Support for parents is an important part of treatment programs for children diagnosed with autism. Parent training programs have generally focused on prescribed goals in one-on-one training settings with measures directly related to the goals. Of interest here are the few studies that included collaborative goals, expanded measures, and group training. Benefits of such approaches include the establishment of natural communities of reinforcement and better understanding of the breadth of effects. The purpose of this study was to determine if a group coaching approach would be effective in changing a large range of parent and child skills. This experiment involved group sessions (presentations, discussion, video sharing, and problem solving) and three individual in-vivo coaching sessions. The intervention took place over the course of four weeks. Direct measures included a parent skills checklist and child target behaviors. Results indicated an overall improvement on most measures that maintained or improved at follow-up.

Student Number : 0316820H - MA research report - School of Human and Community Development - Faculty of Humanities / The diagnosis of a serious disability brings many changes to the family of the newly diagnosed member. Each type of disability and each child is unique. The characteristics of autism make raising an autistic child challenging and places great stress on the family. The diagnosis of autism therefore presents the family with a great deal of unique challenges. Coping is necessary for the maintenance of the family and for the quality of life to remain intact for the individual family members. Traditionally the emphasis has been on treating the autistic child. However, recently more attention has been devoted to providing supportive and counselling services to the families of autistic children. Research has shifted its focus towards identifying those resources that enable the family to cope successfully in the face of chronic stress. The present study used the process model of stress and coping (Folkman & Lazarus, 1984) to examine the variables that may alleviate parental stress. These variables include both personal and socio-ecological coping resources, for example, personality variables, parenting skills, previous coping skills, social support and support from formal agencies. The sample selected consisted of 31 parents of autistic children. The parents were recruited through schools that cater specifically to autistic children and the parents were all volunteer participants. The results indicated that intervention and parent education levels are associated with the level of stress experienced by parents of autistic children. These results highlight the need for family-based intervention programmes that are specifically tailored to suit the needs of the family being helped. Without adequate services, it is unlikely that any amount of psychosocial support will be able to prevent family stress.

