Journal of autism and childhood schizophrenia最新文献

The present study was conducted in an attempt to replicate the findings of William Condon on multiple entrainment and dyssynchronous behavioral organization in autistic children. Three autistic and two normal children were filmed while being presented with five discrete auditory stimuli. Microkinesic analyses of the children's motor responses were performed in relation to three hypotheses designed to support the double-response and dyssynchrony effects. No firm evidence of multiple-responding to single sound was found for the autistic or normal children. There was some indication of dyssynchronous, or awkward, response organization for the autistic children, in comparison to the smooth-flowing body movements of the normal children.

A study was made of physiological responses of autistic children to variations in environmental load in order to examine the under- versus over-arousal dichotomy. More specifically, measures of urinary mucoprotein excretion and mean heart rate and three measures of heart rate variability were compared with matched controls in conditions of normal, high, and low total environmental load. The results suggest that, although behaviorally unresponsive, the autistic children responded physiologically, were generally in a lower state of arousal than the control group, and were labile in response to changes in stimulation.

An epidemiological study of 3-year-old children showed there to be a marked association between behavior problems and language delay. Behavior problems were present in 14% of a random sample of 705 children, whereas 59% of 22 children with language delay had such problems. Data obtained from a battery of developmental tests were analyzed to examine the differences between children with behavior problems, matched controls, and children with language delay. It was found that children with behavior problems scored significantly lower on these tests, particularly those concerned with language. There were no significant differences in test scores between children with language delay only and those with combined behavior problems and language delay.

A combined informant questionnaire and interview survey of self-injurious behavior (SIB) at a large state facility for the retarded was conducted independently three times over a 3-year period. Prevalence consistently was about 10% of the population. SIB cases tended to be younger and institutionalized longer than the rest of the population. Severe cases had a longer history of chronic SIB. SIB cases had more seizure disorders, severe language handicaps, visual impairments, and severe or profound retardation than the rest of the population. They appeared to fulfill most of the Rutter (1966) criteria for autism. But unlike the severely autistic, there was little relation of sex to incidence of SIB. Over 90% of SIB cases changed status over 3 years, suggesting that SIB was amenable to behavior modification in most cases (94%). Psychotropic behavior control medications helped in some intervention programs (32%). SIB remitted spontaneously in 21% of SIB cases where there had been no behavioral or drug intervention.

The effect of particular foods on levels of hyperactivity, uncontrolled laughter, and disruptive behaviors was studied in an 8-year-old autistic boy. The floor of the child's room was taped off into six equal-sized rectangles to measure general activity level. Frequency data were recorded on screaming, biting, scratching, and object throwing. A time-sample technique was used to record data on laughing. Data were gathered during four phases. During an initial 4-day period the child was fed a normal American diet. A 6-day fasting period followed, during which time only spring water was allowed. The third phase lasted 18 days and involved the presentation of individual foods. During the final phase of the study the child was given only foods that had not provoked a reaction in the third phase. Results showed that foods such as wheat, corn, tomatoes, sugar, mushrooms, and dairy products were instrumental in producing behavioral disorders with this child.

There were two purposes underlying this study: to describe the sensorimotor functioning of mute autistic children and to relate their sensorimotor performance to nonverbal communication. Twelve mute children, diagnosed autistic, ranging from 4 years 9 months to 12 years of age, were administered four scales of sensorimotor development from the Uzgiris and Hunt (1975) series: object permanence, gestural imitation, means for obtaining environmental events, and causality. Subjects performed most poorly on the imitation scale with 9 of 12 performing below Piaget's fifth sensorimotor stage. In contrast, performance was highest on the object permanence scale: No child scored below Stage V. Regarding the subjects' non-scales and Stage III on the imitation scale appeared to form minimal prerequisites for intentional communication in a variety of situations. Finally, none of the subjects, even those with relatively complete sensorimotor development, spontaneously used what Bates (1976) has called "protodeclarative" gestures to point out or show objects to adults. The absence of protodeclarative gestures may represent a qualitatively distinct pattern of prelinguistic development in certain autistic children.

A previous report suggested that plasma dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH) is elevated in childhood autism. We measured plasma DBH in 15 Children with functional psychosis and in 10 psychotic children with known organic etiology. DBH activity was significantly elevated in the children with functional psychoses and showed a significant correlation with age that is not reported for this age range in normals. It is possible that children with functional psychoses show an abnormal continuation of the rise in plasma DBH activity characteristic of infancy. No differences between children with functional psychoses and children with organic psychoses were found for red blood cell catechol-O-methyl-transferase, plasma monoamine oxidase, or plasma cyclic AMP.

Tests of handedness were carried out with 34 autistic children aged from 4 years 10 months to 18 years 11 months, and with sex-, age-, and IQ-matched retardates and sex- and age-matched normals. There were no significant differences between the groups on frequency of handedness, degree of righthand usage, or degree of dominant-hand usage. There was however a significant increase in the variance of dominant-hand usage from normals and retardates to autistics. These results were taken to indicate that earlier reports of handedness differences in young autistic children may reflect a developmental lag rather than a specific etiology of autism. Some support for this hypothesis was found from a comparison of age-trends between the groups. The relationship of such a developmental delay to the etiology of autism was discussed.

Two experiments involving listening preferences of autistic and normal subjects were conducted to test the hypothesis that the right cerebral hemisphere is more active than the left hemisphere in autistic children. Results showed that when given a choice between verbal and musical material, the autistic children preferred music, while normal children showed no preference. Secondly, autistic children listened to both types of material predominantly with the left ear. Although normal subjects showed greater variation among themselves, they tended to listen to music more often with the left ear and to listen to verbal material more often with the right. These results support the notion that some autistic children are predominantly right-hemisphere processors.

In a single-case, simultaneous-treatment design, three methods for experimental language acquisition in one autistic child were compared using a Latin square design and trend-line analysis. Results showed a total communication approach to be significantly superior to sign-based and verbalization approaches. The verbalization treatment resulted in decreased performance. Results indicate that use of a cross-modality inhibitory process to explain the alleged superiority of the sign-based approach is questionable. Variation among autistic children indicates a need for further research and for caution against premature acceptance of a given treatment approach or theoretical explanation.