Anybody find that things change when you get a cold/fever ?
That's not so much information so I'm going to guess what you mean. Big changes like in the 'Alice in Wonderland' syndrome?
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So this is about autism and fever in specific.
I have heard about that one. The improvement everybody talks about is that the kids aren't as hyperactive when they're sick. And that they either accept more contact from their parents or actively seek it out.
The fact that the majority of all children are calmer and tolerate closeness better/seek it out when they're quite sick seems to much of common sense to me to believe that there is a connection between improvement of ASDs and fever if that type of observation is the only one.
It is also perfectly normal that for the following days after the fever, the non-autistic children remain calmer and still try to seek out contact. That state was a normal routine (for both autistic and non-autistic children) for a very marking and dreadful time. Maybe even a longer time of several days. The children get used to it, may feel insecurity, a stronger need for affection after a somewhat traumatic event.
Maybe some autistic children and their parents have found a new way of connection during the child's sickness too. Sometimes it takes new situations to discover new possibilities for old problems.
I just do not understand why they figure that in such exclusive situations as sickness in young children that autistic children would be totally off their rocker and as abnormal as possible. Last time I checked autistic kids had feelings too.
If in a unique situation, a change in their expression and behaviour is to be expected.
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The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. Terry Pratchett
I have heard about that one. The improvement everybody talks about is that the kids aren't as hyperactive when they're sick. And that they either accept more contact from their parents or actively seek it out.
The fact that the majority of all children are calmer and tolerate closeness better/seek it out when they're quite sick seems to much of common sense to me to believe that there is a connection between improvement of ASDs and fever if that type of observation is the only one.
It is also perfectly normal that for the following days after the fever, the non-autistic children remain calmer and still try to seek out contact. That state was a normal routine (for both autistic and non-autistic children) for a very marking and dreadful time. Maybe even a longer time of several days. The children get used to it, may feel insecurity, a stronger need for affection after a somewhat traumatic event.
Maybe some autistic children and their parents have found a new way of connection during the child's sickness too. Sometimes it takes new situations to discover new possibilities for old problems.
I just do not understand why they figure that in such exclusive situations as sickness in young children that autistic children would be totally off their rocker and as abnormal as possible. Last time I checked autistic kids had feelings too.
If in a unique situation, a change in their expression and behaviour is to be expected.
It occurs in adults too.
The study was done on children because a virus went round an autistic children's ward hitting almost every patient.
Great opportunity to study something parents had been reporting for years.
And colds aren't 'traumatic events' engendering insecurity and a need for close affection, in adults.
The observations were of a REMISSION of autistic symptoms, with the kids becoming company-seeking rather than company-shunning - and generally displaying marked neurotypical behaviours.
Fever IS a cure for ASD's.
It's just a shame it doesn't attract much in the way of funding - or science could make massive advances in the study of Autism.
Wow, I don't know if I'm more cuddly when I have a fever, but I'm quite certain I'm not nearly as functional.
Kids with secure attachments seek out their parents in times of distress. Most autistic kids are securely attached. I don't see this is so puzzling.
After all, it doesn't take a lot to realize that when something's wrong, the parents appear and fix it. That's a simple association to make. A child who has a cold will seek out his parents because something is wrong and needs to be fixed.
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I don't function as well when I'm sick. I also withdraw more. I'm sick with a cold right now, and I noticed at work today I was having even more difficulty with eye contact than usual. Yesterday, I was barely noticing anything that went on around me. I can focus on the computer or a book or the TV, but that's about it. When I'm feeling really bad, all I can do is watch TV.
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I have had periods of illness in my life, and my function goes right downhill.
When I had pneumonia with raging fever, I was unable to speak except in a slur and couldn't focus my thoughts.
When the fevers started last year with my latest illness, my ability to communicate or tolerate people in my environment dropped immensely. I had problems expressing myself to my doctor, and I had to struggle to let people know what I needed (i.e. left alone, or drop off groceries and leave me alone, or just call to see if I'm alive and then leave me alone).
What kind of fever are we talking about? Influenza? Infection?
When I had pneumonia with raging fever, I was unable to speak except in a slur and couldn't focus my thoughts.
When the fevers started last year with my latest illness, my ability to communicate or tolerate people in my environment dropped immensely. I had problems expressing myself to my doctor, and I had to struggle to let people know what I needed (i.e. left alone, or drop off groceries and leave me alone, or just call to see if I'm alive and then leave me alone).
What kind of fever are we talking about? Influenza? Infection?
ANY fever.
The parents noticed profound changes in their children. not extra clinginess.
Apart from which, Autistic behaviours cannot be genuinely altered at will - things like a sudden ability to verbalise, contextualise and in a multitude of other ways, generally be NT.
And it's genuine, fundamental dispositional and behavioral changes that the parents noticed - the sort of changes that CAN'T be faked or produced at will ... even assuming the children for any particular reason, WANTED to make those changes.
Are we sure about that? I mean, "extra clinginess" could produce some really impressive effects.
I wonder if it isn't something like how brain injury sometimes produces savant skills combined with disability--disable some parts of the brain; other parts specialize. So maybe fever makes some parts of the brain less efficient, and the other parts get used more.
I don't know how that would work. I do know that fever can cause delirium, which is a sort of brain dysfunction. And I know temperature changes chemical reactions...
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I wonder if it isn't something like how brain injury sometimes produces savant skills combined with disability--disable some parts of the brain; other parts specialize. So maybe fever makes some parts of the brain less efficient, and the other parts get used more.
I don't know how that would work. I do know that fever can cause delirium, which is a sort of brain dysfunction.
Spot on !
Delirium is the result of the opening of all sorts of neural pathways that are normally closed - leading to a flooding of the conscious mind with thought.
In the case of the Autistic brain, the pathways to the instinctive behavioural regions (which normally, are relatively closed) are also opened - leading to a normalisation of thought and behaviour.
Autism is regarded as an auto-immune disorder - so changes during periods of immuno-stimulation don't seem surprising.
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