Rationale: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with onset prior to the age of three years characterized by qualitative impairments in social interaction and communication skill, along with a restricted repetitive and stereotyped pattern of behavior, interests, and activities. In addition to these core diagnostic features, aberrant sensory responding has also been widely reported in the literature describing children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Aberrant sensory processing has, however, been infrequently studied compared to communication and cognition in autism and existing studies have had multiple methodological deficiencies, especially with sampling procedures. Purpose. The purpose of this study is to describe patterns of sensory processing found in children with an ASD to test the relationship(s) of these patterns to diagnostic and developmental variables. Method. Retrospective data collection was used to collect developmental and sensory processing variables of 400 children with an ASD. Sensory processing abilities were measured by the SSP. Results. The majority of the sample (80.5%) had a diagnosis of autism. The average age of the sample was 49.58 months. The adaptive, social, language, and motor developmental variables were consistent with diagnostic patterns in that the children with Asperger Disorder demonstrated higher developmental levels than the children with autism and PDD-NOS. Eighty-nine percent of the sample demonstrated some degree of sensory processing dysfunction on the SSP Total Score with the greatest difficulties reported on the Underresponsive/Seeks Sensation, Auditory Filtering, and Tactile Sensitivity sections. Exploratory factor analysis identified 6 parsimonious factors: Low Energy/Weak, Tactile and Movement Sensitivity, Taste/Smell Sensitivity, Auditory and Visual Sensitivity, Sensory Seeking/Distractibility, and Hypo-responsivity. These factor variables contributed to explaining the differences in five of six developmental variables of the sample that are associated with the diagnosis of autism. Receptive language, adaptive and expressive language performance were significantly correlated with sensory processing factor scores. Conclusions. Together, the sensory processing findings noted in this study describe a pattern of dysfunctional sensory modulation. These findings have significant implications for intervention programs involving individuals with an ASD, given the potential impact of these findings on a childs ability to maintain active engagement.

This study investigates the effects of implementing Collaborative Strategic Reading–High School (CSR–HS) on reading comprehension and challenging behavior outcomes for three high school students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Using a combined single subject research design consisting of a delayed, concurrent multiple-baseline and an alternating treatments with reversal, three high school students with ASD were paired with neurotypical reading partners to learn and use reading strategies with informational text two to three times per week. The alternating treatment conditions were CSR-HS with choice of text (i.e., CSR-HS-C) and CSR-HS without the opportunity to choose the reading text (i.e., CSR-HS-NC). Daily comprehension checks were collected and visually inspected along with data on occurrences of various challenging behaviors exhibited by each participant during intervention. Fidelity of implementation was also measured. Increased reading comprehension scores and decreased incidences of challenges behaviors were detected for the three participants upon implementation of intervention conditions. As for the influence of the choice component on the measured outcomes, no clear differentiation between conditions was observed in terms of reading comprehension gains and reduction in challenging behavior across the three participants, suggesting that the addition of choice did not show an added value to CSR-HS intervention. / text

