Discussions of Asperger Syndrome on Social Media: Content and Sentiment Analysis on Twitter

Background: On May 8, 2021, Elon Musk, a well-recognized entrepreneur and business magnate, revealed on a popular television show that he has Asperger syndrome. Research has shown that people’s perceptions of a condition are modified when influential individuals in society publicly disclose their diagnoses. It was anticipated that Musk's disclosure would contribute to discussions on the internet about the syndrome, and also to a potential change in the perception of this condition. Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the types of information contained in popular tweets about Asperger syndrome as well as their engagement and sentiment before and after Musk’s disclosure. Methods: We extracted tweets that were published 1 week before and after Musk's disclosure that had received >30 likes and included the terms “Aspergers” or “Aspie.” The content of each post was classified by 2 independent coders as to whether the information provided was valid, contained misinformation, or was neutral. Furthermore, we analyzed the engagement on these posts and the expressed sentiment by using the AFINN sentiment analysis tool. Results: We extracted a total of 227 popular tweets (34 posted the week before Musk’s announcement and 193 posted the week after). We classified 210 (92.5%) of the tweets as neutral, 13 (5.7%) tweets as informative, and 4 (1.8%) as containing misinformation. Both informative and misinformative tweets were posted after Musk’s disclosure. Popular tweets posted before Musk’s disclosure were significantly more engaging (received more comments, retweets, and likes) than the tweets posted the week after. We did not find a significant difference in the sentiment expressed in the tweets posted before and after the announcement. Conclusions: The use of social media platforms by health authorities, autism associations, and other stakeholders has the potential to increase the awareness and acceptance of knowledge about autism and Asperger syndrome. When prominent figures disclose their diagnoses, the number of posts about their particular condition tends to increase and thus promote a potential opportunity for greater outreach to the general public about that condition.publishedVersio

Emergente relasjoner og mulige konsekvenser for begrepet stimulusklasser

Matching-to-sample prosedyrer brukes frekvent for både å trene og teste for stimulusekvivalensklasser, og testen er godt egnet for å avdekke hvorvidt egenskapene i stimulusekvivalens er til stede. For å kunne teste for stimulusekvivalens trenes vanligvis et visst antall betingede diskriminasjoner som etterfølges av en test (eller flere) om det framkommer relasjoner mellom stimuli som ikke er direkte trent. Innen forskning på hvordan inndeling av stimulusklasser foregår har sorteringstester vært benyttet. Sorteringstester innebærer at forsøkspersonene i et eksperiment blir bedt om å kategorisere et visst antall stimuli. Sortering som testformat viser seg å samsvare med MTS-tester, og sortering demonstrerer klasseinndeling. Samsvaret mellom test-formatene er så høyt at det er grunn til å tro at testene dokumenterer de samme type klassene, men sorteringstestene tester ikke for egenskapene ved stimulusekvivalens. Klassebegrepet og begrepsapparatet i forbindelse med bruk av sortering i stimulusekvivalens redegjøres for, og diskuteres

Online Attitudes and Information-Seeking Behavior on Autism, Asperger Syndrome, and Greta Thunberg.

The purpose of this study was to examine Internet trends data and sentiment in tweets mentioning autism, Asperger syndrome, and Greta Thunberg during 2019. We used mixed methods in analyzing sentiment and attitudes in viral tweets and collected 1074 viral tweets on autism that were published in 2019 (tweets that got more than 100 likes). The sample from Twitter was compared with search patterns on Google. In 2019, Asperger syndrome was closely connected to Greta Thunberg, as of the tweets specifically mentioning Asperger (from the total sample of viral tweets mentioning autism), 83% also mentioned Thunberg. In the sample of tweets about Thunberg, the positive sentiment expressed that Greta Thunberg was a role model, whereas the tweets that expressed the most negativity used her diagnosis against her and could be considered as cyberbullying. The Google Trends data also showed that Thunberg was closely connected to search patterns on Asperger syndrome in 2019. The study showed that being open about health information while being an active participant in controversial debates might be used against you but also help break stigmas and stereotypes.publishedVersio

