Jason Arday #3

[Bridgeofsighs]

Official teachers prob would be wary of entering the fray.

They may be retired by now, living abroad or speaking anonymously with a journo checking their former identity as JA's teachers. That said, no one wants to be called a racist so they might say nothing.

As for the GDD at 3, it's possible that that is true but there are specialists that can help a child to catch up in that case. There are now and presumably in the 90s too when JA was at school? Anyway it doesn't have to be a lifelong deficit. Some kids can catch up on their own too.

 

[TrashleenMoron]

His former classmates have already said he was very chatty as a kid

The ones who said he did talk did so on video, or at least had a face to their name.

The ones who said he didn't were nothing but quotes in a newspaper, with names like Alias Undercover, Ivan Gottasecret, John Doesmith, and Ima Pseudonym.

 

[Bridgeofsighs]

One of the things to come out of the Cartrarian analysis (which I’d not picked up before) is that Arday didn’t even start mentioning autism as part of his “story” until 2017. Not on the Cilla Black show in 2012, not in his 2015 PhD (which only mentioned “learning difficulties”), but only in 2017:

View attachment 4103111

Cartrarian does say that he obviously hasn’t seen Arday’s medical records (nor had any of the press) - but he is highly sceptical of the autism diagnosis and concluded that some kind of developmental difficulty was more likely.

View attachment 4103115

The whole thing is so vague. Normally getting an autism dx is a big thing and there's a waiting list just to be assessed. Parents are keen to get the diagnosis as it can explain a lot of troubling symptoms. You would think he would know what age it happened at (or he could ask his mum) and the GDD at 3 is not the same thing (and could be another lie.) Looks like he was never formally diagnosed but found it a useful shield to use if people were questioning him.

The GP would be notified of the autism diagnosis and it would be on his records if it happened. JA or his mum suspecting he has it also might be noted but it's not treated or recorded as a diagnosis.

 

[FourSeasonSoupObsessive]

Ghent professors challenged expertise of Jason Arday’s plagiarism accuser https://www.archive.is/oldest/https...on-arday-plagiarism-accuser?CMP=share_btn_url

Crumbs. It's all falling apart now.

It really is. What‘s astonishing to see is that it’s people who will say in one breath “it is an act of great evil to subject blameless academics to a media tit storm”, who then enthusiastically get the pitchforks out for Cofnas. I’m not stanning for him, as I’ve said before I have no insight into him as a human or an academic, and he may well be the terrible racist he’s reported as being. His views certainly seem to be out there, and I don’t care for what I do know about them. But how is it ok to hound him/hold him to account for his views, but not ok to hound Arday/hold Arday responsible for not just his views, but his harmful actions? It’s hypocrisy, rules for thee but not for me.

Add in the fact that the rector who is gunning for Cofnas is trans and has also been accused of a patchy academic record and plagiarism, and duck me if it isn’t a perfect storm to get everyone on any side of the political spectrum mounted up on their favourite hobby horse and galloping off accusing everyone else of starting a culture war.

 

[SunsetSmile]

There so much info. Can't remember exact reference for this.. but read somewhere JA claimed his mum hadn't disclosed his ASD Dx to him until relatively recently. I need to timeline check this.

But

How did Mr Smyth the clinician who JA saw during Y1 struggles at Roehampton (so aged c20) not appraise evidence of any existing Dxs when he assessed his presentation for formal support & adjustments? This would have required financial input - so paperwork trail & report. A clinician dealing with an adult in this context would be frank re Dx history.

Smyth also said to JA that he recalled meeting Giff & a discussion about his difficulties (can't recall if he referenced autism) in respect of a young Arday. Wonder if it is possible that Smyth met Giff & older brother?

 

[Tabitha D]

Also, it appears (from quotes in Cartrarian’s piece) that Joe Arday (the older brother) didn’t get a formal diagnosis of autism (ASD) until adulthood. But he does refer to having some kind of speech development delay diagnosed as a young child, and having a SEN statement when he was at school.