This study investigated the effects of anaphoric cuing on the reading comprehension of 17 adolescent students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 19 typically developing (TD) students matched on age, intellectual ability and word decoding ability. In a within-subject design, participants read four Chinese passages of two types (narrative fictional vs. narrative nonfictional) under two conditions (control [reading only] vs. anaphoric cuing). The ASD group showed significantly poorer reading comprehension than the TD group in the control condition. Contrary to prediction, anaphoric cuing produced a hindrance effect rather than facilitation effect on the reading comprehension performance of both groups. Correlation analysis showed different patterns between ASD and TD groups in the relationship between the ability to resolve anaphora and comprehension of the two types of passages. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Previous research has been interested in studying parental emotion socialization practices in parents of typically developing (TD) children. The current study aimed to explore such practices among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Seventy-eight families participated in this study. Self-reported rating scales were adopted to measure the child's social competence, parenting stress and maternal emotional styles. As hypothesized, results showed significantly different patterns in maternal emotional styles between mothers of children with ASD and those with TD children. However, inconsistent to our hypothesis, the maternal emotional styles were found to be neither related to child's social competence nor parenting stress within the ASD group. Implications of findings on future research and practice are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The current study examined anxiety and its observable correlates in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) across a broad range of levels of cognitive functioning that in the past have not been accurately explored. I sought to challenge the assumption that there is a positive linear relationship between anxiety and level of cognitive functioning by including individuals across a broad range of cognitive functioning in my analyses, and by developing a measure (The Somatic Anxiety Scale) appropriate for assessing anxiety symptoms in children with little to no communicative functioning. Sixty-seven parents of children with ASD aged 5 to 12 completed a battery of measures in an online study assessing their child’s anxiety, repetitive behaviours, sensory processing issues, and adaptive functioning. The Somatic Anxiety Scale was significantly correlated with an existing measure of anxiety designed for verbal children (when only highly verbal children were assessed), suggesting that it may provide a foundation to develop a measure of anxiety symptoms in non-verbal individuals. No clear predictive relationship was observed between level of cognitive functioning and anxiety. Both lower and higher-order repetitive behaviours predicted anxiety, although higher-order behaviours were more predictive. Finally, a cluster analysis indicated three patterns of anxious behaviour divided across three categorizations of level of functioning. I suggest that previous assumptions about the relationship between level of cognitive functioning and anxiety may be underestimating the complexity of the relationship and suggest future research to study this relationship further. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2013-10-30 10:25:56.049

Research on the neural bases of cognitive deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has shown that working memory (WM) difficulties are associated with abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex. However, few studies have examined the impact of cognitive load on WM and its neural underpinnings in children and adolescents. We used fMRI and an n-back task with four levels of difficulty to compare the cortical activation patterns associated with WM in children with and without ASD across cognitive load. Findings revealed impaired modulated activity as a function of cognitive load in prefrontal and parietal cortices in children with ASD relative to typical controls. Results suggest that children with ASD rely mainly on posterior brain regions associated with lower-level visual processing, whereas controls showed activity in frontal lobes related to the classic WM network. Findings will help guide future longitudinal work by localizing areas of vulnerability to developmental disturbances.

Research on the neural bases of cognitive deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has shown that working memory (WM) difficulties are associated with abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex. However, few studies have examined the impact of cognitive load on WM and its neural underpinnings in children and adolescents. We used fMRI and an n-back task with four levels of difficulty to compare the cortical activation patterns associated with WM in children with and without ASD across cognitive load. Findings revealed impaired modulated activity as a function of cognitive load in prefrontal and parietal cortices in children with ASD relative to typical controls. Results suggest that children with ASD rely mainly on posterior brain regions associated with lower-level visual processing, whereas controls showed activity in frontal lobes related to the classic WM network. Findings will help guide future longitudinal work by localizing areas of vulnerability to developmental disturbances.

The purpose of the study isto,based on network theory, systems theory and development ecological systems theory,understand parent’sexperiences of having children with autismspectrum, as well as understand the importance of social networksfor the parents. All of the intervieweeswere mothers. The results showed that it is important to parentsto have contact with other parents who are in the same situation as them. Many of the interviewees had a small social network. The parents have tostruggle to get the support they are entitled to and thereforetheyfeel likethe "annoying" parent. Some of the parents felt that they are socially isolated and do not have the energy to maintain asocial life. In some cases,thesurrounding had a lack of patience and understanding for the families with children with autismspectrumand the family did not have the energy to keep in touch with them.The resultsalso showed that all the interviewees have previously had difficulties in the cooperation with the school butithas slowly gotten better, which may be because the mothers have to be the "annoying" parents who require their rights to theirchildren.

