Recognising people’s emotions is a promising research area in human-computer interaction as emotional communication plays a crucial role in humans’ lives. One of the main reasons for ineffective emotional communication is a deficit in understanding emotional signals such as facial expressions and body posture. There is a bidirectional challenge between autistic and non-autistic individuals since they display their emotional signals differently. This thesis discovers differences in emotional signals, in particular facial expressions, body posture, and physiological signals. Based on the interviews and questionnaires conducted in this thesis, the need to design an aid tool to assist autistic and non-autistic participants during their emotional communication is identified. Therefore, Emognition, a smartwatch, and its mobile application is designed to blur these differences and enhance the emotional communication between them. Furthermore, Emognition’s user evaluation indicates that the smartwatch could successfully detect nonautistic participants’ sadness and happiness. Also, they found the mobile application useful and aesthetically motivating to interact with. Even though we could not evaluate how well the Emognition recognises autistic participants’ sadness and happiness, it is promising to measure their emotions successfully by accurate sensors and, more importantly, by finding their autonomic response patterns to different emotions and enhance emotional communication between autistic and nonautistic people by Emognition.

Bakgrund: Autism är en neuropsykiatrisk funktionsvariation som en person har livet ut, 1.7 % av världens befolkning beräknas ha diagnosen autism. De autistiska dragen visar brister i social kommunikation och social interaktion, ett begränsat och upprepande beteendemönster samt fokuserade specialintressen. Autism har ofta en samsjuklighet med flera andra tillstånd, svårigheter och sjukdomar. Hela familjen påverkas emotionellt och ekonomiskt när en familjemedlem har autism. Syfte: Syftet med litteraturstudien var att beskriva föräldrars erfarenheter av sjukhusvård till deras barn med autism. Metod: Deskriptiv litteraturstudie som sammanställt tio vetenskapliga artiklar. Huvudresultat: I resultatet framkom det att föräldrar beskrev att deras barn med autism upplevde sensoriska utmaningar i sjukhusvården. Det innebar en stor sensorisk stress med en påfrestande ny miljö och vårdpersonalens beröring vid undersökning och behandling. Kommunikationssvårigheter gjorde att barnen hade svårt att förmedla känslor och smärta. Föräldrarna upplevde att vårdpersonalen därför hade svårt att göra en rättvis bedömning och behandling. Resultatet visade att enligt föräldrarna behövde vårdpersonalen kompetens om autism för att kunna ge rätt bemötande till varje enskilt barn. Det framkom också att föräldrarna hade stor kunskap om sitt barns beteende och strategier och att vårdpersonalen hade stor nytta av att respektera och använda denna kunskap. Slutsats: Det visade sig vara viktigt att sjuksköterskan minimerade de sensoriska intrycken genom att värdera om undersökningar, förflyttningar och ny personal verkligen behövdes. När en sjuksköterska hade kompetens om autism kunde föräldrarnas kunskap nyttjas, säker vård främjas samt att barnens vårdupplevelse förbättrades. / Background: Autism is a neuropsychiatric disability that a person has for life, 1.7% of the world population is estimated to have an autism diagnosis. The autistic features show shortcomings in social communication and social interaction, a limited and repetitive pattern of behavior and focused special interests. Autism often has a comorbidity with several other conditions, difficulties and diseases. The whole family is affected emotionally and financially when a family member has autism. Aim: The aim of the literature study was to describe parents' experiences of hospital care for their children with autism. Method: Descriptive literature study that compiled ten scientific articles. Main results: The results showed that parents described that their children with autism experienced sensory challenges in hospital care. This meant a great deal of sensory stress with a stressful new environment and the healthcare professionals touch during examination and treatment. Communication difficulties made it difficult for the children to convey feelings and pain. The parents experienced that healthcare professionals had difficulty making a fair assessment and treatment. The results showed that according to the parents, the healthcare professionals needed competence about autism in order to be able to give the right treatment to each individual child. It also emerged that the parents had a great deal of knowledge about their child's behavior and strategies and that the healthcare professionals benefited greatly from respecting and using this knowledge. Conclusion: It turned out to be important that the nurse minimized the sensory impressions by evaluating whether examinations, transfers and new staff were really needed. When a nurse had competence in autism, the parents' knowledge could be used, safety care promoted, and the children's care experience improved.

