Bromley 1 Hannah Bromley ENG 101 Professor A.

Bolton April 15, 2014 The Controversy Between Vaccines and Autism Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder that causes difficulties among many children throughout their lifespan. Autism affects tens of millions of individuals worldwide, not only creating issues for the individual but the family, as well. This disease inhibits the activity of the developing brain, causing complications with social interaction, communication, and common behaviors. Throughout the past few years, it has become more professed that most parents of children with Autism are blaming the vaccinations are required within the first years of childhood. Autism takes the life out of those affected, and even those who do not discover they have Autism until all throughout life, causing struggles in day-to-day activities. While some parents blame it on vaccines, others blame it on genetics, and the rest just accept the unknown and go on with their lives. Chantal Sicile-Kira, an ordinary mother and author, and Jenny McCarthy, an actress and daytime talk show host, discovered their childred had Autism when they were very young. McCarthy, an apprehensive mother, told TIME magazine that she would spend hours on the floor with her son trying to make him talk or smile. She and Evan, now twelve, lead somewhat of a normal life. McCarthy and Sicile-Kira, like other mothers, say that it takes time but reaching somewhat of normality is possible for the Autistic individual and their families. McCarthy and Sicile-Kira now enlighten many on how they and Evan do so well and how they learned to deal and appreciate their sons in a

Bromley 2 new way. McCarthy says she truly believes that vaccinations need to be modified, because they defiantly contribute to Autism. There are many views, and much controversy is revolving around what contributes to Autism. Autism spectrum disorder is such a passionate topic among the many individuals affected, whether it may be caused by heredity, vaccinations, or no apparent cause at all. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder that is becoming more common through the years in young children, and severely affects brain development and day-to-day activities. Those who are affected by this disorder, struggle with general social interaction, communication skill, motor coordination, awareness, physical health, and self esteem. ("What Is Autism?") These individuals also excel in visual skills, music, mathematics, and art. Their strengths, in many ways offset their weaknesses. Social communication and self-esteem are two of the biggest challenges for Autistic individuals. Being the center of attention and carrying on a general conversation is very difficult for them. Communication is an important aspect of life because it is how we express how we feel if we need something, or sharing information; this is essential for someone who has a disability and is unable to help him or herself. (Sicile-Kira 29) Some Autistic individuals may be completely non-verbal, which is difficult not only for them, but their families, because frustration leads to loud tantrum due to the inability to converse on what it is they may be frustrated with or need at that time. According to Autismspeaks.org, about a quarter of Autistic individuals struggle with communication, but if therapy and time are put into teaching them they can improve average communication skills.( "What Is Autism?") Self-esteem is very difficult for them to improve on because they are unable to recognize and control their emotions, as normal people have the ability to do, which

Bromley 3 affects the way they interact and treat the people surrounding them. Soma Mukhopadhyay generated a learning strategy, the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM), to teach her own Autistic son to communicate and excel in academics; this method gradually helps him and many other Autistic individuals overcome their fear of communication and low self-esteem. (Sicile-Kira 32) As you can see Autism is an ongoing battle for those involved, but if there is a strong and dedicated unit that is willing to work together, the affected individual can eventually lead a relatively normal and healthy life. Autism is diagnosed through a series of behavioral tests; these tests are performed when an individual is as little as a year to a year and a half, which leads parents to speculating that vaccinations are a probable cause of Autism. One of the main diagnostic tools used is the Childhood Autism Rating Scale; this particular test fifteen different examines behaviors and physical attributes of the child. (Baghdadli 124) These fifteen areas consist of their relationships to people, imitation, and emotional response, their body appearance, object use, adaptation to change, visual response, taste/smell/touch response, anxiety and nervousness, overall verbal communication, non-verbal communication, activity level, consistency of intellectual response, and general impressions. It may seem like too many things to focus on for a single diagnostic test of a small child, but diagnosing an Autistic child is rather easy. Those who are affected are very much impaired in many of these aspects of life, which leads to how severe their particular case may be. (Baghdadli 124) For each area examined there is a scale in which the child is rated on, it starts with one, which is considered normal activity for the childs age and goes to four, which is classified as severely abnormal behavior. Because

