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ADHD and Autism
Is There a Connection? By Kelly Burgess
There actually isn't an answer to the question posed by the title of this article. Not yet, anyway. But thanks to the tireless efforts of one intuitive mom, the answer may not be long in coming.
That's because the theories of Diane Kennedy, which she articulates in her book The ADHD-Autism Connection: A Step Toward More Accurate Diagnosis and Effective Treatment (WaterBrook Press, 2003), are beginning to attract a lot of notice from researchers who work in the field of learning disabilities and genetics. What these researchers are finding is offering startling new proof that the disorders we know separately as ADD/ADHD and autism may not really be that separate after all.
It all started with her middle son, Ben, who was diagnosed with ADHD in first grade. This was actually a relief to Kennedy and her husband, Tom, who had feared Sam was retarded because of his lack of fine motor skills. What the testing told the Kennedys was that Ben was in reality super bright, just unfocused. The cure, they were told, was Ritalin, which seemed to help Ben in some areas, but not in others.
Kennedy was so absorbed in trying to help Ben that she didn't realize that her other son, Jeff, who was older by two years, was also having problems. By the time he entered middle school, the ADHD profile had changed to include those children who were inattentive without being hyperactive. This profile seemed to fit Jeff perfectly.
"I began to look at it like a cold virus that just manifested itself differently," says Kennedy. "For some it settles in the head. For others it may settle in the chest. What I couldn't figure out, not then anyway, was how both my sons ended up like this? What was the connection?"
Then Sam came along. By age 3 he was diagnosed with severe ADHD as well as oppositional defiance disorder. Like his older brothers, Sam was extremely bright, but his social skills were almost non-existent. In addition, he had an extreme sensitivity to sensory stimuli and great difficulty in interacting even with his mother – classic symptoms of pervasive developmental disorders, of which autism is one.