Michelle Dawson
@autismcrisis.bsky.social
off-message autistic researcher
"disparities in ABA services for autistic children"?--authors' poorly-sourced & ill-founded premise is that ABA is beneficial (vs harmful) & more ABA is better (e.g. "ABA is most effective when... delivered at a high intensity") journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... no, not in an ABA journal, free
Short report: Disparities in hours of applied behavior analysis services for Medicaid-enrolled autistic youth - Diondra Straiton-Webster, Brooke Ingersoll, 2025
To date, no studies have investigated whether disparities in hours of applied behavior analysis (ABA) exist in the Medicaid system. We used multilevel modeling ...
journals.sagepub.com
November 28, 2025 at 11:15 AM
"disparities in ABA services for autistic children"?--authors' poorly-sourced & ill-founded premise is that ABA is beneficial (vs harmful) & more ABA is better (e.g. "ABA is most effective when... delivered at a high intensity") journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... no, not in an ABA journal, free
Comparing self-harm & suicidality in autistic vs non-autistic adults aged 40-93 years (mean age 60) link.springer.com/article/10.1... 55% of autistics, vs 13.3% of non-autistics, responded "yes" to the question, "Have you deliberately harmed yourself, whether or not you meant to end your life?"
Self-harm and suicidality experiences of autistic and non-autistic adults in midlife and old age - Molecular Autism
Background Suicide has been reported as a leading cause of premature death in autistic populations. Additionally, risk of suicidality is often found to increase with age in the general population. Des...
link.springer.com
November 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Comparing self-harm & suicidality in autistic vs non-autistic adults aged 40-93 years (mean age 60) link.springer.com/article/10.1... 55% of autistics, vs 13.3% of non-autistics, responded "yes" to the question, "Have you deliberately harmed yourself, whether or not you meant to end your life?"
On "autistic people with complex support needs (CSN)"?--"a group of autistic people who are persistently and profoundly disabled"? "there is some controversy over identifying this group of people within the autistic population at all"? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... editorial, free
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November 26, 2025 at 11:04 AM
On "autistic people with complex support needs (CSN)"?--"a group of autistic people who are persistently and profoundly disabled"? "there is some controversy over identifying this group of people within the autistic population at all"? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... editorial, free
Behavior analysts on autism, ABA, & "ableism"?--promoting ABA as "having contributed to effective instruction, behavior assessment, and intervention strategies designed to meet the highly individualized needs of Autistic people"? link.springer.com/article/10.1... awash in abysmal ABA standards, free
Ableism in Applied Behavior Analysis: Historical Context of Services for Autistic People - Behavior Analysis in Practice
Ableism is broadly defined as a set of behaviors and attitudes or, in behavior-analytic terms, as private events, deeply embedded within societal norms (Friedman & Owen, 2017). This paper explores the...
link.springer.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Behavior analysts on autism, ABA, & "ableism"?--promoting ABA as "having contributed to effective instruction, behavior assessment, and intervention strategies designed to meet the highly individualized needs of Autistic people"? link.springer.com/article/10.1... awash in abysmal ABA standards, free
Registered: in adults, aiming to "compare QoL scores... in neurotypical and neurodivergent populations" & "compare QoL scores... across different neurodivergent individuals (autism, ADHD, specific learning disorders, and Tourette syndrome)" www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/vie... systematic review
PROSPERO
PROSPERO
www.crd.york.ac.uk
November 24, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Registered: in adults, aiming to "compare QoL scores... in neurotypical and neurodivergent populations" & "compare QoL scores... across different neurodivergent individuals (autism, ADHD, specific learning disorders, and Tourette syndrome)" www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/vie... systematic review
"a higher number of co-occurring conditions was associated with a later age of autism... diagnosis"? link.springer.com/article/10.1... "Depression and ADHD were associated with later autism... diagnoses" but "Conversely, earlier autism... diagnosis was linked with intellectual disability and OCD"?
