Stigmas from Societies

Review of: Your Child’s Disorder May Be Yours, too.
Author: Benedict Carey
Date of Publication: December 9th, 2007
Student: Carolina Flores
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/fashion/09diagnosis.html

By the age of 2, Jeremy Schwarz was a child that had a sensibility all his own, being affectionate and distant at the same time and more focused on objects and patterns rather than people around him. Then he was diagnosed with high functioning autism.
The child’s father found in his son’s diagnosis a new language to understand his own life, his sensitivities, his diffidence through school… all echoed through his and Jeremy’s behaviour.
Researchers have long known that many psychiatric disorders and developmental problems run in families. Attention and developmental disorders like autism also have a genetic component. The diagnosis may spread from the child to other family members, forcing each to confront family frustrations. It is a surprise because the child is the first one in family to get a through evaluation and history. However, diagnosing an adult about his or her child has its risks. They may exaggerate about their behaviour and their children’s.
To make a proper diagnosis, doctors like to see some evidence of a problem in childhood — evidence that can be hard to come by.
Children long for evidence that they aren’t the only ones who are going through these difficulties.
This problem can alter the present if parent and child have common ground. Jeremy’s father became in some way the translator of his son.
It is believed there are a lot of parents of kids with this diagnosis who have at least a little bit of the traits their kids have but because of the stigma that societies associate with disabilities, they are inhibited from embracing that part of themselves.