Michael Savage is a Dirty So and So

Read here for a very nice wrap-up, by the wonderful Kim Stagliano, of what I've spent way too many hours reading about over the past few days.

The quick run down (TL;DR): Michael Savage, who apparently is a radio shock jock who I, as a good liberal, had never heard of before last week, said on his show that autism is a fake diagnosis "99% of the time" and that if we parents just sat our little "brats" down and gave them some good old-fashioned discipline, they'd be fine!

Damn! I've wasted so much time with all this therapy hogwash! A good yelling and spanking were all Hutton needed! End sarcasm.

And the fraud thing: Yes, my autism parent friends and I have quite the racket going on. We meet monthly for dinner, not to relax and talk to like-minded parents who understand the stresses of raising children with autism and discuss new therapies and see what's working for each other's kids, but to find out new ways to defraud the government! I mean, gosh, we get sooo much free stuff from our golden ticket Autism diagnosis. Let's see...there's the early intervention preschool, provided you get a diagnosis early enough. Hutton went there for about a month, as he wasn't diagnosed until he was nearly 3. And then there's the special ed preschool, with busing (in the short buses, of course!) provided. And let's see...now Hutton is in elementary school, so we're not really getting anything we wouldn't get if he were typical. Oh, we get a couple of hours a week of speech and occupational therapy from the school, but that's it. Whew! Are all you parents of typical children totally jealous of this awesome racket we've got going? We also can get speech therapy outside of school, because we have good insurance. If you don't have good insurance, you're SOL. And, we have some of the ABA therapy covered, again because we have good insurance. But, we get to pay a lot out of pocket for what insurance doesn't cover.

Now, Savage claims he was just trying to draw attention to the fact that autism is overdiagnosed. Hmm. You know what? All of the kids in Hutton's class with autism diagnoses are just as "quirky" as he is, in different ways. My friends' kids, as well. I have never met a child who has an autism diagnosis that I've thought, "Wow, that kid is totally neurotypical! He's just a brat and his parents are bilking the system!" If I ever see a child with autism showing strong social skills, I don't think, "Fraud!" No, I think, "Wow! He must have been working really hard in school and with his parents and therapists to learn those skills! I wonder if they're trying a new therapy we should try, because I hope Hutton will someday have those skills." And, why in the world would you want your neurotypical child to be in a special ed class if he didn't need it? Does that really appeal to people? Oh boy! My child has autism! I can get him in those awesome overcrowded special ed classes now! I suppose it's possible, but I always thought parents pushed for their kids to be in the class that will challenge them, so they will learn more. Hey, that's how I will be when Harrison is in elementary school!

Anyway, go read Kim's article. I'm too tired to write more, and I need to shower! I played back to back soccer games, and probably don't smell very good.

Oh yeah, and I completely forgot about those pansies at Autism Speaks, who released a statement about how we need to pity poor Michael Savage. No, Autism Speaks, we need to let all of Michael Savage's sponsors know how we in the autism community feel, and that we will not support them if they support this ignorant clown.


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