Later Age of Autism Diagnosis in Children with Multiple Co-Occurring Psychiatric Disorders - Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Purpose In children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), early diagnosis permits early access to therapeutic interventions which may improve outcomes. Factors affecting the age of diagnosis in ASD are...
link.springer.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:40 AM
"a higher number of co-occurring conditions was associated with a later age of autism... diagnosis"? link.springer.com/article/10.1... "Depression and ADHD were associated with later autism... diagnoses" but "Conversely, earlier autism... diagnosis was linked with intellectual disability and OCD"?
On "imbalance and mismatch between cognitive and emotional empathy" www.cell.com/trends/cogni... "Empathic disequilibrium may be of particular interest in autism since emotional empathy dominance was linked to nonsuicidal self-injury among autistic people, suggesting it may be distressing for some"
Empathic disequilibrium: theoretical implications and clinical relevance
Empathy is central to social cognition, yet efforts to link it with neurodiverse and
clinical conditions have yielded contradictory findings, often reinforcing a deficit-focused
narrative that conflic...
www.cell.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM
On "imbalance and mismatch between cognitive and emotional empathy" www.cell.com/trends/cogni... "Empathic disequilibrium may be of particular interest in autism since emotional empathy dominance was linked to nonsuicidal self-injury among autistic people, suggesting it may be distressing for some"
Impression management "includes camouflaging" & "reflects a universal human drive"? www.nature.com/articles/s41... "camouflaging, as measured by CAT-Q items derived from autistic people’s lived experiences, converges with the general population’s intention to engage in impression management"?
Intentional use and self-efficacy as distinct facets of impression management and their relationships with socio-motivational, cognitive, and mental health factors - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Intentional use and self-efficacy as distinct facets of impression management and their relationships with socio-motivational, cognitive, and mental health factors
www.nature.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Impression management "includes camouflaging" & "reflects a universal human drive"? www.nature.com/articles/s41... "camouflaging, as measured by CAT-Q items derived from autistic people’s lived experiences, converges with the general population’s intention to engage in impression management"?
ADOS stability in autism baby sibs? e.g. 27% of those who are ADOS negative at 24 months are ADOS positive at 36 months acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... "approximately 60% of those without a clinical best estimate of autism scored above the ADOS autism spectrum cut-off at least once..."
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:06 AM
ADOS stability in autism baby sibs? e.g. 27% of those who are ADOS negative at 24 months are ADOS positive at 36 months acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... "approximately 60% of those without a clinical best estimate of autism scored above the ADOS autism spectrum cut-off at least once..."
"the term ‘profound Autism’ does not say anything about that person’s support needs, and can imply that those who do not meet the criteria for ‘profound Autism’ cannot be profoundly disabled..."? what criteria? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... neurodiversity terminology online survey, free
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November 19, 2025 at 10:26 AM
"the term ‘profound Autism’ does not say anything about that person’s support needs, and can imply that those who do not meet the criteria for ‘profound Autism’ cannot be profoundly disabled..."? what criteria? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... neurodiversity terminology online survey, free
In autistics (N=1354, age 4-21) "hospitalized in specialized psychiatric units," rate of epilepsy is 18.9%? link.springer.com/article/10.1... in this study, "profound autism" now means "either intellectual disability, minimal verbal communication, or very low adaptive functioning scores"?
Epilepsy in Autism: Prevalence and Associated Factors in a Large Inpatient Psychiatric Sample - Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Purpose The co-morbidity of epilepsy in individuals with autism spectrum disorder has been reported as a wide range of 2.4% to 46%. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between epi...
link.springer.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:31 AM
In autistics (N=1354, age 4-21) "hospitalized in specialized psychiatric units," rate of epilepsy is 18.9%? link.springer.com/article/10.1... in this study, "profound autism" now means "either intellectual disability, minimal verbal communication, or very low adaptive functioning scores"?
Registered: in autistics, "What factors at earlier developmental stages are associated with health, social, and economic outcomes at subsequent developmental stages" www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/vie... systematic review, "Studies must include longitudinal data spanning different developmental stages"
PROSPERO
PROSPERO
www.crd.york.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Registered: in autistics, "What factors at earlier developmental stages are associated with health, social, and economic outcomes at subsequent developmental stages" www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/vie... systematic review, "Studies must include longitudinal data spanning different developmental stages"
In the "Schools Unified in Neurodiversity" (SUN) program, one key strategy (see Table 2) is a "PBIS system"?--but where is the definition/explanation of PBIS here (which elsewhere means ABA)? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... "This project aimed to transform schools for neurodivergent children"?
