help us develop a scientific scale to assist the diagnosis

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I am still very unclear about the statement from Dr. Ritvo in his first post. Why are people being dismissed if they will not drive to Los Angeles or Phoenix? It says he will call them. It's just damn creepy that suddenly he must meet people.

The first person I ever met from the internet raped me for 3 hours. The 2nd person I met from the Internet pointed a Colt 45 in my face. So pardon me if I don't trust any ya-who who posts they are so-and-so on the internet. I know better than to take people's words all the time. When he suddenly takes back that he will phone someone for the interview it's just damn strange if you ask me.

Something else that occured to me recently. This isn't aimed necessarily at Dr. Ritvo. But instead at the host of researchers who have posted on here wanting test subjects over the years. Why would a professional post on a website for autism wanting test subjects? It seems only logical that the correct procedure would be to contact the real life autism groups in each state that they want to research in. In Arizona for instance there are 3 chapters of the National Autism Society. Those people know who the diagnosed Aspies are in their town. So why would you contact AS people through unofficial methods if you are a professional?

Not a criticism. Just a thought ...

OK you guys. You may be Aspies, you may have had bad experiences, we all have. Such is life.
1. For you who wants methods and subject selection, if you read the website that dr. Ritvo gave you, you could see in the last page that there were 2 downloads of the pilot studies. Go again : rivaariellaritvo.net and find it. Nothing mysterious and NO NEED FOR RUDENESS even if you are an Aspie.
2. You who was raped, I am truly sorry but we are here TO HELP ALL PEOPLE WITH ASD. You have a choice, participate or not...If you don't feel right about it, pick another thread.
3. Why don't we just stop perseverating and let this thread be what it is: AN INVITATION to participate in a research project. You may or may not choose to do so.
4. Leave Dr. Ed Ritvo alone. Enough already. He is not Eddy! He is professor Ritvo who spent the past 40 years of his life trying to make yours better! Aspie or not--you should know better...If not, may I recommend social skills group...You were living on thsi planet even if it is the wrong one. Make the best of it! I doi every day!! !! !

Now, see, that is the problem with my therapist, lol (wanting to understand, but never TRULY being able to).

It seems when all else fails, point out where we have the most problems, tells us we are wrong for it, suggest where we should go so we can do better... but if it was truly that easy, why would people still be researching this? We should be just fine! Pffft... I knew I was doing something wrong all of this time. Everyone, just sign up for social skills groups and we'll be all better... because our AS social problems apparently will be gone, and we'll be able to communicate properly. Never again will we be skeptics, never again will there be misunderstandings...

Why does this bother me? Well, mainly because I've tried blending in for 27 years... never worked. I've finally got an answer, now the people who are claiming the credit for this are saying "go to a social skills group"... what a contradiction. We want to help and understand, but if we find you rude, go to a social skills group and don't talk to us. Seems rather degrading if you ask me... but maybe I'm just reading it wrong. It does happen quite a bit, you know.

Trust me, I want to be understood just as much as I want to understand the world and reactions of people around me. It's really not that easy. By the way, I do honestly appreciate everything that HAS been done for us, but the attitudes have not changed. I don't expect the world to revolve around me, but how can I react any differently if I do not understand the reasons for the reactions to begin with?

Ari you are a real jerk! Don't tell anyone to go to a different thread. You and your Dr. technically are the ones who have no business here! This is a forum for Autistic people. This is OUR forum, not yours.

You should not be surprised that some people are leary of a complete stranger who pops on here and claims to be some Professor. You can go on and on about his accomplishments, but there is no way to know for sure if either of you are the people you claim to be.

PS: What website are you talking about? He never sent me a website URL to read about him. But not that it matters because we really don't know WHO you are just because you post who you say you are.

Anyone seen some of those undercover episodes on Dateline NBC about people pretending to be something different on the Internet?

(Firstly - Ticker, I am so sory you were hurt.......of course you're leery; another took gross advantage of your vulnerability. HFA can be truly innocent; I have a naivety about me and it's as if other can sense this quality. I am mind blind in a world of NT mind readers - rough).

Separate thought: We're so in trouble. Spanked by Ari. However, Ari (aka: the thought police) does not author this forum. We do.


I detect a touch of self-righteousness too....why? The Aspies may ask questions and superficial pretention is unwarranted. Get over it.

