Pardon the pun(ishment)

I know I have been notoriously absent these days. But I've got excuses, many of them even legal. First of all, we had some friends over. This meant a lot of nice evenings and road trips to Yosemite and San Francisco. I won't bother you with the details, you'll just get jealous. Secondly, I've attended a very interesting brain workshop in Berkeley. But perhaps my most legal excuse is the fact that I've started to write a column in a monthly magazine on pedagogical issues (Tijdschrift voor Orthopedagogiek). That also means I won't be writing about all my interesting new ideas and experiences on this blog anymore. You will have to make do with discards.

But do not fear. There are so many things to write about that my cup floweth over. Today's highly controversial subject is capital punishment. Always a drop-dead party topic. As it so happens, I live in a state which has the death penalty. To make matters even more interesting, we're also the proud owners of the 'three strikes and you're out' law. So I've taken some precautions: I don't cross any speed limits, I do not jaywalk, and I most certainly do not walk my elephant down Market Street (SF) unless I have him on a leash. Imagine the stress when Ellie (pet name for our elephant) did a Houdini on me. But luckily the curious incident of the elephant in the nighttime went unnoticed by the police. I'm sorry, I am digressing yet again.

Capital punishment. Highly controversial. The brain-workshop enlightened me on the subject of lethal injections. Apparently, the current system involves three injections which are in fact all lethal in and of itself. Talk about overkill. The first injection consists of sodium thiopental, which causes unconsciousness and eventually death in 30 to 40 minutes. The second injection consists of pancuronium, which is a muscle relaxant, causing paralysis of all muscles (including the ones you use to breathe with). The last and most lethal injection consists of potassium chloride which stops the heart in a matter of minutes.

I won't hide the fact that I am dead set against capital punishment. But this aside, I was mildly amused to hear about the issues surrounding lethal injections. For instance, they were produced by one company only, an Italian pharmaceutical company who eventually declined this dubious honor. Allegedly, this has led to shortage of supply for some states, as well as problems regarding approaching expiration dates.

So far for the general stuff. On to the psychological stuff, my area of expertise. I was shocked to hear about a recent incident concerning Texan psychologist Denkowski who conducted assessments on inmates facing death penalty. These assessments were conducted as a result of a 2002 ruling of the Supreme Court that states that mentally handicapped persons can not be executed, although they failed to formulate criteria for a mental handicap. I guess the notion is based on the idea that mentally handicapped people are unaccountable for their actions. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), mental retardation is diagnosed based on three criteria:

1. Significantly sub average intellectual functioning (IQ of 70 or below), AND
2. Concurrent deficits or impairments in present adaptive functioning, AND
3. Onset before the age of 18.

Although Denkowski used the formal criteria of the DSM, he inflated scores of inmates based on his personal encounters with them. Concerning intellectual functioning (the first criterion), try to follow his reasoning:

Apparently, Denkowski feels that traditional IQ tests do not compensate for social and cultural factors. Can you follow? No? I'll make it easier: people from impoverished backgrounds may not be able to answer questions correctly, because their community did not give them access to this knowledge. Now, do you follow? No? What about this: some people do not know how to use a thermometer, because their community does not value using a thermometer. But that does not mean that these people are mentally handicapped.

Now, it gets better (or worse). Consider his reasoning on the criterion of adaptive functioning. Usually, this is done by administering questionnaires and interviews with family and friends of the person under assessment. But no, according to Denkowski, this would lead to an underestimation of the skills since family and friends would want to evade execution of their friend or family member.

Why was Denkowski able to get away with a settlement with the Board of Psychologists? His penalty consists of a fine of 5500 dollar and an agreement that he will not conduct intellectual disability tests in criminal cases ever again. I'd say that definitely beats the penalty his victims got, even though their crimes might have been terrible.

A day in L.A.

As I might have mentioned before, I have been planning a trip to L.A. in order to attend a workshop on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). And I have been there! And came back! The summary of my trip? I met a lot of interesting people, I learned a lot, I saw a lot, and waited even more.

For those of you more interested in a more in-depth analysis here it comes:

Interesting people:

There were people from all around, including Japan. This turned out to be very unfortunate since the news of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit us on the second day of the workshop. Although definitely not comparable to the disaster in Japan, the coastal area of California (where we live) also got a warning sign because of the tsunami. But fortunately the effect of the tsunami was negligible in the Bay area.

At the workshop, I've talked to several people, all of whom had interesting stories. Of course most people were working in the field of autism, so it was not difficult to find some common ground. In addition I sorta 'met' two children, who were part of the live demonstration of the ADOS. Isn't it amazing that the kids got up on stage in order to be assessed with the ADOS in front of a hundred people? Even more so when you think that there were quite a few people in the audience who declined the opportunity to talk into the microphone.  Really! I'm not kidding. They were afraid to talk into the microphone to discuss their ideas and passed it to someone next to them who did not show microphonebia.

