Please read on after his little message.
15 October 2008 9:11 AM, PDT
Actor Denis Leary has sparked outrage among activists for children with autism - insisting parents are just using the disorder to explain their kids' academic "laziness".
Leary talks about the brain development disorder in his new book Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid.
He writes: "There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can't compete academically, so they throw money into the happy laps of shrinks... to get back diagnoses that help explain away the deficiencies of their junior morons. I don't (care) what these crackerjack whack jobs tell you - your kid is Not autistic. He's just stupid. Or lazy. Or both."
But the actor's comments have sparked outrage at The Autism Society of America.
A spokesperson for the group tells the New York Post: "For Mr. Leary to suggest that families or doctors conspire to falsely diagnose autism is ridiculous... (His) remarks reflect the same misconceptions of autism being caused by bad or unemotional parenting that were held over 50 years ago."
I don't know if he was trying to get a laugh or if he was being serious but either way it is not ok to think like this. Someone should force him into a class to learn about Autism. It is NOT a joke. There are some kids that are not being identified correctly for many reasons but those that are, you can tell just by looking at them. Please check out these videos of children with autism and the effects on the family, how they are diagnosed... I beg you to check them out. If you watched all the videos it wouldn't take you more than half an hour. They are only about 5 minutes each. Please watch them especially if you haven't been open-minded to it in the past or if you know nothing about it and PLEASE pass it on because there are people like Denis out there. If people think like them, there won't be enough advocates out there to help find the cause and the cure. Remember 1/166 children are diagnosed.
http://www.autismspeaks.org/video/index.php
1 comment:
it is awful when people take what may be a handful of peoples abuse of the system and then generalize it upon the whole group. Even if he is right about some parents, which i don't think he is, it does not change the fact that autism is real and need real research and help.
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