A man who suffers from a form of autism has had his treatment withdrawn because his IQ is too high.

Source

A man who suffers from a form of autism has had his treatment withdrawn because his IQ is too high.

Peter Temple, 27, from York, has Asperger's Syndrome and his family said he had found regular sessions with a psychologist helpful.

But the local health authority said it was stopping the sessions because his high IQ meant he could not be classed as having a learning disability.

Asperger syndrome

Since my own son was diagnosed at age 3, I can only imagine what his family is going through now.

My stepson has Asberger's syndrome and while he has a high IQ (and a very wild imagination), he has struggled with social skills all his life. He is 15 years old, but his maturity has not reached his IQ level. Not suprising that this would happen, the short sightedness of the local machines of government are astounding.

yes, welcome to the medical thresholds.

BS really.

Been there done that...



[edit on 22-6-2007 by NJE777]

Disgusting. My 4 year old son suffers from autism. We haven't measured his IQ, but his intelligence is stunnning, so this hits home for me. How can the medical insurance system, which is so incredibly expensive have the cajones to deny this man benefits I said it before, I'll say it again, disgusting.

I think IQ tests are crap, they were done many years ago and because of that do not reflect our society as it stands.

Sadly it comes down to money

I think the medical industry has to rethink the "treatment" programs. The old classification says the treatment should be covered for those with learning disabilities. These kids do not have trouble learning as their higher then average IQ's atest to.

They have difficulty in social interaction which requires a different type of therapy. Essentially as in the case with the Psychologist ie psycho-therapist progress comes from getting into the patients head and "seeing" from their prospective first, then to encourage them to break their perception of "society" opening the willingness for them to interact on a level that the rest of society sees as "normal".

Kids with Autisim typically are reacting to their enviroment by their own "choice", they choose who and how they will interact or not interact with people they come into contact with, typically within the first few seconds of seeing someone. It might be something as small as an odd color combination in the clothing a person is wearing or shoes that do not seem to fit the rest of the clothing or the manner in which a person presents themselves or even how they walk.

Autistic children have a gift in some manner that allows them to almost perfectly categorize a person they meet based on a catalog of attributes they assign to them. Some children having had one bad experience with a clown or a person in makeup etc, will make a predefined judgement then that all people with similar appreance may also result in a bad experience.

But it can be as minute as a person with dirty shoes, then all people with dirty shoes may become "bad". Even their parents, if they see Daddy and he has dirty shoes the child might run and hide or turn away or become non responsive. Even without the parents knowledge of why that specific response from the child occured.

Interaction with the child to discover what the trigger was helps, thus the Psychologist treatment.

They have to identify the "trigger" and then go back to find the original cause for the trigger. Rewiring the child or adult is tougher but if you can put into places rational self checks they can resite to themselves then they can better cope with interacting with that person with that "trigger/trait".

ie, Ok this person has "dirty shoes" and I know why I do not like it, but A. This is daddy I know daddy so its ok, but still watch out and B. if this is not someone I know, then maybe this person could be good or bad so watch carefully.

This eventually will teach the child to build more "triggers/clues" before judging someone as to how they will interact with them.

So eventually it may break down to : dirty shoes, known/unknown, male/female, tall/ short, white/black/asian/hispanic/other, freindly/mean looking, beard/ no beard, dirty hands, dirty clothes, worker in store/ person on street, night/day... etc etc

Then the resulting triggers all being bad or more bad then good the child/adult cab react to the situation with the proper level of response even, run and hide maybe the proper response given the right combination of triggers. Such as a "normal" person might have when encountering an odd looking situation in a dark street or alley etc

Autism is to become the new ADD/ADHD with children and diagnosis which will make it more difficult for those who do truly suffer to experience and recieve the treatment and support they will need.

An IQ test as a measurement to lose medical coverage is a disgrace. I only hope this does not become more common.

Isn't high intelligence part of Asperber's syndrome? That's crazy. It's like withholding obesity treatment for fat people, i.e. "he/she is too fat for our weight loss program."
Sheesh, this is beyond stupidity and lunacy. We've got bureaucrats and insurance companies making medical decisions for people. Meanwhile, the poor docs are being told how to treat their patients. With geniuses like this making decisions, what do we need docs for? (Sarcasm button on)

This is silly. I knew a guy years ago who was both extremely bright and had a learning disability. When this guy was trying to learn something, you had to tell the guy like 10 times before he got it, but once he finally got it, he understood it, and never forgot it. In other words, he was slow, but smart.

He didn't discuss his condition, so I'm not sure what exactly he had or if he took medication for it, but I do know it would be a shame if he had been cut off from medical care because he was 'too smart'.

Medical treatment should be given until it is no longer necessary. This man still needs it, therefore he should get it. The doctor(s) who cut him off are violating their Hippocratic Oath.