The present study sought to demonstrate research based evidence that the more time spent in ABA therapy resulted in a an increase in IQ scores for participants. The research also sought to demonstrate that the PEAK Relational Training System can be effective as a treatment package. Previous research has evaluated the direct training protocol of the PEAK Relational Training System. The present study looked to evaluate the generalizing training protocols within the PEAK System, as well as support these previous findings. In Experiment 1 a quasi-experimental design was implemented and both control and treat-ment groups were exposed to testing measures. Results demonstrated greater gains made by the treatment group. Experiment 2 utilized a multiple baseline design across partici-pant and three designated generalized training programs from the PEAK System. Results showed a positive correlation between the PEAK Relational Training System and the par-ticipant’s IQ scores.

Various empirical investigations have focused on training children with autism as well as typically developing children to be compliant with oral assessments. But few studies have evaluated strategies on how to train the oral care providers to be able to work with children with autism for increased compliance. Using a multiple baseline design, the current investigation evaluated behavioral skills training procedures to teach three oral care providers basic behavior analytic skills, such as differential reinforcement, positive and negative reinforcement, and escape extinction, to implement while performing oral care procedures on children with autism. The procedures of the behavioral skills training included instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. This training resulted in an improvement from baseline performances for each participant in steps completed correctly, as well as various decreased levels of problem behavior displayed by the children. These results suggest that behavioral skills training is an effective way of teaching oral care providers basic behavior analytic techniques to use while working with children with autism.

Research surrounding psychological flexibility has begun to develop in recent decades. It has proven to be an important construct within the examination of third wave behavioral therapies and Relational Frame Theory. Though defined within the context of relational responding, there is little research directly assessing the relationship of psychological flexibility to measures of equivalence. The current study compared the scores of the PEAK Equivalence Pre-Assessment (to measure equivalence) and the scores from the AFQ-Y (to measure psychological inflexibility) to examine this relationship in school-aged children with ASD. The relationship between the total scores of the PEAK assessment and the scores of the AFQ-Y was examined by using a Pearson correlation. Results showed a statistically significant negative correlation (r = -.63, p<.05) between these measures. A Pearson correlation was then also used to examine the correlations among the PEAK subtests. As anticipated, the results showed a significant positive correlation among each of the components of equivalence providing additional information regarding the relationship among measured components of equivalence. These findings support recent research, and can help guide future educational and therapeutic interventions. Keywords: Autism (ASD), equivalence, PEAK, psychological flexibility

The present investigation examined the use of choice in task sequence to increase on-task behavior for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a school setting. Three conditions were utilized to conduct a parametric analysis of choice in task sequence. Participants experienced the three conditions: Teacher Choice of Sequence, Student Choice of Sequence, and Partial Student Choice of Sequence in a multielement design. Conditions were paired with condition-correlated stimuli and presented to participants in a randomized order. Sessions were integrated into the participants’ school day. Preference was assessed upon concluding the choice evaluation. Results indicated that choice in task sequence, across all three conditions, does not increase on-task behavior for children with ASD. However, all participants demonstrated a preference for choice of task sequence when provided the opportunity to choose a condition. Practical applications based on these findings are discussed. Limitations and future research are identified in the discussion.

The current study evaluated the methods outlined in the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System Transformation Module (PEAK-T). Researches evaluated the validity and efficacy of the PEAK-T assessment at identifying skill deficits as well as its ability to identify appropriate intervention to target those deficits. Additionally, the current study evaluated the efficacy and validity of the methods as outline by the PEAK-T curriculum at teaching target skills. The PEAK-T assessment was conducted to identify three programs for each of the participants. Baseline probes of three boys with autism suggested that programs identified by the PEAK-T assessment were not in their repertories prior to treatment. Following treatment each of the participants was able to achieve mastery of all three programs this included directly trained as well as derived relations. The PEAK-T assessment was run following the intervention, all participants exhibited an increase in total PEAK-T score.

