-”Insurance reimbursement systems are set up to reward psychiatrists for performing medication evaluations and engaging in brief check-ins instead of time-consuming psychotherapy.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 6.

-”The current generation of psychologists are being encouraged to utilize only what are called "evidence-based treatments." These are interventions university-based academic psychologists have found to be effective in controlled studies.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 6.

-”Genes for emotional disorders passed onto us from our parents are not fixed blueprints guaranteeing we will develop that disorder. They are risk factors. Life experience impacts whether these genes will be turned on or off, and whether risk becomes eventuality.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 21.

-”Exclusively blaming children's brains for their emotional problems is every bit as skewed as the past habit of exclusively blaming parnts. The causes of choldren's emotional problems definitely cannot be boiled down to questionable parenting or faulty brains.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 22.

-”We forget how liberating and empowering it can be for parents to acknowledge the part they play in their child's problems. Knowing that they have some control can provide parents with a sense of hope. If they can zero in on and correct what they are doing wrong or not doing right, they can make a real impact on their children.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 22.

-”It seems, then, that the way our school and mental health systems are set up today necessarily leads to kids being assigned diagnoses to receive the help they need.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 48.

-”To obtain intensive and specialized services that are attractive to parents, kids are being assigned ever-more severe diagnoses. There are many unintedded consequences to this.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 48.

-”The mere mention of a diagnosis, especially a severe one, primes parents and teachers to accept powerful psychoactive medications as a plausible intervention.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 48.

-”Mental health professionals may think they are playing a benign bureaucratic game when they attribute a more severe diagnosis than is warranted to a kid simply to ensure that treatment and services are authorized. but once in a data bank, these diagnoses tend to follow kids.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 48.

-”To the extent that a kid believes a diagnostic label applies to him or her, he or she is less likely to take personal ownership of and responsibility for his or her actions and his or her potential to actively and purposively strive to change.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 55.

-”This may explain the unfavorable reactions teachers sometimes have toward ADHD kids. Believing an ADHD kid suffers from a brain disease can engender compassion. By the same token, it can lead to a sense of futility that nothing fundamental can be done on the teacher's or the kid's part to bring about lasting change. There may be the sense that the kid's hyperactive behavior must be simply tolerated, managed, or controlled (whether through medication or behavioral methods)--not changed. This can lead to negative reactions, whether openly expressed or just ruminated on.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 56.

-”The medications most frequently prescribed for bipolar and autism spectrum disordered kids and teens are called atypical antipsychotics and include Abilify, Risperdal, Seroquel, Zypreza, and Geodon. The name "antipsychotic" can be misleading, since even though they are utilized to treat schizophrenia-related psychotic experiences, when it comes to children and adolescents they are mainly prescribed to quell the agitation, aggressiveness, and moodiness that frequently accompany a bipolar or autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 63.

-”When you talk to parents whose child has been started on an atypical antipsychotic like Risperdal or Seroquel, they usually cite reductions in the frequency and intensity of the child's rage attacks and agitation. When this medication is working well it can make family life much more tolerable with a highly disruptive child.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 63.

-”With the push to screen for and detect autism spectrum disorder at progressively younger ages, the risk is greater that late-talking, picky-eating, tantrum-throwing, transition-resistant toddlers will be misperceived as potentially autistic--especially if an evaluation is conducted in which the child is not sensitively engaged and put at ease. The risk is more acute, as I will soon illustrate, if this toddler is likely to develop into an introverted, cognitively gifted boy who tends to be single-minded and willful in his approach to life learning. Even more basic than that, if we don't have a firm grasp of gender differences in how young children communicate and socialize, we can mistake traditional masculine behavior for high-functioning autism.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 162-163.

-”Appearing attentive, asking probing questions, and reflecting back what someone is saying may be the empathic glue that cements a friendship for the average female. However, for the average male, following along with and responding to the lieral cdontent of what they are sying is what's deemed valuable. A friend is someone who shares your ionterssts and with whom you can have detailed discussions about these interests.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 164.

-”Watch boys at a sleepover and you'll quickly realize that they need a joint activity to buttress social interaction and verbal dialogue.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 164.

-”Without a joint activity that taps into their preexisting knowledge about that activity, boys are often at a loss for discussion. There are long silences. Eye contact is avoided. Bodies become more wiggly.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 164.