Denna uppsats handlar om personer med neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar (NPF) som det finns en pågående samhällsdebatt kring (Lundälv 2013). Syftet med studien var att förstå hur personer med gruppen hanterar eventuella svårigheter i vardagen. Där ville vi bland annat urskilja om det fanns resultat som tydde på strategier, som personer med gruppen använder sig av för att kunna dölja eller anpassa sina funktionsnedsättningar i samhället och i sådana fall vilka. Som metod använde vi en hermeneutisk utgångspunkt där vi hämtade empiri från bloggar skrivna av personer som finns i målgruppen. Som teori använde vi oss av Lazaruz & Lazarus (2006) copingstrategier. Vi tematiserade vårt resultat och analys utifrån de två olika huvudkategorierna i coping, problemfokuserad och känslofokuserad coping. Under problemfokuserad coping tematiserade vi det utifrån copingstrategierna planering, söka information, söka och finna lösningar, konfrontera, ventilera och prioritera. Under känslofokuserad coping tematiserade vi det utifrån copingstrategierna distansera, förneka, undvika, känna uppgivenhet och ventilera. Vi framställde vårt resultat och analys gemensamt efter vardera copingstrategi. Vi kom fram till att de använder sig av strategier som de i vissa fall kanske inte ens är medvetna om och att det var enkelt att koppla det till copingteorin. I slutdiskussionen kopplade vi ihop vårt resultat med den tidigare forskning där vi jämförde om tidigare forskning styrkte vårt resultat vilket den främst gjorde. Undantaget var främst att Bussing och Mehtas (2013) studie visade på existerande stigmatisering av ungdomar med ADHD vilket vi inte hittade mycket i bloggarna om. / This paper is about people with neuropsychiatric disorders, NEPRC, which we have seen is an ongoing public debate in Sweden and many other countries(Lundälv 2013). The purpose of the study is to understand how people with neuropsychiatric disabilities manage difficulties in their everyday life. We wanted to distinguish whether there were any results which suggested strategies that people with NEPRC uses to hide or adapt their disabilities in society. As method we used a hermeneutical research were we got our empirical data from blogs written by people with a NEPRC. As theory, we used Lazaruz & Lazarus(2006) coping strategies. We themed our results and analysis divided in the two main categories of coping: problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. In problem-focused coping, we themed the result and analysis in the coping strategies planning, sought information, sought and found solutions, confronted, ventilated and prioritized. During emotional focused coping, we themed the coping strategies in distance, deny, avoid, feel despair and ventilate. We produced our results and analysis together by each coping strategy. We came to the conclusion that we were able to see that the people we used in our study uses strategies, which they may not be aware of in some cases, and it was easy to bind it to the theory of coping. In the discussion we connected our results with previous researches in which we compared the results of our study if it confirmed each other or not, which it mainly did. The exception was Bussing´s and Mehta´s (2013) study which showed the existing stigmatization of adolescents with ADHD, which we did not find much from the bloggers that confirmed it.

Selective eating (SE) refers to an individual narrowing their range of preferred foods, resulting in a restricted food intake, high levels of rigidity and food refusal (Bryant-Waugh, 2000). SE is encompassed in the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition (DSM-V) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) category avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). Such difficulties are common in children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Raiten & Massaro, 1986) and neuropsychological differences have been found in children with ASD (Hill, 2004). This research aimed to be the first to investigate whether a distinct neuropsychological profile exists in children and adolescents with SE and furthermore, whether aspects of the profile vary depending on whether the child or adolescent displays elevated autistic traits. A case series of 10 children between the ages of 8 to 13 years old were recruited. A well-established neuropsychological test battery, the Ravello Profile (Rose, Frampton & Lask, 2012), was modified and administered to assess visuospatial processing, central coherence, executive functions (including cognitive flexibility, inhibition and planning) and theory of mind abilities. The results demonstrated a high degree of variability across the group in terms of visuospatial processing and theory of mind, weak central coherence across all participants and otherwise relatively intact abilities in executive function domains. There were no substantive findings in relation to those children with elevated autistic traits although a trend toward visuospatial processing differences did emerge. This exploratory case series was the first attempt to describe a neuropsychological profile in SE, however the small sample size and high variability in the data meant that a distinct neuropsychological profile did not emerge. The results did however provide an initial indication of possible trends in strengths and weaknesses across neuropsychological domains in SE. These findings have implications for the assessment and treatment of SE difficulties.