Read the two articles and then critically review or expand on the ideas presented
ARTICLE ONE
As someone who identifies as a Mexican American, I have always felt that I am “ni de aqui de de alla.” This Spanish perfectly summarizes the Mexican American experience in which we are “neither from here or from there.” While there are many different ways in which one can identify with their culture and ethnicity, language is viewed as “cultural capital” (Shenk, 2007, p. 212, as cited in Castellanos, 2016) in which those who do not speak Spanish are seen as “ethnically inadequate” (Garcia Bedolla, 2003). According to Castellanos (2016), Latinos who are English dominant are often shunned and alienated by Spanish speaking Latinos due to their lack of proficiency. This often results in English dominant Latinos feeling disconnected from their ethnic home for the ability to speak Spanish is a sign of a “true Latino/a” (Garcia Bodella, 2003, p.270). In the case studies presented by Garcia Bedella (2003), a 4th generation Mexican participant expresses these feelings of rootlessness as she discusses being shamed and conflicted about her inability to speak Spanish. Niemann et al. (1999) explored the social construction of an ethnic identity by asking the question: what does it mean to be a Mexican? Through their research, participants reported on the importance of being able to speak Spanish in order to retain their culture as well as develop and shape their concept of self. I plan to use these three articles to further explore a psychodynamic approach in which we discuss the sense of self, unresolved internal conflicts and familial expectations as well as cultural struggles as they relate to English dominant adolescents who did not learn how to speak Spanish proficiently.
References
Bedolla, L. G. (2003). The identity paradox: Latino language, politics and selective dissociation. Latino Studies, 1(2), 264-283.
Castellanos Jr, R. J. (2016). ” Why don’t you speak Spanish?”: The role of language expectations on English-dominant Mexican-American ethnic identity and cultural orientation (Master’s thesis, California State University, Fullerton).
Niemann, Y. F., Romero, A. J., Arredondo, J., & Rodriguez, V. (1999). What does it mean to be “Mexican”? Social construction of an ethnic identity. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 21(1), 47-60.
ARTICLE TWO
The purpose of this article was to survey a group of children who were previously diagnosed with autism, to assess if they were currently diagnosed with autism. The findings of the article state that some of the children no longer had the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Of the children who no longer qualified for the diagnosis, a pattern emerged. Often, they were originally assessed as having higher IQ, verbal, and communication skills. It is of interest to this writer that of those children who no longer had the diagnosis of ASD, several had received a new diagnosis, ADHD. Parents attributed this change in diagnosis to the diagnosing physician receiving new information about the child (Blumberg et al., 2016). Which begs the question, what information helped the mental health provider move from one diagnostic impression to another?
Article Two: The Subthreshold
This article lists the frequently used assessments and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each. One of the main drawbacks of many assessments is the intensive training required to learn to use the assessments as well as the length of time to complete the assessment process, which can make them inaccessible for the majority of the population (Kanne, S.M., Wang, J., Christ, S.E., 2007). The authors put forth a new assessment tool that is takes less time to complete and is a self-report tool. One potential drawback to this questionnaire, in the opinion of this writer, is that the questions used often tap into an area of known weakness for autistic peoples, theory of mind.
Article Three: Coming Out
The authors of this article wanted to explore the impact on identity conceptualization of adults diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome when the diagnosis was removed from the DSM. The researchers wanted to know how the participants felt about the change and if they felt like there would be a negative impact on them or others with the same diagnosis (Smith & Jones, 2020). Although this is an interesting topic worth discussion, the researchers used such a small sample size (less than 20) that the findings are not able to be broadly applied.
References
Blumberg, S.J., Zablotsky, B., Avila, R.M., Colpe, L., Pringle, B.A., & Kogan, M. (2016).
Diagnosis lost: Differences between children who had and who currently have an autism
spectrum disorder diagnosis. Autism. 20(7): 783-795.
Kanne, S.M., Wang, J., & Christ, S.E. (2007). The Subthreshold Autism Trait Questionnaire
(SATQ): Development of a brief self-report measure of subthreshold autism traits.
Journal of Autism and Development Disorders. 37(1).
Smith, O. & Jones, Sandra C. (2020). ‘Coming Out’ with autism: Identify in people with an
Asperger’s diagnosis after DSM-5. Journal of Autism and Development Disorders. 50: