Understanding and addressing pseudoscientific practices in the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders: Considerations for applied behavior analysis practitioners

Capuano, Angela M.; Killu, Kim

doi:10.1002/bin.1750

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…There is increasing evidence of the harm that interventions involving normalisation may do to autistic people; we have discussed some of these. Capuano and Killu (2021) remind their readers that:…”

Section: Autonomymentioning

confidence: 99%

The autism worldview dilemma: to normalise or not to normalise, that is the question

Chown¹,

Murphy²,

Suckle³

2023

Preprint

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For many years in the field of autism, the actions, skills and responses of autistic people were often described as abnormal, maladjusted or deficient. The goal of many interventions was, and still is, to teach autistic children and adults to behave like their non-autistic peers as evidenced in approaches designed to teach (neurotypical) social skills, (neurotypical) communication and in programmes designed to modify behaviour to make autistics appear neurotypical. This approach – which sees autistic behaviour as aberrant and without purpose and thus aims to remove this behaviour – is described as normalisation. We challenge this view from a neurodiversity-affirmative perspective, querying the assumed lack of purpose in autistic behaviour as well as examining the impact on autistics of the deliberate removal of autistic behaviour. However, there are other perspectives on autism and no definitive understanding of autism. Our view is not one held by all autistic people let alone everyone else. We call this the autism worldview dilemma and make recommendations for UK autism legislation to ensure that parents and carers understand when an intervention is aimed at normalising their young person.

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Section: Autonomymentioning

confidence: 99%

The autism worldview dilemma: to normalise or not to normalise, that is the question

Chown¹,

Murphy²,

Suckle³

2023

Preprint

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“…Likewise, paranormal beliefs predict preference for 'alternative medicine' (Van den Bulck & Custers, 2009), which is associated with increased mortality rates among cancer patients (Johnson et al, 2018). Similarly, adherence to pseudoscientific practices among healthcare practitioners can negatively impact patient health (Capuano & Killu, 2021).…”

Section: Societal Prevalence and Consequences Of Unfounded Beliefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Thinking Education to Decrease Conspiracy and Paranormal Beliefs Among Secondary School Students: a Phase I Trial.

Caroti,

Adam-Troian,

Theraud

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Unfounded beliefs (UB; i.e. beliefs that are not supported by scientific evidence), such as paranormal and conspiracy beliefs remain prevalent globally. Far from being innocuous, UB pose various public health (e.g. vaccine hesitancy) and societal hazards (e.g. anti-democratic attitudes). Despite mounting concerns in the current context of growing misinformation and the so-called infodemic, there remains a lack of effective educational interventions suitable for K-12 contexts to prevent UB among children. In this paper, we report the results of a phase I randomized-controlled trial assessing a novel critical thinking (CT) education intervention among secondary school students in France (8th and 9th graders, n = 135). The intervention consisted in eight weekly, 1-hour long classes. Its content was designed to improve children’s capability, favourable attitudes, and motivation towards exerting rational judgment, to impact the cognitive processes at play behind UB (e.g., overreliance on intuition, ontological confusions, underestimation of randomness as a causal force). Relative to placebo (class as usual), children in the intervention group displayed less conspiracy beliefs immediately post-intervention (d = .55) and one-month afterwards (d = .58, follow-up). The intervention had globally a stronger immediate effect on paranormal beliefs levels, (d = .74), but these reverted to pre-intervention levels one month after. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the very first randomized trial to demonstrate the effectiveness of a feasible, standardized CT education intervention in decreasing both paranormal and conspiracy beliefs among secondary school students.

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The Future of First Wave Behavior Therapies

Thyer

2022

Behavior Therapy

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Understanding and addressing pseudoscientific practices in the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders: Considerations for applied behavior analysis practitioners

Cited by 5 publications

References 93 publications

The autism worldview dilemma: to normalise or not to normalise, that is the question

The autism worldview dilemma: to normalise or not to normalise, that is the question

Critical Thinking Education to Decrease Conspiracy and Paranormal Beliefs Among Secondary School Students: a Phase I Trial.

The Future of First Wave Behavior Therapies

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