Syftet med den här litteraturstudien var att granska effekten av fysisk aktivitet och träning på motoriska och kognitiva förmågor hos barn med autismspektrumtillstånd (AST) samt att undersöka vilken tillförlitlighet som finns för fysisk aktivitet och träning som behandlingsmetod hos denna patientgrupp. Strukturerade sökningar utfördes i databaserna PubMed och CINAHL. Nio randomiserade kontrollerade studier identifierades. Insamlade data bearbetades sedan genom att alla artiklar som inkluderas i studien granskades enligt PEDro-skalan och resultatens tillförlitlighet klassificerades enligt SBU GRADE. Effekten av interventionerna presenteras i en narrativ sammanställning av kvantitativa data. Kvalitén och bevisvärdet på ingående artiklar är låg till medelgod, men enskilda artiklar visar signifikanta resultat som indikerar att fysisk aktivet och träning kan bidra till positiva effekter vad gäller både kognitiv och motorisk förmåga hos barn med AST. Tillförlitligheten bedöms enligt SBU GRADE som mycket låg för fysisk aktivitet och träning i form av styrka och koordination, bollsporter, ridning och cykling. Resultatet i den aktuella studien ger vissa indikationer, trots stor variation av interventioner, att fysisk aktivet och träning kan bidra till positiva kognitiva effekter hos barn med AST. Även gällande motoriska effekter hos barn med AST kan positiva indikationer skönjas, men här är effekten dock ännu mindre tydlig. Det sammanvägda resultatet har mycket låg tillförlitlighet bedömt med SBU GRADE. Ytterligare studier efterfrågas.

Bakgrund Autismspektrumtillstånd [AST] innefattar autism och andra autismliknande syndrom och är en utvecklingsstörning som påverkar kommunikationsförmågan, socio-emotionella förmågan, samt kännetecknas av repetitiva beteenden och specifika intressen. Prevalensen för AST ligger omkring en procent i världens befolkning med stigande trender, och associeras med flera olika komorbiditeter som kan förekomma. Mötet inom hälso- och sjukvården är därmed viktigt och behöver undersökas utifrån perspektivet från personer med AST. Syfte Syftet var att belysa upplevelser och erfarenheter av mötet med hälso- och sjukvården för personer med autismspektrumtillstånd. Metod Denna litteraturöversikt är grundad på 16 vetenskapliga artiklar av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ design. Litteratursökning utfördes i databaserna PubMed och CINAHL. De vetenskapliga artiklarna som låg till grund för litteraturöversiktens resultat kvalitetsgranskades utifrån Sophiahemmet högskolas bedömningsinstrument. Sammanställning av informationen i resultatartiklarna skedde med en integrerad analys. Resultat Vid sammanställningen av de upplevelser och erfarenheter personer med AST beskrivit avseende mötet med hälso- och sjukvården framträdde fyra huvudkategorier. Dessa innefattade hur personer med AST upplevt den interpersonella kommunikationen med vårdpersonal och deras sensoriska känslighet i en sjukvårdskontext. Vidare framkom upplevelser relaterade till bristande kunskap om AST och avsaknad av adekvata anpassningar inom hälso- och sjukvården, samt de hinder personer med AST upplevt i relation till att söka vård. Slutsats Upplevelser av mötet med hälso- och sjukvården för personer med AST präglades av negativa erfarenheter. Anpassningar avseende den interpersonella kommunikationen med vårdpersonal och sensoriska anpassningar i både vårdmötet och vårdmiljön var nödvändiga för att gruppens behov skulle bli tillgodosedda. Vidare fanns ett behov av utökad kunskap om diagnosen AST inom sjukvården för att på så sätt tillgängliggöra den för personer med AST både avseende organisation och bemötande. Sjuksköterskans övergripande roll är att tillgodose dessa behov och främja tillgänglighet och anpassning. / Background Autism Spectrum Disorder [ASD] includes autism and other autism-like syndromes and is a developmental disorder that affects communication skills, socio-emotional abilities, and is characterized by repetitive behaviors and specific interests. The ASD prevalence is about one percent in the world’s population with rising trends and is associated with several different comorbidities that may occur. Thus, the meeting in health care is important and needs to be examined from the perspective of people with ASD. Aim The aim was to highlight the experiences of health care for people with autism spectrum disorder. Method This literature review is based on 16 scientific articles with both qualitative and quantitative design. Literature search was performed in the databases PubMed and CINAHL. The scientific articles that formed the fundament for the results of the literature review were quality-examined based on Sophiahemmet University's assessment instruments. The information in the articles was compiled with an integrated analysis. Results In compiling the experiences of people with ASD regarding the meeting with health care, four main categories emerged. These included how people with ASD experienced the interpersonal communication with healthcare professionals and their sensory sensitivity in a health care context. Furthermore, experiences related to lack of knowledge about the ASD diagnosis and lack of adequate adaptations in health care emerged, as well as the obstacles people with ASD experienced in relation to seeking care in the health care organization. Conclusions Experiences of health care for people with ASD were characterized by negative experiences. Adaptations regarding the interpersonal communication with care staff and sensory adaptations in both the care meeting and the care environment were necessary for the group's needs to be met. Furthermore, there was a need for increased knowledge about the diagnosis of ASD in order for health care to be available to people with ASD both in terms of organization and care. The overall role of the nurse is to meet these needs and promote accessibility and adaptation.

