Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Autism

Abstract

A 23-item survey assessing knowledge and beliefs about autism was com-pleted by 239 professionals in four disciplines: clinical psychology, pediatrics, school psychology, and speech/language pathology. Their responses were compared with those obtained from 18 specialists in the area of autism. Whereas the specialists ' views were consistent with those prevalent in the research literature, individual disciplines displayed a number of misconcep-tions regarding social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of the disorder. Some misconceptions were specific to certain disciplines, while others were shared by all groups. For example, only speech/language pathologists viewed au-tism as an emotional disorder, whereas all four disciplines attributed un-realistically high cognitive potential to autistic individuals. Diagnostic criteria were also found to differ between the groups. KEY WORDS: autism; survey; interdisciplinary. One phenomenon associated with pediatric settings is the diversity of theo-retical perspectives that can be found among different disciplines. Disparate training backgrounds and professional orientations can lead to conflicting views regarding assessment, diagnosis, and case management (Cerreto, 1980; Drotar, 1983; Roberts & Wright, 1982). This phenomenon may become par-ticularly problematic on large interdisciplinary teams, such as those involved