tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.comments2023-11-10T01:57:16.314-05:00Out In Left FieldKatharine Bealshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02838879769628392605noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-27665300912490244632023-11-10T01:57:16.314-05:002023-11-10T01:57:16.314-05:00If you don't know that *insurmountable* usuall...If you don't know that *insurmountable* usually precedes "obstacle"...<br /><br />And that whole long tail/long term thing.<br /><br />Long tail has a very specific statistical and economic meaning.<br /><br />It's all about the bell curve?<br /><br />And I never ever could spell "GRATUITUOUS" because I never saw gratuity outside of hotels and the prices that you add.<br /><br />Sometimes it is mentioned as a prelude to "violence" or "sex" in Catholic discussions of popular culture.<br /><br />Also the Comic Books Code. [which I only found out about in this READER'S DIGEST book about developing efficient and effective reading habits - speed reading].<br /><br />"Can of worms" is better than "Pandora's box".<br /><br />[because people don't know Greek myths that well.<br /><br />Pandora, of course, means ALL GODS - or gift from the gods more specifically].<br /><br />[Because dora = gift].<br /><br />Turning the other cheek is what you choose to do; look the other way can often be involuntary.<br /><br />And I use "having said" where "given that" or "for a given value" or "that said" would do.<br /><br />And isn't "that said" "idem"?<br /><br />#DiminishedReadingOfSophisticatedTextAdelaide Duponthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01490123934889071074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-32781875021713868912023-10-03T12:18:37.509-04:002023-10-03T12:18:37.509-04:00Totally agree! A lot of people, and probably relat...Totally agree! A lot of people, and probably related to self-dx, though I imagine the most obsessed with solo hobbies have better things to do than to spend time on self-dx :)Katharine Bealshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02838879769628392605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-40381047952683890462023-10-03T12:15:58.160-04:002023-10-03T12:15:58.160-04:00Thanks, OSS, for your comments. Really interesting...Thanks, OSS, for your comments. Really interesting and food for much thought. I'm only now returning to my blog after having been logged out of it for two weeks due to computer issues. What you write about *actual* apraxia minus autism is very much worth including in discussion of over-diagnosis of autism... I hope to write a future post on this eventually!Katharine Bealshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02838879769628392605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-29528021210872687552023-09-23T16:54:23.530-04:002023-09-23T16:54:23.530-04:00.....I have to say I really don't think that a........I have to say I really don't think that anyone who doesn't "enjoy spending time with people more than [they] enjoy pursuing [their] solo hobbies" has to be autistic.<br /><br />Not that you're saying that. Just, I've encountered people who do seem to have that attitude. A lot of people. Really A LOT.<br /><br />(Might be related to the self-diagnosis / over-diagnosis situation and also...not surprising if someone wants to say it is fine and not harmful to enjoy your solo hobbies more than you enjoy interacting with people, it doesn't mean there's something "wrong with you," etc. etc...)<br /><br />-OSSAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-18611800617800675582023-09-22T12:57:31.948-04:002023-09-22T12:57:31.948-04:00(It rejected my comment for being "over 4096 ...(It rejected my comment for being "over 4096 characters" even though a character counter told me it was 4084? IDK so I split it into two, here's part 2:)<br /><br />Semi-OT but some more general, speculative thoughts--<br /><br />Based on earlier experiences and observations I also believe that many children who weren't on the spectrum and were gifted have also been diagnosed as HFA/AS (also touched on in the book review I link below). And I think that was good for those children (they got academic accommodations they really needed) but bad for autism research, for those with autism generally, and maybe especially, for those who are both autistic and gifted (like my husband). (I do want to add here that allistic GT kids really do need accommodations, they really suffer before they get them, that suffering really can lead to very autistic-looking behaviors...there are no villains here.)<br /><br />So I can believe that a similar "pocket of misdiagnoses" could be going on with apraxia type issues as well.<br /><br />See also the very polite comment in Stephan Camarata's book /Late-Talking Children: A Symptom or a Stage?/ on specific language impairment being misdiagnosed as autism spectrum disorder. You may be interested in this review (not by me): https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RE5FIYT1LVNS0/ "ASD has won. Camarata makes it sound like the controversy is still alive, but almost all professionals will now diagnose autism level 2 or 3 if your child doesn't talk and won't comply with testing."<br /><br />I guess what I'm kinda getting at or thinking of here is, well, language evolves etc. (sorry to be "teaching Grandmother to suck eggs" here, I know you know this as a linguist!). I can imagine a scenario in which some condition that's more common than, I'll call it "traditional autism," starts getting frequently misdiagnosed (or, if we're talking culture/politics, self-diagnosed) as autism and ends up swamping the "traditional autism," changing results of research studies (my daughter was accepted into a research study on autism! we chose not to participate because we weren't sure she really had it and did not want to throw off the study), etc.<br /><br />-OSSAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-73406883198604761822023-09-22T12:55:40.901-04:002023-09-22T12:55:40.901-04:00Hi! I've vaguely heard of FC, but don't kn...Hi! I've vaguely heard of FC, but don't know much about it. Following is just some speculation based on my own experiences.<br /><br />I came back to this blog after many years (last I was here, your son was just starting college) because I wanted to link someone to your great descriptions of how, without a curriculum, "left brain types" can miss out. Something my (HFA/AS) husband experienced, and why he wants to use a curriculum if/when we homeschool.<br /><br />But now we have a child who has apraxia-type issues. She was initially suspected to have autism, but we weren't convinced. She now has a diagnosis of a birth injury making it hard for her to use her arms (explaining the paucity of early standard gestures, even as she invented her own "gestures" like smiling for "yes"), and a childhood-apraxia-of-speech-like condition which may be from the birth injury or may be just genetic (explaining why she has always had very good receptive language but weak expressive language). (For example: She put her ball into her sliding-lid ball drop toy; I asked her, "Where did the ball go?"; she slid the lid to show the ball, then tilted the toy to dump it out.)<br /><br />We weren't convinced of the autism dx because when her conditions prevented both talking and making gestures, she communicated very well using facial expression, tone of voice in the sounds she made, and eye gaze.<br /><br />Now, she uses some sign language and some words (though her words are often unclear), and still also relies heavily on facial expression, tone of voice, and eye gaze.<br /><br />So when you talk about "the motor/apraxia disorder that facilitated communication proponents need autism to be," I both agree with you that it's not autism / shouldn't be diagnosed as autism, and also know from experience that apraxia type problems *can* be misdiagnosed that way.<br /><br />If someone got that diagnosis and believed it was true, and then observed that their / their child's problems were primarily with motor planning...<br /><br />Anyway, I shared the above details about my child in hopes that it might be useful info on how an apparently allistic child with apraxia-like issues "actually" acts.<br /><br />-OSSAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-83589065878603429652023-04-18T18:55:09.343-04:002023-04-18T18:55:09.343-04:00Good question!Good question!Katharine Bealshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02838879769628392605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6570061087276796800.post-49518277998365013282023-03-11T22:56:17.554-05:002023-03-11T22:56:17.554-05:00And what does the State education department know ...And what does the State education department know about "evidence" and how it links to practice?Adelaide Duponthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01490123934889071074noreply@blogger.com