To be annoyed at ASD assessment

[TEH82]

So DS 7 was diagnosed with ASD a few months ago and it takes a few weeks for it to come through. It has come today and in 2 separate places it refers to him as ‘odd’ in the context of ‘child’s eye contact and interaction is extremely odd’
I work in health with children and would never dream of writing this about a child let alone in a report that will follow him for years- but not sure if I am being precious?

As a HCP I would expect a professional to articulate themselves better than this. Odd is not remotely useful in helping to understand what has been observed

I have sometimes heard clinicians who have English as a second language phrase things in a clunky way. Odd is in itself, an odd word to use. Atypical or unusual would be better.

I have read the word odd a few times before.
To us odd means something negative and weird but to a lot of these professionals it just means something out of the ordinary compared to a NT child.

I would feel a bit funny about reading it about my own child though so I do understand but at least they are picking up on things which means he’ll get the support that’s needed.

@VillKrill my DS has the same issue with disorder and ASD. I’m inclined to agree with him if I’m honest. He prefers neuro divergent or straight old autistic.

I feel “Disorder” is a particularly apt descriptor for my sons autism. I find it comforting, because he is developing in a muddled and disordered way. I wouldn’t like him being described as weird/odd/abnormal though.

I’ve read hundreds of ASD assessment reports and have never seen the word “odd” used.

The only possible thing I can think of is that it was to trigger e.g. optometrist involvement as possibly so unusual even in children with ASD profiles, but that seems highly unlikely. Most likely just lazy language use.

It was one of the questions asked in the reports for my DC, Could it have been wrote from the information you gave on the form.
It asked did other people find your child odd or strange. I answered yes unfortunately they do they are odd to others.

Could it be oppositional defiance disorder = odd.

But 'odd' does convey a certain behaviour, even if it's not really a medical term. You could be 'atypical' in that you were abnormally gifted at social interaction and the total opposite of somebody on the spectrum.

I write reports quite a lot and would never write 'odd'
Surely society has moved on from these offensive outdated terms.

I would ask them to change it.

I would definitely contact them about such unprofessionalism. Ive had 11 years of involvement from various people for my asd son, never has he been described as odd.

Wow, that doesn’t sound like professional language

@VillKrill

YANBU at all. It's the kind of language we'll look back on in years to come and wonder how the fuck it was ever deemed acceptable. I personally also have an issue with the term Autism Spectrum Disorder for the same reason - I genuinely don't understand why labelling autistic people as "disordered" isn't considered deeply problematic.

ASD has been rebranded to ASC these days, with the C referring to ‘condition’. My children don’t really care either way. Different labels, same impact on their life.

ASD has been rebranded to ASC these days,

According to who?

I would be OK with it for myself. I don't consider it to be offensive or derogatory, just 'different to the expected norm' but if you aren't happy ask them to change it to a synonym such as atypical or anomalous.

I sometimes have to write reports of a similar type. We referred to eye contact as “atypical”. Odd is more perojrative so I wouldn’t use it. I imagine it is probably intended to simply convey how it relates to their diagnosis of autism, but you should definitely feed back how you received that word. If a parent said they didn’t like our wording we would definitely review it.

I agree it’s inappropriate. But doctors for all their knowledge aren’t always the most articulate people on paper nor the most emotionally intelligent.

My child has asd, I would be insulted and angry to read that.

There are more appropriate words.
Unusual. Atypical. For example.

People with asd have a hard enough time trying to find their place in the world without the people who are supposed to help end support them using language like that.

Odd is subjective though. They should have been more specific. What about his eye contact was odd? Was it non-existent, only in response to certain situations or what? I wouldn't be happy with that description at all and I'd be asking them to clarify and rewrite it.

You should query it and give your feedback. It could be ODD acronym in that context though as others have said.

Odd, unusual, different, atypical all fundamentally mean the same thing. I don’t really see why it matters in the scheme of things.

Bless him, no wonder your mad, I would be too. He’s your little boy and there’s nothing off about him from your pint of view I’m sure.

Atypical gets to the point without being derogatory.

They’re bludy odd for using that terminology!

nothing odd about him I mean

@PixieLaLa

Odd, unusual, different, atypical all fundamentally mean the same thing. I don’t really see why it matters in the scheme of things.

Really? They might mean the sane things but being described as odd isn’t something most people would be happy about. It’s not a positive word.

Atypical is much more neutral, as in it’s not offensive