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A lack of social competence is one of the primary characteristics of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This pervasive lack of social competence can cause individuals with ASD to struggle to develop meaningful social relationships with peers and adults across their lifetime. Thus, learning appropriate socialization skills is an essential component in the education of this population. The purpose of the current study was to provide an initial investigation into the effectiveness of a comprehensive social skills training intervention on the social competence of young children with ASD using direct recording methods. Eight students with ASD between the ages of 5 and 7 years, with current placements in self-contained kindergarten or first grade classrooms in the public school setting participated in a 12 week intervention. The intervention implemented was “The Incredible Flexible You: A Social Thinking Curriculum for Preschool and Early Elementary Years” (Hendrix, Palmer, Tarshis, & Winner, 2013), a packaged, multi-sensory social skills training program developed to promote the social competence of young children with ASD. The intervention was presented daily for approximately 20 minutes in a small group school setting. Using a concurrent multiple baseline across participants single-case research design, the research study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program upon the participant’s positive social initiations, positive social responses, and active engagement during recess. Observational data were collected utilizing both a frequency behavior count system and a timed interval behavioral observation system. Additionally, data were collected via the Autism Social Skills Profile (ASSP; Bellini & Hopf, 2007) through pre- and post-intervention parent forms to determine the effects of the program on the overall social functioning of the participants. Procedural fidelity was collected throughout the research, and social validity was also assessed utilizing the Behavior Intervention Rating Profile (BIRP, Von Brock & Elliott, 1987). Overall, participants made slight gains in social competency, yet the data did not support a functional relation between the intervention and dependent variables. Individual participant progress was discussed in detail. Limitations of the study and implications for practice and future research in social competency for young children with ASD were further discussed.

The purpose of this project is to critically analyze and review parent training interventions published between the years 2000 to 2013 focused on enhancing social and communicative behaviors in young children between 3 to 10 years old with autism spectrum disorder. All studies involved a form of parent training in combination with an intervention type such as pivotal response training, milieu approach and naturalistic approaches. Overall, each study yielded positive outcomes for children with ASD, but data collection strategies, target goals, and outcome measures were variable. This review included an in-depth analysis of 16 studies of parent intervention programs evaluated based on their goals, methodology, and effectiveness of parent training on the children with ASD’s language skills. The review will present a set of guidelines for parents and professionals to use when deciding on the most effective and efficient parent training therapy for families who have children with ASD. Critically evaluating the available empirical research can help parents, therapists, and researchers more effectively consider viable options for parent training programs tailored to support the needs of children with ASD. Tables will summarize the findings to make the information more accessible. Implications for future research will follow the literature review. / text

Objectives: The purpose of this thesis was to identify risk factors for the development of mental health concerns in pre-teens and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and in particular the role of early childhood ASD symptomatology in their development. Additionally, this thesis generated prevalence estimates for mental health concerns in Canadian adolescents with ASD. Methods: The parents of 390 individuals with ASD were invited to participate in a survey, either online or by mail. Sixty-seven parents completed and returned surveys. Kendall tau b correlation coefficients were calculated for the association between age at assessment with ADI-R and score in each domain. Prevalence estimates with 95% confidence intervals were generated, and the Kappa statistic was used to determine the strength of agreement between parent-reported diagnoses and clinical CBCL scores. Finally, bivariate analysis was used to determine if childhood ASD symptomatology was associated with mental health in adolescence, followed by logistic regression modeling to evaluate the effect of other possible risk factors. Results: Scores on two domains of the ADI-R were significantly associated with age at assessment, therefore, it was necessary to control for age at assessment with the ADI-R on these domains in the analysis conducted in Chapter Four. Forty-five percent of the study sample met case criteria for a comorbid psychiatric disorder. Anxiety, mood and attention-deficit disorders were the most common disorders in this sample. Early childhood ASD symptoms were not associated with the development of mental health concerns in adolescence. Family history and female gender were associated with the development of mental health concerns in adolescence. Conclusions: Nearly half of the individuals in our sample have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, or are experiencing clinically significant symptoms that may be indicative of such a disorder. Our findings of discrepancies between parent-reported diagnoses and CBCL scores, indicates that many individuals in our sample are experiencing clinically significant mental health concerns, but do not have an official diagnosis. Finally, as has been reported previously, family history of mental illness and female gender were found to be associated with the development of a mental health concern in adolescence. / Thesis (Master, Community Health & Epidemiology) -- Queen's University, 2013-10-14 11:06:50.53

