Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders最新文献

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a great challenge for individuals around the globe, and particularly for vulnerable populations such as autistic children. This qualitative study explored the experience of autistic children (both verbal and minimally verbal) and their families during the pandemic in August-October 2020 through the lens of 18 parents recruited from an opportunistic follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. Findings revealed that the pandemic was detrimental to the mental health of most parents. School closures, disrupted routines and concerns of the virus were believed by parents to be particularly responsible for increased in their child's behaviour that challenges and anxiety, resulting in changes in acquired skills and development of tics for some. However, other parents reported that increased one-to-one interaction with their child improved their social interaction and communication. Additionally, families felt more able to cope with the situation when supported by their partner, support services and schools. The findings highlight the challenges and benefits experienced by families with an autistic child during the pandemic. They provide valuable insights into potential areas that warrant attention when preparing for future emergencies. Enhancing our ability to respond to the needs of autistic children and their families, and establishing policies that can support their well-being should be prioritised to effectively address future challenges.

In several ways, 2018 represents a global pivot point in research and care related to the intersection of gender diversity and autism, reflected by the increase in the number of studies on the intersection and broadening of topics. We conducted a scoping review of the literature published between September 2018 and January 2024 to summarize recent research in the field. We compared and contrasted research trends post September 2018 to research that was summarized in previous scoping reviews (Nordahl-Hansen et al. in J Autism Develop Disord 49:1745-1748, 2019; Øien et al. J Autism Develop Disord 48(12):4028-4037, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3843-z ). We also summarized systematic reviews and meta-analyses published after 2018. Compared to previous reviews, we included more comprehensive search terms to focus on gender diversity broadly, rather than just gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder, and we included more detailed coding categories to uniquely identify shifts and continuities in research priorities over time. A total of 99 empirical research studies were published after August 2018 (the end of the search in the previous review) and through January 2024 on autism, gender diversity, and related topics were reviewed. There has been growth in the quantity and quality of studies on the intersection of autism and gender diversity, although methodological improvements are still needed and described in the current review. Future research should include more collaborations with stakeholders to set research priorities that are reflective of the communities being described.

A growing body of research shows that children with autism exhibit selective limitations in their ability to direct their visual attention to social stimuli. The cause of this selective limitation, however, remains unknown. The main purpose of this study is to determine whether the limitations in social attention are influenced by the objects in the environment. Specifically, the study examines the differences in visual attention between children with autism and typically developing (TD) children as they view videos of social interactions under two conditions, with and without objects. The sample consisted of 53 children with autism and 74 TD children, aged between 18 and 36 months. The findings indicated that young children with autism exhibited differences in their social attention compared to their TD peers. The results revealed that the presence of objects did not affect the visual attention differences between the two groups. However, removing objects from the environment positively impacted the social attention of both groups. In the condition without objects, both groups directed more visual attention more toward the Face and Body Areas of Interests (AoIs), whereas in the condition with objects, both groups prioritized looking at the Toy AoI. These findings have important implications for evidence-based decision-making, especially in designing early intervention environments for children with autism.

Purpose: Earthquakes have serious psychosocial and emotional effects on children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents. The limited number of studies investigating the earthquake experience of children with ASD and their parents indicates a need to improve existing research in this area. The aim of this study was to assess parents' experiences with their children after the earthquake and their reactions to the earthquake.

Methods: This study was subjected to analysis via both phenomenological and thematic analysis methods on the basis of the results of semistructured interviews with the parents of 21 children with ASD who were receiving their education in special education and rehabilitation centers.

Results: Two principal themes were discerned: the first theme, entitled Post-Eartquake Responses in Children and the second, entitled Parents' Earthquake Experiences and Coping Strategies, were identified. Earthquakes had a significant effect on children's bodily, behavioural and emotional responses. In addition, parents were compelled to devise a range of coping strategies to manage their emotional responses to the earthquake and to facilitate their children's access to constrained educational opportunities and adapt to evolving social dynamics.

Conclusion: In disaster situations, access to multidisciplinary support programs for children diagnosed with ASD and their families is highly important. These programs, designed through collaboration across various fields of expertise, can offer comprehensive solutions to the emotional, social, and physical challenges faced by children and their families.

Estimating meaningful change thresholds (MCT) on clinical outcome assessments is an important consideration when evaluating treatments. In fragile X syndrome (FXS) research, there has been no consensus on how to define MCT's on several commonly used outcome measures. The purpose of the current study was to determine clinically relevant MCT's of caregiver-rated assessments using data from a phase 3 clinical trials of arbaclofen (Berry-Kravis et al., 2017). Data were collected as a part of previous phase 3, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of arbaclofen in individuals with FXS (Berry-Kravis et al., 2017). The two studies enrolled age groups of 5-11-years (n = 159) and 12-50-years (n = 119). The current study examines meaningful within-patient change thresholds from baseline to treatment week 8 across several measures: ABC-C_FXS; PSI; Vineland-II; and a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of Anxiety and Disruptive Behaviors. MCT's were established by using anchor-based methods, using the CGI-S and CGI-I as anchors. Examining the results of the anchor-based analyses and visual CDF plots, MCT's were observed for the pediatric study for the ABC-C_FXS subscales (with a range depending on use of CGI-S or CGI-I as anchor): Irritability: 11.1-14.8 points; Hyperactivity: 6.7-8.9 points; and Socially Unresponsive/Lethargic: 6.6-8.1 points; as well both VAS subscales: Anxiety: 28.3-36.2 mm; and Disruptive Behavior: 22.4-27.4 mm. Such thresholds were not observed for the Vineland-II and PSI subscales. Our analysis of MCT's helps set the stage for interpreting clinical trial results in FXS. This may include use of relevant subscales of the ABC-C_FXS and VAS as primary outcomes using the MCT's for response definition. This work may help define future study inclusion criteria and enable future interpretation of treatment outcome results in the field.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the nature of clinical research assessments. Little is known about the impact of face mask use on research assessments for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study reports on tolerability of face mask use, child characteristics associated with tolerability, and the impact of face mask use on researcher ASD diagnostic certainty ratings. This paper describes results from a larger study of children who were clinically diagnosed with ASD in early childhood and were re-evaluated at age 5-7 years. Research diagnostic evaluations were conducted from 2018 to 2022 and included cognitive, language, and social-communication assessment. A research psychologist completed a rating scale on the potential impact of face mask use on research assessment diagnostic certainty for a subset of participants (n = 60) who were evaluated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The mean age of study participants was 6.2 years. Face masks were tolerated throughout the assessment for 40 children (66.7%); part-time for 13 (21.6%); and not tolerated for 7 (11.6%). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) suggested that children who did not tolerate a face mask had significantly lower cognitive [F(2, 59) = 13.241, p < 0.001] and communication [F(2, 59) = 13.639, p < 0.001] scores compared to children who wore their mask for all or part of the visit. For 88% of research assessments, research staff indicated that face mask use had "no impact" on overall assessment results. Face mask use during clinical research assessment was not reported by research staff to significantly impact their ability to complete ASD evaluations.

Absract: PURPOSE: The several prior studies assessing gender identity in young autistic individuals mostly included a mix of child and adolescent participants, heavily relied on parent-reported measures, and yielded mixed findings. A single parent-reported item from the Child Behavior Checklist assessing "wish to be of the opposite sex" was employed in most of these studies. Only one prior study focused specifically on children, but that study employed parent-reported measures.

Methods: Using self-reported multidimensional measures, the present study assessed gender identity in autistic and non-autistic children aged 4 to 11 years (30 autistic boys, 35 non-autistic boys, 20 autistic girls, 35 non-autistic girls). Child-friendly measures were used to assess own-gender similarity, other-gender similarity, gender contentedness, and wish to be of the other gender. Vocabulary and non-verbal reasoning were also assessed.

Results: Based on descriptive statistics, compared with non-autistic boys, autistic boys showed increased gender identity variance across all four dimensions (lower own-gender similarity, higher other-gender similarity, lower gender contentedness, greater wish to be of the other gender). These group differences between autistic and non-autistic boys were medium and statistically significant for three of the four dimensions and small-to-medium and marginally significant for the remaining dimension. Autistic girls and non-autistic girls did not show consistent or significant differences in gender identity. There were no differences between the autistic and non-autistic groups in vocabulary or non-verbal reasoning in either boys or girls.

Conclusion: Gender identity variance may emerge early in development in autistic individuals, but the trajectory may differ for boys and girls.

The relationship between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and screen time (ST) has been extensively studied; but the evidence remains inconsistent, and a comprehensive quantitative synthesis of this association is lacking. This study aims to provide a robust quantitative assessment of the relationship between ASD and ST by consolidating and analyzing available evidence to offer a more precise understanding of this complex association. This systematic review followed PRISMA 2020 statement, and applied a quality assessment tool for quantitative studies to identity best available evidence. A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Scopus, covering literature published from January 1, 2006 to June 12, 2024. In total, 30 studies involving 356,666 participants met the inclusion criteria. The findings revealed a significant association between screen exposure in preschool children and the development of ASD, with a longer duration of screen exposure correlating with an increased likelihood of being diagnosed with autism. Furthermore, autistic people tend to have longer daily screen use and are at a higher risk of screen addiction compared to non-autistic individuals. These findings emphasize the importance of limiting ST for preschoolers and autistic people. However, the level of evidence supporting these conclusions is very low. Future studies should focus on controlling for confounding factors, using more objective measures, and further investigate the relationship between screen engagement styles (active or passive), screen use patterns (screen devices and content), and ASD.