Thesis advisor: Joan Lucariello / Metarepresentational Theory of Mind was studied in children with autism and Asperger syndrome. This research challenged the prominent view that Theory of Mind (ToM) is a single, integrated cognitive ability, wherein reasoning about the mental states of self and others are considered to be one and the same. The Functional Multilinear Socialization Model (Lucariello, 2004) proposes that ToM differentiates into separate cognitive abilities based on the target of reasoning. Social ToM is defined as reasoning about others' mental states. Intrapersonal ToM is defined reasoning about one's own mental states. The current work aimed to investigate if ToM abilities in children with autism and Asperger syndrome differentiate into Social and Intrapersonal ToM. A second aim was to determine if ToM differentiation patterns for children with autism and Asperger syndrome were different. Participants included 39 children with autism and 34 children with Asperger syndrome ages 8-14. Measures included a language measure, an IQ measure, and a battery of ToM tasks. The ToM tasks assessed Social and Intrapersonal ToM related to distinguishing appearance from reality, representational change, false belief, and perspective-taking across the domains of emotions, beliefs, and perceptions. Theory of Mind differentiated into Social ToM and Intrapersonal ToM for all participants. Both children with autism and Asperger syndrome obtained lower Social ToM scores than Intrapersonal ToM scores. ToM differentiation patterns for children with autism were distinct from children with Asperger syndrome. The difference between Intrapersonal ToM and Social ToM was greater for children with autism than children with Asperger syndrome. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by deficits in social communication and interaction as well as by repetitive patterns of behavior. It is thought to affect 1 in 68 children in the United States, yet researchers do not know what causes it and treatments are primarily focused on alleviating symptoms associated with ASD rather than treating any underlying cause. Various theories have been proposed over the years regarding what causes ASD in the hopes of finding effective treatment options. One of these theories, and the topic of this work, is that the intestinal bacteria play a role in the development of autism. The idea that gut bacteria may play a role in health and disease is one that has been gaining increased interest lately, and this has spread to the field of autism research. Reports of children with ASD suffering from gastrointestinal (GI) issues are widespread, and even the first reports of children with ASD mentioned that some of them experienced GI symptoms or had issues with feeding. While GI symptoms are uncomfortable for any child, they pose special circumstances for those with ASD because these children are likely unable to effectively communicate what they are experiencing. This thesis will first review the prevalence of GI issues in children with ASD as well as discuss studies that have examined if there is a difference between the gut bacteria of children with ASD compared to neurotypical children. As will be shown, many studies have in fact found a significant difference, but these differences vary across studies and a consensus has not been reached. Following this, the link between the gut bacteria and the brain, as well as how this relates to ASD will be discussed. Then, an overview of various treatment studies aimed at targeting the gut bacteria in animal models of ASD as well as in children with ASD will be analyzed. While this field of research is certainly exciting, there is still a lot of work to be done by researchers. For one, the wide range of methodologies used and populations studied introduces variables that could be skewing the results and contributing to the lack of agreement between researchers regarding what bacterial strains might be relevant to ASD. Additionally, just because there is a correlation between certain bacterial strains and ASD does not mean it can be assumed that this is causing the development of ASD in so many children. Nonetheless, the fact that some treatment studies have led to improvements in ASD-related behaviors when targeting the gut bacteria of children indicates that this field of research is worthy of attention and continued support.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are characterised by impairments in social interaction and communication, and restricted interests or repetitive behaviours. Autism traits are theorised to lie on a continuum throughout the general population, with individuals with a clinical diagnosis at one extreme. Those with high levels of autism traits in the general population have been found to display similar characteristics to those with ASD, but to a lesser extent. Differences in visual attention to social and non-social information are thought to contribute to the characteristic behaviours in autism. Whilst social attention may be diminished in ASD, ASD may also be associated with an increase in attention towards objects that are of circumscribed interest. The present thesis investigated visual attention to social and non-social objects in participants with ASD and those from the general population with high and low autism traits, to investigate whether differences in social and non-social visual attention relate to the autism spectrum. Dot probe, peripheral cueing, and eye tracking tasks were used to explore different elements of visual attention, including orienting and disengaging. Overall, social objects captured attention more than non-social objects, revealing the high salience of social information. Participants with high levels of autism traits and a diagnosis of ASD showed reduced social attention in the dot probe and eye tracking tasks, but not the peripheral cueing experiment. Across all experiments, there was no evidence to suggest that the autism spectrum was related to attentional biases towards objects related to circumscribed interests. However, other non-social stimuli appeared to capture attention to a greater extent across the spectrum. The differences in social attention in those with higher autism traits and ASD appeared greater when more stimuli were competing for attention, suggesting reduced social attention may involve interference from non-social stimuli in the visual field. This may indicate that attention is guided more by visual properties of the stimuli than their semantic meaning in the autism spectrum.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Background: Adults with autism experience high rates of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Cognitive models of suggest that anticipatory (AP) and post-event processing (PEP) develop and maintain SAD symptoms. These models underpin gold standard treatment. It is unclear if the cognitive model for SAD applies to an autism population. In addition, there is little understanding of how these symptoms are experienced by adults with autism. Aims: To examine whether the cognitive model of SAD is relevant for adults with autism, as indicated by correlations between SAD and cognitive maintenance factors. The second aim was to explore how adults with autism describe their experience of anxiety in social situations. Design: A mixed method approach was used. Participants (n = 30) completed questionnaires about characteristics of autism, SAD, AP and PEP. Bivariate correlations were used to investigate the relationship between cognitive processes and SAD. Partial correlations were used to explore relationships between SAD and cognitive processes while controlling for autism-specific language difficulties. Participants (n = 8) also completed a semi-structured interview about their social experience, associated anxiety and how any anxiety was managed. Thematic analysis was used to analyse responses. Results: Participants reported high levels of SAD, AP and PEP. There was no significant relationship between SAD and autism symptoms. While AP and autism were significantly positively correlated, exploratory analysis did not indicate a clear relationship between AP, PEP, SAD and autism. Results of thematic analysis indicate anxiety in social situations causes significant impairment, with distressing thoughts before and after social interaction. Conclusions: Results provide qualitative evidence that the Clark and Wells (1995) model of SAD is relevant for adults with autism. Further research is necessary to investigate the relationship between cognitive styles, such as intolerance of uncertainty, with SAD and autism. Adults with autism may benefit from CBT for SAD alongside strategies to structure interactions and the environment.

