Anyone up for literary references BINGO?

[a_blackpanther]

This is the discussion post for Episode 8x03 - "Through the looking glass". Watch out for SPOILERS in the comments.

Comments

[lumiere42.livejournal.com]

Aspergers-type autism wasn't even a diagnostic label in the Western world till 1993. Reid would've already been a teenager by then. Probably his K-12 teachers would've explained away his autistic-type stuff as him just being highly gifted, and by then his mom was in no shape to question anything...

CalTech = full of Aspie-autie "Silicon Valley types", so Reid wouldn't have been seen as especially unusual there.

There are a LOT of late-diagnosed Aspie autistic folks out there, for a combination of the above reasons.

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

Asperger's wasn't a diagnosis, but Autism was. Reid presents enough symptoms - and as a child those symptoms would have been more pronounced - to if not fully qualify for a diagnosis, certainly to have raised enough interest to at least send him out for one. I made a list once. You can click on my user name and it will come up - the DSM-IV (comparable to DSM-III) list is in the comments though. I'd direct link, but I'm on my phone.
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As a child, Reid would have been a financial hardship on his school, and the school would have wanted federal funding - which means a diagnosis of some kind. So I'm more than sure that *somewhere* there is notation referring Reid for evaluation, even if his parents never did it. And even if CalTech and Silicon Valley is full of Reids, I'm pretty sure a 13 year old would still stand out. Even worse when he got to the FBI. I can't imagine - with all the bullying he probably endured - no one ever lobbed an offensive ASD related slur at him (like "Rainman").
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We are talking about a child who couldn't even directly ask his dad to stay as dad was walking out the door. The best Reid could do was an indirect plea citing statistics.