-”Watch girls at a sleepover and any shared activity they engage in is often secondary to the pleasure they seem to derive from just hanging out and talking.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 164.

-”Many boys feel compelled to be logical and exact in their use of language. They withdraw and shut down around people who use language more loosely.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 164-165.

-”There's still a pervasive sense in our culture that to be educated is to be gender-blind, and there is something of a taboo against voicing aloud explanations for a child's behavior in terms of his or her gender.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 165.

-”Poor eye contact, long-winded monologues about one's new favorite topic, being overly serious and businesslike, appearing uninterested in other's facial expressions, and restricting friendships to those who share one's interests, may all be signs of Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning autism. However, these same traits typify boys who are traditionally masculine in their behavior.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 165.

-”Parents somehow have to ask the uncomfortable question in the doctor's office: Is he high-functioning autistic or really a more masculine-identified boy? If it's the latter, what a boy may need is some combination of acceptance and personal and professional help to finesse his social skills over time--not an incorrect diagnosis and unnecessary medial treatment.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 165-166.

-”When highly restricted interests are shared with relatively little spontaneity and enthusiasm, in ways that fail to entice children to come hither to listen and play--this is when we should suspect autism spectrum disorder. The same is true when a kid talks without interrruption about a very technical topic, such as dinosaur names or bus schedules, seemingly indifferent to whether the listener congratulates him for his encyclopedic knowledge or is peeved by the lecture.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 166

-””Autism spectrum disordered children tend to hold steadfast to their odd topics of interest over time and not readily substitute one for another.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 167.

-”Often it is a sense of humor that separates true cases of mild autism from mental giftedness. Mildly autistic kids often don't really comprehend irony, sarcasm, and absurdity. Mentally gifted kids, on the other hand, often thrive on irony, sarcasm, and absurdity.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 167.

-”Highly intelligent boys who happen to be introverted by temperament are probably the subpopulation of kids who are most likely to be erroneously labeled autistic.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 167.

-”Introverted, highly intelligent boys may appear vacant and nonresponsive when asked a question like "What is your favorite animal?" Yet in their minds, they may be deeply and actively processing copious amounts of information on types and defining features of animals and zeroing in on precise words to use to articulate thir complex thoughts. Thirty seconds, a minute, or even more time may pass before an answer is supplied. In the meantime, the listener might wonder if the boy is deaf or completely self-absorbed.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 167-168.

-”Brainy, introverted boys may cherish and look forward to alone time, which allows them the opportunity to indulge their intellectual appetites full throttle, amassing knowledge through reading or Internet searches. Solitude creates the time and space they need to totally immerse themselves in their preferred interests. They may get more turned on by studying ideas, pursuing science projects, or by solving math problems than by conversing with people.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 168.

-”In our extroverted culture, where being a "team player" and a "people person" are seen as linchpins of normalcy, the notion that a brainy, introverted boy might legitimately prefer the world of ideas over the world of people is hard for most people to accept. Parents of such boys may feel terribly uneasy about their tendency to want to be alone and try to push their sons to be sociable and to make more friends. But if you get to know such boys, they would much rather be alone reading, writing, or pursuing projects that stimulate their intellect than be socializing with peers who are not their intellectual equals.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 168.

-”With people who share their interests, especially people who possess equal or greater knowledge in these areas, brainy, introverted boys can display quite normal social skills.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 168.

-”We forget how immersion in an activity, and repetition of it, can lead to an experience of mastery. Lining up trains in identical order, making the same sounds, and pulling them with the same force can rekindle the same feeling of mastery that was felt the first time this activity went well.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 170.

-”Not all repetitiveness and needs for sameness speak to autistic tendencies. When a toddler appears driven to use his body effectively in the accomplishment of a task and to further an experience of mastery, it's unlikely that he's on the spectrum no matter how repetitive the task becomes--particulary if that toddler shows self-pride and wants others to share in the excitement of it all, even in quiet and subdued ways.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 170.

-”Self-absorption while studying objects is expectable behavior for male toddlers, especially for those on the upper end of the bell curve on visual-spatial intelligence.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 170.

-”When we mistake a brainy, introverted boy for an autism spectrum disordered one, we devalue his mental gifts. We view his ability to become wholeheartedly engrossed in a topic as a symptom that needs to be stamped out, rather than a form of intellectualism that needs to be cultivated.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 174.