Adults with a diagnosis of High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HF ASD) are becoming a significant presence on college campuses across the United States. A number of colleges have created programs to provide services to support accommodations for these students under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); the first was created in 2002. The creation of these programs does not guarantee success. The use of the logic model in the formative evaluation process has been found to be a key foundation for the establishment of an effective program. The logic model provides a visual representation of the defined problem, the resources and services, and the data sources which provide documentation of service delivery and the intended outcomes of the program. This study is a formative evaluation that uses a logic model approach conducted during the second year of an Autism Spectrum Support Program. This study analyzed data generated by 25 adult participants (20 male, 5 female) between the ages of 18 and 30 with a diagnosis of HF ASD to determine what changes to the program were required. The logic model served a dual purpose in this evaluation. First, it provided a visual representation of the services provided. Second, it served as a template for the organization of the program data. Methodological problems, suggested program changes, and future research directions are discussed.

Upptäckten av autism hos barn i tidig ålder kan ha stor betydelse för barnens framtid. Förskolan och förskollärarna är därför av stor betydelse i det stöd som barnen kan komma att behöva. För att förskolelärarna ska kunna ge det rätta stödet måste personalen ha kunskap om hur man arbetar och bemöter barn med autism. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur förskolelärare arbetar med barn med autism som är i behov av särskilt stöd. Frågeställningen tar upp vilka kunskaper förskolelärarna anser behövs kring autism och vilka metoder som används i arbetet med barn med autism. Förskolelärarnas bemötande och arbetssätt är av stor vikt för barnens trygghet samt utveckling. För att besvara studiens syfte och frågeställning har den kvalitativa forskningsmetoden semistrukturerad intervju använts. För att analysera empirin, har Vygotskijs sociokulturella perspektiv använts samt Antonovskys känsla av sammanhang (KASAM). Resultatet visar att största vikten i förskolelärarnas arbete med barn med autism ligger i tydlighet, struktur, lyhördhet och att se till varje barns behov. Det arbetas med att hitta de metoder och verktyg som kan komma att behövas för att göra barnens vardag begriplig, hanterbar och meningsfull. Stöttning, handledning, fortbildning och samverkan lyfts som det som det måste arbetas vidare med i det fortsatta arbetet med barn med autism. Studien belyser även förskolelärarnas uppfattning av sin egen roll i arbetet med barn med autism. / To discover autism at a child's early age can be of great importance for the child's future development. Pre-schools and pre-school teachers are therefore of great importance in the support that the child may need through the coming years. For pre-school teachers to be able to provide the correct support, the staff must have the correct knowledge in how to work and meet the needs of children with autism. The aim of this study is to investigate the way that pre-school teachers work with children with autism. Issues that are brought up in the study involve to see what pre-school teachers consider necessary knowledge concerning children with autism and what methods are used in their daily routines. Pre-school teachers' behaviour and working methods are of great importance for the children's feeling of wellbeing and development. To answer the aim and the issues of the study, the qualitative research method used is semi structured interviews. To analyse the empiricism, Vygotsky's socio-cultural perspective has been used, as well as Antonovsky's sense of coherence (SOC). The results show that pre-school teachers most important work with children with autism are clarity, structure, responsiveness and to cater for each child's individual needs. Work is done to find the methods and tools that may be needed to make the children’s daily life understandable, manageable and meaningful. Support, tutoring, continued education and collaboration are raised as things that must be further worked on in the continued work with children with autism. The study also highlights the pre-school teachers own perception of their role in the work with children with autism.

The aim of this study was to investigate what kind of support a parent with autism spectrum disorder receives from the municipality and further the purpose was investigate which possibilities and difficulties professionals are experience in their work with these parents. To answer this subject empirical material was collected with a qualitative method in form of four semi-structured interviews. Interviews wore made with four people, with three different positions of employment. To analyse the gathered material the method coding and thematization were used. The empirical material was later analysed using current knowledge in the field and Goffman's theory of stigma.The results showed that the professionals often do have a good picture of what type of difficulties the parents have. They all work to support the parents but they have got different possibilities to do so. Further the results show that most parents with autism spectrum disorder can be satisfying in their role as parent as long as they are given the right amount of support in a longer period of time. There is also signs that knowledge about these parent are varied and that there is some confusion about each others task assignments.

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Background: Some children with ASD have comprehension difficulties that affect their ability to follow directives that contain prepositions. Aided input has been known to facilitate improved comprehension skills when spoken language is used with graphic symbols. Aims: This study examined the effects that aided input presented at two levels (20% of aided input and 60% of aided input) has on children with ASD’s following of directives that contain prepositions. Methods: An experimental, within-subjects crossover design was utilised where all participants were exposed to each treatment condition at a different time period. Altogether 21 participants between 5.0 and 11.11 years of age were asked to follow 12 directives using aided input at two conditions. Participants first completed a pre-test task to confirm their noun knowledge, preposition knowledge and matching skills. Participants were described based on the CARS classification and their PPVT-4 scores. The effects of the aided input were measured and compared based on the accuracy of responses. Results: Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data, and multivariate analysis was used to analyse the data. Some children with ASD (n=9) who received a higher level of aided input (60%) were able to respond more accurately than those who received a lower level of aided input (20%). However, some children with ASD (n=4) responded more accurately to the lower level of aided input (20%) than the higher level of aided input (60%). Some children with ASD (n=5) responded in the same manner for both levels of aided input and some children with ASD (n=3) did not respond at all despite the level of aided input. The results showed no statistically significant difference between the higher (60%) and lower (20%) levels of aided input. Conclusion: It was concluded that the 60% aided input level yielded a higher accuracy of responses than the 20% aided input level in some children with ASD. In addition, the results suggest that augmenting spoken language was advantageous in some children with ASD. However, further research is needed to better describe the effects of aided input, using graphic symbols. Future research directions are suggested. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / MA / Unrestricted

