Asbergers and Pseudoscience

My son is being tested today for having asbergers syndrome, often called “high-functioning autism” or other names. Could just be social awkwardness. Makes me think a lot of my own childhood. I was known for intellectual precociousness, reading almost before I could talk and certainly being well ahead of my age group peers in educational matters until I hit junior high. I was also known for being the kid that no one liked, except for a very small population. Didn’t help that I knew I was a budding genius, and had no problem letting anyone else know that I was better.

My son is in much the same predicament. He doesn’t have the same love of the written word that I did, but that may be because there are so many more intense sensory experiences through cable TV, home video and the Net that wasn’t available back in the Dark Ages of my youth. I had to settle for what I could see in my own mind’s eye while reading.

At any rate, it brings to mind the ongoing, though probably futile, discussions about the various types of learning disabilities that have sprung into the diagnostic lists of the mental health profession over the last few years, and the (what appears to be increasing) attempts to deal with childhood behavior issues by medication. Someone, I think on Jerry Pournelle’s site the other day, suggested that the likely solution for all the boys diagnosed with ADHD would be a much healthier does of recess and physical education. There is some logic to the suggestion. After all, we didn’t have quite the same issues when I was in elementary school, but we had much more significant recess time, IMHO, up to 3 times during the course of the school day when I was in first grade.

The entire thing has me wondering though: since medical professionals don’t seem to be able to point to a specific physical indicator in the brain that denotes someone with ADHD or Asbergers, is it real? Or, have we come onto these explanations – and their treatment options – in an attempt using the best science at our disposal to explain and handle someone who is different. Just as, for instance, we used to explain and handle those who were different by calling them “possessed.”