Introduction: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a behaviourally defined disorder characterised by impairments in three domains of social interaction, communication, and repetitive/restricted interests and behaviours (DSM-IV-TR; APA, 2000; ICD-10; WHO, 1992). Recent research suggests that this diagnostic triad may no longer fit as the best way to conceptualise ASD. Although not due for publication until 2013, a proposed revision of autistic disorder for DSM-V has merged three domains into two; i) Social/communication deficits and ii) Fixated interests and repetitive behaviours (APA, 2010). The aim of this study was to examine the structure of ASD symptom domains within the Adult Asperger Assessment (AAA; Baron-Cohen et al., 2005). Method: Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine data from a clinical population of adults diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and High Functioning Autism (HFA). Results: Analysis suggested that none of the theoretically-driven models were supported by the AAA data. However, it did highlight high correlations between social and communication factors (r > 0.9) within unmodified models. Discussion: The results of the analysis did not provide support for the move towards considering ASD as a dyad of ‘social-communication’ impairments and repetitive/restricted interests and behaviours, as none of the models were supported by the AAA data. The validity of the AAA as a diagnostic tool is discussed, as well as limitations and suggestions for future research. Conclusion: This study did not provide the evidence required to endorse a move towards the proposed DSM-V dyad. Further research to understanding the structure of autism symptoms could improve diagnostic and classification systems, and further studies of the genetic and neurobiological bases of ASD.

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability diagnosed in an increasing number of children. ASD has few effective treatment options. This study describes ASD prevalence and use of psychotropic medications among children and youth in Manitoba. Methodology: Administrative data from the Repository at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) were used to create a cohort of children born in Manitoba. Diagnoses of ASD were based on medical claim records, hospital abstracts, or special education funding data. Results: Between 2010 and 2014, 3079 Manitoba children aged 0-14 had an ASD diagnosis (1.2% prevalence). Child demographic, health and education, and family environmental characteristics were compared between children with ASD and children in the general population; children with ASD with and without psychotropic medications; and among all children with psychotropic medications. Children with ASD were more likely to have a psychotropic medication than children in the general population. Children with ASD were more likely to receive a psychotropic medication if they were older than age 4, were diagnosed with ASD later than age 4, received special education funding, had participated in behavioural programming, had a co-occurring psychiatric condition, had a sibling diagnosed with ASD or had ever been in the care of child welfare. This study demonstrated that children with ASD received a greater number and intensity of psychotropic medications than children in the general population with similar demographic and psychiatric conditions. Conclusions: In Manitoba, the prevalence of ASD is increasing and differences exist between children with ASD and children in the general population. Future research and treatment planning for children with mental disorders and developmental disabilities should consider the appropriateness of the patterns of medication use and equity of treatment interventions found in this study. / October 2016

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been attributed to genetic and non-genetic risk factors. Of the non-genetic factors, prenatal and perinatal complications have been extensively investigated, though few associations have been replicated consistently. We selected 2,562 families with at least one individual with ASD and one unaffected sibling. We investigated the relationships between 29 prenatal and perinatal complications and ASD, while considering the influences of confounding factors, comorbid conditions, and different ASD definitions. Although many complications were associated with ASD in the pairwise comparisons, only haematological disorders of the newborn and lower Apgar scores remained significant after adjusting for the effects of the confounders. After removing individuals with congenital anomalies, only 5-minute Apgar scores were associated with ASD. In conclusion, after considering confounding effects and four ASD definitions, several perinatal complications were associated with ASD with moderate effect sizes. Furthermore, comorbid conditions with ASD appear to be intertwined in these relationships. / October 2016

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is currently the most studied and most practiced intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. There has been increasing evidence supporting the use of EIBI, but there have been limited evaluations of the effectiveness of EIBI intensity. The current study addressed this gap using data obtained from St.Amant Autism Program and comparing children receiving an average of 22 and 30 hours per week for a period of one year. Significant main effects of time were found for standardized measures of cognitive functioning, adaptive functioning, and autism severity. Future research should aim to address this research question with a larger sample size and a low-intensity control group. / May 2016

