Adjustment After an ASD Diagnosis

¶ … diagnosis of autism can lead to a stigma or whether there are good results. Indeed, some feel that a diagnosis of autism leads to a situation where the child is treated differently but in a negative way. The genesis of this maltreatment can come both from children as well as teachers and other people.

However, the study clearly approaches the question with an open mind and asks the question of whether the diagnosis of autism leads to better trails for a student or if there are bumps in the road instead. Description & Evaluation of Research Methodology, Approach, and Design There were actually two studies completed as part of this study. One was interview-based and the other was survey based. The interviews were "in-depth" in nature and they were directly with individuals that had autism spectrum disorder maladies.

One major thing that is focused on as part of the interviews is when the diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder disease happened and how much of a milestone event it was for the person. Obviously, reactions from that event are going to vary based on the situation. However, it is something that the researchers clearly felt was part of what needed to be known as part of the study. The second part, as already noted, was a survey. Several different propositions were tested as part of the study.

The propositions were derived from survey data gathered from working with adults that have had autism spectrum disorder (Johnson & Joshi, 2016). Description and Evaluation of the Sample and Sampling Procedures When it comes to the survey part study that was part of the wider study for the article being reviewed here, one major point that was focused on was the difference between people that were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder diseases earlier in life as compared to people that had it found out later in life.

Obviously, this study had to deal with people that were diagnosed with ASD disorders and they surely dealt mostly with adults given the focus on the impact to work situations and career development in general. However, they did not ignore the youth aspect of ASD entirely. For example, there was expected to be a different between someone who was identified with an autism spectrum disorder malady at the age of ten as compared to someone that was identified at the age of twenty.

This would seem to be a very good balance as childhood is a very important part of the ASD process and life cycle and thus should not be ignored. At the same time, many things from childhood can be suppressed and blocked off. As such, more work that centers on children could absolutely be beneficial if done in the right way (Johnson & Joshi, 2016). Description and Evaluation of the Data Collection Procedures As far as the data collection procedures go, the study clearly went with a mostly qualitative approach.

This would be especially true when speaking of the interview segment of the study unless the questions were close-ended when it came to the potential answers. This does not seem to have been the case, however. The author cannot really fault the way that the data was collected because there is really no other way to do it. There should be perhaps a higher focus on keeping the answers as distinct and specific as possible.

However, doing that too much can lead to important facets of the associated answers being left out. Given that, there is something to be said for leaving questions open-ended and letting the proverbial chips fall where they may (Johnson & Joshi, 2016). Description and Evaluation of the Data Analysis Procedures The use of a dual-pronged study seems to have been a wise one.

For example, the authors of the study clearly made it a point to collect the age of the person as well as the age at which the person was diagnosed. With that in mind, they asked questions, both in the interview and the survey, that centered on how they turned out after the diagnosis and how they reacted to the diagnosis at the time. Indeed, they came to the conclusion that there was most certainly a difference.

As stated by the authors, they said that "results showed that, compared with individuals diagnosed later in life, individuals who were diagnosed at an earlier age experience greater organization-based self-esteem and lower perceived discrimination when they disclosed their disability, worked in jobs that placed lower social demands on them, or were employed in organizations that offered policies to support workers with ASD." They further concluded that the age of diagnosis when it comes to ASD diagnoses has a palpable and real effect on what happens after the diagnosis occurs and its sets in for the person (Johnson & Joshi, 2016).

As far as whether that data analysis holds firm, it is hard to say. When it comes to qualitative conclusions and outcomes like this, there are a lot of things that are being taken at face value. Of course, the results of the survey and the interview parts of this study are only as good as the participants and the quality and timeliness of the data that is given to the researchers.

If one were to take that logical strand a bit further, if the data that is rendered to the researchers is incomplete or incorrect due to deception or shyness, among other things, then the resulting data that is analyzed and processed will lead to conclusions that are based on bad, or at least incomplete, data sets. Just as ASD patients might be concerned about being stigmatized and scrutinized, the same thing may have happened while this study was being undertaken. There is no clear evidence of that being the case.

However, it is certainly within the realm of possibility and surely happened to at least some degree with at least some of the people that were reviewed (Johnson & Joshi, 2016). Even with the potential pitfalls of using a qualitative or mostly-qualitative data set, the conclusions made after the data anlaysis do make sense. If a person is diagnosed with an ASD disorder at age eighteen, there will obviously be much less pre-adult adjustment time than if a child is diagnosed with they are twelve years old.

Just because something is neat and makes sense does not make it true. However, there is not really an alternate conclusion that the author of this response could come up with to counter the common sense outcome. However, the author of this report would stress that tendencies are tendencies. Many to most people fall within those tendencies while many are outside of it. Perhaps it was implied, but the authors of the study.