I think this is more likely to be the story with Jason.

 

[GabbyJ]

Yeah that was my point when I posted the link because I don’t think any of us had clocked it before. He retconned the dx.

It is very, very unusual to get an ASD dx at 3. And vanishingly unlikely to get an Asperger’s one at that age. That is literally about having social communication difficulties which cannot be explained by any mental incapacity (ie you’re as smart as anyone else but you have issues which impact your interaction with other humans). And many 3 year olds don’t communicate verbally very well.

If you can’t be arsed to read the substack I linked to (and I don’t blame you becuase it is super long), here are the highlights:

• Arday didn’t claim to be autistic until pretty late in his public story
• his description of his diagnoses are woolly/ incorrect/change all the time (for any diagnosis, you get a letter explicitly stating what your DX is
• autism was a kind of ’we didn’t know at the time but it‘s obvious now’ for the guy who inspired Pinball Wizard.
• pretty much every single dramatic happening in his life is mirrored in a Home and Away episode

Can I ask why it’s unusual to get a diagnosis at age 3?
My son had a private ASD diagnosis 2 months shy of his third birthday and this diagnosis supported and confirmed by NHS community paediatrics 9 months later.

 

[Bridgeofsighs]

Can't remember exact reference for this.. but read somewhere JA claimed his mum hadn't disclosed his ASD Dx to him until relatively recently. I need to timeline check this.

If true, that's very convenient. But it wouldn't just be his mum who would be told, so would his teachers. Would they not ever have mentioned it to him either? I smell bull.

 

[Bridgeofsighs]

Also, it appears (from quotes in Cartrarian’s piece) that Joe Arday (the older brother) didn’t get a formal diagnosis of autism (ASD) until adulthood. But he does refer to having some kind of speech development delay diagnosed as a young child, and having a SEN statement when he was at school.

I think this is more likely to be the story with Jason.

Or he just stole Joe's story and passed it off as his own... That's what narcs often do.

 

[Carefree]

Or he just stole Joe's story and passed it off as his own... That's what narcs often do.

That, to me, sounds much more likely especially going by the forensic timeline mentioned earlier in the thread.

How convenient that his cancer, brain seizures, group battering, etc, all can't be documented or verified either.

Don't get me wrong. I believe he's allowed to rest in peace but there's a shocking amount of dreadful events that happened that not one person in any kind of employer situation thought,

 

[SunsetSmile]

The whole thing is so vague. Normally getting an autism dx is a big thing and there's a waiting list just to be assessed. Parents are keen to get the diagnosis as it can explain a lot of troubling symptoms. You would think he would know what age it happened at (or he could ask his mum) and the GDD at 3 is not the same thing (and could be another lie.) Looks like he was never formally diagnosed but found it a useful shield to use if people were questioning him.

The GP would be notified of the autism diagnosis and it would be on his records if it happened. JA or his mum suspecting he has it also might be noted but it's not treated or recorded as a diagnosis.

I don't know whether there would have been such a waiting list in the very late 80s /early 90s. Culturally there's been a shift in how people see LD/NT Dxs. Potentially a Dx in 80s might have meant being directed down a special school pathway with implications for academic attainment. Whether thresholds for Dx have changed or clinicians just didn't Dx ASD in those without LD in 80s due to impact on academic potential if directed to special schooling I don't know. With mainstream inclusion policies /adjustments the decision to pursue a Dx or not changed for some.

 

[MavisBeacon]

Can I ask why it’s unusual to get a diagnosis at age 3?
My son had a private ASD diagnosis 2 months shy of his third birthday and this diagnosis supported and confirmed by NHS community paediatrics 9 months later.

It may be less unusual now but I bet it was not common at all or unheard of in 1989/90, which is when this would have supposedly taken place.

