“Flagging” 3 months old for potential autism

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So, one person is making a judgement based on their experience with their own children, and another based on not being around developing children... which is fine - these are the frames of reference each of you have to form your opinions.

However, the people who are professionally diagnosing infants are Doctors and they are basing their assessments on diagnostic criteria... not guesses out of thin air. IMO, the earlier the diagnosis & as far back as research can reveal the root causes of the development of ASD the better. Of course, what I or any of us on this forum think of the matter is rather moot - these people are furthering their research and knowledge of all of these things regardless. It's just that you think it's bad and I think it's good.. but my point is, these people are Doctors, not laymen on a forum. They know exactly what they are doing and why.

As I bolded in the OP they are not ready to diagnose 3-month-olds but are trying to get to that point. Can and should are not necessarily the same things. Experts get things wrong a lot less often then layman but a few times laymen get things right that pros get wrong. The best professionals have frameworks. It points them to what to research and what is considered good and bad outcomes.

Again, can and should are subjective. I think if they can, they should, and obviously so do they.

What logical reason is there to not learn how to diagnose a human anomaly as early as medically possible?

Clearly they have scientific medical evidence & reasons to research what they are researching. Again, good and bad outcomes are subjective - it depends on what you consider good or bad. Regardless, medical facts remain medical facts and if they can learn & prove more of them, well, all the better.

So what do you want me to do? Accept that I am an outlier(I do), do not say anything, take it lying down because they are probably right and I am probably wrong because they got the expertise and most people agree with their goals and there is nothing I can do or ever hope to do about it? If you are going to be an outlier which autistics often are your beliefs are going down without a trace most of the time, everything most people do without thinking about will be much more difficult for you, that is life. In 60 years I have that one figured out but once in the blue moon the different idea is proven right, almost every change is started by someone with an outlier idea.

And by the way, a lot of the time the reason research is done is follow the money.

This is an anti-scientific screed. There is no reason to be paranoid that babies are being diagnosed with anything at 3 months; at most, I think they might be considered "at risk for" autism. I have had two babies that later turned out to have HFA or Aspergers, but developed very normally throughout middle childhood. Had I known that they would later have the problems they do have, I would certainly have tried enrichment approaches (such as more socializing) to better develop social skills, at a minimum. Had I understood their sensory issues, I would have been more sensitive to their food aversions. Had I known they would both develop anxiety and depression, I would have put different expectations on them as children and worked with them on problem solving. In short, yes, as a mum, I would have wanted this information if it were available.

What do you want to do?

IMO the only thing you can do is accept that this is progress in diagnosing and determining the cause(s) of ASD.

What is it, exactly, that you need to say something about?