Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental disorder characterized by a triad of impairments in social interaction, communication, and restricted and repetitive behaviors. For children with autism especially those with high functioning (HFA), it is common to discover from clinical observation and from care-givers’ report that there are uneven performance in their cognitive profile and also executive difficulties. In recent years, there were enormous amount of researches attempting to delineate the cognitive deficits and the executive impairments in autism. Executive Functions (EF) was a widely studied construct in autism. The vast pool of researches establishes various focuses of investigation, including: (1) the biological level; (2) the cognitive level; (3) the task performance level; and (4) the everyday functioning level. Each of them has its own significance, and contributes distinctly in delineating the executive impairments in ASD. Taking into account the complexity of the EF construct and the far-reaching impacts it imposing on our everyday functioning, a comprehensive approach encompassing different levels of investigation in one research design is suggested to investigate the performance and specific areas of impairment of children with HFA in respective levels; and to explore the possible relationships between the levels of investigations. Methods: Forty aged 12-15 children participated in the research, twenty with HFA and twenty typically developing controls (TD), matched by gender, age and IQ. In the first part of the study, the participants were administered four traditional EF tasks including: inhibition, working memory, flexibility and planning to examine EF in the cognitive level. In the second part, they completed a novel multitasking test, the Battersea Multitask Paradigm (BMP) to examine executive difficulties in the task performance level. Parent ratings of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) were collected for further investigation of their executive difficulties in the daily functioning level. Results: The 3-levels of investigation demonstrated converged results in examining the executive ability of ASD. From the integrated analyses, more evidence was gained to speculate that the planning inefficiency of children with HFA was due to their inability to cognitively construct the plan rather than their ability to execute or implement the plan. In real-life situations, they have particular difficulties in time management, to prioritize multiple and interleaved tasks, and to coordinate intended actions for future goal attainment. Moreover, their cognitive inflexibility had a pattern of “get stuck” or perseverates on the same task till completion before moving onto the next task. Their inflexibility to switch seemed to be explained by the preference to follow a more structured kind of sequence or action, i.e. to persist and finish one task before moving to another one. They were actually excellent “rule follower”, might not be as rigid of not willing to change. Significant positive relationships were only observed between the EF measures and Multitask variables. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

Adolescents with Autism and their families experience a significant increase in the number and nature of challenges faced when leaving the structure of the formal education system. Increased support and planning is required in order to prepare for and better manage this period, as a successful transition is associated with family well-being. An ecosystemic approach was used in order to better understand the experiences of the individual, the family, the school and the community during this period. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of parent and professional perspectives on various elements of the transition process, including planning and support, predicted outcomes and the feelings experienced, in order to develop awareness, improved planning and consequently; outcomes. A sample of 14 participants (7 parents and 7 professionals) was engaged in semi-structured interviews. The results indicate that both parents and professionals feel an overwhelming sense of fear and uncertainty with regards to the future of the adolescent with Autism; however a sense of optimism and hope also exists, as participants reported effective interventions were beginning to occur. The knowledge and understanding of the needs of these individuals is continuously growing within the parents and professionals who are directly involved in the lives of adolescents with Autism; however increased awareness is required within the community and government sectors in order to gain increased access to resources and services. With the appropriate support, individuals with Autism can experience increased quality of life within residential, employment, social and community settings. The results of the current study are discussed with reference to previous research studies, and recommendations for further research are provided.

Empathy is vital for relationships in the social world. Although definitions vary, theory and research has delineated empathy into cognitive and affective components. Recent ideas propose there are further aspects that are important to empathy, such as the ability versus the drive to empathise within both the cognitive and affective components. Various self-report indexes have been developed to measure empathy, yet current measures do not reflect all theories about empathy. The aim of this thesis was to develop and validate a new empathy questionnaire that included further components more consistent with recent ideas and theories about empathy. This thesis further aimed to use this questionnaire to investigate the components of empathy in autism, which is characterised in part by empathy deficits. The first study investigated the structure of empathy in the commonly-used Empathy Quotient (EQ) short-form to examine which empathy components it indexes. Results showed cognitive, affective and social skill components were extracted from the EQ-short, but also revealed ability and drive aspects captured within affective empathy but not within cognitive empathy components. This suggested items of the EQ-short incorporates some, but not all, components proposed to be important to empathy. Consequently, a new self-report empathy questionnaire called the Empathy Components Questionnaire (ECQ) was developed in order to fully capture all components of empathy. A five-factor solution was developed and confirmed for the ECQ across multiple independent samples in studies two through five, revealing five components of cognitive ability, cognitive drive, affective ability, affective drive, and affective reactivity. A final study revealed individuals with autism had lower self-reported cognitive empathy, affective drive and affective reactivity compared to controls, but comparable scores between groups for affective ability. This thesis produced a new measure of empathy more in-line with recent theories, which provided understanding about empathy and how it differs in autism.

