Parents of children with autism have slammed Cambridge University for producing “useless” autism research – and said the UK should follow the lead of the US’s President Obama (pictured).
Cambridge University’s Autism Research Centre has produced research saying that engineers, scientists and computer programmers who meet their partners at work may be fuelling the increase in cases of autism, currently affecting around one in every 100 people.
Gillian Loughran, editor of Autism Eye magazine, said she has been inundated with phone calls from parents expressing their annoyance at what they see as the latest trivia to emerge from Cambridge.
Loughran, an award-winning journalist and mother of Finn, who has autism, said: “I could fill Cambridge University with parents of children with autism who are not working in any of the fields he mentions, but whose children went on to develop the condition.”
Loughran said parents tell her they want research into such issues as the role of toxins on their children’s health, and the gut, immune and mental health problems that beset the rising number of children with autism, and for autism research that could lead to effective health as well as educational interventions.
“Some children with autism are in pain and discomfort from gut issues and a considerable number of children with autism face exclusion from their school,” she said. “It’s far more important to study their health and educational problems than the history of their parents’ dating arrangements.”
Loughran called the sort of research being conducted at Cambridge “sensationalist and headline grabbing”. She said: “Parents of children with autism despair at the number of academics who raise their profiles and sell more of their books while failing to conduct research that has the real potential to help these children.”
She called on David Cameron to follow the lead of President Obama, who has given autism research and treatment greater priority in the US.
In September, President Obama signed legislation renewing the US’s landmark Combating Autism Act for another three years, authorizing $693 million in spending. American parents will see federal support continuing for autism research, services and treatment.
Loughran said: “Parents in the UK are desperate for answers. The NHS needs to know how to help these children and the Government needs to act with a greater sense of purpose.”
Published: 22 November 2011
