Examining responses to violations of communication may provide insight into children’s communicative competencies not apparent during reciprocal interactions. In this study, the caregivers of 18-month-old typically developing children, 30-month-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and 30-month-old children with Down syndrome followed our suggestion to playfully violate communication with their children in two contexts: requesting and social interacting. Caregivers of children with ASD made fewer bids and violations, which their children accepted less often than typically developing children; they also used instrumental behaviors more often when responding. Children with Down syndrome responded to their caregivers similarly to typically developing children, and used more high-level communicative behaviors in the requesting, versus social interacting, context. This study highlights the bidirectional nature of parent-child interactions, and suggests that violations of communication may serve as a “press” to elicit child behaviors not present during reciprocal communication.

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.

Oral health problems have been a major public health concern profoundly affecting people’s general health and quality of life. Given that oral health data is composed of several measurable dimensions including clinical measurements, socio-behavioral factors, genetic predispositions, self-reported assessments, and quality of life measures, strategies for analyzing multidimensional data are neither computationally straightforward nor efficient. Researchers face major challenges to identify tools that circumvent the processes of manually probing the data. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide applications of the proposed methodology on oral health-related data that go beyond identifying risk factors from a single dimension, and to describe large-scale datasets in a natural intuitive manner. The three specific applications focus on the utilization of 1) classification regression tree (CART) to understand the multidimensional factors associated with untreated decay in childhood, 2) network analyses and network plots to describe connectedness of concurrent co-morbid conditions for pediatric patients with autism receiving dental treatments under general anesthesia, and 3) random forests in addition to conventional adjusted main effects analyses to identify potential environmental risk factors and interactive effects for periodontitis. Compared to findings from the previous literature, the use of these innovative applications demonstrates overlapping findings as well as novel discoveries to the oral health knowledge. The results of this research not only illustrate that these data mining techniques can be used to improve the delivery of information into knowledge, but also provide new avenues for future decision making and planning for oral health-care management.

Children with autism spectrum disorders typically experience language deficits in multiple areas, including form, content, and use. These children often receive speech therapy with individual sessions (one child and clinician), group sessions (several children), or a combination of both. Although research has deemed individual therapy successful, there is still debate regarding the success of group therapy, and there is virtually no literature examining a comparison between individual and group therapy. The current case-study investigated the relative effectiveness of individual versus group therapy for one six-year-old female with moderate autism spectrum disorder. The child underwent ten alternating therapy sessions of similar structure with consistent language targets during one academic semester. All sessions were transcribed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) conventions, and analyzed via the SALT program and Microsoft Excel t-tests. Results indicate that individual sessions yielded larger improvement with syntax and semantics, while group sessions produced greater progress with pragmatics and social skills, suggesting that a combination of both therapy types may be most beneficial. Social validation of group therapy also signified high parent satisfaction with overall growth during the semester. Implications of this study, as well as recommendations for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

This study examines the impact of raising a child with an autism spectrum disorder on relationship quality using the double ABCX model of adjustment and adaptation. Respondents (N = 126) recruited through Autism Society listervs completed online surveys designed to measure three factors of relationship quality: satisfaction, positive perceptions, and negative perceptions. Results from hierarchical multiple regression models indicate that the double ABCX model accounted for 47% of variance in satisfaction, 72% in positive perceptions, and 50% in negative perceptions, for predicting the quality of couple relationships. Implications for clinicians working with couples are discussed, such as the need for treatment that focuses on stress management and increasing support through affectionate, emotional, tangible, and social interactions.

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders often do not respond to common pedagogical strategies and traditional in vivo teaching approaches. From my observations, students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders learn best when material is presented through technology. Based on the information found in the literature review and personal observations from working with students with special needs, when students with Autism Spectrum Disorders receive video based instruction by watching recorded art lessons, they may learn to develop artistic skills and retain more art content knowledge with greater success than through traditional teaching methods. The purpose of this research study is to test the hypothesis that video based teaching methods can improve the learning of students with autism in a series of art lessons.

