Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Blog 5b: Science Fair Proposal

1. Topic
  • Psychiatry of ASD

2. Driving problem
  •  Inefficient tests lead to more boys than girls diagnosed with a form of ASD
  • Citation:
    Rudacille, Deborah. "Diagnostic Tests for Autism May Miss Many Girls." -. SFARI, 27 June 2011. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. <http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/news/2011/diagnostic-tests-for-autism-may-miss-many-girls>.
  • Quote: "While many people speculate about the sex difference and there are a number of anecdotal stories about girls being clinically different or a bit harder to diagnose, there hasn't been a lot of empirical work done on this topic."
-Marisela Huerta, Clinical psychologist at the Univ. of Michigan, Autism and Communication Diroders Center

3. Hypothesis
  •  If diagnostic tests were improved, then the gap between female to male ASD cases would decrease.
4.  Experiment
  • In a nut shell, my best guess about how to spproach my hypothesis would be to work with Dr. Shahin; asking him what kind of test he uses and from that test, how many girls/boys were diagnosed. Using the diagnostic accuracy test, I would see if the test he used passed, possibly finding the percent error. Then I would redesign a test that I believe would result in more girls being diagnosed. I'm not sure how I would test this, but I will find a way. If need be I will change the way I execute my experiment.
  • Tools: Dr. Shahin, Autism Society Census (for likelihood of diagnoses), DSM IV (for criteria)
5. Behavioral/Social Science

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