biology

Peter Szatmari

Peter Szatmari is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peter Szatmari rather than just read about it. In short: Peter Szatmari (born 1950) is a Canadian researcher of autism and Asperger syndrome. Education and career Szatmari was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and his family moved to Toronto in 1953.

Key takeaways

Peter Szatmari belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peter Szatmari to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peter Szatmari from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Peter Szatmari (born 1950) is a Canadian researcher of autism and Asperger syndrome.

Education and career Szatmari was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and his family moved to Toronto in 1953. He attended the Upper Canada College before going to study at McMaster University, where he majored in philosophy and psychology. He went on to attend medical school at McMaster University and obtained his M.D. in 1976. He completed his residency training at the same institution with British psychiatrist David Charles Taylor. From 1981 to 2013, Szatmari was employed at McMaster University as physician at the McMaster Children's Hospital and a faculty member at McMaster University, reaching the title of a Professor and Vice-Chair of Research at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. He was also the director of the research training program in the department, and a member of the Offord Centre for Child Studies. Dr. Szatmari is Editor of the journal, Evidence-Based Mental Health, and serves on the editorial boards of several other journals. In 2013, Szatmari moved to the Hospital for Sick Children and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. He also became the director of the Division of Child and Youth Mental Health at the University of Toronto.

Research Szatmari is known for his writings on Aspergers genetics, infant studies, and PET and MRI studies. He is also known for his diagnostic criteria for Asperger syndrome. Szatmari helped to set up the Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) team at Chedoke Child and Family Centre, a regional diagnostic and treatment program for children with a PDD diagnosis, in Hamilton, Ontario. Szatmari is currently part of the Autism Genome Project.

Diagnostic criteria for Asperger syndrome Szatmari's diagnostic criteria were published in 1989 and cover five main areas: solitary (i.e. lack of friends), impaired social interaction (i.e. difficulty relating to others), impaired nonverbal communication (i.e. not understanding body language), odd speech patterns (i.e. different use of words), and that Asperger syndrome does not meet the criteria for autistic disorder as defined in the DSM-III-R. Szatmari suggests that AS was promoted as a diagnosis to spark more research into the syndrome: "It was introduced into the official classification systems in 1994 and has grown in popularity as a diagnosis, even though its validity has not been clearly established. It was introduced not so much as an indication of its status as a 'true' disorder, but more to stimulate research ... its validity is very much in question."

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Szatmari

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Szatmari claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peter Szatmari before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peter Szatmari ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peter Szatmari

In research: Peter Szatmari appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peter Szatmari in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peter Szatmari is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 births, Academic staff of McMaster University, Academic staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Szatmari outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Peter Szatmari in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter Szatmari means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peter Szatmari out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Szatmari in simple terms?

Peter Szatmari (born 1950) is a Canadian researcher of autism and Asperger syndrome. Education and career Szatmari was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and his family moved to Toronto in 1953.

Why does Peter Szatmari matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peter Szatmari?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peter Szatmari.