by ProdigalSon 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
--Slightly off topic, but since you mentioned hidden human abilities like the phenomenal memory associated with forms of autism, you might enjoy The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks. (If you haven't already read it of course..)
He describes unusual abilities connected with a wide range of neurological conditions.
Sure, many people may be exactly like what the general impression is about what an autistic person is like, I am just saying that there many different flavors and abilities and experiences of autism.
my son does have extraordinary abilities in music, computers, and memory.
I guess the question is whether an expert would label that as a "savant" ability. I don't think "savant" is even very well defined. There are plenty of neurotypical (aka non-autistic) children with amazing talents. I personally have a tremendous memory for dates, numbers, words, and facts. I spent several years studying primary sources relating to historical urban geography pertaining to an area of about 16 city blocks. I absorbed huge amounts of data like names of business in these locations, what the buildings looked like, the dates when buildings were built and torn down, etc. spanning a period of 150 years. This allowed me to synthesize the data and visualize mentally what any location in that area looked like at any point during that time span. Today I can walk there and imagine how any spot used to look and see traces of the past. I was able to look at an undated photo and determine from looking at it the year the photo was taken, and sometimes, possibly the month. In 1994 I walked into an art gallery and an artist had done a massively researched painting of the harbor of this location and I told the gallery owner right off what year the painting was supposed to depict, but pointed out two anachronisms that the artist did not notice. In 2000, an architecture historian invited me on a three-hour walk of downtown with the "dean" of historical architecture and I ended up teaching him about the history more than he taught me. Is that a savant ability? I personally don't think so. Maybe I have gone into the wrong profession...I'd be a fantastic appraiser considering my attention to minute detail. But my memory is utterly the pits when it comes to auditory information. I am hopeless when it comes to instructions and directions given orally, for instance.
What's most disturbing is how common all these conditions have become!
My personal belief is that they are always been very common, just not recognized and labeled as such.
Leolaia nails it again. It is likely that these conditions have always existed but are now being labeled and classified as such. I can only add that some modern entertainment isn't helping.
Autism is a word that describes a collection of symptoms. As such the causes could be many. While some look to genetics, it doesn't make sense that the broad increase in the increase of autism has genetics behind it. It's too wide spread and too sudden.
My point about video games and TV: there are now special video games that can help autistic kids develop more normally. Given that such is positive, what does that tell you about negatives here? If one game can help, what effect could the rest be having?
Some claim the Amish don't have much autism because they don't vaccinate.... but they also don't have TV or video games.
metatron
Metaton, i really dont understand how video games or tv could cause autism when the symptoms of it become apparent well before the child is even at the age for watching tv or video games. maybe i am misunderstanding what you are saying..I can see how it would not help kids with autism or any kids for that matter,if used excessively.My son has become an expert at computers,only the last few months...and not at playing them its at setting them up,wiring them fixing any problems with them...he also fixes and electrical items that are broke.tellys radios etc
He is more interested in fixing and exploring these things than actually playing or watching them.
I think it's genetic but there could be external triggers. My youngest son has autism. He didn't touch a video game until age five, I noticed he was different from his siblings when he was about 18 months. He was more interested in puzzles, lincoln blocks, and legos.
My personal belief is that they are always been very common, just not recognized and labeled as such.
I've come to believe that too Leo.
metatron....As I have pointed out in the previous thread, the prevalence of autism and ASD doesn't directly reflect an increase in the actual frequency of incidence but reflects a wide range of factors, including changes in the screening and recognition of autism/ASD and changes in the very definition of autism/ASD as a diagnosis. There may well be an increase in the number of children experiencing ASD, but these other factors are certainly responsible for much of the increase and it is unknown what the actual incidence of autism was in the past. See the lengthy discussion here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_autism
Since the Amish are an insular community, one could certainly conjecture that their genetics set them apart as well (e.g. that they have fewer alleles that may predispose one to autism). But what is clear with the Amish is that on account of their insularity, the diagnosis and recognition of autism has progressed more slowly than in the US at large. Indeed, the prevalence estimates of autism and ASD are increasing rapidly among the Amish, as screening efforts have improved. Earlier claims of prevalence had numbers like 1 in 1,500 and now recent studies are reporting numbers like 1 in 271 (see here). Of course, prevalence numbers reported by organizations and in popular media vary widely on account of the methods and criteria for diagnosis. But the case with the Amish seem to be that although the prevalence is lower than in the general population, the prevalence of autism is going up. Why? I would say that it is because the epidemiology of autism in this insular community is getting better and better understood and we are better approaching the true incidence in this population.
Here is an article on Waldman's study on TV and autism:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1548682,00.html
Color me skeptical.
Leolaia, your points are fair. We could be seeing an increase based on more diagnosis. I only bring up the Amish in regard to the vaccination controversy vs other causes.
If Einstein was born today, how could he avoid being tagged as autistic?
OTOH, my point about teaching videos for autism (with wonderment about the negative effects of other material) still stands. I am skeptical about TV and videos because I have worked in an allied industry and I have seen how major media corporations have cleverly dodged evidence that TV could encourage violence. Each time they got a result they didn't like, they stated that the matter 'needs more study' and endlessly avoided any conclusion. Science gets distorted by corporate influence in many ways and I often feel a need to compensate for such in thinking.
I DO wonder also about the lessor known idea that autism could be partly caused by bacteria generated neurotoxins at critical stages of development. Makes more sense than vaccination and I lean towards a hormesis based view of health, anyway.
metatron
Jimmy C -
I am ignorant in this area. We are fortunate to know some of the best researchers in the field. Please PM if you wish.
Best,
Zarco
The other children I have worked with, issues seem to run in their familes. Like it is genetic.
Like I said before I agree and I should state that two of my female cousins, on my father's side of the family, have children on the autistic spectrum (two boys and one girl) and I believe that my grandmother on my mother's side of the family could be autistic (there's a horrible story about how my mother was concieved, my grandfather was a disgusting bastard).
A couple other things
There were some savant twins who did nothing but speak 10 digit prime numbers back and forth and alternately smile at the result. I understand that there is no algorithm to do this.
There are philosophical problems with the standard idea that the mind is merely a phenomenon caused by the physical brain since it is now known that changes in belief or thought can change physical structures in the brain. Cause and effect get confused.
and drifting back towards the reincarnation stuff...
Take some time to observe your very young kids or grandkids carefully , over time. You will occasionally notice little incongruities in things they say or do, as if some tiny flicker of adulthood will appear - and then disappear. It might be a sudden solution to a problem, a surprizing use of a word in a sentence or a strong opinion about something that leaves you asking 'where the heck did that come from'?
metatron
