Syftet med studien är att belysa hur ett barn med autism kan erbjudas möjligheter till en optimal lärandemiljö i förskolan. De faktorer som är av stor vikt är betydelsen av bemötande, innehåll och aktiviteter i det pedagogiska arbetet. Ute bland förskolepersonal undersöks det vad det var för kritiska och avgörande aspekter som behövdes för att stödja barnens lärande och utveckling i förskolan. De kritiska och avgörande aspekter som betonas i undersökningen är hur materialet och verksamheten är utformat för att tillgodose barn i behov av stöd. Pedagogerna har framhållit att erfarenheter är av stor vikt att ha med sig eftersom de blir en form av ”pedagogisk nyckel”. Nycklarna leder till en ökad framgång för att kunna uppnå en optimal lärandemiljö i förskolan. Linikko(2009) betonar att nycklarna är det som utgör en särskild betydelse till framgång.  Pedagogerna betonar även att det för en lyckad integrering krävs det att märka varje barns individuella behov och anpassa verksamheten därefter, som både ska utmana och utveckla barnen. Främst belyses det i studien att pedagogerna ska se till det enskilda barnets olika behov och tillgodose det efter bästa förmåga. Kunskap, erfarenheter och förhållningssätt är något som hela tiden utökas och utvecklas, som är en central del för pedagogernas fortsatta arbete i bemötandet av de olika individer och behov som finns i barngruppen.

Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is one of the principal techniques used in Applied Behaviour Analysis programs for children with autism. Although the demand for training individuals to implement DTT is high, published studies on strategies to do so are few. I conducted two experiments to investigate a training package for teaching individuals to implement DTT. In Experiment 1, I used a modified multiple-baseline design to evaluate the training package for teaching five university students to implement DTT to teach three tasks to a confederate role-playing a child with autism. Also, in an AB within-subject design with each participant, I compared two components of the training package, a Self-Instructional Manual and Feedback plus Demonstration. Experiment 2 was a systematic replication of Experiment 1, with 2 teaching assistants, a resource teacher, and 3 parents of children with autism as participants. In both experiments I assessed the generalization (G1) of participants’ ability to implement DTT (while teaching the confederate) to teach tasks not targeted for Feedback plus Demonstration, as well as generalization (G2) of DTT while teaching a child with autism. After an average of approximately 3 hours to master the self-instructional manual, participants’ DTT accuracy in both experiments improved from an average of 34% in Baseline to an average of 61% following the Self-Instructional Manual. Results appeared to be due to the Self-Instructional Manual phase for 9 of the 11 participants. Following an average of 35 minutes of Feedback plus Demonstration of DTT of one task, participants’ DTT accuracy improved to an average of 91% while teaching a confederate. The improvement appeared to be due to the intervention with 10 of the 11 participants. The participants’ DTT accuracy averaged 90% during G1 and 86% during G2. These results demonstrate that this training package has considerable potential for teaching DTT to tutors, educational assistants, and parents of children with autism.

A widely used instructional method for teaching children with autism is Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), and a main component of ABA programming is discrete-trials teaching (DTT). DTT is made up of a series of brief teaching trials, with each trial including an antecedent (e.g., an instruction from the teacher), a response from the child, and an immediate consequence (e.g., a reinforcer provided for a correct response). Using a modified multiple-baseline design across participants, Experiment 1 assessed the effectiveness of a DTT self-instructional package (Fazzio & Martin, 2007) for teaching 4 pairs of newly-hired ABA tutors how to apply 21 components of DTT to teach 3 tasks to a confederate role-playing a child with autism. In Experiment 2, a group of 8 additional tutors were each independently presented with the same procedure. In both experiments, in Phase 1(baseline), tutors attempted to teach the 3 tasks to the confederate. In Phase 2 (manual), tutors mastered a 37-page self-instructional manual and once again attempted to teach the same 3 tasks to the confederate. Phase 3 was a within-subject AB design component. That is, if tutors did not meet a DTT mastery criterion of 80% after studying the manual in Phase 2, then they watched a brief video demonstration of a DTT expert teaching a task to a child role-playing a child with autism (Fazzio, 2007), and then once again attempted to teach the 3 tasks to the confederate. Across both experiments: a) The 16 tutors averaged 4.6 hours to master the self-instructional manual, and showed an average improvement in DTT accuracy of 32.2% from baseline; b) For the 13 tutors who did not meet the mastery criterion after reading the manual, their average DTT performance improved an additional 12% after watching the video; c) 13 of the 16 participants met mastery (3 after the manual and 10 after the manual plus video), and the other 3 tutors were very close to mastery. The results suggest that the training package is a practical, economical and efficient method of instructing newly-hired tutors in ABA programs for children with autism.

Autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder, is assumed to result from early neural tube damage. Individuals with Autism exhibit macroencephaly during childhood. To examine increased neurogenesis as a factor in macroencephaly, the valproic acid (VPA) model of Autism was used to examine how exposure to enrichment affects neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus. To induce the model, pregnant rats received two 100mg/kg VPA injections on days 11, 12, and 13 of gestation. Half the pups in each group were exposed to enrichment from post-natal days 30-60. Neurogenesis was examined by fluorescence microscopy for the proliferation marker bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and neuronal specific nuclear marker (NeuN). Counts of double-labeled cells were done from the dentate gyrus, an area known for adult neurogenesis. Results indicate that neurogenesis is not abnormal in the VPA model and enrichment increases the neurogenesis similarly in both VPA and control animals. This research provides a better understanding of brain plasticity in the VPA model of Autism.

Perspective-taking is the ability to see the world from another person’s viewpoint and is often measured using “false belief” (FB) tasks. Although most typically developing children pass FB tasks between 4 and 5 years of age, approximately 80% of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not. Failure on FB tasks remains a persistent deficit among individuals with ASDs. However, relatively little evidence is available on teaching perspective-taking to children with ASDs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether teaching perspective-taking skill components would produce generalization to untrained task materials and to three perspective-taking tasks with children with autism. Perspective-taking was broken down into 6 behavioural components and each component was taught in a multiple-baseline design within each child. Procedures in the training program included prompt-fading, positive reinforcement, error correction, multiple exemplar training, forward chaining, and narrative response training. Participants consisted of 4 children with a diagnosis of an ASD. The results showed that the training program produced generalization to variations of the training materials for 14 of the 17 components. Generalization to the three perspective-taking tasks, however, was modest. This study contributes to the body of behavioural research on teaching perspective-taking skills to children with ASDs, and provides procedures for teaching component skills of perspective-taking.

The present study investigates the intersection of working memory and emotion recognition in young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and neurotypical controls. The executive functioning theory of autism grounds key impairments within the cognitive realm, whereas social-cognitive theories view social functioning impairments as primary. Executive functioning theory of ASD has been criticized because executive functioning is too broad and is composed of separable, component skills. In the current study, the focus is narrowed to one of those components, working memory. It has been suggested that executive functioning may play a role in effective social interactions. Emotion recognition is an important aspect of social reciprocity, which is impaired in ASD. The current study investigates this hypothesis by combining working memory and emotion recognition into a single task, the n-back, as a model of social interaction and comparing performance between adults with ASD and controls. A validates set of facial expression stimuli (NimStim) was modified to remove all extraneous detail, and type of emotion was tightly controlled across 1-, 2-, and 3-back conditions. Results include significantly lower accuracy in each of the working memory load conditions in the ASD group compared to the control group, as well as in a baseline, maintenance memory task. The control group's reaction time increased as working memory load increased, whereas the ASD group's reaction time did not significantly vary by n-back level. The pattern of results suggests that the limit for n-back with emotional expressions is 2-back, due to near chance level performance in both groups for 3-back, as well as definitive problems in short term memory for facial expressions of emotion in high-functioning individuals with ASD, in contrast to previous findings of near perfect short term memory for facial expressions of emotion in controls.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication as well as ritualistic repetitive behaviors. Epidemiological studies suggest that maternal immune activation (MIA) during pregnancy may be a risk factor for ASD. To study MIA in a laboratory setting, we injected mouse dams (C57BL/6) with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (Poly IC) during mid-gestation to mimic a bacterial or viral infection, respectively. We also performed the same Poly IC treatment on a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome (i.e. Fmr1 knockout), a genetic disease with high incidences of ASD. We found modest female-specific impairments in social interaction and striking male-specific increases in repetitive behavior in adult MIA offspring. Moreover, prenatal Poly IC treatment caused genotype-specific deficits in sociability in addition to reduced body weight and rearing in Fmr1 knockout mice only. Therefore, ASD-related behaviors caused by MIA may be sex, treatment, and/or genotype-dependent.

For individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder or ‘ASD’ the ability to accurately process and interpret auditory information is often difficult. Here we review behavioural, neurophysiological and neuroimaging literature pertaining to the field of auditory processing in ASD, with the aim of providing a comprehensive account of auditory processing in this population and thus an effective tool to aid further research. Literature was sourced from peer-reviewed journals published over the last two decades which best represent research conducted in these areas. Findings show substantial evidence for atypical processing of auditory information in ASD. Behavioural studies provide support for widespread abnormalities ranging from atypical perception of various low-level perceptual features (i.e. pitch) to processing of more complex auditory information such as prosody. Magnetic resonance imaging studies have identified functional abnormalities to a range of auditory stimuli in ASD while structural abnormalities have been observed in several brain regions implicated in auditory processing. Electrophysiological research has found evidence for atypical auditory processing within the cortex and brainstem of individuals with ASD in a variety of experimental paradigms. Trends across studies suggest auditory processing impairments in ASD are more likely to present during processing of complex auditory information and are more severe for speech than for non-speech stimuli. Moreover, atypical auditory processing in ASD may not always be viewed as an impairment and in some cases may reflect the use of a compensatory strategy to make sense of auditory information. To this end, there is an urgent need for further research aimed at understanding the behavioural and neural basis of auditory processing in ASD.

Food selectivity is a common problem in many children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). While research into this area is beginning to develop, there are currently few studies investigating the use of parent-implemented interventions within this population. The present study aimed to teach parents to implement multi-component behavioural interventions at home to ameliorate the food selectivity of their children. The study also aimed to show that these interventions could increase children’s preference for previously nonpreferred foods. Five children and their parents participated. The interventions delivered to the children were tailored to meet their needs and to fit within the context of their families. Each of these interventions was composed of antecedent, positive reinforcement and escape extinction strategies. Parents recorded their children’s food acceptance and disruptive behaviours during each intervention session. In addition, preference assessments were conducted in order to track changes in the children’s preferences for the target foods. The results showed that all of the parents were able to introduce at least one new food to their children’s diets during the intervention. Further, four of the five children showed an improvement in their preference for the targeted foods. These results were maintained at follow-up, although two of the children had only maintained some of the foods that had been introduced. All of the parents reported that their children consumed more foods at follow-up than they had during baseline and indicated that they thought the interventions had been effective. These results indicate that parents are able to implement multi-component behavioural interventions to increase the range of foods in their children’s diets and improve their children’s preference for these foods.

The incidence of autism continues to rise with no cure or understanding of the cause of the disorder. Approximately one in 150 children will be diagnosed with an (ASD) Autism Spectrum Disorder although recent prevalence data suggest one in 91. The objective of the study is to assess medicinal intake regarding prescription and nonprescription medications of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and its affect on their nutritional status compared to age, and sex matched healthy children. The study included families of children with autism in which they completed questionnaires and 24‐hour recalls. There were 26 children used within the questionnaire and 13 were utilized in the 24‐hour recall, ranging in age from 2‐11. Results demonstrated that children with autism were not deficient in relation to vital nutrients needed for neurological function. Prescription and nonprescription medications also did not pose many side effects; however, there was slight weight gain in their utilization. Information from the assessments of the child’s nutritional needs and drug nutrient interaction will allow parents, paraprofessionals and healthcare professionals to provide education to families.