Michelle Garcia Winner
The following are some thoughtful words from a psychologist to a Social Thinking clinician regarding two teen clients who are struggling to benefit from treatment. The psychologist would like to stay under the radar, so he has chosen to go by the moniker, Dr. Panglos.
Albert and Steven live in different cities in an urban metropolis somewhere west of Asia; they are high school age and they don’t know each other.
From Dr. Panglos to a clinician he is working with:
Okay, here is what I think. Symptoms are multiply determined and although Albert and Steven both have profound social deficits that, on the surface, make them appear to meet the criteria for being "on the spectrum" I no longer feel that A.S. describes the true nature of their deficits. That said, they are very much alike in how they do present so if it is not Asperger's than what is it, and what do you do about it? First, what is it?
Okay, here is what I think. Symptoms are multiply determined and although Albert and Steven both have profound social deficits that, on the surface, make them appear to meet the criteria for being "on the spectrum" I no longer feel that A.S. describes the true nature of their deficits. That said, they are very much alike in how they do present so if it is not Asperger's than what is it, and what do you do about it? First, what is it?