Things I've learned:

I am now familiar with the ADOS. It has to be said that it is an amazing instrument with a lot of potential. But it is also very difficult to score it in a reliable fashion. The ADOS consists of semi-structured tasks that try to provoke a certain type of social or communicative behavior in a semi-natural way. Although it has specific tasks, you don't actually score the actual performance on these tasks, but score the overall behavior you saw during the session. This has many advantages, but it means it's also difficult to asses whether some type of behavior was good enough to give full credit. Since the main difficulty of the instrument lies in its scoring, most of the workshop was dedicated to discussion on the scoring of the live demonstrations. As stated, we had to discuss our findings within the group. Yes, with the microphone. In addition to my new DSM classification of microphonebia, I also found out that people see very different things even when they are looking at the same thing. It wasn't just differences in opinion concerning the label of 'slightly unusual behavior' and 'normal behavior', scoring went from 'normal behavior' to 'downright off-the-wall behavior'. Especially when we got to talking about stereotyped behavior and specific interests, people differed in their observations and interpretations. The interesting thing was, once somebody saw one particular behavior that was considered to be stereotyped, other people joined with other examples and so the list got longer and longer. So the main thing I've learned concerning the ADOS, it requires a lot of practice. Not to administer it, but to score it.

Another important thing I've learned: remember your room number when you stay in a hotel.

Things I saw:

(not uncommon) psychologists playing a game on their iPhone or Smart phone during the workshop. Makes you wonder whether they do the same during a psychological assessment or interview with parents...

L.A. by night on a tour bus. This was a lot of fun, especially since some other people from the workshop also got on the same tour. We've seen it all. Well, ok, technically we mainly saw Hollywood. But that was amazing. Film sets, Universal City, the Chinese theatre (with the hand prints), the place where the Oscars are being held, the walk of fame (with the stars), you name it. Oh and we've seen 'tha ghetto' although that was not in the original itinerary. During our ride back to the hotel, we found ourselves in the midst of a huge traffic accident and we had to find an exit. This exit consisted of our tour bus going from the far left lane to the outer right lane in the midst of all the confusion (yes we had close calls), and exiting straight into the ghetto. Not that we saw scary things or anything.

Things I waited for:

Not for the food. Boy, they serve things quickly around here. But I did wait for airplanes, checks, lectures, breaks, toilet visits (there were about a hundred people visiting a social oriented workshop, you guess which line was longest, the boy's or the girl's...).

Featuring Lucas' talk. He's getting the hang of this English thing, and the translation of it:

Dad (to Kwint): "Nee, dat mag niet."

Lucas: "nee is no he? NO!"

Lucas: "Flyyyyyyy!"

Lucas: "wiels of de bus go wound en wound... up en down"

Lucas: "Mama, kijk! Mommy, look!"

Lucas (hoort een slaapmuziekje op de radio): "Sleep, sleep!"

Mama: "Kijk Lucas, dat zijn twee auto's. Two cars."

Lucas: "Dat is een twocar he?"

And funny Dutch things:

Lucas: "Mama, waar is de radido?"

Lucas: "Ik wil graag naar papa toe."

Sabbatical

So, since I'm not allowed to work yet, I will regard this time as a sabbatical. Now I know I might be a tad young for a sabbatical, but there's no time like the present. But what are you supposed to do whilst on sabbatical? Most colleagues on sabbatical often seemed to be where they used to be... at their workplace that is. Some google-research taught me that sabbaticals are used to achieve a certain goal. So in pursuit of my goals, I made myself the following list:

1. keep updated on subjects related to my workfield. - in process
I've enrolled in an ADOS-workshop for clinicians. For those of you unfamiliar with psychological tests, the ADOS is a major instrument designed to diagnose autism. It's also an instrument which requires a certificate, and yep, I'm getting myself one! That means that I will fly over to L.A. in March, and spend two days there. Other workfield related activities on my wishlist: ADI-R training (also an instrument used to diagnose autism), a specialized program on neuropsychological assessment at Berkeley, and a specialized program on child and adolescent treatment (also at Berkeley). Oh, and I've ordered some psychology books from Amazon for further studying.

2. finish writing the two children's books I've started on a year ago - will start on this as soon as Kwint goes to daycare
Finally, I've got some time to get reacquainted with my creative strike, after it had been bludgeoned to death by writing scientific papers. It's coming back with a vengeance.


3. cook, cook, cook - definitely in process
Our week schedule has had some changes. Lucas attends preschool for two days a week en has 'hot lunches' on site. On those evenings, we've switched lunch and dinner, meaning that we eat bread in the evening. What it actually boils down to is that I bake lots of nice (and healthy) things. On the other days, food consists mostly of home-made Indian or Korean origin. And of course I still bake my own bread, which is still improving. No imploding breads anymore.

4. rigorous exercise to get fit again - 'work' in process
This is something I've been wanting to do for the last ten years. Now, I actually enjoy this. But only if I can read the golden oldies at the same time (Emma by Jane Austen, Great expectations by Charles Dickens). Strange combination isn't it? But it works.

5. write some scientific papers and further develop tests in cooperation with colleagues. - will start on this as soon as Kwint goes to daycare


So for those of you afraid that I don't have anything to do, thou need not fear! The most likely risk I'm running is that I will like this whole sabbatical-thing too much.