Who Speaks For Autism?

In our own “parents of autism” community, we continue to see splinter groups emerge as the ongoing debate over the root causes of autism divide the families and advocates impacted by this neurological disorder.

Recently, there have been several major defections from "Autism Speaks". My only concern is that a proliferation of different voices dilutes our message. http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/07/01/claudia-kalb-another-resignation-at-autism-speaks.aspx

For me, I think there needs to be only two messages:

1) An open, honest, frank discourse on the possible causes of autism. With the likelihood of several triggers for autism and in fact, several different forms of autism itself, the search for the smoking gun is a waste. We need to identify as many possible agents as possible. If we do that, the Pharma companies will line up like politicians seeking a handout, because they will easily see an ROI for the necessary R&D expenditures.

2) A national, comprehensive plan to ensure insurance companies pick up the cost of ABA and other clinically proven treatments for autism. It is simply irresponsible for insurance companies to turn down these treatments, when it has been proven again and again that providing ABA to an autistic child will only pay itself back with dividends when that child is ready for adult life.

A fractious community serves no real purpose, it certainly undermines our influence. Let's agree on our priorities and communicate those strongly to our supposed leaders.