Minority evals, was Re: diagnosis

[Guest guest]

--- " Ari N. " wrote:

> My understanding from my education policy work is

> that there is a

> *lower *percentage

> of minority children with ASDs and a higher

> percentage with ADHD.

I would agree that ADHD diagnoses are more common in

minority students, and there are statistics on this

from larger urban districts, such as LAUSD. Los

Angeles shows more black and hispanic students with

" ADHD " than other groups. I think this reveals why a

diagnosis of ADHD is often questioned by researchers

-- it seems unusually trendy, which can be dangerous.

Labels in cume files are read by teachers and do

affect how those teachers react to students.

(There was a study in which a teacher was told all of

her students were gifted. Sure enough, they all rose

to the challenge. That says a lot about how teachers

can affect an outcome through their attitudes.)

The diagnoses of HFA/AS are less common because they

do tend to be expensive and require more awareness of

recent literature. However, in cases where it has been

done in Europe, the rates of AS seem suspect, at least

to me. Again, I think the trend of popular literature

on the subject is influencing results.

I suggest the book " Fool's Paradise " on the topic of

how self-help and pop-psych books are shaping clinical

results and demands from patients for particular

findings.

That being said, even " trendy " conditions are real.

There is no doubt in my mind that some of the students

I have met are HFA/AS, but often complicated by other

situations.

The evaluations I had were conducted in the 1970s and

again recently at university request. If I had to pay

for them, I wouldn't have participated. It was more an

academic experience, at that point. I still question

the WAIS-III as a diagnostic tool, and I have other

issues with the testing. Much of the HFA/AS testing is

too similar to ADHD testing.

If we want to accurately evaluate students, we need

much better training of school personnel and we must

ask teachers to avoid making evaluative comments. Only

psychologists and psychiatrists should be making any

sort of diagnostic comment to parents.

As for where/who I am: I am an DOVE Fellow at the

University of Minnesota. I specialize in online and

adaptive education, with an emphasis on ASD students.

The university has been most generous to me and my

wife, so I intend to add a Ph.D here.

- CSW

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