Mutations in TSC2 cause the disorder tuberous sclerosis (TSC), which has a high incidence of autism and intellectual disability. TSC2 regulates mRNA translation required for group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptor-dependent synaptic long-term depression (mGluR-LTD), but the identity of mRNAs responsive to mGluR-LTD signaling in the normal and TSC brain is largely unknown. We generated Tsc2+/- mice to model TSC autism and performed ribosome profiling to identify differentially expressed genes following mGluR-LTD in the normal and Tsc2+/- hippocampus. Ribosome profiling reveals that in Tsc2+/-mice, RNA-binding targets of Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP) are increased. In wild-type hippocampus, induction of mGluR-LTD caused rapid changes in the steady state levels of hundreds of mRNAs, many of which are FMRP targets. Moreover, mGluR-LTD signaling failed to promote phosphorylation of eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF2) in Tsc2+/- mice, and chemically mimicking phospho-eEF2 with low cycloheximide enhances mGluR-LTD in the Tsc2+/- brain. These results suggest a molecular basis for bidirectional regulation of synaptic plasticity by TSC2 and FMRP. Furthermore, deficient mGluR-regulated translation elongation contributes to impaired synaptic plasticity in Tsc2+/- mice.

Two of the most under-researched and under-served populations in the field of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), minimally to low-verbal (MLV) individuals and children from low-resource countries, would benefit the most from engaging their parents in research and intervention. First, parents’ unique familiarity with their children could be highly advantageous for language assessment providing a more ecologically valid representation of their children’s abilities. Second, parents’ verbal input, known to predict children’s language, is an important avenue to investigate to guide the development of parent-mediated interventions. Natural language samples, which are used in all three dissertation studies, are ideal for assessing expressive language and for analyzing communicative variations in verbal input. In Study 1, I examined the feasibility of parents (N=33) collecting language samples at home from their MLV children/adolescents with ASD (6;6–19;7years) following a semi-structured elicitation protocol, ELSA-A. I predicted that because of parents’ unique familiarity with their children, they will be better at eliciting speech from them. The results supported this prediction. When with their parents, the MLV children/adolescents produced twice as much speech than when with examiners. Parents collected longer ELSA-As but administered fewer of the recommended activities. Therefore, although parents are not as good at following semi-structured assessment protocols, they elicit speech that is more representative of their children’s everyday abilities. In Studies 2 and 3, I compared the parental input to 37 Bulgarian-speaking (2;7–9;10 years) and 37 English-speaking (1;8–4;9 years) children with ASD matched on expressive language. I compared input in terms of quantity and quality, such as lexical diversity and sentence types (Study-2), and in terms of how parents addressed their children, focusing on personal pronouns, names, and kinship terms (Study-3). Based on past research, I hypothesized that input would differ in quality but not quantity. Indeed, parents’ speech differed in sentence types but not in overall amount. Bulgarian parents asked fewer questions but used more statements. As predicted, they also used significantly more ways to address their children because of the structural characteristics of Bulgarian and potentially different discourse practices. These studies lay the foundation for future cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparisons in ASD. / 2023-08-30T00:00:00Z

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Background: Atypical processing of auditory information in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be observed at a neurological as well as at a behavioural level. The Functional Auditory Performance Indicators (FÁPI) is an observational monitoring tool for pre-school children with hearing loss, but has not yet been described in children with ASD. A reliable instrument to monitor progress of functional auditory performance in young children with ASD may contribute to evidence-based practice during intervention. Method: The aim was to describe the overall performance of five-year-old children with ASD on the FÁPI; to determine the test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability of the tool. The study was exploratory with a descriptive design incorporating repeated measures. Twelve participants with ASD were purposely selected. The mean age was 65 months and all were exposed to English as additional language. Ten of the 12 participants had very little speech as reported by their parents. Pre-recorded sound and speech stimuli were used to elicit responses from participants in their familiar therapy rooms. For test-retest reliability three data collection sessions per participant were conducted over a two-week period. Video recordings were provided in randomised order and analysed by two independent raters. The raters were blind to the order of data sets. Results and conclusion: With an increase in complexity of auditory stimuli a marked decrease in response was observed in the participants. Category seven, the highest level of auditory responses, demonstrating the child's ability to process linguistic information, showed the least responses The test-retest reliability was good, with a single difference in the category 'Awareness and meaning of sound'. Inter-rater reliability indicated a significant difference in two of the seven categories of the FÁPI, 'Awareness and meaning of sound' and 'Sound localisation' with p-values of 0,006 and 0,003. These categories may be the most subjective in the tool. Despite some subjectivity in two of the seven categories the FÁPI was reliable to plot functional auditory performance in the sample group. Since the instrument relies on direct observation with very few demands to participate on a social level, it has potential for use in five-year-old children with ASD. Further research is required to determine the tool's performance using natural sound conditions to monitor the progress of children with ASD longitudinally, against themselves during intervention. / Dissertation (M Communication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / MCommunication Pathology / Unrestricted