Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This study describes three case studies with three children diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, the focus of the dissertation being the sensory processing issues that these children experience, the limited intervention regarding this subject, and the possible emotional connotations that may accompany these difficulties. In the study, three children partook in six Gestalt Play Therapy sessions, where sensory stimulants were utilised as a medium of expression. The data was analysed, with the emphasis on the children's responses to the sensory work and the emotions that could be linked to this experience. A detailed description of the sessions is provided. It was found that these children were able to make use of the Gestalt Play Therapy setting, along with the sensory work, as a means of emotional expression. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of inclusion of pupils with Asperger's syndrome in primary schools. It analyzes the inclusion of selected student with Asperger's syndrome and it's based on a case report, verifies the success of inclusion in a practice. The main aim of this diploma tesis is to describe and analyze the factors, which contribute to the inclusion of pupils with Asperger's syndrome in education in a regular school. The theoretical part of the diploma thesis deals with the definition of Asperger's syndrome and other issuses related to the inclusion. The research analysed the obtained data and answered set research questions.

Asperger Syndrome is a developmental disorder and is characterized by problems in social interaction. These problems make it difficult for the child with Asperger Syndrome to have normal relationships. This particular syndrome has an enormous impact on the development of the child in middle childhood. This study is directed by the premise that the relationship of the child with Asperger Syndrome in middle childhood with members of the peer group can be improved with the help of parents and teachers. Due to this fact, guidelines are provided. The lack of a good relationship with the peer group experienced by the child with Asperger Syndrome was formulated as the research problem. The aim of the study was to advance the relationship between the child with Asperger Syndrome in middle childhood and members of his peer group. In order to achieve this goal, qualitative research was used and semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants. The data obtained was analyzed, verified against existing literature, and used to compile the guidelines. / Asperger Sindroom is 'n ontwikkeiingsteuring en word gekenmerk deur probleme in sosiale interaksie wat normale verhoudings vir die kind met Asperger Sindroom bemoeilik. Hierdie sindroom het 'n enorme impak op die ontwikkeling van die kind in die middelkinderjare. Hierdie studie is gerig deur die uitgangspunt dat die verhouding van die kind met Asperger Sindroom in die middelkinderjare met lede van die portuurgroep verbeter kan word met hulp van ouers en onderwysers. Daarom word riglyne in hierdie studie beskryf. Die gebrek aan gesonde verhoudinge met die portuurgroep wat deur die kind met Asperger Sindroom ervaar word is as navorsingsprobleem geformuleer. Die doel van studie was om die kind met Asperger Sindroom in die middelkinderjare se verhouding met die portuurgroep te bevorder. Ten einde hierdie doel te bereik, is die navorsingsproses deur kwantitatiewe navorsing gerig en semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met deelnemers gevoer. Die data wat bekom is kon deur middel van data-analise en literatuurkontrole aangewend word om riglyne saam te stel. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

Title: Autism and zootherapy In my thesis I deal with the topic of using different kinds of zootherapy for people with various autistic spectrum disorders. The thesis has a goal to find out diverse possibilities which zootherapy can offer to people with autistic spectrum disorders. I focused on exploration what kind of zootherapy is suitable for the specific diagnosis or the other way around, what kind of zootherapy is not a good fit for a concrete diagnosis. In the thesis I also describe a various subtypes of autistic spectrum disorders including Asperger's syndrome. I co-operate with organizations which are engaged in assistance for people with autism spectrum disorders, medical treatment and rehabilitation, zootherapy or professional animal assistance training. Zootherapy is in a constant expansion and suitability of various kinds of this therapeutic method for each autistic spectrum disorder, or mentally and physically disabled is still a matter of contemporary research. Key words: autism, autistic spectrum, zootherapy, Asperger's syndrome, assistance, canistherapy, hippotherapy

Background: Children with Asperger’s Syndrome have deficits in daily social communication and pragmatic skills of varying degrees. A lack of appropriate use of eye contact during communication is a well-described marker of the social-pragmatic deficit that is characteristic of children with Asperger’s Syndrome. This study investigated the effectiveness of a combined therapy approach including social stories, video-modelling and computers to address the impaired eye contact. Method: Five participants, between the ages of 6-12 years, with a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome took part. A multiple single subject ABAB design was applied for the purpose of this study. Results: There was an overall improvement in eye contact across all five participants. Other pragmatic behaviours were also positively affected. Conclusions: A combined type of intervention may be used effectively to improve the non-verbal social skills, specifically eye contact, in children with Asperger’s Syndrome. Clinical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

