Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders最新文献

Purpose: Vocal cues embed speech with crucial emotional expression. Recognizing subtle changes in intonation, pitch and prosody provides rich social information and cues for responding in everyday interactions - cues that may be missed by individuals with differences in sensory processing and social development, such as those with autism. Although atypical auditory processing in autism is well-established in the literature, the contribution of these sensory differences to emotional prosody recognition requires further investigation. This study examined whether the associations of auditory abilities and social cognition with emotional prosody recognition differ between autistic and non-autistic children.

Methods: Twenty-eight autistic children and twenty-eight non-autistic children completed tasks assessing rapid auditory processing (RAP), pitch discrimination, social cognition (SC), and emotional prosody recognition (EPR) of spoken words and sentences.

Results: Autistic children demonstrated better RAP but lower SC performances compared to non-autistic children. No group differences were found in pitch discrimination or emotional prosody recognition. Across both groups, better RAP was associated with better emotional prosody recognition. In contrast, pitch discrimination was positively associated with emotional prosody recognition of low-intensity emotional words only in autistic children.

Conclusion: The findings highlight the important association between RAP and emotional prosody recognition in both autistic and non-autistic children, while indicating a distinct association between pitch discrimination and emotional prosody recognition in autistic children. The results suggest the need for further research into the role of auditory processing in emotional speech perception in autism, and the potential benefits of interventions targeting pitch discrimination and RAP.

Objective: To examine the characteristics of gaze behavior, particularly gaze-stimulus synchrony, and their association with developmental levels in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Methods: Eye-tracking data were obtained from 52 children with ASD, 58 with global developmental delay (GDD), and 55 typically developing (TD) children, aged 18 to 48 months, while they viewed a video of a girl rhythmically clapping and moving to a song. Area of interest (AOI) analysis was performed to assess visual fixation patterns throughout the task, and recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) was used to evaluate gaze-stimulus synchrony. Correlation analyses were further conducted to examine the associations between AOI, RQA measures and developmental levels.

Results: Children with ASD demonstrated significantly reduced visual fixation on the whole face and mouth-and-nose AOIs compared to TD children. RQA revealed that the ASD group exhibited significantly lower [Formula: see text], indicating less sustained gaze-stimulus synchrony. Both RQA and AOI measures were significantly associated with developmental level in the ASD group.

Conclusion: The findings highlight reduced visual engagement and gaze-stimulus synchrony in young children with ASD compared to their TD peers, and indicate that gaze-based metrics may serve as potential objective markers of developmental functioning. The results underscore the utility of diverse analytic approaches, such as RQA, in uncovering temporal characteristics of gaze behavior. Future research should include nonsocial stimuli to determine whether reduced gaze-stimulus synchrony reflects domain-general atypicalities in visual processing.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the mediating role of cognitive disengagement syndrome (CDS) in explaining social communication difficulties in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASDLevel 1).

Methods: The sample included 107 children (58 with ASD-Level 1 and 49 typically developing controls). Autism symptom severity (ASSQ), cognitive disengagement (CABI-SCT), social communication (SCQ), and daytime sleepiness (ESS-CHAD) were assessed. Group comparisons, correlation, regression, and mediation analyses were conducted.

Results: Compared to controls, the ASD-Level 1 group had significantly higher scores on ASSQ, CABI-SCT, and SCQ (p < .001). Regression analysis showed that both ASSQ (β = 0.382) and CABI-SCT (β = 0.124) significantly predicted SCQ scores, while Epworth had no effect. Mediation analysis indicated that CDS partially mediated the relationship between ASSQ and SCQ (indirect effect = 0.099, 95% CI [0.041, 0.181]).

Conclusion: Findings suggest that social communication deficits in ASDLevel 1 are not solely explained by core autism symptoms. CDS may independently and transdiagnostically contribute to social dysfunction and should be considered in clinical evaluations and interventions. The study emphasizes the need to move beyond core diagnostic criteria and incorporate cognitive disengagement processes into clinical models of autism. CDS may represent a novel, modifiable target for intervention in ASD-Level 1 populations with preserved cognitive capacity but impaired social functioning.

Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between maternal external shame and family functioning in families raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The objective is to explore the association between parental feelings of shame, perceived inferiority, and the overall functioning of families raising children with ASD.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 517 families across Greece. Parents completed validated questionnaires, including the External Shame Scale and subscales measuring family functioning (e.g., communication, problem-solving, personal goals). Statistical analyses included Pearson/Spearman correlations, as well as multivariate linear regressions, to identify predictive relationships.

Results: The findings revealed a significant negative association between maternal external shame and key aspects of family functioning, including problem solving, communication, and personal goals. Higher levels of external shame were linked to more dysfunctional family patterns, underscoring the emotional and relational burden experienced by mothers of children with ASD.

Conclusion: Parental external shame significantly impacts family functioning in ASD contexts. Drawing on family systems theory, these findings underscore the importance of holistic, family-centered interventions that promote parental mental health and resilience, supported by policies ensuring access to tailored mental health services.

Background: In traditional societies, fathers are often viewed as authority figures with limited involvement in child development. This study examined the parenting attitudes and participation levels of fathers of children aged 3-6 with developmental disabilities in Türkiye.

Method: The sample consisted of 134 fathers who voluntarily participated. Data were collected using a demographic form, the Parental Attitude Scale (PAS), and the Father Involvement Scale (FIS) and analyzed with SPSS.

Results and conclusions: Parenting attitudes did not significantly vary by the child's gender, diagnosis, preschool attendance, or number of children. Non-working fathers showed more authoritarian attitudes than working fathers. Fathers of daughters scored higher on interest and closeness, while fathers in single-child families scored higher on caregiving and participation. A moderate positive relationship was observed between democratic parenting attitudes and FIS subdimensions. Authoritarian and permissive attitudes showed weaker positive relationships with specific FIS subdimensions, including caregiving and participation.

Purpose: This pilot randomized controlled trial examined the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a telehealth-based Pivotal Response Treatment (TPRT) program for preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Taiwan, where access to evidence-based, parent-mediated interventions remains limited in underserved communities.

Methods: Fifty children aged 24-72 months were randomly assigned to either the intervention group, which received a 12-week therapist-guided TPRT program, or the control group receiving general parent support. Parents in the TPRT group attended weekly online coaching sessions and practiced the strategies daily at home. After the 12-week intervention, all participants entered a 4-week follow-up phase, during which TPRT parents independently practiced and applied the learned strategies in daily routines without therapist supervision, allowing evaluation of their autonomous use and short-term maintenance of treatment effects. Post-intervention assessments at the end of the follow-up evaluated child developmental outcomes and parental stress.

Results: Compared with controls, the TPRT group showed significantly greater improvements in language and motor development, with medium-to-large effect sizes in adaptive functioning, particularly in daily living and motor domains. Parenting stress significantly decreased, with most parents reporting reduced distress and improved perceptions of child behavior. Program adherence was high (88% daily strategy use, 85% homework completion), and parental satisfaction averaged 93%.

Conclusions: The TPRT program was feasible, well accepted, and associated with meaningful developmental and parental benefits. Findings support the promise of telehealth-delivered, parent-mediated PRT as a scalable model to improve service accessibility for young children with ASD in underserved settings.

Purpose: This study examined the relationship between executive functioning (EF) and core features associated with autism in children aged 2 and 4 years. EF encompasses a set of goal-directed skills that enable organized thoughts and behavior which develop rapidly during the preschool period. To examine concurrent associations between EF and early autism expression, we analyzed whether EF performance relates to observed social communication and repetitive behaviors during parent-child interactions.

Methods: Participants included 110 autistic children aged 24 to 60 months diagnosed with autism. Developmental and cognitive abilities were assessed using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Social communication and repetitive behaviors associated with autism were coded from 10-minute free play parent-child videos using the Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC), yielding total social communication, restricted/repetitive behaviors scores, and overall total scores. An EF score was derived from a test battery that included measurements of set-shifting, working memory, inhibition, and delay. Regression analyses were conducted to assess EF's contribution to autism expression, controlling for cognitive ability.

Results: For 2-year-olds, EF was not related to observed autism behaviors after controlling for cognition. Conversely, for 4-year-olds, EF related to overall behaviors associated with autism observed during parent-child interactions.

Conclusion: Findings of an association between EF and autism-related behaviors observed in parent-child interactions by preschool at age 4 but not in toddlerhood at age 2 highlight potential developmental differences in the relation between EF and autism-related behaviors. Longitudinal and experimental research is needed to establish directionality and malleability of EF and autism-related behaviors.