I was reading an article about autism?

Question

and it said that some people weren't diagnosed till they're like 50. Like not to be rude but I thought that people with autism we're like noticeable in an instant. How can that be?

Answer 1

People with Autism are very intelligent. I worked at an elementary school with a special education class mainly with Autistic students. If I had not worked in the classroom I would have never known they were autistic. You could tell they had other disabilities but no autism. One of the student I worked with was in a normal second grade classroom and did the same work as the other students. Even though he would get distracted easily; as most autistic students he still was very smart. Autistic people are special and smart.

Answer 2

It is true. There are people with high functioning autism who never got diagnosed. I know someone who was diagnosed last year and he is 39. He is very high functioning and works as a lawyer in a small town. He has always been thought of as odd. My own son was diagnosed at age 12 and it would probably been overlooked had I not been a special ed teacher and knew the signs.

Answer 3

Autism is something that can slowly progress in the body, it may start out small, and as you get older it will show, hope I helped!

Answer 4

there are many people with autism and aspergers that live "normal" lives, some become managers due to there eye for detail in a nut shell

Answer 5

Autism is becoming more noticeable earlier on...Kids are being diasnosed now at the early age of 3.  My child was diagnosed at 6...I don't  know where you read this,but they need to update.  50 is WAY too late!!!

Answer 6

There have been a few cases where this has happened. The reason is. When these fifty year olds were small autism was rarely talked about. These people were considered to be mentally retarded, slow, weird, unruly, etc.... A child born today would be diagnosed much more quickly. In fifty more years they won't be saying this.

Answer 7

actually, that article is wrong.

i know someone who was diagnosed at birth or a little later.

it is more noticeable, you are right.

Answer 8

Autism is a disorder that is usually first diagnosed in early childhood

Answer 9

The people they are talking about were most likely high-functioning or Asberger's syndrome. Also, those people grew up in a time where autism was not as prevalent. We are more aware of Autism now, and doctors know what to look for. I work with a lot of children that aren't as noticeable and you probably wouldn't know unless you were used to working with children with autism.

Answer 10

Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning people can run the range from being minimally affected/high functioning (Aspergers..if you have seen Boston Legal, the character of Jerry has Asperger's) to severe autism (many people think of Rain Man, although he had savant abilities which are not found in all people with autism).  Asperger's can be hard to diagnosis and it was not uncommon for it to be looked at as simply "off behavior" and "acting out" as recently as 15-20 years ago.  Many Aspergians were not diagnosed until they were adults (and many still aren't) and, depending on the generation in which they were born, that can easily mean that some people were and are well into their 40's or 50's before being diagnosed.  Often, it doesn't occur until they have a child of their own on the spectrum.  Many Aspergian adults have gone to college, have successful careers,marriages and families and had no idea that the challanges they faced had an actual cause behind it.  Read "Look at Me" or "Born on a Blue Day".  Both these books are autobiographies written by adults with Asperger's and autis,  In "Look At Me" the author wasn't diagnosed until well into his late 30's!

Things are a bit different now.  There is a much greater level of awareness of not only autism as a whole, but of the varying degrees it may present in.  Children with Asperger's may still, as a whole, not be diagnosed until they are older (usually sometime after beginning school is the most common as that is when the differences in communication and social abilities becomes more apparent) than children with moderate to severe autism.  However, that is only in the US and Europe.  Many parts of the world still do not have the levels of awareness, facilites or enough personel that we do.  Even countries like Japan, where education is placed at a premium, has limited programs for children with autism when compared to the US.  As the US sees more immigrants, we are finding more cases of undiagnosed spectrum disorders in them.  

Autism can be a confusing diagnosis.  So many of the symptoms can, and often are, atributed to hearing loss from ear infections, shyness, a child just needing more time  and ADD/ADHD.  All of this can be true...both alone and as part of autism (or along with it).  The more people know, the better for everyone.  I am sure that in the next 20 years, we will see very few people who have gone undiagnosed until they were adults.  And that is a good thing.

