Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article addresses the harder-to-spot reaction to anxiety and depression. In children, this is particularly clear by example. There are two ways to deal with anxiety and depression: externalizing, and internalizing.
Externalizing is what the classical problem children do: they disrupt class, get into fights, and act out. Children displaying these symptoms tend to be noted and helped at a higher rate than those that internalize. Internalizing is what people like me do. Instead of taking things out on other people, we bottle it up, perhaps blaming ourselves. Such children tend to be very quiet and do not attract attention. As such, they also do not receive help.
Autistic people can fall into either or both of these categories. Often a person will tend towards one, but may occasionally display the other. In broad brush strokes, guys tend to externalize, and girls tend to internalize. These are merely trends and not predictive of any given person, so you or your loved one may or may not be a perfect example of this.
It's both worrisome and heartening to see that there may soon be technology that allows us to detect internalized anxiety and depression.
Heartening, because when used in a medical or school context, a 15 minute test could have detected my internalized anxiety and depression, and I could have gotten help sooner. My entire schooling experience could have been turned around into something positive. High school might not have been a slog. College might have been easier. There are so many autistic people and families of autistic people whose lives could be much improved by a round with these wearable sensors.
Worrisome, because it's all too easy to demand, if these devices are so good, that they be worn all the time for "at-risk" children. All that data collected on children is stored somewhere, with insufficient security. You don't have to look far these days to find a story about some big company's data getting burgled, including credit card numbers and identities of customers, even though the company has used appropriate security precautions. Soon, people will be able to steal not only your credit card, but also your location, heart rate data, blood pressure, activity level, and other physical-health related information.
Which I can guarantee, at least in the US, will then be used to invasively advertise to you. Possibly calculate some kind of health score which may win or lose you a job... and probably blackmail you. Remember this post, because I'm going to say I told you so if it happens.
Like many new technologies, the possibilities are wondrous... but you do have to keep an eye out for how it can be abused.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Externalizing is what the classical problem children do: they disrupt class, get into fights, and act out. Children displaying these symptoms tend to be noted and helped at a higher rate than those that internalize. Internalizing is what people like me do. Instead of taking things out on other people, we bottle it up, perhaps blaming ourselves. Such children tend to be very quiet and do not attract attention. As such, they also do not receive help.
Autistic people can fall into either or both of these categories. Often a person will tend towards one, but may occasionally display the other. In broad brush strokes, guys tend to externalize, and girls tend to internalize. These are merely trends and not predictive of any given person, so you or your loved one may or may not be a perfect example of this.
It's both worrisome and heartening to see that there may soon be technology that allows us to detect internalized anxiety and depression.
Heartening, because when used in a medical or school context, a 15 minute test could have detected my internalized anxiety and depression, and I could have gotten help sooner. My entire schooling experience could have been turned around into something positive. High school might not have been a slog. College might have been easier. There are so many autistic people and families of autistic people whose lives could be much improved by a round with these wearable sensors.
Worrisome, because it's all too easy to demand, if these devices are so good, that they be worn all the time for "at-risk" children. All that data collected on children is stored somewhere, with insufficient security. You don't have to look far these days to find a story about some big company's data getting burgled, including credit card numbers and identities of customers, even though the company has used appropriate security precautions. Soon, people will be able to steal not only your credit card, but also your location, heart rate data, blood pressure, activity level, and other physical-health related information.
Which I can guarantee, at least in the US, will then be used to invasively advertise to you. Possibly calculate some kind of health score which may win or lose you a job... and probably blackmail you. Remember this post, because I'm going to say I told you so if it happens.
Like many new technologies, the possibilities are wondrous... but you do have to keep an eye out for how it can be abused.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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