Confirming the Validity of the School-Refusal Assessment Scale—Revised in a Sample of Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Children with developmental disorders, such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), are at high risk of school-refusal behavior (SRB) compared with their peers. One of the most used scales to assess SRB is the School Refusal Behavior Scale – Revised (SRAS-R). The SRAS-R has demonstrated good psychometric properties when used with the general population of children but recently its validity has been questioned when used with children with developmental disorders. We tested the psychometric properties of the SRAS-R parental reports in 96 children with ADHD (Mage = 12.4; SD = 1.7, 61.5% boys). Results showed good model fit and internal consistency for the original four-factor structure. Three of the factors were strongly correlated, suggesting that SRB among children with ADHD are caused by several factors.publishedVersio

A Critical View of the National Student Survey as a Quality Indicator in Norwegian Higher Education

Student surveys are an integral part of quality assessment in the education sector and play a vital role in the justification of policies and decisions on governmental, institutional and individual levels. Each year in Norway a governmental agency for quality assurance in education conducts a national survey inviting all registered second year bachelor’s and master’s students to provide online feedback on their perceived study quality. We discuss the limits of the results' interpretability in the light of previous research criticising the validity of student surveys for the assessment of educational quality in general and discuss in more detail the limitations in the chosen Norwegian example. This article aims to increase the awareness of these challenges and stimulate a science-based development of alternative assessment forms of educational quality. The relationship between the educational sector's core activity and the survey's focus is discussed; suggestions for paths to improvement are made. We argue further that the nationwide assessment lays bare the conceptual deficits that may be of equally high importance for educational system evaluations in other countries.publishedVersio

Misforståelser om anvendt atferdsanalyse i nevrodiversitetsbevegelsen

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Virtual and augmented reality in social skills interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review

In the last decade, there has been an increase in publications on technology-based interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Virtual reality based assessments and intervention tools are promising and have shown to be acceptable amongst individuals with ASD. This scoping review reports on 49 studies utilizing virtual reality and augmented reality technology in social skills interventions for individuals with ASD. The included studies mostly targeted children and adolescents, but few targeted very young children or adults. Our findings show that the mode number of participants with ASD is low, and that female participants are underrepresented. Our review suggests that there is need for studies that apply virtual and augmented realty with more rigorous designs involving established and evidenced-based intervention strategies.publishedVersio

Virtual reality and naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder

© 2021 The Author(s).Background: Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI) have been evaluated as the most promising interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder. In recent years, a growing body of literature suggests that technological advancements such as Virtual Reality (VR) are promising intervention tools. However, to the best of our knowledge no studies have combined evidence-based practice with such tools. Aim: This article aims to review the current literature combining NDBI and VR, and provide suggestions on merging NDBI-approaches with VR. Methods: This article is divided into two parts, where we first conduct a review mapping the research applying NDBI-approaches in VR. In the second part we argue how to apply the common features of NDBI into VR-technology. Results: Our findings show that no VR-studies explicitly rely on NDBI-approaches, but some utilize elements in their interventions that are considered to be common features to NDBI. Conclusions and implications: As the results show, to date, no VR-based studies have utilized NDBI in their intervention. We therefore, in the second part of this article, suggests ways to merge VR and NDBI and introduce the term Virtual Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (VNDBI). VNDBI is an innovative way of implementing NDBI which will contribute in making interventions more accessible in central as well as remote locations, while reducing unwanted variation between service sites. VNDBI will advance the possibilities of individually tailoring and widen the area of interventions. In addition, VNDBI can provide the field with new knowledge on effective components enhancing the accuracy in the intervention packages and thus move forward the research field and clinical practice.publishedVersio

Preferansebasert mandopplæring for barnehagebarn med forsinket utvikling i barnehage

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