The Schools Unified in Neurodiversity Collaborative: Co-designing a program to enhance educator knowledge and efficacy supporting children with neurodevelopmental disabilities - Kelly B Beck, Amy Iona...
Autistic and other neurodivergent youth face social, sensory, and environmental challenges at school that negatively impact learning and well-being. Yet, most e...
journals.sagepub.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:24 AM
In the "Schools Unified in Neurodiversity" (SUN) program, one key strategy (see Table 2) is a "PBIS system"?--but where is the definition/explanation of PBIS here (which elsewhere means ABA)? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... "This project aimed to transform schools for neurodivergent children"?
"interventions appear capable of changing attentional patterns in autism" but "it remains uncertain if such changes translate into functional gains in daily social communication, adaptive behavior, or overall quality of life"? what about harms? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... free
Eye Tracking as a Treatment Monitoring Tool for Autism: A Multilevel Meta‐Analysis
There is a growing body of evidence suggesting a concurrent association between attentional indices measured via eye tracking and autism symptoms. This meta-analysis examined the utility of eye track....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:54 AM
"interventions appear capable of changing attentional patterns in autism" but "it remains uncertain if such changes translate into functional gains in daily social communication, adaptive behavior, or overall quality of life"? what about harms? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... free
Assessing the literature, finding "serious flaws, inconsistencies, and contradictions that... undermine any claims about the involvement of the gut microbiome in autism" & "in many of the studies... some or all of the authors have competing commercial interests" www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... free
Conceptual and methodological flaws undermine claims of a link between the gut microbiome and autism
Claims that the gut microbiome causally contributes to autism regularly appear in
the scientific literature and popular press. Mitchell et al. critically examine influential
studies underpinning these...
www.cell.com
November 14, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Assessing the literature, finding "serious flaws, inconsistencies, and contradictions that... undermine any claims about the involvement of the gut microbiome in autism" & "in many of the studies... some or all of the authors have competing commercial interests" www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... free
Autistics (vs non-autistics) "are less likely to make errors in self-assessments of their cognitive performance"? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... "findings provide valuable insights into both the cognitive strengths of autistic individuals and the mechanisms underlying metacognitive biases"
Reduced Susceptibility to the Dunning–Kruger Effect in Autistic Employees
Evidence indicates that autistic individuals are less susceptible to social influence and cognitive biases than non-autistic individuals. However, no studies have been conducted on the Dunning–Kruger....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Autistics (vs non-autistics) "are less likely to make errors in self-assessments of their cognitive performance"? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... "findings provide valuable insights into both the cognitive strengths of autistic individuals and the mechanisms underlying metacognitive biases"
No, "old age" in autism does not start at 50 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... "Given these distinctions between midlife and old age, autism researchers must move away from referring to all people over the age of 50 as ‘older adults’ and begin to label their samples more accurately"
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November 12, 2025 at 9:34 AM
No, "old age" in autism does not start at 50 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... "Given these distinctions between midlife and old age, autism researchers must move away from referring to all people over the age of 50 as ‘older adults’ and begin to label their samples more accurately"
"preliminary evidence" that "ABA therapy may be associated with increased odds of mental health hospitalizations and more frequent hospital stays among autistic youth" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... "future inquiry into the safety of ABA and who may or may not be harmed by it is essential..."
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:50 AM
"preliminary evidence" that "ABA therapy may be associated with increased odds of mental health hospitalizations and more frequent hospital stays among autistic youth" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... "future inquiry into the safety of ABA and who may or may not be harmed by it is essential..."
Registered: systematic review aiming "to synthesize the existing qualitative research on the lived experience of transgender autistic people" www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/vie... including "mental health, experiences and responses to discrimination, identity development, masking/identity concealment"
PROSPERO
PROSPERO
www.crd.york.ac.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Registered: systematic review aiming "to synthesize the existing qualitative research on the lived experience of transgender autistic people" www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/vie... including "mental health, experiences and responses to discrimination, identity development, masking/identity concealment"
BCBAs endorsing "pseudo-ABA" terminology? "Failing to detect nuanced differences in technical language may lead practitioners to endorse interventions that sound behaviorally appropriate but do not adhere to established principles of ABA"? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... autism-relevant?
