Treatment of people with autism and related 'conditions'

Have you read "The Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon?

No, I haven't. I've only read one autism book back when my daughter was younger. I can't recall the name of it but it was written by a mother and son.

To Irishidid, I definitely agree with you about all the things that have occurred when it comes to people trying to 'cure' autism. When I did my lectures at the university in my town, I made it very clear to every class that autism and the related conditions are no disease. When asked why I thought this, I likened it to something like cancer. While cancer can be genetic, it can also appear in someone whose family has no history of it. Whereas generally a family has at least one other person whom has autism or one of the related conditions. I have read countless accounts online about how one parent cares so deeply for their autistic child, but don't have custody of them for whatever reason, and in the end its the other parent who ends the life of their child. One such story was attached to the comments section of the Parade Magazine article on their website. The father told how he loved his teenage son with autism so much, but every time the court would rule in favor of the mother because of job status or some other occurrence. At the time, he was trying to make sure that his ex-wife paid for her crime. Apparently, she and her daughter claim that the autistic child tried to rape them and they knocked him out and tied him to his bed. After that, they were apparently so 'afraid' of the boy and his 'problems', that they set fire to the house, but claimed it wasn't on purpose. They claimed something occurred in the dryer which caused an explosion in the washroom. Here's one thing that they obviously haven't gotten through their thick skulls: if a person with autism is angry or something, they're not about to rape somebody. THey're more likely to strike them physically or, if they are large in stature, use that as an intimidation technique. There are so many cases in the news if you can find them about autistic children dying because instead of finding a way to help them through science and through supporting them, the parents have taken the children to their local priest or pastor and attempted to 'exorcise the demon within'. Load of crock, and completely desperate for normalcy, which as far as I'm concerned, is nothing to be proud about. As for Jenny McCarthy, I must go vomit. The woman is a complete #*#@* when it comes to people skills. While Jim Carrey is one of my favorite actors, I have to question his wisdom in marrying such a #*#@*. I also watched one of those 'The Doctors' episodes or whatever the shows called, which is one of those which she appeared on to talk about a cure. I am pretty sure my palms were bleeding by the time I had left the room. Now, I do know there are some forms of autism which do require some kind of extensive treatment. For people with something like Fragile X, or whichever condition it is that makes them non-responsive for the rest of their lives, than I do agree a cure may be needed. But not for those who can develop their mental abilities to the point they can function fairly normally. As far as I'm concerned, the Autism Rights Movement's approach to the U.N. to try and gain minority status is something which is applaudable. Now if only someone could expose Autism Speaks for what they really are, than perhaps the U.N. would be more agreeable to the Autism Rights Movement. One thing about the Autism Righs Movement that might be of interest is that one of their many under-groups has a program called Autreat, which is a retreat for autistic people. This program is much like any other retreat, but it also caters to the needs of people with autism. It doesn't have very many people who could be termed 'neuro-typicals' that attend, and those that do are normally family members who are completely supportive of their autistic relation.