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Yale released a study ~in 2020~ where they repeatedly intentionally frightened toddlers over and over with short breaks in between each frightening stimuli in order to see how autistic toddlers response to fear differs from non-autistic toddlers.
They claim they stopped if a child was too frightened, but y'all are here admitting you're doing this study in the first place because autistic fear responses can look different from non autistic responses.
We often have delayed emotional responses. 30-75 seconds is not enough time in between stimuli to be sure that an autistic child has processed it & is not too frightened or overwhelmed to move on to the next stimuli
Also really want to know how they determined what was too much
Also really want to know how they determined what was too much
Autistic children also often have different body language and emotional expression than non autistic children. NTs can't always read our emotions.
A child being non reactive, blank faced, and quiet may very well be just as or even more terrified than a screaming & crying child.
A child being non reactive, blank faced, and quiet may very well be just as or even more terrified than a screaming & crying child.
Yale's statement about this https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/29344/
The American Psychological Association code of ethics code 3.04 states:
(a)Â Psychologists take reasonable steps to avoid harming their clients/patients, students, supervisees, research participants, organizational clients, and others with whom they work, and to minimize harm where it is foreseeable and unavoidable.
(b)Psychologists dont participate in, facilitate, assist, otherwise engage in torture, defined as any act by which severe pain/suffering, whether physical/mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person, or in any other cruel, inhuman, or degrading behavior that violates 3.04(a)
I would say repeatedly scaring autistic toddlers without giving them enough time to fully process the event in between frightening stimuli is intentionally inflicting mental pain on a child.
People keep asking how any parent could allow their child to participate. But I think it's more important to focus on the researchers & other professionals who let this happen. They have a greater understanding of the impact& a higher responsibility to adhere to ethical standards
Remember too that a lot of times participants in these studies receive financial compensation, which winds up preying on low income folks who may be desperate and not have many other options.
