I had the pleasure of entertaining my nephew and niece over a couple of days this March Break. They were a pleasure. The line-ups at the Ontario Science Centre - not so much. I did not worry however, because I had the power of differential reinforcement of other behaviours to help us get…
Touch: Why Are We Obsessed With Autistic Kids Having Superpowers?
Kiefer Sutherland’s new show Touch premieres this week, and the plot hinges on the “superpowers” of a non-neurotypical child Jake. Jake can predict the future, which is of course not only impossible, but dangerously stereotypical of autism spectrum disorders. Actually, “stereotypical” is the wrong word. “Bullshit” or “insulting” are closer to the word I am looking for.
I am sure there will be plenty of the terrorist ass-kicking and 1,000-yard stare neo-MacGuyverism that Kiefer Sutherland has come to be known for, but is this really how we should portray autism on television, or anywhere? From io9:
The danger here is that the autistic character could be akin to the “magical negro” or the “noble savage” in popular culture, says Steve Silberman, a frequent contributor to Wired who’s writing a book about autism to be published in 2013. Silberman explains that these are
“… characters that were significantly disabled in a social sense, but who had a kind of innocence and purity that enabled them to play their central role in the narrative: that of redeeming the hero, who wasn’t disabled and was only temporarily an outcast. Those characters usually faded offscreen when the hero attained his rightfully high status in society; they were only valuable for what they could render unto the mainstream characters — very much like the gay “best friend” in a million TV shows who coaches the female lead on her romantic problems but never has a sex life of his own (“gross!”), or the fat girl who’s “like a sister” to the geeky-but-hot male lead.”
(via io9)
Because, it’s trendy? “autism” is a great keyword according to google.
I read this about a year ago and have always wanted to see what other behaviorist thought. Of course, from a behavioral point of view, this is common sense and not so much different than how we normally think. Behaviors can be observed. Patterns of behavior can be objectively analyzed. When questioning someone, you can gather information from their verbal behavior, and also from their physical behavior.
This would be an interesting topic to research, and another area that BCBA’s can offer their expertise.
Can These Simple Cartoons Help Redesign Education?
If you’ve ever wondered “What’s Joe’s motivation in life, and this whole Tumblr science blog thing he does?” … this would be a good place to start.
We owe it to ourselves to do more with to unlock the immense potential that currently sits in our classrooms. I’m old and boring, but adolescence is one of the most creative periods in life, we are hard-wired to test our limits during that time in our lives. So why stifle that in regimented, standardized classroom settings? I’m sure we can do better.
Were you bored in school? Guess what, so was Einstein! Does that make you a genius, too? Not likely, but according to a new project called Born to Learn, it does suggest that our educational practices might need a rethink. The project’s main thrust is a series of short, simple animations aimed at raising awareness about how the minds of young humans are “born to learn”—but not necessarily “be taught.”
“Your brain is the planet’s most powerful learning machine. But our current systems of education aren’t doing enough to unlock our true potential. This is what Born to Learn is all about,” the site proclaims. The short films (there are two so far) “sum up over 20 years of rigorous and complex research” culled from history and evolutionary psychology. The main thrust seems to be that a) contrary to what Fight Club says, you are a beautiful and unique snowflake; and b) everything would be better if we taught kids by doing instead of memorizing, and trained them to see connections and “the big picture” rather than isolated pieces of problems with no clear purpose.
“Adolescence is not a problem, it’s an opportunity.”
(via Co.Design)
All this time we’ve been told how to learn, i.e. extrinsic motivation. Here’s to a new movement where intrinsic motivation takes precedence. I’m all for it.
A FB friend of mine quoted this study, to support his anecdotal evidence of developing Lupus after receiving a hep. B vaccination.
First of all, the study is not using the scientific method, therefore, it is considered pseudoscience. Secondly, the participants in the study are all biased in the first place, considering they have a very specific reason for visiting this website. Again, pseudoscience.
When I presented these arguments, he went on to tell me Mennonites have lower rates of autism because they do not get vaccinations.
How do people continue to be so misinformed this day in age when REAL information (i.e. academic and medical journals) are readily available on the internet for FREE?
Be skeptical. Use critical thinking. Always research your sources.
Just the highlights:
Sample size:
Anecdotal evidence:
“That’s not scientific!”
Peer review:
Bias:
Consensus:
If you want to argue, you gotta have a good sample size that is free of anecdotes (one of my favorite sayings is “the plural of anecdote is not data”), the manner in…
Without training in the discipline of skepticism and reciprocal criticism that underlies the scientific method, laypersons who venture into the fields of knowledge with prejudiced goals can become more ruthless, more egregiously concerned with truth than even the most corrupt scholar”.
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| — | Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi |
