Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders最新文献

Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are a common comorbidity in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Little is known about the impact that GI symptoms have on parental well-being. Parents of 409 children and adolescents with ASD completed the GI Symptoms Inventory, Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, World Health Organization Quality of Life Abbreviated Version, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. High levels of stress were demonstrated by parents with 40.1% receiving clinically significant scores. A relationship was found between parental stress and GI symptoms. Parental anxiety and depression were found at high levels but were not more common in parents of individuals with GI symptoms than those without. Lower levels of quality of life were found in parents of individuals with GI symptoms compared to parents of individuals without GI symptoms. Parents of children with GI symptoms were less satisfied with their personal and social relationships with others. Parents of children with GI symptoms had lower scores on a measure of perceived social support than parents of children and adolescents without GI symptoms. GI symptoms are stressful for parents and future research is needed to determine how to alleviate this stress and to improve the quality of life of parents of individuals with ASD.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze secondary data from three mother-child dyads in order to evaluate how family photographs and training in naturalistic strategies affected the way mothers reminisce with their children with autism spectrum disorders.

Method: A secondary analysis (i.e., collateral effects) of a single-case dataset was conducted to assess the impact of family photographs and training in naturalistic strategies on the selected variables.

Results: The introduction of family photographs showed positive effects on the mother's reminiscing style and the child's memory responses across all dyads. Furthermore, additional improvements were observed in these areas after training and coaching in the target strategies.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates the positive impact of using family photographs and naturalistic based strategies in joint-reminiscing conversations for mothers and children with autism spectrum disorder. The intervention improved the mothers reminiscing style and child's memory responses, highlighting the potential value of parent-implemented interventions, especially those based on naturalistic strategies, in supporting individuals with autism spectrum disorder and their caregivers.

Purpose: We explored factors predicting repeated or hazardous alcohol use among autistic and non-autistic U.S. youth ages 16 to 20 years.

Methods: Autistic (n = 94) and non-autistic (n = 92) youth completed an online survey. By design, half of each group reported past-year alcohol use. We compared drinking patterns for autistic and non-autistic youth, and within each group between abstinent or infrequent drinkers (0-1 drinking episodes in past year) versus those who drank 2 + times in past year.

Results: Autistic (vs. non-autistic) youth who drank did so less frequently and consumed fewer drinks per occasion. However, 15% of autistic youth who drank in the past year reported heavy episodic drinking and 9.3% screened positive for AUDIT-C hazardous drinking. For autistic youth only, a diagnosis of depression, bullying or exclusion histories were positively associated with drinking 2 + times in the past year. Autistic youth who put more effort into masking autistic traits were less likely to report drinking 2 + times in the past year. As compared to non-autistic youth, autistic participants were less likely to drink for social reasons, to conform, or to enhance experiences, but drank to cope at similar rates.

Conclusion: Repeated and hazardous underage alcohol occur among autistic youth. Targeted prevention programs designed to address the specific drinking profiles of autistic youth are needed.

In the current study, we examined adaptive skills and trajectories over time in 257 individuals with Angelman syndrome (AS) using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 2nd Edition. Multilevel linear models were used to examine differences between molecular subtypes over time, from one year to 13 years of age, in the adaptive domains of communication, daily living skills, socialization and motor skills. Individuals with non-deletion subtypes typically demonstrated a higher level of adaptive skills compared to those with deletion subtypes. Statistically significant growth was observed in all adaptive domains through at least early adolescence. Individuals with AS should continue to receive developmental services and educational supports through adolescence and into adulthood given the slow rates of growth being observed across adaptive domains.

Purpose: Cognitive behaviour therapy based on the Clark and Wells (1995) model is a first-line treatment for neurotypical people seeking support for social anxiety. While autistic people frequently report high social anxiety, it is unclear how appropriate the model is for this population.

Methods: Over 300 autistic and non-autistic adults completed an online survey measuring key variables of the Clark and Wells model (socially-related negative thoughts, safety behaviours, self-focused attention). Using multiple regression and structural equation modelling, we assessed whether these variables accounted for the link between autism and social fears.

Results: In multiple regression, autistic people experienced greater social fears than expected based on Clark and Wells variables, and safety behaviours were less predictive of social fears in autistic people. In structural equation modelling, Clark and Wells variables only mediated half the link between autistic traits and social fears. In exploratory analysis, we found that distress relating to uncertainty was an additional variable that needed to be taken into consideration in the relationship between autistic traits and social fears.

Conclusion: The Clark and Wells variables were relevant in autism, but did not fully explain elevated social fears in autistic people, which suggests that other factors are also important in accounting for social anxiety in autistic people. This means that therapy informed by the model may not be optimal for autistic people. We recommend further research developing adapted therapy for social anxiety in autistic people.

Current theories of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) suggest atypical use of context in ASD, but little is known about how these atypicalities influence speech perception. We examined the influence of contextual information (lexical, spectral, and temporal) on phoneme categorization of people with ASD and in typically developed (TD) people. Across three experiments, we found that people with ASD used all types of contextual information for disambiguating speech sounds to the same extent as TD; yet they exhibited a shallower identification curve when phoneme categorization required temporal processing. Overall, the results suggest that the observed atypicalities in speech perception in ASD, including the reduced sensitivity observed here, cannot be attributed merely to the limited ability to utilize context during speech perception.

Purpose: This study describes participant diversity in Williams syndrome (WS) intervention studies.

Methods: A literature search was conducted to identify prospective treatment studies including participants with WS. Data was extracted on the reporting of and information provided on age, sex, cognitive ability, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity.

Results: Eleven eligible articles were identified. Reporting rates of demographic factors varied considerably, with the highest rates for age and sex (100%) and the lowest reporting rates for race (18%) and ethnicity (9%). Combining demographic data from the two studies that reported on race and/or ethnicity (n = 33), 88% of participants were White. The combined participant mean age was 20.9 years.

Conclusion: There is a low frequency of reporting on several demographic factors including socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity in WS intervention studies. There is a need for increased representation of racial and ethnic minority groups, older participants, and more cognitively impaired patients in WS research.

Objective, quantitative measures of caregiver-child interaction during play are needed to complement caregiver or examiner ratings for clinical assessment and tracking intervention responses. In this exploratory study, we examined the feasibility of using automated video tracking, Noldus EthoVision XT, to measure 159 2-to-7-year-old autistic children's patterns of movement during play-based, caregiver-child interactions and examined their associations with standard clinical measures and human observational coding of caregiver-child joint engagement. Results revealed that autistic children who exhibited higher durations and velocity of movement were, on average, younger, had lower cognitive abilities, greater autism-related features, spent less time attending to the caregiver, and showed lower levels of joint engagement. After adjusting for age and nonverbal cognitive abilities, we found that children who remained in close proximity to their caregiver were more likely to engage in joint engagement that required support from the caregiver. These findings suggest that video tracking offers promise as a scalable, quantitative, and relevant measure of autism-related behaviors.

Symmetry studies in autism are inconclusive possibly due to different types of stimuli used which depend on either local or global cues. Therefore, this study compared symmetry detection between 20 autistic and 18 non-autistic adults matched on age, IQ, gender and handedness, using contour integration tasks containing open and closed contours that rely more on local or global processing respectively. Results showed that the autistic group performed equally well with both stimuli and outperformed the non-autistic group only for the open contours, possibly due to a different strategy used in detecting symmetry. However, there were no group differences for the closed contour. Results explain discrepant findings in previous symmetry studies suggesting that symmetry tasks that favour a local strategy may be advantageous for autistic individuals. Implications of the findings towards understanding visual sensory issues in this group are discussed.