Bromley 4 diagnosing the disorder is socially and developmentally related, it would be hard to diagnose a baby. However, other disorders and syndromes, such as Down syndrome, you are able to detect it from early on because physical features are altered; with Autism, they are not. The formal diagnosis immediately makes parents and caregivers speculate that something must be contributing to the prevalence of Autism. This thing that must be contributing to the Autism has to be happening between birth and the diagnosis, which makes them come to believe that it must be from toxins in vaccinations; if this were the case the entire world would be Autistic. Furthermore, I think that there is enough proof to say that the vaccinations cannot be the contributing factor to Autism Spectrum Disorder. Now that there is an understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorder is, we can further look into what makes it and if there is a contributing factor. In modern day society, children are routinely vaccinated for fourteen diseases between the ages of infancy and adolescence. (Miller, Reynolds 167) Vaccinations start as soon as the child is born, with the Hepatitis vaccination. In order to stay away from dangerous and deadly diseases, the child is put on a tight vaccination schedule, which has raised questions from many parents wondering this many medications for such an underdeveloped immune system is healthy. The thing with infants and children is that even though they can build strong antibodies and internal defenses to diseases. (Miller, Reynolds 168) It is key to keep up with the vaccinations because these diseases cannot only lead to death, but longterm complications. Without the medications, another harmful and deadly breakout of diseases could happen and end up repeating the past, of higher death rates and infectious diseases among children. According to Dr. Lisa Miller and Joni Reynolds R.N. and their medical journal Autism and Vaccination-The Current Evidence, they have come to a

Bromley 5 formal conclusion, after many scientific studies done by professionals, that there has been no link between vaccinations and Autism. The idea behind their journal was to review the background information on many studies done in the past, and to look for a pattern in the evidence that shows that thimerosal-containing vaccines contribute to Autism; in which they did not. (Miller, Reynolds 167)One thing that needs to be said that is not, is that doctors go to school for almost two decades to learn about our bodies, how to treat them, and what is a proper treatment for them so, if there is anyone we need to listen to it is to them. If these so-called harmful toxins are causing Autism, why arent the past five generations of the world Autistic? All toxins are harmful, and the idea of vaccinations is to build up our immune systems, in order for us to lead a healthy, infection free lives. Many parents and caregivers of Autistic individuals like to think that the toxins contained in vaccinations, in fact, cause Autism. What leads them to believe this is the Autistic characteristics, which are behaviors that are not detected until the child should be developing social skills. (Baghdadli 123) One particular person who raises awareness about Autism is actress and daytime talk show host Jenny McCarthy. McCarthy discovered her son had Autism when he was about three years old. An apprehensive mother told TIME magazine that she would spend hours on the floor with her son trying to get him to talk or even just smile. When he was three, Jenny claims were the worst time for them mentally and physical. She had no idea how to deal with what she thought was a long battle ahead of her. Evan, now twelve, leads somewhat of a normal life. McCarthy says that it takes time but reaching somewhat of normality is possible for the Autistic person and their families. McCarthy, mother of an Autistic child has experience with every up and down that families deal with. For a large family to deal with an

Bromley 6 Autistic child would consist of many drastic changes for the family as a whole, such as letting the child eat dinner first and then putting a movie on for them while the family eats together in peace. Having an Autistic child creates challenges for the entire family, if everyone is aware and prepared for what events may occur; any situation with an Autistic individual is unpredictable. (Kluger) McCarthy now enlightens many on how she and Evan do so well, and also how she truly believes, like many other parents, that vaccinations need to be modified because the toxins currently contained in them contribute to Autism. She, along with many other parents, fully believe that thimerosalvaccinations as well as the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccinations cause Autism. (Miller, Reynolds 167) These parents are also trying to enforce that the FDA needs to severely modify them by eliminating what they believe to a contributing factor to Autism Spectrum Disorder. Now that Autism Spectrum Disorder is becoming more common, it is evident that along with it, the controversy of what contributes to it will grow, as well. There are many cases in which living and dealing with an Autistic person is possible, those involved just need to be fully aware of what it is to be expected. Even after numerous studies done by professionals, who go through around two decades of schooling and training, parents still refuse to believe them. Although, if vaccinations played as big of a role in causing Autism Spectrum Disorder it seems that much of the world's population would have moderate to severe cases of Autism.

Bromley 7

Works Cited Baghdadli, America, Marie C. Picot, Celine Pascal, Rene Pry, and Charles Aussilloux. "Relationship between Age of Recognition of First Disturbances and Severity in Young Children with Autism." European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 12.3 (2003): 122-27. Print. Kluger, Jeffrey. "Jenny McCarthy on Autism and Vaccines." Time. Time Inc., 01 Apr. 2009. Web. 09 Apr. 2014. <http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0%2C8599%2C1888718%2C00.html >. Miller, Lisa, and Joni Reynolds. "Autism and Vaccination-The Current Evidence." Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing 14.3 (2009): 166-72. Print. Sicile-Kira, Chantal. Autism Life Skills: From Communication and Safety to Self-esteem and More--10 Essential Abilities Every Child Needs and Deserves to Learn. New York: Perigee, 2008. Print. "What Is Autism?" Autism Speaks. Autism Speaks Organization, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2014. <http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism>.