Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om och i så fall hur syskon till barn med funktionsnedsättning påverkas psykosocialt. Undersökningen baseras på kvalitativa intervjuer och litteratur samt rapporter relevanta för ämnet. De intervjuade har redovisat sin syn på hur de anser att barn påverkats av att växa upp som syskon till barn med funktionsnedsättning inom autismspektrumtillstånd. Resultatet påvisar att syskon under sin uppväxt blir utsatta för en mer stressrelaterad situation än jämnåriga och blir mer åsidosatta än barn i övrigt. Undersökningen visar också att syskon till barn med diagnos inom autismspektrum får med sig karaktärsdrag såsom större empati, mognad och ansvar. Att få kunskap över sitt syskons funktionsnedsättning visar sig vara av stor betydelse för hur barn hanterar sin livssituation. Genom uppmärksamhet och professionell hjälp såsom samtal och stöd blir syskon bättre rustade att klara den situationen de befinner sig i. / The purpose of this essay is to examine whether if siblings of children with disabilities are affected psychosocially or not. The study is based on qualitative interviews, literature and reports relevant to the topic. Respondents have presented their views on how they think children are affected by growing up as siblings to children with disabilities in autism spectrum disorders. The result demonstrates that siblings, while growing up are being exposed to a more stress-related situation than their peers and are more neglected than children in general. The survey also found that siblings of children with a diagnosis within the autism spectrum may bring character traits such as greater empathy, maturity and responsibility. Gaining knowledge of their sibling's disability proves to be of great importance for how the children manage their lives. Through attention and professional assistance such as conversation and support the siblings are better equipped to cope with the situation, which they´re in.

Cognitive functioning has historically been used to predict adaptive outcomes of individuals with autism spectrum disorders; however, research shows that it does not adequately predict these outcomes. Therefore, the current study explored the role of emotion perception in the adaptive functioning of individuals with ASDs. Emotion perception was assessed using the DANVA-2, which has audio and static face stimuli, and the DAVE, dynamic, audio-visual emotion movies. Adaptive functioning was assessed using the Vineland-II Socialization, Communication, and Daily Living domains. Results indicated that individuals with ASDs demonstrated significant impairments in both adaptive functioning and emotion perception compared to typical individuals. Findings did not demonstrate a relationship between emotion perception and adaptive functioning, controlling for IQ. Future research should broaden the approach when investigating possible mechanisms of change for adaptive outcomes to include exploration of social perception more broadly, of which emotion perception is one component, and its relationship with adaptive outcomes.

The accurate integration of audio-visual emotion cues is critical for social interactions and requires efficient processing of facial cues. Gaze behavior of typically developing (TD) individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was measured via eye-tracking during the perception of dynamic audio-visual emotion (DAVE) stimuli. This study provides information about the regions of the face sampled during an emotion perception task that is relatively more complex than those used in previous studies, providing both bimodal (auditory and visual) and dynamic (biological motion) cues. Results indicated that the ASD group was less accurate at emotion detection and demonstrated less of a visual-affective bias than TD individuals. Both groups displayed similar fixation patterns across regions during the perception of congruent audio-visual stimuli. However, between-group analyses revealed that fixation patterns differed significantly by facial regions during the perception of both congruent and incongruent movies together. In addition, fixation duration to critical regions (i.e., face, core, eyes) was negatively correlated with measures of ASD symptomatology and social impairment. Findings suggest weaknesses in the early integration of audio-visual information, automatic perception of emotion, and efficient detection of affective conflict in individuals with ASD. Implications for future research and social skills intervention programs are discussed.

