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Is ASD like owning a rare car?

Arran

The owner of a rare car will be aware of the difficulty of sourcing spare parts for the car and how very few mechanics will be familiar with working on the car, or in some cases may never have seen one in the metal. If a person wants a car where parts are available everywhere and every mechanic knows it like the back of their hand then they should pick something common like a Vauxhall Astra.

The reason why so few retailers sell parts for rare cars and so few mechanics are familiar with them is simply a case of economics. It’s not economically viable to do so. Focus on providing for more common cars and leave the rare cars to a small handful of specialists. In extreme cases the specialists rarely make a profit and providing parts and servicing is a labour of love more than anything else.

Could the same be said for children with ASD at schools? It’s such a rare condition that providing training in social skills and life skills is economically unviable compared with providing support for children who have difficulty with reading, spelling, or mathematics which are many times more common conditions? A primary school of 400 children may only have 3 or 4 children with ASD at any one time but somewhere between 50 and 100 children have difficulties with reading, spelling, or mathematics at any one time.

  • The NAS really should stop pretending that they provide quality services to people with high-functioning ASD when in reality they only offer crumbs of comfort. It's like saying we provide parts and services for rare cars but in reality the only provisions are for lights bulbs, tyres, air filters, and engine oil. Have a gearbox or electrical problem? You're out of luck. Want parts for the suspension or fuel system? You're out of luck again.

    It's probably safe to say that certain services for children with ASD (like life skills and social skills) are more economically provided outside of mainstream schools at evenings and weekends and school holidays rather than in schools because of the numbers game issue. There are a few independent support groups that provide these services but their efforts are frustrated by limited funds. What is on offer from the NAS is woefully underdeveloped in comparison. I mentioned a few years back about the bike training at my local AS support group. There's no evidence that the NAS would even consider providing such a service. I doubt that many schools are willing to provide the service either once children are older than reception class and certainly not at KS2.

    The NAS needs to make providing these services a priority area if they are to have any credibility with people with high-functioning ASD. Enough of the fundraising events. Enough of the autism awareness weeks. Enough of the coffee mornings for parents where the same stories are repeated every time. Enough of the glitz and glamour.

    But will they? Probably not because there's no money in it for them.

    The NAS actually functions as a government service provider more than anything else. They are only interested in cases that bring in £££ from local authority coffers. In 99.9% of these cases they involve a small number of people with traditional Kanner autism who require residential care services or children who fit the criteria for NAS run schools.

  • The analogy between ASD and rare cars, and the way it is economically unviable to provide services for both, was made at the local AS support group. If ASD was a common condition like difficulty reading then there would be much more support for it in schools.

    Without risking sounding xenophobic, the issue of a significant numbers of children from eastern European countries in primary schools in the area which don't know a word of English on the day they start was mentioned at the same time, and how there is more support available for them to learn English than there is support for children with ASD.

    The conclusion was that it's all a numbers game and academics matter the most from the school's point of view. Social skills, life skills, and anything physical or creative come a poor second and it's up to the children and their families to make good any deficiencies and shortcomings.

    The local AS support group has offered football training for children. This is not intended to make any of them the next Lionel Messi but simply to improve their ability in football in school PE lessons so that they don't ruin the game for other children who are good at football. It's a known fact that children who are good at team sports tell their parents about the children who are bad at team sports and ruin their game. This generates negative attitudes and ill feelings towards them as they are perceived as ruining and disrupting their education.

    How many schools would offer the same service? Probably very few as after school sports clubs usually cater only for children who are good at sports and play at competitive level.