Leaked Story “Alarmist & Wrong” says Baron-Cohen
July 11, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Last week’s news story announcing that the incidence of autism was 1 in 58 was “alarmist and wrong,” says Professor Simon Baron-Cohen. Anjana Ahuja in the July 12th Times Online interviews Baron-Cohen who notes that:
It is possible that the one-in-58 figure comes from ARC’s use of the Childhood Asperger’s Syndrome Test (CAST), a questionnaire that parents can use to assess whether their child may have autism. The ARC team has used it on Cambridgeshire children in mainstream schools. However, it does not provide a diagnosis and is known to result in a high number of false positives. Around half the children flagged up by CAST as possibly having autism turn out not to.
In the meantime, he says that the best, most carefully conducted studies all show around 1 per cent of children lie on the autism spectrum (see box) and there is no reason to suspect that this has suddenly changed. There has been a gradual rise over decades, he says, but this reflects the fact that children are more routinely assessed, greater public awareness, and a wider diagnostic net.
In a companion article, Baron-Cohen describes his research on genetics and a link between mathematical ability and autism; he also talks about his sister, Suzie, who cannot speak and is “wheelchair-bound and has profound learning disabilities,” and who has lived in institutions for most of her life. Baron-Cohen’s research team is looking for those who are “Good at English, bad at maths” to participate in his study.
I’m glad Baron-Cohen made the statements he has in this article, yet following the link and reading about his further research bothered me a bit–I do think he reinforces a lot of obsolete stereotypes about autism. I think his testosterone theories are utter bunk and this “language vs maths” thing is more of the same. Once facilitated communication entered the mix, IE in this age of the internet, it became apparent that many (even most) autistic adults were extremely articulate, even if not expressively so in social situations. I don’t know, I think I need to do some delving into Baron-Cohen’s work before I continue, and write something of my own on this… which probably won’t happen until I graduate or somesuch.
Congratulations to Charlie on his loose tooth, by the way.
Baron-Cohen is being hoisted on his own petard. His Autism Questionnaire ha redefined autism from a pervasive developmental disorder caused by a disruption in early brain development to something it is not… a personality disorder. It is his conceptualization of ‘autism’ that has helped led to the myth of the so-called autism explosion and has given rise to the vaccine theory.
His autism questionnaire is misnamed. It is not a checklist for ‘autism’ it is a questionnaire to define where perfectly normal people fit on a bell curve from introversion to extroversion.
His theories have led to parents of perfectly normal and introverted children being harrassed by well intentioned people for failing to recognize that their child is suffering from a pervasive developmental disorder and should be referred to child development centers for immediate treatment as well as the hilarious discussion in the British tabloids as to whether the new PM Gordon Brown is ‘autistic’ or suffering from ‘Asperger’ Syndrome.
We now see nearly half of Down’s Syndrome children being described as ‘on the spectrum’.
Happe, Plomin and Ronald have now reported that 10% of the general population scored positive in a questionnaire designed to rat the presence of ‘autistic-like traits’ in the general population.
At some point the prevelance of autism will fall to one in ten.
Glass half-full or half-empty for the spectrum to have become so broad?
I know this is OT, but my curiosity got the better of me so I looked up Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen on Wikipedia and my suspicion was proved correct….
“Simon Baron-Cohen is a first cousin of Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor and comedian famous for his characters Borat and Ali G.”
I’m still not sure if I’m on the autistic end of “normal” or on the normal end of “autistic”, but I do seem to be somewhat socially awkward, and kind of geeky with some specially obsessive interests. I really do think that my head does not work the same way as most peoples’ heads work.
Sometimes that’s a bug, sometimes it’s a feature.
Not a bad analogy…….. but does it come at a special cost….