ASD Misdiagnoses - This Might Shock You

All right, so there are times where when you talk to professionals, like doctors, teachers, sometimes even principals of child school, they might drag you to a corner and say, hey, miss or sir. They're like, oh, I suspect that there's something else going on with their child. And then they're giving, like, their professional opinion about your child, and maybe that they're on the spectrum. That's what they're suggesting. And they feel like that's something that you should get it checked out. Right. So let's talk about this today in this video. And, you know, like, heard of many stories where, you know, the parent would come to me and say, oh, the doctor looked at my kid for, like, five minutes and said, oh, you should get autism diagnosis done. I feel like your child is on the spectrum. Right. Just five minutes just looking at the kid. Right. And you feel like, dude, you're. You're judging my kid just from looking at him or her. Okay. So a recent study actually did this kind of research on autism experts. All right, so these experts aren't really speech therapists or whatever therapists. They're people who work a lot with autistic people or children. Okay, so I'll link the study right down below. By the way, my name is Ming, a speech therapist from agents of speech.com. and these autism experts actually got 81% of their first impressions correct. So it's actually pretty good. So obviously, there are good experts, there are bad experts, there are, like, crazy experienced ones that there are people who literally just started working. So my tip to you is, be careful of these things and take it with a grain of salt. And you would also judge those experts with your own eyes. Right. So it's just give or take in this world. It's always like people judging other people. According to this study, it says that out of the 92% of those clinicians who thought those children were to be on the spectrum actually went on to get a diagnosis. So them saying that there is autism is quite impressive. It's 92%. Right. Like, just now, I said 81% of the first impression is for both yes and no, according to them. Right. However, 24 of those children who initially they thought they weren't on the spectrum ended up getting a positive diagnosis. Right. Meaning that they are on the spectrum, actually. Okay, so again, the link is down below. You can just check it out for this research paper if you're so interested in it. And I think that, yeah, there are some false negatives going on as well. Like, a lot of children, they actually do not get diagnosed. And that's one of the reasons, one of the most compelling research reasons about why the number of autistic people or children are going up. And the reason is because a lot of them weren't diagnosed. They were under. Detected, right under the radar, so to speak. Okay, so how about the other way? The false positives? And this is where a lot of the parents would be a lot more concerned. And that's what they would come to me and say, ming, dude, this guy diagnosed my kid after five minutes. And I get it, right? And especially it's not a good feeling where like, professionals keep on nudging you on the. On. On the shoulder or whatever and telling you, hey, I think you should get it. I suspect autism. You know, like, there's something going on that. Do you have a diagnosis I can look at? Your kid is creating a huge scene inside of my classroom, and I need to know why. You know, like, this happens a lot, man. Like, this is what I hear every day at work. Okay? So, yes, professionals are wrong sometimes, right? These, like, teachers, doctors, whatever, even myself, I get it wrong all the time. Like, and it's fine to suspect autism, but the problem is, is that the way that is said to you is not fine, okay? And it makes you feel like it's. You're not well taken care of and you feel like you're. You're blamed, you feel like your child is not accepted and so on and so forth. Right? So all these emotional things, yes. From a professional standpoint, we should be a lot more sensitive towards how parents feel. Right? And say in a way that you would understand better. So let me tell you about the difference between a screener and an assessment. Right? So there's a lot of times where the screener that it might be like a questionnaire or from professional surveys through teachers and people who interact with the child, this kind of stuff, there's a lot over in America. There are some in Asia where I am in, and one of them is called M Chat, right? Like this, or Q Chat or whatever. There's a lot of names there. So I'll put like a publication down below as well. You can take a look. And. And plus, these screeners don't really have a very strong sensitivity. And it's made like that. It's a net. It's like the top of funnel kind of thing. So what that means is it's supposed to find everyone who might have autism, and they don't want to, like, miss anyone. That's why they say, okay, all These people, they have. They might have. They have a higher chance, right? So, for instance, these kind of like screeners, they actually have a sensitivity of 33.1%, according to the thing I'm reading off here. What does this mean for you? Okay, so look, initial impressions are initial impressions at the end of the day to know whether a child has autism or not. You can either wait for your child to get older around 3. The assessment will become a lot more accurate, all right? Especially in different parts of the world where America has, like, a lot more early detection to tools, whereas we don't really have that. And it's not valid to use American tools or European tools or whatever to do it if you're in Asia or different parts of the country. So if a professional tells you, especially in Asia, where