Category: Science

Putting Ideas About the Cause of Autism Into Perspective

5/7/2015

I haven't posted this picture in a while, but as parents and people on the spectrum themselves tend to get inundated with articles sent to them about newly discovered 'causes of autism'. Dealing with this flood of press articles, which are rarely science-based, is intimidating for anyone and it can be a bit bewildering to try to sort through them.

That's why I LOVE this chart! It does a fantastic job of summing up what science has to say about possible correlations (which are not causes, simply things that we see a relationship with, such as science majors) with autism vs what the media has to say. You'll note there's not much of a relationship between the two.

If you're interested in learning more about the cause from a science-minded souce, by the way, I really recommend watching this TED talk which summarizes what we know so far:

I also recommend, however, not focusing on the idea of cause. There are lots of people working on that, but it doesn't do much to help the autistic people who are our friends, relatives, and classmates. Instead, I'd recommend learning how to be a good ally to the autistic people that you know (or should happen to meet in the future). This video does a good job of summing that up.

And if you're interested in reading the article that this chart came from, check it out here.

As always, if you have any questions about autism and science - found an article you don't quite understand or heard a claim that doesn't quite make sense - feel free to contact me and I'm more than happy to help you with it!

-Creigh

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Autism & Science Crash Course: Send Me Your Articles!

9/11/2014

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This past week, the headlines blazed variations of this: "EARLY INTERVENTION WITH BABIES MAY WARD OFF AUTISM".

This is the kind of headline that people, particularly parents of children on the spectrum, encounter all the time. I read these articles, and I will tell you from a background in statistics and psychology that the vast majority of them, like the headline above, are really overblown and premature. Some of them, particularly those found on blogs, are downright false. But if you didn't have a deep background in research, experimental design, or statistical analysis, you'd never know it. Even in the most educated of people, such a background is rare, because few fields require it.

Thankfully I have a background in a field that does, psychology, and I want to help share the ability to evaluate scientific claims it's given me. Every time one of these major headlines comes out, I'm going to post it here. I'll teach you what to look for within the article, the red flags of insufficient evidence or something just plain made up, and the signs of a well made study. (I guarantee you, we will have much fewer opportunities to do the latter than the former.)

And I extend the same offer to you. Every time one of you encounters an article, or even a blog post, which makes claims about science and autism and you have questions about, I want you to send them to me. And I'll post it here on the ASE page and break it down for you all, teaching you what to look for as I do. This is your chance to get a free resource (me) to analyze areas of concern for you, instead of having to sort through them yourself, and simply guess.

After doing several of these, I'll start challenging you all to tell me what you see and verifying (or correcting) your analysis. And after a short while, I'm quite confident that any of you who choose to participate will be able to assess most any claim thrown at you...and even then, if you run across one you have concerns about, feel free to send it to me and we'll run through it together.

A parent once told me that sorting through all the news information he saw about autism was 'like trying to drink water out of a fire hose.' I get it, really I do. And while I can't turn down the sheer quantity in the media, I can help you quickly and easily understand and analyze it. The question is, do you want to learn?

Like = I'm interested!

-Creigh

Note: This seems like a really good time to remind you all that I am not a professional. I've taken many statistics and research methods courses, and am just seeking to highlight some of the basic principles for you guys, not for the goal of giving advice or swaying opinions or even judging interventions, but for the goal of helping increase scientific literacy in a population that runs into the need for it frequently.

[Picture reads: The real cause of increasing autism prevalence? Below is a graph showing a near 1 for 1 increase in autism rates as organic food consumption increases. How could this be? And does it really mean that organic food causes autism? Well, that's something we're going to cover together.]

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Putting Ideas About the Cause of Autism Into Perspective

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