The Matthew Effect

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From the book ¨Outliers", by M. Gladwell.

"Think for a moment about what the story of hockey and early birthdays says about success. It tells us that our notion that it is the best and the brightest who effortessly rise to the top is much too simplistic. Yes, the hockey players who make it to the professional elvel are more talented than you or me. But they also got a big head start, and opportunity that they neither deserved nor earned. And that opportunity played a critical role in their success.

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It is those who are successful, in other words who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It´s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It´s the best studentes who get the best teaching and most attention. And it´s the biggest nine - and then-year-olds who get the most coaching and practices. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call "accumulative advantage". The professional hockey player starts out a little bit better than his peers. And that little difference leads to an opportunity that makes that difference a bit bigger, and that edge in turn leads to another opportiunity, which makes the initially small difference bigger still".

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Gladwell asks: Do you see the consenquences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift other onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate achivement. We preamturely write off poeple as failures.

So when it comes to treating autism spectrum, why is that we take so much time to use the opportunity to include parents? That means, treating them as well, separately, and as a couple. As soon this happens, according that are these parents who raise and teach their sons, the better results we might get. There are many unconscious anxiousness that is transfered from parents to sons, wich may become an unaware obstacle for the treatment, and for the success. That is the reason why including parents in the treatment, as family group and individually, it´s a must.

The sooner the better. This is not to blame. This is to aim the treatment towards a more efficient approach.

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