The aim of the current study was to bring greater clarity to our understanding of the relation between theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF), specifically working memory (WM) and inhibitory control (IC), during typical adolescent development and of the specific nature of impairments in ToM and EF in the cognitive profile of individuals with Asperger's Syndrome and High Functioning Autism (AS/HFA). In total, 80 participants, half typically developing (TD) and half with AS/HFA, participated in the study. TD participants were matched to the participants with AS/HFA on chronological age and gender. Participants were tested across two test sessions, approximately one year apart. For Session 1, the TD participants ranged in age from 10.1 to 17.9 years (M = 14.68, SD = 2.05), and the participants with AS/HFA ranged in age from 10.2 to 17.9 years (M = 14.64, SD = 2.19). I tested the participants on a ToM battery, consisting of an emotional perspective taking measure, the Mind in the Eyes Test, and two cognitive perspective taking measures, the Advanced ToM Vignettes, designed by the researcher, and Happé's Strange Stories. In addition, an EF battery was administered, containing a Reading Span Task, Change Detection Task, and Flanker Task, which assessed verbal WM, visual WM, and IC, respectively. Firstly, I found that older children and adolescents with AS/HFA, especially the girls with AS/HFA, performed worse on ToM measures tapping cognitive perspective taking relative to TD peers. Secondly, I observed that ToM and EF continue to develop during later childhood and adolescence as part of both typical and atypical development. Thirdly, I found that verbal WM and IC were more strongly associated with ToM in the AS/HFA group, indicating that individuals with AS/HFA may require more executive resources for ToM reasoning. Based on my results, I suggest that ToM and EF are still developing during later childhood and adolescence in both TD individuals and individuals with AS/HFA, indicating that the brain regions supporting ToM and EF processing are still plastic and can therefore be targeted for intervention.

The purpose of the present study was to increase our understanding of the relations among embarrassment, Theory of Mind (ToM), and emotion dysregulation in adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome and High Functioning Autism (AS/HFA), topics that have not previously been the foci of research in this population. The research sample consisted of 42 participants, split equally between adolescents with AS/HFA and typically developing (TD) adolescents. Participants with AS/HFA were matched with TD participants for chronological age and gender. Parents of all participants, typically mothers, were also required to complete measures. Participants were presented with vignettes of embarrassing or anger inducing scenarios, following which they were asked to provide ratings indicating the degree to which they would be embarrassed or angry in the protagonists' positions. Next they were asked to justify those ratings. Results indicated that the AS/HFA group experienced greater difficulty than the TD group with measures requiring ToM abilities. This was particularly true of embarrassment/social faux pas situations. In contrast, both groups performed similarly on measures involving anger-inducing situations that require less ToM. The significant difficulty of the AS/HFA group in understanding ToM in embarrassment measures was corroborated by their poor performance on an independent ToM measure. In addition to having significant difficulty in understanding embarrassment, the AS/HFA group was significantly less able than the TD group to recount personally embarrassing experiences. Regarding emotion regulation, participants with AS/HFA were significantly less able than their TD peers to regulate their emotions through reappraisal. Similarly, parents of the AS/HFA participants reported a significantly higher level of emotion dysregulation in their children than did the parents of the TD participants. Further, participants with AS/HFA had a significantly higher utilization frequency of negative strategies than their TD peers when embarrassed, which aligned with parent report. Negative strategies included internal, verbal, and physical self-injurious behaviors, as well as destructive interpersonal behaviors, e.g., falsely accusing, yelling at, or hitting others. These findings emphasize the critical and potentially harmful impact of embarrassing experiences in the daily lives of adolescents with AS/HFA.

Very little is known about the ability of low-functioning children with autism (LFA) to engage in collaborative activities. Children with autism have deficits in other-awareness, joint attention and imitation, skills considered fundamental in social cognition and associated with the ability to collaborate. Research has focused on identifying the impairments of LFA children's social interactional abilities in controlled experimental contexts with adult partners. However, there is a paucity of research investigating if LFA children can participate in collaborative activity with peers, and if so what form the collaborative behaviour takes. Children with autism are highly motivated to interact with technology and technology is evolving fast offering opportunities to apply it to research. Therefore, we used innovative technology and a novel software architecture called Separate Control of Shared Space (SCoSS) on three types of shareable computer technology to aid our investigation of other-awareness and collaboration in LFA children. Paper 1, describes two studies using a dual-control laptop to present picture-sorting tasks to children paired with an adult and peer. SCoSS was more effective at facilitating other-awareness in TD and LFA children than a standard interface. Crucially, LFA children showed no active other-awareness without the supportive interface. Paper 2 presented two different picture-sorting problems for pairs of LFA children to solve. This yielded a model of collaborative problem-solving based on a sequence of three prerequisite capacities. Paper 3 successfully applied the SCoSS framework to picture-sequencing tasks delivered via tablet technology. As in paper 1, pairs of LFA children were only actively aware of a peer using linked dual-tablets, analogous to SCoSS. In summary, the thesis presents evidence that the other-awareness of LFA children can be facilitated by technology to support collaborative problem-solving, providing a more complete profile of their abilities and offers evidence that LFA are sensitive to the type of collaborative partner.

Students, at a partial hospital setting in Western Tennessee with high functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) were being removed from general education classrooms. Researchers have indicated that restrictive settings preclude interaction with neurotypical peers and access to general education experiences. The purpose of this case study was to examine educational inclusion for children with HFASD from the perspective of 2 teachers, 2 therapists, and 2 parents of students at the distirct site. This study was grounded in the principles of social learning theory and theory of mind, executive function, and central coherence processes. The guiding research questions focused on how parents, teachers, and therapists perceived behavior and social skills of the child with HFASD could be supported and developed in inclusive environments and what support was needed to foster inclusion of students with HFASD. Individual interview data were transcribed, open coded, and thematically analyzed. Findings included 3 primary themes: providing support in inclusive groups, helping included students develop relationships with those who are different from themselves, and considering the individual nature of the children. The participants also noted that orientations were needed for peer group, parents, and teachers. Implications for positive social change include providing recommendations to the local district on how to best support inclusion