Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is pervasive neurodevelopment disorder characterized by a broad range of social abnormalities and deficit in motor skills, many times referred to as clumsiness. These abnormal social characteristics result in a restricted repertoire of activity and interests that also may affect the motor learning process. Therefore, fewer opportunities to practice motor skills can lead to a delay in achieving motor proficiency. It is well known that physical activity and motor proficiency are positively correlated and the amount of time spent in a physical activity is directly related to the level of expertise in neurotypical children. Hence, the specific aim of this study is to quantify the amount of physical activity in children with ASD and compare this value to that of non-diagnosed siblings (ASD siblings) and neurotypical controls (NT), as well as to compare the amount of physical activity between neurotypical controls and ASD siblings. In this study, it was hypothesized that: 1) children with ASD would have lower scores than their non-diagnosed sibling and also than the NT controls in the amount of physical activity; 2) non-diagnosed siblings and neurotypical children would not be different in the amount of physical activity; 3) children with ASD's general score on the motor skills assessments would be lower than the non-diagnosed siblings and lower than NT controls; 4) There would not be a difference in the general score on motor skills assessments between non-diagnosed siblings and neurotypical children and 5) the motor assessments scores would be positively correlated (p < 0.05) to the amount of physical activity. There were differences between ASD and NT groups regarding to the amount of physical activity and also regarding to the motor proficiency scores. Although those differences were not statistically significant, they definitely are clinically relevant as showed that the children on the autism spectrum presented a clear motor delay. Likewise, the correlation between amount of physical activity and motor proficiency was showed not to be significant. These results can be explained by the small sample size. Further studies with a larger sample size would be crucial to verify these hypotheses proposed in the present study. / text

The current research project examines the performance of a group of high functioning young adult males with autism spectrum disorders on standardized measures of neurocognitive functioning to determine whether distinct cognitive profiles of strengths and weaknesses emerge. Neuropsychological test data across various domains: general cognitive ability, visuospatial processing, verbal learning and memory, visual learning and memory, working memory, reasoning, cognitive flexibility, attention, receptive language, expressive language, social and emotional processing, and fine motor skills was examined. Data were analyzed using cluster analysis to assess for the presence and nature of unique clusters/subgroups based on neuropsychological test performance. Three unique clusters were derived from the analyses. This study highlights the well-documented heterogeneity across the spectrum of autism and suggests a method for parsing a heterogeneous sample of ASD subjects into smaller and more meaningful homogeneous groups using standardized neuropsychological assessments. / text

Introduction: Children with a learning disability (LD) and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are known to suffer from significantly more sleep problems, anxiety and challenging behaviour (CB) than typically developing children, yet little is known about the relationships between these factors in the child LD/ASD population. Aims and Hypotheses: The aim of the current study was to examine the relationships between sleep problems, anxiety and CB in children with LD and/or ASD. It was hypothesised that there would be differences between levels of sleep problems, anxiety and CB in children with LD alone, LD and ASD, and ASD alone. It was further hypothesised that there would be significant positive correlations between the three factors and that sleep problems and anxiety would predict a significant amount of the variance in levels of CB. Method: Postal questionnaires were returned by parents of one hundred and sixty seven parents of children with LD and/or ASD. Questionnaires consisted of parental report measures of sleep problems, anxiety and CB, in addition to general demographic variables. Results and Discussion: Statistical analysis revealed no difference between groups (LD, LD+ASD, ASD) in relation to sleep problems, however, some differences were found between the groups in relation to anxiety and CB. Correlational analysis revealed significant positive associations between the three factors. A hierarchical multiple regression showed that medication, sleep problems and anxiety accounted for 42% of the variance in CB, with a large effect size. These findings suggest that the relationships between sleep, anxiety and CB found in the TD child and adult LD/ASD populations are also evident in the child LD/ASD population and that these relationships should be considered during clinical practice, particularly in the case of CB interventions where sleep problems and/or anxiety are also present.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The policy for Inclusive Education in South Africa, the White Paper 6, states that all children can learn with support. Research suggests that there is a lack of access to education and resources for children with ASD living in low socio-economic communities. Education support services are under-resourced and unable to deal with the enormous number of learners with special needs. Globally, there is an appalling lack of dedicated school and learning facilities for children affected by autism. In special needs schools, children with autism are placed in classes with children with other disabilities. This is often as a result of either little understanding of their learning needs or resource constraints such as no schools close by to accommodate autistic learners.

