007, 12:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

After reading these articles, I know feel like a child abuser.

I also feel like an ass for listening to everybody but myself when my son used to scream bloody murder for 40 minutes every night before he'd fall asleep. This lasted about 5 months, it was hell. I kept telling his father "but he's crying, he obviously needs something. He's feeling sad, why shouldn't I make him feel better?" I've always known there was something horribly wrong with modern parenting ideals. We start trying to train our children to be independent and obedient the second they come out of the womb. What we don't realize is that these things come naturally to a child who's needs are being met.

I just wish I could turn back time, and listen to my aching momma heart, and just cuddle with my son all day long.

Me too.
I feel sick that I let myself be persuaded if only for a few days of the danger of "spoiling him" (!), and so sad about my own automatic, badly-brought-up ( cot etc ) beliefs about having to resist him!!
He was like a little alien. Staring into space when I went into look at him just a couple of days after he'd been born,( at home, no drugs, no lights, followed by breastfeeding, etc!! I thought I was doing it so right and when it came to it I didn't WANT to hold him, or carry him. ), so silent ; I thought he was sleeping ; no , staring into space from his comfortable bed , at the white ceiling , at nothing.
Even though I'd read Liedloff's book 9 years before. I was imprisoned within what my mother had done with me , ( feeds every five hours , on the dot, and silent times in cot the rest etc) but I struggled against that so I fed my son every three hours "or so", ( and at night so of course nights were hell because he discovered that I responded to his crying at night by immediately feeding him ! !!), aswell as "flapping" around ineffectually trying to work out what he wanted when he cried in between; nappy change? thirsty for water? A bit of movement? ! ! , for 4 months , AND then suddenly I got it , "ah , I feed him whenever he likes ; why ever not ?,! !! "WHAT a breakthrough, but after 4 months!! !

And then the cot and leaving him to cry himself to sleep over several weeks, and sending him to school when 3 , french system, but only for a morning cos when I collected him he clung to me as if to a liferaft , never again ( well, apart from another try when he was 5!). And stupidities , and zombienesses of idiotic automatic repressive , "adversarial" behaviours . What a tragedy of a mother I was. And felt my ASD incapacity to "read" someone even more than at any time before.

Last edited by ouinon on 29 Oct 2007, 5:21 am, edited 3 times in total.