Thursday, August 16, 2012

From a popular Australian parenting magazine........

"Luckily, we found a brilliant young psychologist who could see our son quickly. My son and I filled out lengthy questionnaires, and he was tested for hours, including having to interpret people's feelings from photos of different facial expressions. Reading people's expressions is hard for people with Asperger's. I thought he did quite well, but the verdict was textbook Asperger's. This has led to frequent sessions with a psychologist....."

I bet it has. What's the betting that the kid was diagnosed with the help of the child version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, a version of a test of questionable value? And what's the betting that the questionnaires administered were often-criticized instruments from Baron-Cohen's Autism Research Centre? For Pete's sake, it looks like the poor kid didn't even do convincingly badly on the test of reading facial expressions. You have had your son labelled for life on the basis of what?

Eriksen, Karen (2012) A teacher's intuition. Sydney's Child. 
http://mbbc.qld.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/asd.pdf
http://www.webchild.com.au/


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