Thesis advisor: Ruth McRoy / Thesis advisor: Linnie Green Wright / Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence rates have risen dramatically over the past decade and boys are five times more likely to be diagnosed than girls. Prior research on children with ASD includes samples that are overwhelmingly male, but does indicate that girls with high-functioning ASD may have distinct needs and profiles. This study begins to address this gap in the research through a qualitative study of eleven families with an adolescent daughter with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. The family is the primary unit of analysis and the study focuses on the following: (a) families' experience with the diagnostic process (b) families' management of their daughter's adjustment to adolescence, and(c) the impact of the ASD on family well-being. Family stress theory was the conceptual framework used to guide the study. Using grounded theory with a supplemental quantitative data strand, the study involved forty in-depth semi-structured interviews. Parents completed the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents (SIPA) and a demographic questionnaire. Findings indicate that parenting a daughter with ASD could be categorized as a chronic stressor. The majority of parents endorsed clinically significant levels of stress on the SIPA. The mean age of ASD diagnosis was 8.7 years, well above the most recent (2014) Centers for Disease Control findings (6.3 years). Delayed and misdiagnosis for girls with ASD resulted in significant stress for families and reduced access to appropriate intervention. A shift in perception of the ASD from an acute to a chronic stressor allowed families to move toward acceptance and adaptation. The study findings support the need for a family centered model of assessment and intervention. Social workers in schools and in early intervention programs can play a critical role in providing education and support for families. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

The transition to secondary school is important for all students. For students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who have difficulty with changes in routine (WHO, 1992), it is especially important that the transition is carefully managed. This report aims to contribute to the understanding of this process. The first study involved a systematic investigation and critique of literature on this transition with a specific focus on students with ASD. The second study comprised the development, implementation and evaluation of a transition programme for nine students with ASD. All were in their final year at mainstream primary schools in a Scottish city. The final study followed up the progress of eight of these students during their first year at secondary school. The empirical studies utilised a range of process and outcomes measures, including questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and discussion activities. There was a paucity of scholarly literature on the transition of students with ASD indicating the need for further research. The programme received positive student and parent evaluations and there was some evidence of impact using outcome measures. Feelings of anxiety mixed with excitement were associated with the transition. Students reported higher than normal anxiety levels before and after transfer, although there was evidence of a slight reduction over this period. Students and parents provided a positive evaluation of the students’ social functioning in secondary school, in contrast to the mixed perspective of secondary school staff. Findings are discussed with reference to the literature. Limitations of the present research are considered. Finally, implications for practice and possible areas for future research are proposed.

Previous studies have reported altered glutamate (Glu) concentrations in the blood and brain of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to neurotypical controls (NC), but the direction (increased or decreased) of metabolite differences is still unclear. Moreover, the relationship between Glu and both brain function and clinical manifestations of the disorder require further investigation. Within this study, we investigated metabolite concentrations within the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), a brain region functionally associated with inhibitory executive control tasks and also part of the salience network. There were 19 participants with ASD and 20 NCs between the ages of 23 and 58 years who participated in this study. A study clinician administered the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) to individuals with ASD to further confirm their diagnosis. In addition, all participants in this study completed assessments of general intelligence and attention, which included an inhibitory executive control task. Researchers also acquired in vivo single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) in the dACC to quantify both Glu and combined Glu and glutamine (Glx) concentrations. We hypothesised that these metabolite concentrations would be altered (decreased or increased) in adult participants with ASD compared to NCs and would correlate with inhibitory performance and ASD severity in individuals with ASD. Participants also underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan to assess the relationship between functional connectivity and Glu and Glx concentrations. We also hypothesised that there would be an altered relationship between local Glu and Glx concentrations and seed-based functional connectivity in adults with ASD compared to NCs. There were no significant group differences in Glu or Glx concentrations between individuals with ASD and NCs. Furthermore, we did not find any relationship between metabolite concentrations and either inhibitory performance or clinical symptoms of the disorder. This evidence suggests that increased or decreased Glu and Glx concentrations were not a core marker of altered brain function in the dACC in this group of adult individuals with ASD. When individuals taking psychotropic medications were excluded from the analysis, there was a significant interaction between age and group for Glx concentrations. This evidence weakly suggests disease-specific variations in Glx concentrations over the lifespan of an individual with ASD. Nevertheless, this result did not survive correction for multiple comparisons and requires further replication. In our final experiment, we reported that Glu concentrations were negatively correlated with right and left dACC seed-based resting-state functional connectivity to the left medial temporal lobe only in individuals with ASD. We also reported an interaction between groups in the association between Glx concentrations and both left and right dACC functional connectivity to other salience network regions including the insular cortex. This evidence suggests that local Glu and Glx concentrations were incongruent with long-distance functional connectivity in individuals with ASD. This analysis was largely exploratory, but further investigation and replication of these relationships may further explain the pathophysiology of the disorder as well as provide a useful marker for therapeutic intervention.