In recent years, autism diagnoses have steadily increased, putting a substantial emphasis on early identification as a crucial component for intervention. Autism diagnoses, however, often require a thorough and comprehensive assessment from a highly trained practitioner. Although ideal, such assessments are often time consuming and expensive, creating a need for a quicker, more simplistic method of screening for autism. Clinicians customarily used behavior rating scales to identify a number of various problem behaviors and/or disorders. The purpose of the present study is to examine the utility of two common behavior rating scales in accurately discriminating between a group of preschoolers with autism and a group of referred preschoolers with autism. Parents/guardians of 74 preschoolers with and without autism, who had been referred to a child development clinic due to behavioral or developmental concerns, completed both behavior rating scales as part of a comprehensive assessment. Although analyses revealed significant differences between the two groups of participants on two of the scales from one of the instruments, these findings demonstrate little clinical value for screening purposes.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Glenda E. Koshy ABSTRACT This study examined factors related to the intent of special education teachers of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to remain in the profession. A modified Working in Schools: the Life of a Special Educator (WSLSE) survey, developed by Miller, Brownell, and Smith (1999), was utilized to explore the relationships between factors associated with Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Model (1977) and the special education teachers' intention to remain in the field of teaching students with ASD. Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Model (1977) includes the Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem, and the Individual domain. Multiple regressions conducted as the method of data analysis revealed that factors associated with the Exosystem, Macrosystem, and lastly, the Individual domain all had statistically significant relationships with the outcome of teachers' intent to remain in the field of teaching students with ASD. Additionally, it was found that there were individual predictor variables that had statistically significant relationships with teachers' intentions to remain in the profession. Specifically, the significant predictor variables were married, recognition, and relationships. Therefore, special educators who were married had a greater intent to remain in the field of teaching students with ASD. In addition, special education teachers who receive recognition more often as well as educators who have relationships with the parents of their students and with community agencies have greater intentions of remaining in the field of teaching students with ASD. Recommendations for policy makers as well as larger organizations and systems, including state and local education agencies, universities with teacher preparation programs, and K-12 public school systems are provided to assist in the development and implementation of programs designed to prepare and retain quality special education teachers of students with ASD

Working collaboratively with VSA Texas, the research study examined how a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) curriculum functions for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in an art learning setting. The curriculum focused on learning new media for art making in the form of digital film and video. My research and proposed successful classroom strategies are intended to assist current and future art educators in implementing aspects of UDL in their inclusive art classrooms to better educate students with disabilities through art. / text

Social communication deficits have been identified as one of the core features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies have shown that video modeling is an effective intervention for improving social communication in children with ASD. The purpose of this project is to provide an accessible resource for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) seeking to implement video modeling interventions for children with ASD, drawing upon empirical research to inform recommended procedures for SLPs. This guidebook provides step-by-step procedures for implementing video modeling intervention, including selection of target behaviors and video models, video production, techniques for implementing interventions, and methods of measuring progress. Associated intervention strategies are also discussed. Additional resources are provided to support SLPs in implementing video modeling interventions, including data collection forms, sample scripts, and sample lesson plans. This project also includes examples of videos created using children and adults as models. As video modeling appears to be an effective approach for ameliorating social communication deficits in children with ASD, SLPs may benefit from a practical guide for implementing video modeling interventions in a variety of settings. / text

One of every 166 children born today could be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (CDC 2006). Growing bodies of evidence show sensory integration issues may be at the root of many of the symptoms children with ASD exhibit. Sensory integration is defined as the ability to feel, understand, and organize sensory information from the body and environment. The issues surrounding sensory integration are reflected in both hypersensitive and hyposensitive reactions by children with ASD to the vestibular, proprioception, visual, audio, tactile, and olfactory senses.The goal of this paper is to address the sensory integration issues of children with ASD by creating a sensory garden which would allow them to focus on therapeutic and diagnostic interventions. By using the principles and elements of design, guidelines for this garden focused on producing calming effects for hyper reactive children with ASD and stimulating effects for hypo reactions.

This thesis describes and analyzes how some early childhood educators and parents perceive cooperation in educational work with 4-5 years old children who have been diagnosed with autism. The work will examine which approach preschool teachers assume, the extent to which parents are involved in the work and how parents influence looks. The Literature section provides an overview of previous research on different pedagogical approaches with autistic children, what parental cooperation can mean for autistic children, and what advantages and disadvantages there are with cooperation between preschool teachers and parents.This work has a hermeneutic perspective. The method is based on a qualitative study where we used qualitative interviews with a hermeneutics base. The theoretical starting point for this work is the variety of theoretical perspectives.The final results/summary we came up with is that preschool teachers and parents of autistic children believe that parental cooperation in preschool has a crucial role in children's development and learning. Both sides believe that it is necessary to have a partnership, but we also came to the conclusion that parental cooperation, in addition to the positive, was also perceived as problematic to some degree.