Testosterone Linked with Presence of Autistic Traits

The "You Have to be Kidding Me Award" goes to ... this gem of a post. There are a couple of issues with this article. 1. The title is misleading, 2. "results" of this paper are based on survey research, and 3. the parents who were asked the survey questions didn't have children with autism, 4. the parent respondents were asked if their child has "poor eye contact" of which they were qualified to discriminate between "poor" eye contact versus the range of "eye contact" behaviors generally present in children? Any one with an ounce of scientific literacy would cringe at the site of this title and what it's based on. To my knowledge, children will avoid adult eye contact at times. There are entire cultures that would be considered to have children with poor eye contact (ie., native Americans). I'm fairly confident that we wouldn't describe the children of a Native American tribe as having "autistic traits" just because of a cultural norm. Parents of children with autism have enough quacks out there throwing false hope and promises of magic treatments and miracle cures.

RB

BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: Fetal exposure to testosterone linked with presence of autistic traits in childhood