Although Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are often characterized by deficits in social domains, increasing evidence suggests that individuals with ASD have perceptual biases associated with a shift from reliance on global to local visual cues. This dissertation provides evidence for a two-factor structure to the systemizing trait of autism, as measured by the Systemizing Quotient-Revised (SQ-R), which differentially predicts this perceptual shift in the general population. Specifically, an Analytical Tendencies factor within the SQ-R was found to predict attenuated susceptibility to the global contextual cues that drive the rod-and-frame illusion (RFI), while an Insistence on Sameness factor was associated with heightened sensitivity to the local cues that drive the RFI. Furthermore, in a clinical sample of individuals with ASD, both Analytical Tendencies and Insistence on Sameness factors were found to be hyper-expressed, suggesting that perceptual biases in ASD populations can be explained, in part, by heightened systemizing tendencies. In addition, the Analytical Tendencies factor was also found to predict enhanced performance on the Embedded Figures Task, a visual search task commonly used to assess perceptual abilities in ASD. Furthermore, enhanced performance on this task was associated with reduced susceptibility to the global contextual effects of the RFI, suggesting that superior search performance in individuals with ASD may be due, in part, to attenuated interference from the contextual gestalt of the search array. Importantly, the relationship between heightened systemizing tendencies and attenuated use of global contextual cues was found to reflect a disinclination among high systemizers to use such cues and not a general impairment in processing such cues. Specifically, when contextual cues that benefit performance are available, high systemizers can use these cues to the same extent as low systemizers. Together, these findings implicate a two-factor structure to the SQ-R that is differentially predictive of distinct types of visual processing associated with ASD.

Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med ökad kunskap om vilka lässvårigheter pedagogerfinner hos elever med autismdiagnos i särskilda undervisningsgrupper för barn med autismsamt vilka metoder de använder för att utveckla elevernas läsförmåga eller kompensera förderas lässvårigheter. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats i form av semistrukturerade intervjuermed elva pedagoger som arbetar i särskilda undervisningsgrupper för barn med autism frånårskurs ett till nio. Resultatet av studien visar att den mest framträdande lässvårigheten hosdenna elevgrupp är att läsa mellan raderna. Pedagogerna upplever att eleverna har svårighetermed att göra inferenser såväl när de ska koppla samman information från olika delar av textensom när de ska koppla kunskap och egna erfarenheter till texten. Svårigheter med avkodningoch språkförståelse lyfts i mindre utsträckning av pedagogerna men motivation framträder ideras svar som en viktig faktor för att eleverna ska ägna sig åt läsning. Pedagogerna användersig av modellering för att utveckla elevernas läsning. De tränar eleverna i att vara aktivaläsare och ställa frågor till texten och de berättar att de märker att elevernas läsförståelseförbättras av träningen. Bilder är ett framträdande verktyg som pedagogerna använder sig avsom stöd för elevernas läsning. De upplever att det är verksamt för att ge eleverna enförförståelse och för att skapa intresse för texten. Bildstöd används dessutom i form avtankekartor eller listor för att skapa struktur åt eleverna. Teorin om The Simple View ofReading förefaller inte vara tillräcklig för att förklara lässvårigheter hos elever med autismutan behöver utvidgas eller utvecklas.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-12-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:37:53Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 marfinati_ac_me_assis.pdf: 778742 bytes, checksum: 047bfbfa5700a2ea6d0062034a3a0595 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Apesar de as ideias relativas à psicanálise de crianças já circularem entre os profissionais brasileiros, desde a década de 1930, é só a partir da década de 1990 que as publicações de analistas brasileiros dedicados ao tema do autismo ganham representatividade, resultando em um elevado número de trabalhos científicos em periódicos nacionais, decorrentes em grande parte de práticas institucionais. Desse modo, a presente pesquisa buscou compreender, valendo-se de um vértice histórico, o surgimento e o desenvolvimento das práticas institucionais psicanalíticas ligadas ao atendimento de crianças autistas, no Brasil, no período de 1990 a 2010. Com o intuito de alcançarmos os objetivos propostos, fizemos uso de duas fontes históricas, a saber: as fontes documentais e as fontes orais. As fontes documentais foram empregadas na primeira etapa deste trabalho e, por meio delas, pudemos identificar quais são as práticas psicanalíticas, onde se localizam e quais as características das mesmas, bem como verificar quais os profissionais que mais publicaram na área, os quais participaram da segunda etapa da pesquisa. A escolha por utilizar as fontes orais reside no fato de que, no período que nos propomos estudar, a maioria dos profissionais responsáveis pelo desenvolvimento dessas práticas clínicas se encontra em plena atividade profissional. Dessa maneira, por meio da análise das entrevistas, discorremos acerca de questões importantes para compreensão das práticas psicanalíticas desenvolvidas em território nacional, quais sejam: mudanças em relação à forma pela qual o autismo tem sido compreendido, ao longo dos anos; contribuições da psicanálise para o entendimento e tratamento do autismo; diagnóstico diferencial entre autismo e psicose; pluralidade de entendimentos sobre a etiologia do autismo; práticas... / Despite the ideas concerning psychoanalysis of children already circulate among Brazilian professionals since the 1930s, it is only from the 1990s that publications of Brazilian analysts dedicated to the topic of autism gain representation, resulting in a large number of scientific papers in national journals, stemming largely from institutional practices. Therefore the present study aimed to understand, using a historical view, the emergence and development of institutional psychoanalytical practices dedicated to the care of autistic children in Brazil, from 1990 to 2010. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, we made use of two historical sources, namely: the documentary sources and oral sources. The documentary sources were used in the first stage of this paper, and, through it, we could identify what are the psychoanalytical practices, where they are located and what are their characteristics, as well as identify which professionals published most in the area, who participated in the second stage of the research. The choice to use oral sources lies in the fact that, during the period in which we propose ourselves to study, most of the professionals responsible for the development of these clinical practices is in full professional activity. Thereby, through the analysis of the interviews, we discuss about important issues to the understanding of psychoanalytical practices developed in the country, namely: changes towards the way autism has been understood over the years; contributions of psychoanalysis to the understanding and treatment of autism; differential diagnosis between autism and psychosis; plurality of understandings about the etiology of autism; institutional psychoanalytical practices oriented to the treatment and schooling of autistic children; innovations brought by Brazilian authors and the difficulties that... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