I'm from, they tell you, oh, we can do this below 2 years old. I think that's nonsense. And what I know, but I stand corrected. You know, at the same time, are there really misdiagnosis? Right? Are there things that are going on outside? And the answer is yes. I've seen it myself with my own very eyes. I've seen, like, children who are not supposed to be diagnosed with something, and they end up with that label. Right? So I've seen that with a lot like autism. I don't know about adhd. I'm not, like, medically trained. I can't do that. I see that with other types of speech disorders. I see that with tongue ties. I see a lot of these misdiagnosis. Right, so it does happen. Right? And it does happen on both sides. Both. Both false positives, like what I just said, and also false negatives, meaning, oh, they don't have this, but turns out they do have. Right. I've seen that in autism as well. Okay, so are there any stats about this kind of, like, misfiring and stuff? I don't know. There's a lot of information out there. Nowadays on social media, there are a lot more autistic adults coming out and saying, oh, I was misdiagnosed. I wasn't. Like, I was falling under the radar or like. Or people are said saying, like, how I was diagnosed with autism, but I didn't even know whether I have it or not. Like, people are coming out and talking, like, first person. I'm not here to talk about that. Not any of that at all. But what you can do right now as a parent. Okay, so there's a lot of talk about, like, promoting neurodiversity. I get it. And diagnosis is such a, like a sensitive topic. And I just want you to know that for me, at the very least a diagnosis to me it's just like a word on a piece of paper where I'm like, oh, okay. It's, this is someone that, that's coming my and around the profiles like that just, it's like that. It's just, it's just something that I would look at and consider myself. Right? And anyone that, any therapist that you go to, they will always do their own research with you, talk to you, like do their own diagnosis, do their own assessments, try some therapy techniques, see if it works or not. Like all these. Actually the label itself doesn't really matter that much about the therapy. Okay. Because the goals aren't going to change just because your child's diagnosis is a certain therapy this or that. Right? We don't really care. What we're trying to do is that we're trying to help your child adapt better in this world. Right? That's what all therapy is about. Okay. Whether your child is like neurodiverse or like have a different brain structure going on in the heads up, that's what research is saying about autistic people is that their brain structures are slightly enlarged, a little bit different, right? The, the wiring is a little bit different or it's just like plain old language delay. Your child still has to learn how to cope with these problems in order to get on with life. And what you're supposed to do here is to help them asap. Okay. And it doesn't mean to like force our ways onto them. Like that's what a lot of people are saying right now. I, I think that's a little bit misrepresented, I would say. And I, I don't think it's the best way to think about things. Because why are we providing therapy asap is because your child, whether they like or not, they will have to go through school. Right? And how do you get through school is to get ready to learn. And how to get ready to learn is through therapy is teaching them how to sit down, teaching them how to like, pay attention, teaching them how to understand spoken language, teaching them how to express themselves, teaching them a whole bunch of stuff so that they can learn better later on and be a productive person inside the society. Okay? That, that's the bottom line of therapy. Right? So the best thing you can do for your child right now is to start therapy. Don't mind the diagnosis. Actually, you getting a diagnosis, it might be a good and a bad thing. You know, a child with a label has more resources and time and attention from schools. Right. That that's actually a good thing. Whether they have it or not or to what extent doesn't matter. You get free stuff. You know, that's how I think about it. But at the same time, yeah. The argument is that if they do have a label, it carries on forward into their whole education and life. Right. And to be honest, I do have some friends that, you know, like some people who I used to know, and I realized that they have actually have a autism diagnosis. It didn't change the fact how I used to interact with them. In fact, I just didn't know. And it's just my personal experience. I don't know about you and I cannot speak for your child either. And that's something you have to have with your child when their language is ready and when they're mature enough. Right. So that's it for this video. I know it's something that you might not have expected what I would say here, but yes, there are misdiagnosis out there. I don't have any type of data, whatever. But at the same time, don't mind that thing because what it's important right now is to provide the assistance and the help to help your child to cope with the world and become someone who can live in this society. Right. Because we're not going to be here like forever for a kid. Okay. As much as when I have a kid or when my students, when my students, we adults, I want to like, I cannot be around all the time. Right. It's just impossible. So therefore, the best way is to teach them now. Right? So that's it. So if you haven't, please go to agents of Speech.com checklist to grab a home checklist of all the tools and toys that I recommend you get when you start therapy at home. All right, so that's it. I'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.