Now they know autism is not mental retardation

I saw an interesting explanation for the dramatic increase in autism diagnoses--it was that other diagnoses, like mental retardation, were mistakenly attributed to autistics. I can see how could have happened, back before expanding knowledge and research about autism. My daughter comes across as "slow" and maybe mentally handicapped at first glance, because of her wild behavior, poor social skills, and delayed expressive/receptive language. However, cognitively, she is advanced. She's got the whole pre-math checklist for Kindergarten in 2012 nailed already. She's known the alphabet since she was 2 and now beginning to try to read. She's crazy observant and brilliant with problem solving. But she can't do a back and forth conversation, and shows both joy and frustration by shrieks and screams and flails and all sorts of nonverbal extreme behavior. I can see how she would be mistaken for "slow" and then once she's labeled that way, there goes her chance for progress.

That's one thing that bugs me about her special ed preschool program. It's not designed for autism. They don't acknowledge anyone's medical diagnosis. Everyone is there because of one or more areas of the evaluation where they fell short of the benchmark. In our case it was speech and sensory/social. And that's what they are working on, and the academic curriculum seems to only be designed for those who tested below cognitive standards.

For instance, the speech therapist was showing off to me one day what my daughter can do. She held up a picture of a dinosaur and asked her what color it is.

"Green," my daughter said automatically--because she has known the dozen or so basic colors since she was 2! Besides barnyard animal sounds, colors were the first words she could really say with any coherence. So, the speech therapist was excited she knew the color green, at age 3 1/2...and it makes me wonder what else they are "teaching" her that she has already known forever, when she could be moving on to other things.

However, it's a great way for her to get private speech and OT; group speech and OT; and, classroom time, all at the same time, under the same roof. And for free. So, not really complaining here. Just concerned she's getting what she needs, as usual.

Advocating, advocating, and more advocating.