Over and Undergeneralization of Behavior Analytic Terminology and their Influence on the Trouble with Terms
Behavior analysts rely upon the use of technical terms to communicate with one another succinctly. At times, however, they are also called to translat…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:15 AM
BCBAs endorsing "pseudo-ABA" terminology? "Failing to detect nuanced differences in technical language may lead practitioners to endorse interventions that sound behaviorally appropriate but do not adhere to established principles of ABA"? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... autism-relevant?
"studies have found little evidence for uniformly increased sensory precision in autism, but instead point to aberrant context-sensitive modulation of prediction errors"? which explains "why autism is associated with both hyper- & hyporeactivity to sensory input"? www.cell.com/trends/cogni... review
Sensory processing sensitivity: theory, evidence, and directions
In recent years, scientific interest in sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), a personality
trait reflecting increased sensitivity, reactivity, and deeper processing of stimuli,
has grown exponentiall...
www.cell.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:22 AM
"studies have found little evidence for uniformly increased sensory precision in autism, but instead point to aberrant context-sensitive modulation of prediction errors"? which explains "why autism is associated with both hyper- & hyporeactivity to sensory input"? www.cell.com/trends/cogni... review
"Our findings point to previously unknown strengths in autistic children who are minimally speaking across statistical learning and social attention, suggesting that spoken language differences in this population might be unrelated to these domains" www.nature.com/articles/s41... free
Visual statistical learning and social attention in neurotypical, minimally speaking and speaking autistic preschoolers - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Visual statistical learning and social attention in neurotypical, minimally speaking and speaking autistic preschoolers
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:08 AM
"Our findings point to previously unknown strengths in autistic children who are minimally speaking across statistical learning and social attention, suggesting that spoken language differences in this population might be unrelated to these domains" www.nature.com/articles/s41... free
In autistics aged 8-21 years, "older age was associated with more challenges in adaptive functioning"? acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... autistics "may not develop adaptive functioning skills at the same rate as their non-autistic peers, resulting in an increasing discrepancy with age"?
<em>Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry</em> | ACAMH Pediatric Journal | Wiley Online Library
Background Challenges in adaptive or daily functioning are inherent to diagnostic criteria for neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs). However, less is known regarding the influence of factors that ma...
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:54 AM
In autistics aged 8-21 years, "older age was associated with more challenges in adaptive functioning"? acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... autistics "may not develop adaptive functioning skills at the same rate as their non-autistic peers, resulting in an increasing discrepancy with age"?
"The prevalence of autistic people in generic inpatient settings is much higher than estimates for autistic people in the general population. High levels of heterogeneity mean we cannot be exact, but we estimate the prevalence rate to be between 6 and 16%" link.springer.com/article/10.1... free
Prevalence of Autism in Psychiatric Inpatient Settings: a Meta-analysis - Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Autistic people experience high rates of mental health conditions and resultant inpatient psychiatric admissions. Best practice guidance suggests that generic inpatient units are poorly suited to many...
link.springer.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:10 AM
"The prevalence of autistic people in generic inpatient settings is much higher than estimates for autistic people in the general population. High levels of heterogeneity mean we cannot be exact, but we estimate the prevalence rate to be between 6 and 16%" link.springer.com/article/10.1... free
"Burnout as experienced by autistic people is characterised by profound exhaustion, loss of functional abilities, and a chronic course marked by intermittent crises, with impacts on sensory, emotional, cognitive, and daily life functioning" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... systematic review
Burnout as experienced by autistic people: A systematic review
‘Autistic burnout’ is described as a debilitating state of exhaustion experienced by autistic people due to living in a world that often lacks accommo…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:12 AM
"Burnout as experienced by autistic people is characterised by profound exhaustion, loss of functional abilities, and a chronic course marked by intermittent crises, with impacts on sensory, emotional, cognitive, and daily life functioning" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... systematic review