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Writer defends Savage's autism remarks

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Smallpotatoes, Jul 21, 2008.

  1. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Ace, someone wanted an example of people using an ADD, ADHD or Autism diagnosis to their advantage.

    I gave a few examples. Granted, this is maybe 1% of all cases, but it could/does happen.

    My uncle is a superintendent of a school district in Pennsylvania, and last summer he battled with a parent who tried to have every special education classification (from speech, to LD to ED) given to her child. The reason was the student was having trouble getting accepted to college and they were looking for a loophole.

    Does this always happen? No, but it happens once every blue moon.

    I think 99% of all special ed students and their parents use their IEPs properly (like your valedictorian example), but there are those who do not.
     
  2. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    OK. I get your point. And it is certainly used to get athletes eligible from time to time.

    I think Savage wasn't meaning it that way. He was meaning people use it to milk the government, not to bolster GPAs.

    And my son suffers from being lazy, disinterested and disorganized. He needs an IEP pronto.
     
  3. waterytart

    waterytart Active Member

    My 7-year-old son has highly functioning autism. He will be a second-grader this year. His first exposure to a school standardized test will be at the end of third grade. No one has brought it up with me yet, but I assume he will be tested one-on-one or in a very small group spread out around a normal classroom.

    Unlike the silence associated with "classic" autism, my son is verbal. Hyperverbal. Needs to be removed from the special ed. classroom a couple of times a day until he stops talking verbal.

    He is also fascinated by other kids' work, and must be dissuaded from reading over their shoulders and commenting.

    Our elementary school has tables, not desks. Four kids to a table, usually.

    Now, let's see a show of hands of all you parents who want your child's test scores to reflect that my son was sitting at your kid's table during the test.

    Yeah, that's what I thought.

    Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to milking the system.
     
  4. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Okay, I have no clue about the schools they teach in. I do have a clue about the schools in my area, from, oh, having kids in those schools and having friends and relatives in those schools.
    I think it happens. Is it widespread? Of course I have no way of knowing that. But I would really be interested in some kind of study on this matter.
     
  5. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    That would be like a teacher coming on here and saying, "There are good journalists and bad ones. I bet half of them just make up whatever they want out of sheer laziness."

    That's the point hondo was making that you are lining up with. Oh wait. I forgot the part where he suggested that women teachers were more at fault than men because they can't handle the hyperactive young boys. Want to stick with him on that one, too?
     
  6. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    No. But there are lazy teachers and lazy journalists. Seriously, though, if a child is borderline and is going to be diagnosed or checked for ADD/ADHD, it's likely going to be because he's acting up in elementary school and will be at the nudging or pitying looks from a school official.

    And I presume most of the time that's as it should be. Sometimes I wonder if it's teachers just wanting life a little easier.
     
  7. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Sure, it happens, but probably not as often as you think.

    I'm also assuming you aren't quite at the extreme with hondo.
     
  8. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Me and hondo are out there, baby.
     
  9. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Careful, my friend. You've seen how a sexist comment can bring down the wrath around here.
     
  10. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    Dear Mr. Michael Savage and Selwyn Duke:
    If the overdiagnosis of autism is market-driven, to generate more money for the drug companies, why are fewer people getting their kids vaccines citing them as a cause for the high autism rate? Is it because mental health drugs have a higher profit margin than vaccines or is it because you have it wrong?
     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I always claim my kids have the HIV. More money in it, you know.
     
  12. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    If you were a family on welfare, you could get extra cash benefits in the form of SSI (I have no idea what it is called right now) for a child with a disability, as much as $700 a month depending on the disability. ADHD, believe it or not, was a qualifying "disability" as was "ADD". Also, if you are a juvenile lock-up, a juvenile facility, a school or treatment program, the amount you are reimbursed by the state is increased if there is a mental health component of "treatment" necessary for a given child. Doctors had no trouble handing out diagnosis because it was money in the bank for them as well -- after all someone needs to regulate and prescribe medicine.

    Those are some of the reason there was such a spike in the diagnosis of ADHD and ADD -- because they were easy to hand out diagnosis for (hell any kid on any given day could be diagnosed with this stuff) and not very easy to discredit.

    That's where the "working the system" comes into play and that happened far more than 1 percent of the time with these diagnosis in the 1990's, particularly with low income families and families on welfare.
     
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