Article: Moving towards a female profile of Asperger Syndrome

[davidgillon]

I'm not convinced this does what it says on the tin, it's mostly a badly written (just what the hell is an 'official detailed working screener document'?), poorly structured listing of every symptom ever even peripherally linked with the Autism Spectrum (and some not - 'Possesses psychic powers' Seriously?) the overwhelming majority of which I found just as applicable to me as a male who's been told he's probably somewhere in the AS area. But it's trying, and as the female Aspie friend who flagged it up pointed out, that alone makes it almost revolutionary.

Possible trigger/annoyance warning: It does talk about gender dysphoria in relationship to AS, it also talks about 'experimenting' with gender and sexual orientation to 'try and fit in', the overall effect seems to be slightly dismissive of gender dysphoria, reducing it to a symptom/coping mechanism in a way that made me uncomfortable even as a cis reader.

(Having panned it, I should admit it did make me realise I do have some stimming-type behaviours I hadn't previously considered as potentially symptomatic). 

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

"Screener" is educational psych jargon. It's more structured than a hunch, and way less formal than a clinical interview. Teachers or teacher aides may use a screener to decide if a student likely has something diagnosable wrong with them, so if teachers send the kid to the school psych, the administrator won't scream at them about wasting school resources.

As I'm sure you already know, Bob, the US lives & dies by the DSM, and DSM-V no longer includes "Aspergers Syndrome" as a billable diagnosis.

So, I'm already a lot dubious about this enterprise. But I'll read it just in case.