A dangerous article NOT worth reading

[Guest guest]

Here is an article that has potentially dangerous consequences for

autistics.

I say this because:

1) The study only deals with 11 autistic children, and considering

that 1 in 166 people are on the autistic children, one would think

that more autistic children for the purposes of this study would be

easier to find, and that more children SHOULD have been found

considering the implications revolving around the results of this

study.

2) These children range in age from 34 to 46 months which

characterizes a faily wide band on the development scale and thus

the developmental difference reported here is hardly accurate. Say

for example that a child at 34 months demonstrates the noted

deficiency. What if, at 35 months, the child no longer presents with

this same deficiency? Yet this study does not account for this

potential eventuality.

3) From this tiny study they have concluded that: " the results could

provide a cognitive explanation for one of the characteristics of

autism: the inability to recognize the goals and motivations of

others. "

And now

4) They are already, based on the above flimsy study and

questionable conclusion, saying about this shoddy science

that: " This study opens the door for further research of preschool-

age children, which could aid us in the development of possible

diagnostic tools and therapies, "

If the above quote is true, then more than 11 children ought to be

studied before diagnostic tools and therapies are developed.

If any of you parents out there have done some doctor recommended

therapy or given your child some doctor recommended drug with no

effectual result, then blame scientists like these who get the

medical profession, the media, and parents of autistic children into

a frenzy over quack sells like this one.

Tom

Administrator

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061012184822.htm

Source: Carnegie Mellon University

Date: October 17, 2006

Preschoolers With Autism Lag Behind Peers In Distinguishing Between

Animate, Inanimate Objects

Young children with autism appear to be delayed in their ability to

categorize objects and, in particular, to distinguish between living

and nonliving things, according to a breakthrough study by

researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon

University. The paper has been published in the Journal of

Developmental and Physical Disabilities and the results could

provide a cognitive explanation for one of the characteristics of

autism: the inability to recognize the goals and motivations of

others.

Previous research has shown that young children with autism have the

same abilities as normally developing children to categorize objects

based on so-called surface characteristics, such as size and shape.

They have a diminished ability, however, to group objects into more

abstract categories (e.g., birds, trees, cars and furniture). A key

characteristic that differentiates living and nonliving things is

the ability of the former to move on their own, and as humans, we

rely on the motions of others -- a hand reaching out to shake ours,

a person running toward us -- to help us interpret their actions and

intentions.

" People have not really studied these conceptual deficits in very

young children as the possible basis for the social and cognitive

deficits in older children and adults with autism, " said Carnegie

Mellon psychologist Rakison, who co-authored the paper with

, director of the Autism Center at Children's

Hospital of Pittsburgh and assistant professor of pediatrics and

psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

" This study opens the door for further research of preschool-age

children, which could aid us in the development of possible

diagnostic tools and therapies, " said. " Children with autism

have the best outcomes when they are diagnosed and begin treatment

at an early age. "

In this study, 11 children with autism, ranging in age from 34 to 46

months, performed a series of tasks -- some involving toy figures

and others in which children followed objects moving on a computer

monitor. In one experiment, children were asked to imitate the

actions of a researcher who moved an object, such as a toy cat.

Children were able to choose from other objects with varying degrees

of similarities to the original toy. In the case of the toy cat,

they could choose from a toy dog (the same category and the same

parts); a toy dolphin (same category but different parts); a table

(the same parts -- legs -- but in a different category); and a car

(different parts and in a different category.) Researchers studied

the children's play to see whether they chose a toy in the same

category and with the same parts as the object chosen by the

researcher, and whether they demonstrated the appropriate type of

motion.

The authors found that the children with autism performed at the

same level as children half their age (18 to 22 months). Children

with autism could understand the relationship between certain parts

and motion, like legs and walking, but ignored other important

characteristics, such as the fact that some things with legs are

alive and move deliberately toward other objects.

" I've never seen a single paper in which researchers studied these

processes in children this young, " Rakison said.