Well so are you Ticker. We are all Jerks. How do I knwo you are an Aspie and not a jerk? Do you have any ideas how many fake Aspies walked into my clinic in the past 10 years???? Of course not. But you are correct! It is your thread and you can have it! You can choose to live on WP but don't come to us JUST when you need free advocacy in the wrong planet out there. I am wealthy. I could spend my days in nail salons or painting or playing piano but i chose to pursue a fair world for Aspies. I am a jerk, of a major kind. And BTW, whoever asked about autism societies, we have contacted them and ARE working through them. In my opinion, that was the way to go. Dr. ed is more daring and jumped into a definitely wrong planet. Not because of the Aspies but the wanna be Aspies. You too have frauds among you. As for me, I happily take leave of this forum. By thread I meant topic! Enjoy slicing each other to threads. You could be much more helpful if you were supportive of one another. I have visited many Aspies forums, WP is a place in its own league. I am happy to leave, Way too busy to be doing this, There are real Aspies out there who really need our assitance! Sorry to have bothered all of you! Farewell!
Ari Ritvo--THE BIG PRETENDER! Who in heavens would want to pretend to be me????? Not even me!! !! !

I emailed Ed a proposition to get his questionnary validated in a large study on a mixed population (sub-test in Aspie-quiz). I'm not sure if they will even consider the idea, but if they want all of their questions checked for relevance for ASDs, this should be a great opportunity for them. They could also get them checked for "friendliness" and "comprehensibility" if they add a '?' alternative.

I still don't understand how they can evaluate it if they only use a group of confirmed autistics. Are they planning to use psychology-students or something like that as a control-gruop? Or won't they have a control-group at all?

The AQ-test, for instance, doesn't seem to be evaluated using AS/HFA against a control-group because a set of questions have absolutely no relevance for ASDs.

I just read their pilote-study. 20 individials with AS, 17 with autism, 41 with no diagnoses and 16 with a broad range of other diagnoses. And they have published this in an autism-journal! This is really horrifying. I regard a sample of 500 individuals as the absolute minimum for such a study. The SPQ-A now has 271 participants and it's ASD correlation is still on the rise. It still has a too small sample. Factor-analysis have proved to be instable with less than 500 answers.

This is must be a joke

Ari, you and your father might be who you say you are, and if so, I would not choose to participate in a study that is handled by people who are so defensive and manipulative towards this autism community. I find your behavior reprehensible. A professional who works with autistics should exhibit patience and understanding. But after you read a few skeptic and tongue in cheek posts, you engaged with us by chastising us instead. How odd. How hurtful, coming from a person who is supposed to be a beacon of light for the autism community. Your behavior further validates my belief that you are not who you say you are... and as I said, if you are the person you say you are, then I cannot imagine why you choose to engage with us in the manner that you have.

Your the Rodney Dangerfield of the ASD diagnostic field RDOS.

"I don't get no respect"

Thanks for the compliment

Ari has spoken.......special. Why don't you go get your nails done (nice & sharp)?

The questionnarie doesn't seem to be all bad, and problably has some merits over the AQ-test, but it still contains a set of questions that very likely have near zero ASD correlation, and some combined questions where alternatives that have near-zero ASD correlation are combined with alternatives with high ASD correlation (one for instance includes "empathy"). This is poor research-methodology. You first check the individual trait's relevance and intercorrelation and then you combine things.

Besides, TheMachine1, I will increase "annoyance-factor" considerably in the next few stable versions of Aspie-quiz as I actually start giving people specific suggestions on DSM-diagnoses they might be able to receive.

I will do this in an objective, scientific manner. I have asked people about diagnostic information in several releases now so I have a large material at my disposal. What I will do is to generate correlation reports between people that indicate they don't have, are self-diagnosed or professionally diagnosed with these conditions. I'll sort out questions with high specificity for particular diagnoses and add them to the stable release. I'll then use these correlations to calculate risk-factor for receiving the diagnoses. This would then be calibrated against either professional tests (AQ, SPQ-A) or people's own judgements of their diagnostic information.

Sounds like a good idea. I would like to see you include:

ADHD combined type
ADHD primary hyperactice type
ADHD primary inattentive type

Social anxiety disorder
avoidant personality disorder(if different from the above enough).