Thesis (M.S.) PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. 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. / Children with ASD suffer from language deficits that are in part due to impaired social abilities. In the current study, we test a non-social and noninteractive method for teaching word meanings. If successful, this technique will expand the ways we teach early vocabulary that would shape intervention and improve the quality of life and the future prospects of children with ASD. First, the participants (ages 26.09 - 47.37) listen to a series of transitive or intransitive sentences while watching an unrelated silent animation. These sentence types carry different meanings; transitive verbs describe causative actions, and intransitive verbs describe synchronous actions. Then they are asked to map the verb to meaning by finding the relevant action out of two candidate scenes. We analyze the children’s direction of gaze. The results revealed that children with ASD in this sample who heard transitive sentences in maximally non-social and non-interactive contexts did not show a significant preference for the causative scene in either test condition. Additional data will reveal whether children with ASD can learn from non-social presentation of novel words if given multiple exposures to the test scenes. This work will provide insight into the mechanisms underlying word learning in children with ASD and, if successful, provide the foundation for research into a new kind of non-social intervention that capitalizes on these children’s strengths. / 2031-01-01

The present thesis aimed to examine if children with ASD process emotions comparably to TD children or if they show emotion processing difficulties, with particular focus on the recognition- and imitation of facial emotional expressions and on processing human faces. Furthermore, the thesis sought to contrast the performance of children (both with- and without ASD) with that of neurotypical adult participants to establish the typical level of emotion processing and to investigate if emotion processing capabilities improve with age from childhood to adulthood. Experiment 1 tested the recognition of the six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise, and also neutrality) under timed conditions, when restricted stimulus presentation length- (1200ms, 200ms, no limit) and increased pressure to respond were introduced (1200ms limit, no limit), as well. In addition, the experiment compared participants’ performance from human facial expressions and from the expressions of animated characters. The Animated Characters Stimulus Set has been developed and validated before the main experiment. The overall performance of children with ASD was comparable to that of TD children, whose superiority only emerged with the introduction of additional task demands through limiting the length of stimuli presentation or applying a temporal restriction on the response window. Using animated characters to present emotions, instead of human actors, however, improved emotion recognition and alleviated the difficulty of additional task demands, especially for children with ASD, when facial expressions were only briefly presented. Experiment 2 tested the effects of face inversion and in-plane rotations (from 0° to 330°, in 30° increments) on the recognition of the six basic emotions (and neutrality). Children with ASD and TD children recognised emotions with comparable accuracy, while neurotypical adults have outperformed the two child groups. Overall, emotion recognition decreased gradually as rotations approached full inversion; although, this pattern was most prominent in typical adults, whereas the emotion recognition of TD children and especially children with ASD varied considerably across rotations. In contrast to adults and TD children, inversion effects were only found in children with ASD when they observed negative- or more complex emotions, thereby showing evidence both for the availability of configural face processing and for the use of feature-based strategies. Experiment 3 tested imitative behaviour by comparing performance on emotional facial expressions (reflecting anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise, and also neutrality), and non-emotional facial gestures and bilateral bodily actions/movements, presented in short video clips. The style of the imitation was also examined (subtle- vs strong stimulus intensity). A video stimulus set was developed and validated for the purpose of the experiment with a series of pilot studies. Results showed that the imitations of children with ASD were less intense than those of TD children and typical adults only when the participants were copying emotional facial expressions but not when they reproduced non-emotional facial and bodily actions. Moreover, children with ASD were less able to copy the style of the presented actions (only for the imitation of emotional facial expressions) than the two neurotypical groups. Overall, the present thesis demonstrated that the emotion processing of children with ASD was consistently comparable to TD children’s, when their performance was contrasted in experimental, facial emotion recognition and face processing tasks, and in a behavioural study, which assessed their imitations of emotional facial expressions. On the other hand, it was also shown that the emotion processing of children with ASD involved atypical features both when they were recognising- and reproducing emotions. Compared to TD children, they showed increased sensitivity to the negative effects of additional task difficulties and their advantage in utilising featural face processing strategies seemed to be greater, as well, while they were less able to imitate the exact style of the presented emotional facial expressions. These findings support a number of theoretical approaches; however, the notion of an early deficit in social motivation seems to be both appealing and promising in studying and developing socio-emotional functioning in ASD as its perspective could be beneficial to reflect on and possibly affect multiple underlying features.