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<p>  </p> <p>Sleep is a critical component of early development, with over 8,000 hours spent asleep between a child's first and third birthday alone. Beginning in infancy, sleep is linked to several aspects of development, such as language, attention, and social communication. Thus, given its frequency and importance for infants and toddlers, sleep is among the most common topics raised by parents of typically and atypically developing children at well-child visits and beyond. The current dissertation includes three distinct, but integrated studies on sleep in early development. Specifically, study 1 addresses sleep in typically developing toddlers using videosomnography (an objective measure of sleep), study 2 addresses relations between sleep and attention in toddlers at low and high familial risk for ASD, and study 3 addresses prospective patterns of early sleep and development in children who later develop ASD. Overall, results from this dissertation highlight that sleep problems (e.g., night waking) can be expected even within well documented typical development. Findings from this dissertation have implications for sleep measurement in early childhood and suggest that using objective measures of sleep and developmental competence are critical for understanding normative sleep in typical and atypical development. </p>

<p>Many behavioural theories describe Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as having roots as a social disorder. However, our research adds to previous studies showing that those with ASD with normal intelligence have perceptual problems that affect their social functioning. We report that those with ASD perform worse than controls in all of our speech tasks that measure the ability to filter speech in noise, specialization for native speech sound categories, and audio-visual integration of speech sounds. Those with ASD also performed worse on tasks measuring specialization for native musical meters, but not on tasks measuring absolute pitch or knowledge of tonal harmony. This research provides some explanation for why perceptual areas that develop early instead of late are most impaired in ASD, which can have implications for remediation. Besides perceptual problems, we found in other research that those with ASD have abnormal prosody, which varies according to language ability. We report that those with Autism Moderate Language Functioning (A-moderateL) use a restricted pitch range relative to those with Autism High Language Functioning (A-highL) and controls, whereas those with A-highL use a larger pitch range relative to those with A-moderateL and controls. We also found that A-moderateL speakers and controls, but not A-highL speakers vary acoustic features to mark words representing focus relative to topic. This research is important because identifying different ASD language subgroups might lead to more appropriate speech and language therapy.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study evaluated the effects of the type of language used by the therapist during a functional analysis on rates of challenging behavior with individuals who came from families where Spanish was the primary language. Three individuals with autism spectrum disorder who live in a residential treatment facility participated in a multi-element (i.e., demand, attention, play- verbal, and play-nonverbal) functional analysis (FA). The FA was conducted in an ABAB experimental design with the A conditions conducted in Spanish and the B conditions conducted in English. Language did not have an effect on rates of challenging behavior during the FA. One participant displayed no responding across conditions and the other two participants responded similarly during the demand conditions regardless of the language in which the conditions were conducted. Functional communication training (FCT) was conducted for one of these two participants in both languages. The results for this individual that there was no difference according to language in rates of challenging behavior as well as acquisition and maintenance of a functionally communicative response. Keywords: functional analysis, language, functional communication training, Autism Spectrum Disorder, problem behavior / Applied Behavioral Analysis

There are several effective treatment methods and evidence based practices (EBP) for teaching children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The use of EBPs is federally mandated, but it is often overwhelming for teachers to identify and implement available best practices with fidelity in the absence of ongoing training and support (Alexander, Ayres & Smith, 2015). Teachers often display low implementation fidelity, and, specifically, special education teachers often struggle with progress monitoring and data collection, which are essential elements of EBPs. Although most teachers are familiar with direct and frequent measurement for data collection, less than half reported using this type of progress monitoring in their classroom, stating several barriers including lack of time and knowledge (Wesson, King & Deno, 1984). One way to affect teacher implementation and behavior change is through different consultation styles, including performance feedback or a commitment emphasis approach. Performance feedback is a widely used and effective method to improve teacher implementation and treatment fidelity (Burns, Peters & Noell, 2008; Sanetti, & Kratochwill, 2009; Solomon, Klein & Politylo, 2012). A commitment emphasis model is a social influence strategy, which also shows continuing support for teacher behavior change (Noell et al. 2005). This study evaluated a strategy for increasing teachers’ completion of the Student Learning Profile (SLP), a curriculum-based student assessment that is administered as part of the Strategies for Teaching based on Autism Research (STAR; Arick, Krug, Loos & Falco, 2004), using a randomized control group design to compare a performance feedback model with a commitment emphasis plus prompt model of consultation. Overall, the study found a significant effect for teacher SLP completion at time-point one for teachers’ in the experimental group using a commitment emphasis model, but less so over time. Implications for researchers, clinicians and educators are also explored. / Special Education

The aim of this qualitative study was to conduct a naturalistic examination of the process of a music therapy group with preverbal individuals on the autistic spectrum. The study involved a music therapy treatment process, based on music-centered music therapy and music psychotherapy, that occurred in 16 sessions over a period of approximately four months. The study investigated the nature of the clinical process, the elements that characterized the intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics of the group, and the way participants engaged with and utilized the music in their intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions. The research design was one originally developed by Smeijsters and Storm (1996) in which the researcher functions in an ongoing consultative role to the therapists as the therapy process proceeds. The study investigated and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Smeijsters and Storm’s (1996) model. The analyses of the 16 sessions revealed that all the studied clients were able to operate, in terms of intra-relationship, according to Greenspan and Wieder’s (2006) first developmental stage: they demonstrated interest, curiosity, and initiative. In terms of inter-relationship, they were able to operate according to Greenspan and Wieder’s (2006) developmental second stage: they engaged and established relationship with others. It was concluded that music had a relevant role in the process of assessing, treating, and evaluating the individuals in the group. / Music Therapy

Perturbations to the upper limb in aiming tasks act to force individuals to modify their movements using online control processes. Individuals are able to successfully counteract these mechanical and perceptual perturbations to accurately acquire a specific target goal. What is less well understood is how individuals self-initiate a change to their trajectory during obstacle avoidance. A series of two studies were conducted to better understand the effects of a visual perturbation when performing two-dimensional sliding aiming movements during a manual obstacle avoidance task when a second set of obstacles appeared unexpectedly along the preferred, optimal trajectory. On each trial, a planned obstacle appeared at 25%, 50% or 75% of the movement amplitude. On some trials, a second set of obstacles appeared early or late in the movement to force participants to make online corrections or adapt their preferred trajectory to successfully reach the specified target. Results revealed that the mere possibility of the unexpected second obstacles influenced the overall trajectory and movement kinematics (i.e., whether that second obstacles appeared or not). Despite performing the movement in the same amount of time, participants executed a more lateral avoidance trajectory and reached higher accelerations later and further into the movement. We suggest that this pattern of behaviour is indicative of an optimal movement strategy such that the potential for an online correction resulted in individuals planning for the worst-case scenario. The presentation of a case-study for an individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) provides insight into potential differences in obstacle avoidance tasks when compared to a matched control. Despite relative differences in execution behaviour, the individual with an ASD successfully completed the task. This provides potential support for the sparing of motor execution processes within this population. Taken together, we suggest that optimal movement strategies may be better defined on a more individual basis. That is, what is optimal for one population might not be optimal for another. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / It is well known that individuals are able to successfully aim to targets in environments that are both predictable and unpredictable. Additionally, these trajectories are successfully modified in the presence of an expected obstacle resulting in a change to the optimal movement to incorporate the location of the obstacle. What is less understood, however, is how individuals respond to the sudden onset of an obstacle along the optimal trajectory. This thesis characterizes these behaviours using a manual obstacle avoidance task wherein obstacles unexpectedly appear to obstruct the preferred movement pathway. The behavioural response to this perturbation is indicative of the performance of more cautious movements, adapted for the worst-case scenario. On average, individuals compromise between the biomechanical and computational demands of the task to execute wide trajectories that do not need to be updated during movement execution, a response that is potentially identified in an autism spectrum population.