 

[Bridgeofsighs]

Well he was born in '85 so his school years would have been 90s to early 2000s. An autism diagnosis can be made at any stage including adulthood. I know there's a waiting list now and some parents go private to skip it but can't say what it was like then. It's possible some parents would hold off getting a diagnosis as they hope things would right themselves but if he is to be believed, he was non-verbal until 11 and illiterate until 18. That's serious impairment and very delayed development - to me any parent (and even teachers) back then would want assessment especially as the kid gets older and older with no improvement.

It doesn't pass the sniff test.

 

[GabbyJ]

It may be less unusual now but I bet it was not common at all or unheard of in 1989/90, which is when this would have supposedly taken place.

Thank you. That makes sense.

 

[MavisBeacon]

Well he was born in '85 so his school years would have been 90s to early 2000s. An autism diagnosis can be made at any stage including adulthood. I know there's a waiting list now and some parents go private to skip it but can't say what it was like then. It's possible some parents would hold off getting a diagnosis as they hope things would right themselves but if he is to be believed, he was non-verbal until 11 and illiterate until 18. That's serious impairment and very delayed development - to me any parent (and even teachers) back then would want assessment especially as the kid gets older and older with no improvement.

It doesn't pass the sniff test.

In mainstream school too. It doesn't add up at all.

 

[InkHeart]

Wouldn't he at minimum have been held back if he couldn't read, as opposed to be allowed to do GCSEs?

 

[HotesTilaire]

There so much info. Can't remember exact reference for this.. but read somewhere JA claimed his mum hadn't disclosed his ASD Dx to him until relatively recently. I need to timeline check this.

But

How did Mr Smyth the clinician who JA saw during Y1 struggles at Roehampton (so aged c20) not appraise evidence of any existing Dxs when he assessed his presentation for formal support & adjustments? This would have required financial input - so paperwork trail & report. A clinician dealing with an adult in this context would be frank re Dx history.

Smyth also said to JA that he recalled meeting Giff & a discussion about his difficulties (can't recall if he referenced autism) in respect of a young Arday. Wonder if it is possible that Smyth met Giff & older brother?

Have you ever heard of the budget bean blogger Jack Monroe? Allegedly her parents withheld her autism diagnosis from her…

 

[SunsetSmile]

Something else has ocurred to me. In my first grad job I worked with a woman (5 years older than me) who came from significant privilege (top public school & influential family). She had been diagnosed dyslexic in early 80s. She received extra support at school but was firmly directed to do a maths degree due to her struggles with reading & writing comprehension. I had never heard of dyslexia before.

Dyslexia diagnosis were not common in the 80s or even 90s in my experience.

The point of my anecdote was that even with all her privileges she was channelled along a certain path. It was not considered reasonable to mitigate her dyslexia to the extent of supporting her to pursue a degree in Medieval English at Oxford. This is the conundrum of how far should adjustments go & what is reasonable? Which diagnoses allow these wide adjustments and would a dyslexia/LD Dx absent of ASD have forestalled an academic career?

 

[LanyardedHeretic]

I actually think the idea that 'you can be whatever you want to be' as a concept really hurts people. We all have natural talents and specific interests, we can't be amazing at everything we turn our hand to, and frankly, that's ok. Normal. Not a problem.

 

[Falkor]

There so much info. Can't remember exact reference for this.. but read somewhere JA claimed his mum hadn't disclosed his ASD Dx to him until relatively recently. I need to timeline check this.

But

How did Mr Smyth the clinician who JA saw during Y1 struggles at Roehampton (so aged c20) not appraise evidence of any existing Dxs when he assessed his presentation for formal support & adjustments? This would have required financial input - so paperwork trail & report. A clinician dealing with an adult in this context would be frank re Dx history.

Smyth also said to JA that he recalled meeting Giff & a discussion about his difficulties (can't recall if he referenced autism) in respect of a young Arday. Wonder if it is possible that Smyth met Giff & older brother?

Bloody hell, it really is Jack Monroe all over again, isn't it? From Jack's Wikipedia entry: