The Autistic/Down Syndrome kid from Dr. Phil

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Here are the clips that really made me realize how lucky I (and truly everyone else on this board) truly am:

Part One:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYko2abImlg[/youtube]

Part Two:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyIZhzVSWOI[/youtube]

Man, I feel sorry for the parents not knowing that their kid has multiple disablities. Sometimes doctors can be ignorant at the fact of the child.

I know that I'm going to get flamed for this, but I don't like that mother's anti-life comment about her son.

I marvel at how people can react so differently to the same. (the parents)

I think it shows just how completely overwhelmed she is. It's not something she would probably say if she wasn't absolutely pushed to her limit. At least, that's the impression I got.

I feel sorry for the parents. I can't imagine living that life. If that were me, I'd be in worse shape and too bad of stress effects me badly. I would probably be up there melting down and screaming crying my eyes out and bitching about people see me as the bad guy because of my own suffering and then being mad at my own husband how he wants to torture me and how could he do this to me and he must like seeing me suffer.


I think both parents should be carrying their boy than having one of them do it since the mother can't carry him anymore. But i am glad they are going to finally get help.

I don't either. I only watched about 3 minutes of it. I can't stomach it. My 5 yr old son is very much like that boy, though he's just severely autistic, and I have never, never, and will never talk about him in that way. Yes, it is difficult caring for him, and as he's getting bigger I'm well aware that I may have to hire help to take care of him, because he's going to be too big for me to do it alone. It's a challenge, but I don't spend all of my time feeling sorry for myself.

I think I'd just be constantly getting pissed at the kid, since he seems to understand to a certain level. Like when she's trying to carry him and he won't put his feet down, I'd just drop him. And when he refused to go upstairs, I'd just leave him and go to bed. And when he smeared himself with crap, I'd probably just lock him in the bathroom and shove food under the door.

...this is why I'm not going to have kids. D: D: D:

no i agree with you, i dont like how shes wording her words either, i like how the dad is though for what he says. For my family when i was growing up, my mother babied me way too much, and allowed me to get away with such behaviors because she physically and emotionally couldnt handle me, but my father would try to discpline me and enforce it more. Now normal discpline didnt work for me, neither of them understood that, so my mother tried to baby me because she thought no matter what i didnt understand, but my father kept going to try to make me understand. I think thats almost the same way with this family, the mother loves her son but sorta gives into the behavior because she just cant handle it, and doesnt think he can handle it either, but the father is more believing in his son rather then his sons disabilities, and think if u keep reinforcing it, he can understand some. I think that boy does need ABA, certian behavior training, even need maybe respite care to help out, think the family needs to get on board all of them with the same type of disciplining, think they need to realize that the boy can learn given the right therapy and training. I dont think institionalizing this child right away is a good idea, i think they should try to find another route first or at least half day institionalize half, or on the weekends, something to help him, learn with transitioning and growing up, but not just put him away. Thats just from my point of view. My mother use to cry all the time cuz it was hard raising any child with special needs, for me my behavior was terrible, and i didnt have the best communication at all, but my mother kept herself going and tried to put herself in my shoes which helped her be an amazing mother she is still today. Just my 2 cents though.

I only watched the first video. I think this kind of stuff, dramatization of real problems just for the show's sake is absolute rubbish, this kind of programs should just not exist, awful.

I agree.

Yeah, I hate Dr. Phil in general.

I'm not getting some of the reactions from some of the posters. How was that episode any different than the Autism Speaks Autism Everyday video? To me, they were equally as appalling in their message to the public.

If I were in her shoes, I would simply ignore the child and become aloof to him until he needed feeding ect. I have an incredible ability to block things out and live in my own thoughts. I would also buy a one story ranch instead of a two story house. He can walk but doesn't? How does she expect him to walk if she's constantly carrying him?

Sounds like child abuse to me. People who can't handle a special needs child should give them to the state because it be best for them both.

serenity wrote

I hate shows that exaggerate everything just so the public can sympathize with people's problems (parents mostly.) If people realize that most autistic people are high-functioning and can speak then we wouldn't be having this crap posted on TV. About like what, 95% of autistic people can speak people. Showing only the ones who can't speak is exaggerating and is as bad as Autism Speaks. How foolish the world is.

He doesn't appear too bad, except for being defiant to things he doesn't want to do, which is hard for normal people to understand.

Simple fix: move his room to the first story if there's one, and use the bathroom on the first floor if there is one there too (I've found that most two-story houses have bedrooms and bathrooms on both floors). No need to carry him up the stairs then (he's passively resisting such, as water can really bother some people with autism).

Leave him alone if he doesn't want to do something. Speech therapy will probably help him, as he's not "nonverbal", he can say 'mean' in the correct context, as to him they are being mean. This shows that semantic and pragmatic ability is there.

The Down's wouldn't be a factor in any of this, as I just see autistic behaviour (albeit of the low-functioning type, but that's ok).

Yeah, thanks, that's why I said I WASN'T going to have a kid. There are lots of things someone could hypothetically do that would have a bad effect on the world. What matters is weather or not someone chooses to do them.

Anyway, I think the dad's reason for not wanting to hand the kid over is because he's not sure it would be best for the kid. Aren't those places known for having staff abuse the people who live there? (Which makes me kind of want to get a job there, which I know totally contradicts what I was just saying, but I think working at an institution would be a lot different from having a kid like that.)