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You and Yours聽- Transcript 大象传媒 Radio 4 |
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TX: 28.06.04 - NEW ORGANISATION ESTABLISHED TO PROMOTE RESEARCH INTO AUTISM TREATMENT 聽 PRESENTER: PETER WHITE |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT.聽 BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 大象传媒 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WHITE Now first, although autism is nowadays much better understood than it used to be, many of the half million or more people who have some form of the condition in the UK receive inadequate help and worse some of the many approaches to dealing with autism are hyped with exaggerated or misleading claims. Well that's the view of many of the professionals and charities working in the field and it's led to the setting up of the Autism Intervention Research Trust, which aims to commission independent research into what works and what's just quackery.聽 Well the trust has been set up in conjunction with the National Autistic Society and there are plans to talk to 10,000 of the society's members about their experiences of therapies and treatments. Well I'm joined by Richard Mills, who's research director of the National Autistic Society. Richard, why do we know so little, I mean we don't really even know the cause do we. MILLS No we don't and the reason we know so little is that there is so much around. The advice that's given to parents of newly diagnosed children with autism is very, very haphazard - that of the thousands of interventions that are out there very, very few of them have actually been independently verified or evaluated. WHITE So why does autism attract these sort of wild and wacky theories?聽 MILLS Because autism's such a complex disorder it's bound to - and because it puzzles doctors, it puzzles parents and it's almost, by definition, beyond description and many ... WHITE Can you give me some examples, perhaps, of the kind of things that get tried and what doesn't work, what people should beware of?聽 MILLS Well some of the approaches - I think that the quick fix approaches where parents are promised an instant cure for autism - if you take this preparation or you have this injection or if you take this particular course of supplements - can be very misleading and very difficult for parents. Others are fairly harmless and innocuous - swimming with dolphins, for example, can be something which - of course it's not been evaluated - but can bring a great deal of happiness and pleasure to all concerned but doesn't do very much for the autism.聽 WHITE These wackier cures - are people doing this for profit, is this people trying to actually make money out of this?聽 MILLS I think some people are doing it for profit but I think some people are doing it because they're very well meaning and because they've tried these approaches for their own children with autism and they seem to work then they want to share that with other people and they're very genuine and very well meaning. Unfortunately what works for one child with autism won't work for another.聽 WHITE And presumably if you hear the word "cure" then you should immediately be suspicious because there is no cure is there.聽 MILLS Well I think there are specific medical conditions which can give rise to autism where you could say that by a specific intervention you can prevent autism developing, but they're very, very few and far between and I think mainly what we're talking about is a method of intervening which allows the child to develop to their fullest potential.聽 WHITE And are there particular lines you think money should be - can productively be spent on?聽 MILLS Well the initial findings of our survey shows that parents tell us that things began to take a turn for the better once they came into contact with professionals who actually knew something about autism. So clearly the training of professionals in autism is an area where we would want to see some investment. Also the science itself - I think that very often people are comparing apples with oranges in terms of the science, so we need to know far more about which approach works for which specific child.聽 WHITE Richard Mills, thank you very much indeed. And we hope to be finding out more as the weeks go on. We too would like to hear directly the experiences of people with an autistic condition, we'd like to hear from parents, teachers or professionals because we are planning a series of reports on the subject in the near future. You can call us on 0800 044 044 or you can e-mail us at our website at bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 大象传媒 is not responsible for external websites |
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