Child-computer interaction researchers are increasingly recognising the benefits of directly involving children in the design of new technology. This has resulted in the development of several design methods for involving children in the technology design process, using approaches such as Participatory Design (PD). More recently there has been a greater focus on involving children with diverse needs, as technology can often be particularly beneficial within the education of these children. One such group is children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and in recent years there has been a sharp rise in the amount of technology being developed specifically for this population. However, the needs and preferences of this user group can differ from the general child population due to the specific characteristics of ASD, with these differences making it more challenging for adult designers to develop appropriate technologies. This thesis therefore seeks to establish the potential of using PD to involve children with ASD within the technology design process through the development of a new PD method, which aims to support the typical difficulties of children with ASD at the same time as utilising their characteristic strengths. A qualitative approach has been followed in order to understand firstly the ability of children with ASD to undertake typical design tasks; secondly the degree children with ASD are able to participate in the design process; and thirdly the ability of children with ASD to collaborate within a design team. The results reveal that children with ASD can undertake typical design tasks, but some children may require additional support to generate and communicate their design ideas. It is shown that a flexible approach should be taken with regard to the involvement of children with ASD within the technology design process, and the importance of the adaptability of the adult’s role in supporting the children’s participation and collaboration is additionally highlighted. This research has led to the development of a new PD method, IDEAS, which is tailored to the specific needs of children with ASD through the incorporation of flexible structured and supportive features.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction and the presence of stereotypic behaviors or restricted interests. To explore possible consequences of an excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) imbalance on the visual system in ASD, we investigated spatial suppression in 16 children with ASD and 16 neurotypical comparison children from 6 - 12 years of age using a visual motion processing task during high-density electroencephalography (EEG) recording in order to derive the N1 event related potential (ERP). Consistent with prior behavioral research, neurotypical participants displayed spatial suppression in conditions of large, high-contrast sinusoidal gratings as indexed by delayed N1 response latency. As predicted, children with ASD displayed weakened surround suppression, i.e. shorter N1 response latency to large, high-contrast sinusoidal gratings. However, this study also unexpectedly revealed that children with ASD showed longer N1 latencies in response to small, high-contrast sinusoidal gratings as compared to neurotypical control children. Although there were no statistically significant differences between children with ASD and NT children for N1 peak amplitude, there was a strong negative correlation between N1 amplitude represented in absolute values for large, high-contrast sinusoidal gratings and hyper-responsiveness item mean scores on the Sensory Experiences Questionnaire for children with ASD, but not for NT children. As predicted, no significant differences were found within or between groups in the low-contrast experiment. Our results are indicative of weakened spatial suppression and deficits in contrast gain in children with ASD, suggestive of an underlying E/I imbalance in ASD.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are characterized by difficulties in social interaction and communication. Recent studies within the social sciences have espoused a need to reconceptualize autism out of the domain of the intrapersonal and into the realm of the sociocultural. Semi-structured in-depth interviewing was used to examine the selfperceptions and experiences of twelve people who identified as on the autism spectrum. Social scientists have tended to grant the topic of autism to the domain of psychology; as a result autistic perception has been stigmatized resulting in the exclusion of autistic perspectives in knowledge production on the lived experiences of autistic actors. The first-hand accounts examined in this study lend support to the idea that symbolic interactionism provides a more nuanced framework for studying how autistic perception influences autistic experience in contrast to the functionalist-reductionist approach of cognitive psychology. From this perspective we can position autistic differences in disposition and interaction as socioculturally situated rather than as solely a result of individual cognitive impairment. The application of microsociological concepts to autistic perception and interaction has the potential to expand knowledge on both autistic experience and the social construction of normative order.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and their infant siblings (ASD-siblings), exhibit deficits in their ability to shift visual attention, and to initiate and respond to joint attention. The current study examined early associations between visual attention and joint attention, and between these types of attention and later language ability and ASD severity in ASD-siblings (n = 31). This study investigated the possibility that ASD-siblings, who are at-risk for atypical development, differed from infants who have an older sibling(s) with no evidence of an ASD (Comparison-siblings; n = 23) on the following: 1) means of visual and joint attention, 2) the associations between these constructs, and 3) developmental trajectories of joint attention. Early visual attention was measured using infants' gazes at and away their parents' faces during the Face-to-Face Still-Face Protocol at 6 months. Initiating joint attention (IJA) and responding to joint attention (RJA) were measured during the Early Social Communication Scales at 8, 10, 12, 15, and 18 months. Language ability was measured with the Mullen Scales of Early Learning language at 24 and 36 months. ASD severity was measured on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule at 30 months. Results indicated that ASD-siblings and Comparison-siblings were comparable in their gaze shifting and mean durations of gazes away from their parents' faces. These two components of visual attention were associated with parent behaviors, and the type of chair infants sat in. There were group differences in IJA at 10 months and RJA at 8, 15, 18 months, with ASD-siblings performing fewer behaviors than Comparison-siblings. There were developmental associations between visual and joint attention, and joint attention and later language and ASD severity. ASD-siblings differed from Comparison-siblings in their RJA development. ASD-siblings also had lower language ability and greater ASD severity than Comparison-siblings. The current study's limitations included low statistical power, and a difficulty inherent to prospective studies, which are at a disadvantage because a high proportion ASD-siblings may not develop an ASD. Nevertheless, the findings have clinical implications for the development of interventions targeting RJA behaviors within the first year of life.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, May, 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health