This thesis discusses epistemological and ethical issues in classifi cation and diagnosisof psychiatric conditions, and briefly discusses realism about psychiatric conditions. I use autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as a case study to examine whether the explanatory and predictive power of classi fication and diagnosis could be improved if psychiatry adopts a cause-based framework in place of a symptom-based framework. However, there is signifi cant debate regarding the sort of explanatory pattern that will adequately represent the complex causation involved in psychiatric conditions. I develop a preliminary list of criteria for adequate explanatory patterns in psychiatry, and use these criteria to analyze explanations of ASD. I show that explanatory patterns unable to meet these criteria limit the validity and reliability of diagnosis. However, I argue that an integrated pattern that includes biological, cognitive and social levels of explanation may meet the criteria. Thus, diagnosis of ASD could improve if psychiatry adopted a cause-based framework informed by an intergrated explanation pattern. More accurate diagnosis of ASD may allow earlier access to Intensive Behaviourial Intervention/Applied Behavioural Analysis treatment programs, which may increase the effectiveness of this treatment and reduce the amount of resources individuals with ASD require from governments over their lifespans. Explaining these conditions using an integrated pattern of explanation can further challenge myths regarding the causes of ASD, and may provide support for Canadian lawsuits petitioning for expanded public funding of IBI/ABA programs.

This is a mixed-methods study investigating parental satisfaction and wait times as parents inquire about an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis for their child in a Northern Ontario community. Satisfaction and wait times of those diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by a single practitioner were compared to satisfaction and wait times of those diagnosed by the multidisciplinary assessment team in the Sudbury/Manitoulin region (the Autism Diagnostic Team; ADT). No significant differences were noted between groups on satisfaction or wait times. However, ADT group received much more consistent service, with less variation in wait times between clients, and more consistent provision of comprehensive services prior to the diagnostic meeting. Points of interest are noted for practitioners including increased wait times for parents of children with milder forms of ASD and for girls. No differences in wait time or satisfaction were noted between language groups. Content analysis of the qualitative interviews representing mainly single practitioners saw the emergence of themes including difficulty activating the assessment process, concerns regarding the wait, and appointment demands. The importance of professional expertise, empathy, and respectful communication also emerged. Parents felt the experience was deeply distressing and they often experienced abandonment following the diagnostic process. Additionally, parents whose children did not receive a diagnosis often felt confusion about what to do next. Reducing wait times, increasing professional expertise, completing comprehensive assessments, and using truly interdisciplinary teams should continue to be the focus of service improvements that may translate into improved satisfaction.

Young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience significant delays in their fundamental motor skills (FMS) yet, FMS are virtually ignored in the intervention literature as traditional therapies focus on the core challenges in the social, communicative, and behavioural domains. This study sought to examine the effectiveness of a FMS intervention at improving the motor skills, adaptive behaviour, and social skills of 4 year old children with ASD. Motor Outcomes (Manuscript 1): Results demonstrated significant improvements in motor skills following the intervention; these improvements were retained at the 6-week follow-up. Adaptive Behaviour and Social Skill Outcomes (Manuscript 2): Results demonstrated individual gains in adaptive behaviour and social skills; although no significant group improvements were found. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that a FMS intervention can be effective at improving motor skills, and may result in individual behavioural improvements. These findings warrant further research with a larger sample.

Children with autism spectrum disorder show imaginative and representational drawing deficits, despite reports of a “visual thinking style”. I examined whether these two drawing characteristics could be explained by the unique cognitive style of children with autism (specifically, executive dysfunction and a local processing bias). I administered a cognitive/drawing task battery to a group of 24 school-age children with autism and 29 mental age-matched neurotypically developing controls. I expected that better executive function ability would be associated with better imaginative and representational drawing, and that a local processing bias (weak central coherence) would be associated with better representational drawing but worse imaginative drawing. In children with autism, better executive function was associated with better imaginative drawing. Greater central coherence was associated with better representational drawing, but executive function was associated with worse representational drawing. Underlying cognitive components of imaginative and representational drawing were different for the neurotypically developing children. Overall, findings were unexpected, leading to novel theoretical suggestions for the field of autism cognition and drawing research. / Graduate / 0620 / 0623 / kd.teneycke@gmail.com