In a series of three experiments, I investigated the emergence of conditioned seeing, defined as delayed drawing responses, as a potential component of bidirectional naming (BiN) for unfamiliar stimuli, which was defined in this study as the emergence of untaught listener and speaker responses following a naming experience with school-aged participants diagnosed with autism. Following exposure to incidental naming opportunities (stimulus-stimulus pairing), participants demonstrated BiN responses to non-contrived stimuli but did not demonstrate BiN responses to unfamiliar stimuli. In Experiment I, I assessed BiN and delayed drawing responses to unfamiliar stimuli following a naming experience in which attending to auditory stimuli, or names of the symbol, was paired with reinforcing stimuli for 6 participants. Participants were matched for level of verbal behavior and subsequently assigned to an experimental multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) or control group. A multiple probe design with a simultaneous treatment condition was utilized. Participants in the MEI group were exposed to listener, speaker, and drawing (transcription) responses with teaching sets of stimuli, while the control group experienced the school curriculum only, Direct Instruction. Participants in the control group were also exposed to a repeated probe condition during which they experienced a matched number of probe sessions with participants in the MEI-experimental group. Results of the first experiment indicated the presence of BiN with unfamiliar stimuli and conditioned seeing repertoires for participants in the MEI-experimental group following the intervention, however BiN and delayed drawing responses were not present for participants in the control group. Based on the results of Experiment I, I hypothesized that BiN and conditioned seeing behaviors may be evoked as a function of the establishment of a history for conditioned reinforcement for simultaneously observing a visual and auditory stimulus while engaging a drawing response. Two participants were selected for Experiment II as they demonstrated the presence of unidirectional naming for unfamiliar stimuli and delayed drawing responses during probe sessions; participants included in Experiment I did not demonstrate unidirectional naming for unfamiliar stimuli. Utilizing a multiple probe design, Experiment II tested whether the presence of unidirectional naming and drawing responses would evoke multiple stimulus control across speaker responses following exposure to a learn unit procedure. The learn unit procedure implemented in Experiment II required participants to emit an echoic for the name of the target stimuli while simultaneously attending to the visual and auditory stimuli, as well as drawing the stimuli. Results of the study indicated that BiN repertoires were present for unfamiliar stimuli following the intervention. In Experiment III, I again implemented the learn unit procedure but eliminated requirement of the echoic. Participants in Experiment III did not demonstrate unidirectional naming for unfamiliar stimuli or delayed drawing responses before the learn unit intervention. Three of these participants included in Experiment III had been assigned to the control group in Experiment I and a fourth participant was added. Results of Experiment III indicated that the learn unit procedure evoked BiN for unfamiliar stimuli and conditioned seeing for all four participants, indicating the presence of multiple stimulus control for verbal behavior. The source of this learning may be the establishment of conditioned reinforcement for observation of unfamiliar stimuli.

Research shows that raising a child with ASD makes considerable demands on family resources, yet the experiences of neuro typically developing (NTD) siblings of children and young people with ASD remain relatively unexplored. The findings of quantitative research are mixed and inconclusive and little is known about the processes that mediate and moderate the experience of living with a sibling with ASD (Hodapp et al., 2005; Meadan et al., 2010; Petalas et al., 2009). Further descriptive and exploratory research is indicated with participants of different groups to illuminate the multi-factorial nature of the phenomenon and help understand the apparent differences in individual experiences and outcomes. This study uses semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to explore the self-reported experiences and perceptions of eight neuro-typically developing sisters, aged 10-19, who are also the sole NTD siblings in their families. Their parents were also interviewed to provide contextual information and to ascertain their views on the sibling experience. In addition to looking at their family life and sibling relationships, this study also explores school life and peer group relationships. Analysis suggests eight themes of sibling experience: Continuum of Perceived Challenge: Positively and negatively perceived aspects of having a sibling with ASD. Continuum of Acceptance; Coping and Resilience; Continuum of Relatability; Continuum of Positive Identity; Social world: Threats and Friends; Social Carer; Support. NTD sisters adopt a social caring role towards their sibling with ASD, that is different to that fulfilled by parents and transcends home and school boundaries. NTD sisters can be negatively affected by tension between home and school regarding provision for the child with ASD. Reconciling social persona with loyalty to one's sibling, developing a mutually satisfying sibling relationship and findings strengths and positive meaning in one's experiences, are associated with positive adjustment. Mother-daughter relationship and family beliefs and values are highly influential in the psycho-emotional adjustment of NTD sisters. Implications for the practice of applied psychologists and school-based professionals, in response to these findings, are explored and areas for further research are suggested.

Background: Research and professional experience suggest that young people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) often find secondary school more difficult than primary school. Expert advice suggests that Local Authorities should offer a 'continuum of provision' to meet the diverse needs associated with ASC, but the high number of tribunals within England relating to provision for young people with ASC suggests that pupils' needs are not always being catered for appropriately. This project aimed to explore the range of secondary provision available to young people with ASC within one local authority and the decision-making processes used by parents and professionals to determine which provision is most appropriate for which pupils. Participants: Four Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) and four parents of pupils with ASC were recruited from four different types of schools catering for secondary-aged pupils with ASC, along with two officers from the local authority involved with school placement decisions for children with ASC. Methods: This study used an embedded multiple case study design, with each school forming a case within the local authority system. Individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with each participant; these were audio-recorded and transcribed. Documents were gathered relating to school placement decisions and provision. Analysis/Findings: Data were analysed using thematic analysis and content analysis. The findings were presented as thematic maps for each individual school followed by a local authority-wide cross-case synthesis. The findings relating to decision-making processes were analysed and presented separately. Conclusion/Implications: The study extends understanding about the range of educational provision for secondary-aged students with ASC and how placement decisions are made within one local authority. Suggestions are made for further research.