(Archive) School Psychology Podcast with Dr. Gaston Weisz SPP 012: Autism, When We Should Know Better

MEVIOtoday

Oct 16, 2009 SPP 012: Autism, When We Should Know Better

On this third part of the Autism podcasts, we focus on fads, quackery and pseudoscience with respect to autism. For more information, listen to episode 010 Autism: What we know and 011 Autism: What we don’t know. I focus on several claims that have been unsupported by research, yet can be popular and cause harm due to lost resources (time, money, hope, etc.) and at times can be dangerous.

Unsupported claims include Bettelheim’s claim that Autism was not biologically based and was caused by parenting. I also focused on unsupported claims such as childhood vaccines causing autism, or chelation therapy, secretin, diet, supplements, auditory training, sensory integration training, chiropractic treatment and facilitated communication. These approaches have not been verified. I emphasize the value of sticking with supported claims and treatments of which there are several (ABA, PECS, individualized education, early intervention, social stories). Finally, I review guidelines that are found on the website, quackwatch on how to recognize bogus science.

Web references and resources:
Information about the documentary refrigerator mothers http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2002/refrigeratormothers/index.html
http://www.autism-watch.org/
http://www.quackwatch.com/

Episode Comments

Success! Your comment will be posted when the producer approves it.

Fans of This Show also Like