Iconicity influences how effectively minimally verbal children with autism and ability-matched typically developing children use pictures as symbols in a search task
Previous word learning studies suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder may have difficulty understanding pictorial symbols. Here we investigate the ability of children with autism spectrum disorder and language-matched typically developing children to contextualize symbolic information communicated by pictures in a search task that did not involve word learning. Out of the participant’s view, a small toy was concealed underneath one of four unique occluders that were individuated by familiar nameable objects or unfamiliar unnamable objects. Children were shown a picture of the hiding location and then sea...
Source: Autism - June 12, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Hartley, C., Allen, M. L. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Comparing service use and costs among adolescents with autism spectrum disorders, special needs and typical development
This article describes the services and associated costs for four groups of individuals: adolescents with autistic disorder, adolescents with other autism spectrum disorders, adolescents with other special educational needs and typically developing adolescents using data from a large, well-characterised cohort assessed as part of the UK Special Needs and Autism Project at the age of 12 years. Average total costs per participant over 6 months were highest in the autistic disorder group (£11,029), followed by the special educational needs group (£9268), the broader autism spectrum disorder group (£8968) and...
Source: Autism - June 12, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Barrett, B., Mosweu, I., Jones, C. R., Charman, T., Baird, G., Simonoff, E., Pickles, A., Happe, F., Byford, S. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Lay beliefs about autism spectrum disorder among the general public and childcare providers
We conducted a survey of beliefs about autism among the general public in the United States and Canada (n = 823) and among individuals working in childcare facilities in the state of Idaho (n = 176). Results included the following. Almost all respondents correctly believed that autism’s primary causes are genetic and neurological (not parenting, drugs, or current diet), that it can be identified in early childhood, and that helpful interventions exist. Respondents generally distinguished diagnostic from non-diagnostic traits, but approximately half incorrectly labeled constant squirming as diagnostic and difficulties...
Source: Autism - June 12, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Mitchell, G. E., Locke, K. D. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Anxiety in Asperger's syndrome: Assessment in real time
Anxiety is a major problem for many people with Asperger’s syndrome who may have qualitatively different fears from a non-Asperger’s syndrome population. Research has relied on measures developed for non-Asperger’s syndrome populations that require reporting past experiences of anxiety, which may confound assessment in people with Asperger’s syndrome due to problems with autobiographical memory as are often reported in this group.
Experience sampling methodology was used to record real-time everyday experiences in 20 adults with Asperger’s syndrome and 20 neurotypical adults. Within-subject an...
Source: Autism - June 12, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Hare, D. J., Wood, C., Wastell, S., Skirrow, P. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Multimodal brain imaging in autism spectrum disorder and the promise of twin research
Current evidence suggests the phenotype of autism spectrum disorder to be driven by a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors impacting onto brain maturation, synaptic function, and cortical networks. However, findings are heterogeneous, and the exact neurobiological pathways of autism spectrum disorder still remain poorly understood. The co-twin control or twin-difference design is a potentially powerful tool to disentangle causal genetic and environmental contributions on neurodevelopment in autism spectrum disorder. To this end, monozygotic twins discordant for this condition provide unique means for th...
Source: Autism - June 12, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Mevel, K., Fransson, P., Bolte, S. Tags: Review Article Source Type: research
Rethinking language in autism
In this article, we invite a rethinking of traditional perspectives of language in autism. We advocate a theoretical reappraisal that offers a corrective to the dominant and largely tacitly held view that language, in its essence, is a referential system and a reflection of the individual’s cognition. Drawing on scholarship in Conversation Analysis and linguistic anthropology, we present a multidimensional view of language, showing how it also functions as interactional accomplishment, social action, and mode of experience. From such a multidimensional perspective, we revisit data presented by other researchers that ...
Source: Autism - June 12, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Sterponi, L., de Kirby, K., Shankey, J. Tags: Review Article Source Type: research
Is autism linked to criminality?
(Source: Autism)
Source: Autism - June 12, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Maras, K., Mulcahy, S., Crane, L. Tags: Editorial Source Type: research
Lay abstracts
(Source: Autism)
Source: Autism - April 14, 2015 Category: Neurology Tags: Lay abstracts Source Type: research
Regarding Mandell and Lecavalier's editorial "Should we believe the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's autism spectrum disorders prevalence estimates" and subsequent exchange with Durkin et al.