Abstraction is an inductive process through which specific details become united by a general concept. Abstraction incorporates two sub-skills: concept identification which involves recognizing patterns created by an external agent, and concept formation which is more difficult, requiring independent creation of a schema to organize information. Impairments in concept identification and formation are theorized to underlie a variety of practical difficulties of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; e.g., failure to generalize learning in one context to a similar, but new context). However, past research has yielded mixed results, with some finding significant impairment and others finding intact concept identification and formation. Contradictory findings may be due to differences in assessment methodology. We assessed concept identification and formation abilities using the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Sorting task. We hypothesized that (1) we would replicate previous findings of intact concept identification but impaired concept formation in individuals with ASD (Minshew et al., 2002); (2) impairments in concept formation would remain even after accounting for differences in IQ, working memory ability, and test anxiety; and (3) worse impairments would be associated with more severe autism symptoms. The sample consisted of 27 high-functioning (IQ > 80) adolescents with ASD and 27 age- (M 14.8 years) and IQ- (M 102.8) matched typically-developing controls. One-way ANOVAs explored group differences on task performance variables. As hypothesized, our sample demonstrated intact concept identification abilities, F(1, 52) = 2.90, p = 0.095, but impaired concept formation abilities, F(1, 52) = 6.53, p = 0.01. A linear regression analysis revealed that working memory ability and test anxiety were not significant predictors of concept formation abilities. After accounting for IQ in a regression model, our hypothesis was partly borne out in that individuals with ASD continued to show impairment in concept formation, yet at trend-level significance (p = 0.058). Two-tailed Pearson correlations revealed no significant correlations between a measure of autism symptomatology and concept formation or concept identification ability. Our findings add to a growing body of research showing a dissociation between concept identification and concept formation abilities in individuals with ASD. This dissociation existing at trend-level significance after statistically controlling for IQ suggests that it may exist across levels of cognitive functioning in ASD. Our finding that concept formation ability was not significantly associated with a measure autism symptomatology somewhat weakens the theoretical significance of concept formation deficits in ASD.

Prior research has suggested that any cortical volume (CV) abnormalities in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) need to be further explored by examination of the two determinants of CV, that being cortical thickness (CT) and pial surface area (PSA; Murphy, Beecham, Craig, & Ecker, 2011). The current study suggests that the two determinants of CV should be explored even in the presence of null CV findings, if structure-function analyses are significant (i.e., bi-lateral precentral gyrus and neuropsychological motor test) as demonstrated in the current sample (see Duffield et al., 2013). The only significant anatomic finding was reduced CT in the left frontal motor regions (primarily left precentral gyrus), which also corresponded to the only significant relationship between a motor variable (i.e., grooved pegboard test) and motor region-of-interest (ROI) where ASD had a stronger relationship than typically developing controls (TDC; ASD > TDC). Left hemisphere biased CT group differences has been shown to have the highest classification accuracy (i.e., designation of ASD versus TDC) of morphological parameters (Ecker et al., 2010), yet PSA has been shown to have far greater modulation of CV abnormalities. This is particularly true for subthreshold PSA (Ecker et al., 2013). These prior findings are not only consistent with the current motor ROI findings, but also provide an explanatory framework for the functional neuroanatomy of a generally worse left handed performance (i.e., non-dominant hand) for ASD compared to controls in a generally right handed dominant sample (no significant group differences on handedness). The only significant motor ROI finding was in the left hemisphere (i.e., ipsilateral to worse left handed performance), but subthreshold PSA findings in the right precentral were found and likely provide explanatory power of motor performances in the aggregate, despite a lack of significant statistical differences in a specific motor ROI individually.

The causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not all known, but it is suspected that the serotonin transporter (SERT) plays an important role for some subjects with ASD. Mutations in the SLC6A4 gene, that encodes SERT, including the Ala56 mutation (Gly56Ala), have been found in some autism patients. This mutation makes the transporter more active and reduces the probability of serotonergic neurotransmission in the brain, which is linked to behavioral changes that are associated with core domain deficits of ASD 1. Depression also has been linked to decreases in the availability of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) in the central nervous system (CNS), and is associated with reduced hippocampal neurogenesis. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), drugs used to block SERTs, are used to treat depression and/or anxiety by inhibiting SERT to increase synaptic 5-HT levels. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection