on the OTher hand

Slowly Zotero is becoming my new resource guide for research.  Being able to tag and refer back to all my sources is extremely helpful when completing a research paper.  A great article I tagged from the New York Times, written by Mike Stobbe, talks about the huge rise in children with autism in the United States.  I found this article very interesting because there are quotes from parents and their thoughts on the rise in diagnosed children with autism.  The rise in numbers is substantial, ten years ago the statistics were 1 in 10,000, and today the numbers are beyond 1 in 150 children.  According to this article the heave of diagnosed cases is largely due to categorization and how the disorder is currently being diagnosed.  What is most striking is the response of parents: one parent states, “I do have to admit I almost like the idea of having the autistic label, at least over the other labels, because there’s more help out there for you”.  With the word services this mother is referring to occupational therapy, behavioral therapy, speech therapy, etc.  How heartbreaking it is to think that a parent would want a label on their child just for the benefit of services.  I cannot believe that this is what the world of special needs is coming to.  I hope that by the time I am an actual OT, the services will be more accessible for all sorts of disabilities, giving me the opportunity to help many patients and steer away from parent wanting their child labeled to acquire my services.

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