Answer 11

Well, think about it this way. Forty years ago children were completely disrespected. Instead of being identified as having a problem learning and being around people, they were told they were being lazy or not trying hard enough. They were spanked for not doing well in school or fighting (which a lot of kids on the spectrum do when they are overwhelmed)

Granted, these are higher functioning than everyone's image of Rainman movie (which I hate by the way, because so few people with autism are like that) However, they are still very very trouble by their disability. We have several adults in our group who were not identified until they were in their 20's, in college (two accidental through the volunteer psych dept, where psych students practice) Two other men were in their late forties. All of the guys share stories of being shamed by parents and humiliated be peers growing up for doing poorly academically or socially, moved from job to job (or have had the same job with a sympathetic boss), trouble in marriage/relationships.

My son with autism, you'd never know unless you spent longer than an hour. But after about an hour of being with him, most people are annoyed by his dedication to his favorite topics. Most people are annoyed by the way he closes the distance that others naturally employ in communication. He can't tell when people are angry at him, or upset. He could just slip by, with classmates torturing him until he could get out of school, struggle with holding a job (having autism, timing is very hard, as is his ability to stop what he is doing to do something like a chore or job). Thankfully we know now and can help him before he's out of the house with a low self-esteem and little hope of being successful.

Answer 12

I'd have to read the article - because that is completely untrue!

A child is ten times more like to be diagnosed with autism (like 1 in 165) than to be in a serious car accident.  Symptoms are noticeable about the time the child should be communicating, and sometimes, sadly, about the time they have just gotten the last of their vaccinations (it is said that has no connection, but......).  In our extended family we have two profoundly autistic children - one diagnosed when he was 2, and the other,because his grandma thinks she knows better than anybody, not until he was 7.  The programs that are in place for these children vary by state and school district, but the earlier the diagnosis, the better results in the child's health.  Are you sure they weren't talking about Alzheimers?

Answer 13

This article is not untrue -- necessarily.  There have been many people in the past who were misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all.  When you look at current statistics the rates of children diagnosed with mental handicaps has decreased where the rate of children diagnosed with ASD has increased.

Autism has become a buzz topic in the past 10 years -- but it is important to remember that Autism is part of a bigger disorder call Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).  Asperger's, Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) are also part of this spectrum.  There are also levels to autism (high functioning, low functioning).

As a professional in the field -- I find looking back -- there were many intelligent, "weird" kids, that probably were on the Spectrum.   Not all people with autism are like "Rain man", especially those diagnosed with Aspergers.  There is also a great need for more research in the ASD field concerning information about glutten-kaison free diets, different therapy techniques, etc.

For an interesting look inside the life of someone with Autism check things written by Temple Granden.  She is an adult with autism and has written several books.  Her book "Emergence" is about her life with Autism; her book "Thinking in Pictures" is about the thought processes in the life of someone with Autism

Answer 14

this can be true.

autism is a spectrum disorder where people can be on various degrees of the spectrum.  

someone can be diagnosed later in life (even at 50 as they woudl be considered aspergers or high functioning autism)

if you know autism well many people can look back to many adults they have known over the years and think that maybe one of them had autism or some form of it.  sometimes that really strange person that is really obsessed with one or a few things and is not that appropriate socially is not rude and a bad person sometimes it is they have a form of autism taht was undiagnosed so they don't know how to react to people or act socially

Answer 15

Autism is a spectrum disorder.  In other words there are different degrees of disability involved.  It is primarily a disorder that involves how you communicate & relate with the world around you.  It has only been in the last few decades that autism has received much notice.   A lot of ppl were initially regarded as, to be politically incorrect but using the terminology used at the time, retarded.  Others were just thought to be esp shy & withdrawn.  It is a disorder that does become apparent until the child's degree of disability becomes apparent.  In other words, the higher level of functioning the longer it will take to diagnose unless you have parents & drs who are looking for it.