XPost: misc.health.alternative, alt.psychology   
   From: superstar@deadcelebrity.org   
      
   Day Brown wrote...   
   > But if you know anything at all about statistics, the mere *fact* that   
   > small Ozark hill towns and the Amish have such low rates should ring   
   > loud alarm bells about a cultural effect.  In both cases, the schools   
   > are small, the attendance rates are high, and the rate of contagious   
   > pathogens is a lot lower because bugs dont have time to mutate thru   
   > enough kids before it runs out of new victims.   
      
   I was listening to yet another NPR segment on autism last week and the   
   person they interviewed pointed out the very large in ADHD diagnoses   
   around 1991 when a federal law allowed "special needs" kids to be   
   exempted from standardized testing, and I think the schools also got   
   extra money for such kids.   
      
   My local newspaper always covers the test results for area schools,   
   along with the occassional story on teachers and administraters helping   
   the kids cheat so as to increase the school's scores and avoid being   
   penalized.  Autistic kids don't have to take the test, so isn't is   
   possible that one ore more kids who were diagnosed autistic aren't   
   really autistic at all?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)