A Growing Trend in Pseudo-Diagnosis: A Field Study on Children Frequently Mistaken for Autism in India

Abstract

There is a growing trend in favor of diagnosing many children as cases of autism. This study seeks to address the key problems and issues related to diagnosis of children as autism in our country. One-hundred fifty four cases of children below 8 years diagnosed as autism at some point in their lifetime underwent a detailed individualized re-evaluation covering manifold processes and techniques. Data units of information attempted to recapture the subjective experience of diagnostic decision making by using schemas that enables one ‘to think about it, mull it over and evaluate it’. Results analyzed in terms of derived quantitative and qualitative metrics highlight more than 60 sources of diagnostic errors. Thus, out of the studied sample only 30 children (19.48 %) eventually qualified for final diagnosis of autism against the set official criteria. The findings are delineated with explanations and examples for prospective diagnosticians to be wary before labeling children as autism or on its spectrum.