(Source: Autism)
Source: Autism - April 14, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Newschaffer, C. J. Tags: Commentary Source Type: research
Depression and its measurement in verbal adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder
In a sample of 50 verbally fluent adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders (age: 16–31 years; verbal IQ: 72–140), we examined the pattern of response and associations between scores on common measures of depressive symptoms, participant characteristics, and clinical diagnosis of depressive disorders. Beck Depression Inventory–Second Edition item descriptives in this autism spectrum disorder sample were compared to previously published data from a large typically developing sample, with results suggesting that cognitive-attributional symptoms of depression may be particularly prevalent in auti...
Source: Autism - April 14, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Gotham, K., Unruh, K., Lord, C. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Autism comes to the hospital: The experiences of patients with autism spectrum disorder, their parents and health-care providers at two Canadian paediatric hospitals
Youth with autism spectrum disorder are a vulnerable, often poorly understood patient group, who may experience periodic and chronic health challenges, in addition to their primary developmental social and communication problems. Developmental and behavioural challenges can complicate management of acute health-care needs. To date, there is an absence of empirical research exploring the hospital experiences of children and youth with autism spectrum disorder, their families and their health-care providers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand these experiences in order to inform hospital-based care. A tot...
Source: Autism - April 14, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Muskat, B., Burnham Riosa, P., Nicholas, D. B., Roberts, W., Stoddart, K. P., Zwaigenbaum, L. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Gestural communication in children with autism spectrum disorders during mother-child interaction
Children with autism spectrum disorders display atypical development of gesture production, and gesture impairment is one of the determining factors of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. Despite the obvious importance of this issue for children with autism spectrum disorder, the literature on gestures in autism is scarce and contradictory. The purpose of this study was to analyze gestural communication in children with autism spectrum disorder during spontaneous mother–child interaction. Participants were children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 20), Down’s syndrome (n = 20), and typical development (n = 20...
Source: Autism - April 14, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Mastrogiuseppe, M., Capirci, O., Cuva, S., Venuti, P. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Implicit and explicit Theory of Mind reasoning in autism spectrum disorders: The impact of experience
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between explicit and implicit forms of Theory of Mind reasoning and to test the influence of experience on implicit Theory of Mind reasoning in individuals with autism spectrum disorders and in neurotypical adults. Results from two standard explicit Theory of Mind tasks are mixed: Individuals with autism spectrum disorders did not differ from neurotypical adults in their performance in the Strange Stories Test, but scored significantly lower on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. Furthermore, in an implicit false-belief task, individuals with autism spectrum disorders dif...
Source: Autism - April 14, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Schuwerk, T., Vuori, M., Sodian, B. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Holistic processing of faces as measured by the Thatcher illusion is intact in autism spectrum disorders
This study investigated face processing in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders using the Thatcher illusion, a perceptual phenomenon exhibiting ‘inversion effects’ that characterize typical face processing. While previous studies used a limited range of face orientations, we measured perception of normality/grotesqueness of faces at seven orientations ranging from upright to inverted to allow for a detailed comparison of both reaction time and error by orientation profiles. We found that, like their typically developing peers, adolescents with autism spectrum disorders show strong inversion effects whereb...
Source: Autism - April 14, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Cleary, L., Brady, N., Fitzgerald, M., Gallagher, L. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Working memory arrest in children with high-functioning autism compared to children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Results from a 2-year longitudinal study
The aim of this study was to analyse the development of verbal working memory in children with high-functioning autism compared to children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and typically developing children. A total of 34 children with high-functioning autism, 72 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and 45 typically developing children (age 9–16 years) were included at baseline and followed up approximately 25 months later. The children were given a letter/number sequencing task to assess verbal working memory. The performance of children with high-functioning autism on verbal working m...
Source: Autism - April 14, 2015 Category: Neurology Authors: Andersen, P. N., Skogli, E. W., Hovik, K. T., Geurts, H., Egeland, J., Oie, M. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