University peer-mentoring programs have shown to increase the retention rates of students, including students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and improved satisfaction with the college experience. The perceived quality of a mentee-mentor relationship may predict satisfaction with a peer-mentoring program; therefore, teaching peer mentors to engage in behaviors that could contribute to a high-quality mentee-mentor relationship may be beneficial. The current study identified target outcomes, operationally defined target behaviors, and developed a computer-based instruction (CBI) training module. The CBI training module was divided into four submodules that incorporated teaching through examples and nonexamples and discrimination training. The efficacy of each CBI submodule was evaluated using a pretest/posttest design with two mentors in a university peer-mentoring program. Results suggested that the CBI training module produced an increase in the frequency of correct responses in seven out of eight submodule posttests across both participants. The CBI training program also produced an increase in the frequency of target behaviors emitted by both participants across all submodules. These findings suggest that this CBI training module can be used to teach peer-mentors the behaviors that may improve their relationship with their mentee.

The aim of this study was to examine associations between the automated Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system adult word count (AWC) variable and characteristics of classrooms (e.g., teacher burnout) and preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (e.g., autism severity). The AWC samples from 67 preschoolers with ASD were collected during typical morning classroom routines (e.g., center time). Results indicated that AWC was positively associated with children's cognitive ability and negatively associated teacher burnout and adult to student with ASD ratio. Lower adult to children with ASD ratio (i.e., fewer adults relative to students with ASD) resulted in preschoolers receiving less adult language. Additional factors thought to be related to child and classroom characteristics affecting the adult language directed at children with ASD are discussed.

The aim of this study was to examine associations between the automated Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system adult word count (AWC) variable and characteristics of classrooms (e.g., teacher burnout) and preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (e.g., autism severity). The AWC samples from 67 preschoolers with ASD were collected during typical morning classroom routines (e.g., center time). Results indicated that AWC was positively associated with children's cognitive ability and negatively associated teacher burnout and adult to student with ASD ratio. Lower adult to children with ASD ratio (i.e., fewer adults relative to students with ASD) resulted in preschoolers receiving less adult language. Additional factors thought to be related to child and classroom characteristics affecting the adult language directed at children with ASD are discussed.

Caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience unique challenges while fulfilling their long-term responsibilities and often experience and report higher levels of stress and a decrement in well-being compared to other caregivers. By using four databases (EBSCO, ProQuest, Scopus, and Web of Science), a systematic literature review was conducted on interven- tions to improve these aspects among caregivers. The selection process was limited to articles writ- ten in either English or Spanish, peer-reviewed studies, published between 2011 and 2022, and em- pirical data studies. Seven articles that conducted different interventions met the inclusion criteria and were used to analyze the conducted interventions, together with the reported outcomes. Results show a variety of interventions, differences in length, and used approaches. Regarding the outcomes, support programs were found to be effective when reducing stress and improving the well-being of the studied population; however, there is not enough evidence to conclude their long-lasting effects. Future suggestions include studying larger and more representative samples assessing the interven- tion ́s long-term effects.

Joint attention, or the shared focus of attention between objects or events and a social partner, is a crucial milestone in the development of social communication and a notable area of deficit in children with autism spectrum disorder. While valid parent-report screening measures of social communication are available, the majority of these measures are designed to assess a wide range of behaviors. Targeted assessment of joint attention and related skills is primarily limited to semi-structured, examiner-led interactions, which are time-consuming and laborious to score. The Pictorial Infant Communication Scale is an efficient parent-report measure of joint attention that can be used as a complement to structured assessments in fully characterizing early social communication development. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Pictorial Infant Communication Scale. Results revealed a high degree of internal consistency and strong intercorrelations between subscales. Additionally, confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor model of joint attention. Furthermore, significant correlations between the Pictorial Infant Communication Scale and direct clinical measures of child joint attention, language skills, and autism spectrum disorder symptom severity were suggestive of concurrent validity. Findings suggest that the Pictorial Infant Communication Scale is a promising tool for measuring joint attention skills in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder.

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