Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Autism

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Abstract
A 23-item survey assessing knowledge and beliefs about autism was completed by 239 professionals in four disciplines: clinical psychology, pediatries, school psychology, and speech/language pathology. Their responses were compared with those obtained from 18 specialists in the area of autism. Whereas the specialists' views were consistent with those prevalent in the research literature, individual disciplines displayed a number of misconceptions regarding social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of the disorder. Some misconceptions were specific to certain disciplines, while others were shared by all groups. For example, only speech/language pathologists viewed autism as an emotional disorder, whereas all four disciplines attributed unrealistically high cognitive potential to autistic individuals. Diagnostic criteria were also found to differ between the groups.

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