I checked out the press release and watched the videos on the Ad Council's site. Of course, being Ad Council videos, they're nicely put together - and there are quite a few versions on the same theme.
The ads are intended to shock parents into action by comparing the chances of a child becoming a great star or athlete with the chances of their being autistic. Unfortunately, the numbers they use are out of date: the ads use the number 1:166, while the new CDC number is actually 1:150. This is a bit of a bummer, since the higher number is certainly more of a shocker (but it looks like the ads were actually made in 2006, which would explain the error). The ads end by telling parents to "learn the signs" of autism, and to visit the Autism Speaks website.
As with the Oprah show, during which Suzanna Wright cited an apparently unfounded "statistic" that 80% of parents with autistic children divorce, this press release makes the following surprising statement:
With appropriate early-intervention services, from ages 3-5, between 20% and 50% of children diagnosed with autism will be able to attend mainstream kindergarten.I have no idea where this piece of information comes from - there's no citation. It doesn't clarify what "appropriate early intervention" services might be, whether these children are diagnosed because of severe or mild symptoms, or whether they are successful in their mainstream settings. To be honest, while I'd like to believe that this citation is correct - and that the message is "treat your child early and he'll be cured," I have to say that it sounds like a bad case of irrational exuberance based on wishful thinking.
But that's my opinion. Take a look at the ads and the press release yourself - and add your comments to the conversation!
I do not like any ad that compares the rates of something fatal to autism. autism is not fatal and it’s awfully hard to relate autism to a parent whose child died in a car accident. that parent whose child died may very well accept autism if only their child could have lived. I cant say what would be a more better comparison, maybe just air the rates. I as a parent to begin with never think of the odds of my child becoming a star athlete or being in a Broadway show, autism or otherwise. other general public parents out there who don’t have a child with autism might think “well I don’t expect my child is going to be a famous anything, and they don’t have autism either. what is autism anyway?”. and as for the divorce rates and they had aired also bankruptcy too, all the general public will get out of that is these families going on government aide as a result of divorce and bankruptcy than to consider the hardship the family is having due to aspects of autism. I also on the other hand think that Temple Grandin’s mother may never have imagined her daughter being who she is today, being she is still on that spectrum
children with autism, at any level, have potential to grow up to be something great, and no ad is going to smother my hope for that. I do not like shock ads at the expense of children with autism and their parents. you have to think past that shock, and what the general public will get out of it, not what we has parents with children with autism get out of it. 2 very different meanings.
as for the press release, as the laws stands, schools must follow LRE regardless of what went on in ages 3 to 5 years old. parents fought for that right. it should be easy enough to find statistics on these percentages, schools are public and that information may be available to the public, statistic wise only. but you know, that mainstream (inclusion is the proper word) is a whole other topic worth conversation over.
I myself am a fact finder. if information doesn’t include their facts, I either look it up and research, or I do not believe it. to me it would be no better than a diet ad, show me the proof of your information before I believe it. I tell my 70 year old mother all the time not to believe every thing she sees on TV to be fact
a lot of it is opinion.
kids can progress at any age. although it may be true the sooner the better, all ages can progress. I am starting to see this organization is only focusing on the highly severe and not the whole spectrum. there are many levels of autism, many can become great things, many can be in inclusion and there are some that no matter what age, other factors along with autism determine their progress.
Just to clarify – the stats I don’t really get are the ones that say that say:
With appropriate early-intervention services, from ages 3-5, between 20% and 50% of children diagnosed with autism will be able to attend mainstream kindergarten.
I can’t imagine where that came from, how it could be measured, etc. Especially since the CDC is still in the process of figuring out how many people really have autism in the first place, and the entire community is still trying to figure out what “appropriate intervention” looks like!
it’s interesting. schools under IDEA do not term the IEP’s as severe, low, moderate, asperger’s; it is one category of autism. many school districts nationally don’t term it autism on the IEP for ages zero to 3 years of age, or 5 years of age. sometimes not even until age 9. they term is developmentally delayed. and that’s not including which of these children have an actual diagnoses or just an educational IEP. many, many parents see no need for a medical DX. and the only place you’re going to get those above states statistics about inclusion and early intervention is the public school systems, not CDC, how would they know? their stats come partly from schools LOL! and schools are not so reliable of a source!
imagine the enormous job it would be to sift through public school records, which had the DD IEP but had an autism diagnoses, which had a speech IEP but still had autism, of who had other disorder’s and was termed OHI (other health impairment) then, you would have to determine who had early intervention and who didn’t. who wasn’t in inclusion and who now is, and which of those in inclusion have Para’s. which level of autism did each child have. would this be a national stat or just one school district? is it a guess or is it fact?
It seems to me that Autism Speaks makes up the things that they say. The comments of Dr. Andy Shih in Tracey Wong Briggs USA Today article are erroneous and very misleading. He and they have an agenda and it doesn’t seem related to the truth. Shih says something vague about maternal age and severity of autism and the Kaiser paper clearly says that advancing paternal age is associated in the study, and in other studies with the more severe autism.
Autism Speaks may be wealthy but their announcements and “facts” are not credible.
April 10, 2007
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070410/HEALTH/704100329/1242/health
Researchers: Older parents slightly higher risk to have autistic children on the web
By Tracey Wong Briggs
USA Today
The longer men and women wait before having children, the more likely they may have a child with autism, a study of almost 133,000 children has reported .
ON THE WEB
Austism Speaks: http://www.autismspeaks.org
“We found that both the mother’s age and father’s age affects the risk of having a child with autism,” says lead author Lisa Croen, an epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland. Study findings are reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, which dedicates its April issue to autism spectrum disorders
Well, maybe the 20 to 50 percent numbers were arrived at by assuming that at least that number of kids could be successfully mainstreamed if they had ABA and other therapy. It might be true. You could always ask them how they arrived at these numbers.
And as I said in another comment, I’ve seen the 80 percent statistic for years — the first time was probably about six years ago or so. I don’t remember anymore what the source — but I think the number came from surveys of parents of children with autism.
I have also read in several places that parents with kids with autism are far more stressed than parents of children with Down’s Syndrome — which makes sense because autism sometimes has extreme behaviors.