A study was carried out to examine the interaction between music and language in learning and recall in children with autism spectrum condition (ASC). The research comprised initial interviews (N=12), a questionnaire (N=320), and a comparative intervention with children with ASC (N=24), and a comparison group of neurotypical individuals (N=32). Results from the questionnaire showed that, in the view of parents and teachers, there was a high prevalence of singing amongst children with ASC, especially in those with language delay. Furthermore, in the view of parents and teachers, music was more likely to enhance relationships for children with some language delay (as opposed to children who were non-verbal and children with age- appropriate speech). In the practical phase of the study, where children were asked to learn and subsequently recall both spoken and sung material, it was found that singing as opposed to speaking could enhance verbal recall for some children with ASC - particularly those with some language delay. With regard to the effects of language on melodic recall, for children with the lowest levels of musical development, the presence of language had a positive effect, but as the level of children’s musical development increased, the impact of language on melodic recall diminished. With regard to the comparison group, for children at Key Stage 1 (5-7 year olds), music had a positive effect on verbal recall in the long term, but for children at Key Stage 2 (8 -11 year olds), music had a negative effect, although this may have been due to external factors.

A number of studies have reported that many children with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) experience unusual responses to sensory stimuli, however it is argued that there is a lack of conceptual understanding regarding this phenomenon and an underdeveloped evidence base regarding appropriate support for these responses within an educational context. Despite this, practitioners from a range of professions are called upon to offer consultation, advice and intervention. Therefore, the present study sought to qualitatively explore the experiences of these professionals with regards to the sensory needs of children with ASC within an educational setting. An exploratory single-embedded case study design was adopted. Two Specialist Teachers, two Educational Psychologists (specialists in ASC) and two Occupational Therapists were recruited opportunistically and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant, resulting in six interviews. Each interview was audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis and the findings presented as three thematic maps according to research question. Six organising themes were identified for Research Question 1: conceptualisations, assessment, defining unusual sensory responses, pragmatism, impact at school and professionals’ roles. Three organising themes arose from the data for Research Question 2: interventions, differences between special and mainstream, and efficacy. The data from the interviews yielded two organising themes for Research Question 3: barriers and facilitators. The study extends conceptual understanding by presenting a proposed Interactive Factors Framework (IFF) for unusual sensory responses in children with ASC. A number of recommendations for supporting children with ASC and unusual sensory responses within educational settings are also proposed. Implications for professionals supporting the sensory needs of children with ASC are discussed with reference to the pragmatic issues involved in translating a developing evidence base into practice.