No description available.

<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.

Social impairments characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are evident in early childhood and often worsen as an individual matures (Rao, Beidel, and Murray, 2008). Despite the emphasis on early intervention and caregiver training, few evidence-based interventions explicitly address the development of social skills in preschool-aged children with ASD (DeRosier, Swick, Davis, McMillen, and Matthews, 2011; Reichow and Volkmar, 2010) and none appear to actively integrate caregivers into treatment (Reichow, Steiner, and Volkmar, 2012). Research indicates that generalization beyond a social skills group setting might occur by including caregivers (DeRosier et al., 2011). The PEERS® program is an evidence-based caregiver-assisted social skills program for adolescents and young adults (Laugeson and Frankel, 2010) that has recently been extended for preschoolers with ASD. An initial randomized controlled trial (RCT) indicated benefits from the PEERS® for Preschoolers (P4P) program, but did not examine caregiver or family outcomes. Researchers also suggest a bidirectional effect in which the family system is impacted by the child with ASD and in turn, the child with ASD is also affected by the family (Karst and Van Hecke, 2012). This study examined the P4P curriculum with 15 children with ASD and their caregivers and examined feasibility of the intervention as well as child social skills, caregiver competency, confidence, and parenting skills in working with their child, and family functioning in the context of the P4P intervention. Results suggest the feasibility of proof concept of applying the P4P curriculum to young children with ASD and their caregivers. Specifically, this 16-session intervention appears to improve social skills scores in children with ASD, which is maintained 4-6 weeks after treatment, increased scores were noted in caregiver confidence interacting with their children, as well as improved scores in their affect/animation and achievement orientation in interaction styles with their child, and noted improvements in their parenting styles overall score. Therefore, this intervention may have an impact both the child and caregiver in positive ways and these positive results are largely maintained at a follow-up after intervention completion. Future research will need to focus more on the entire family unit, as no changes were noted in the present study, and should examine the specific mechanisms that lead to these positive results regarding child social skills and caregiver interaction styles and confidence. Additionally, more work that adds to making P4P an evidence-based treatment must be at the forefront of future work. / Doctor of Philosophy / Social difficulties (e.g., initiating and/or maintaining social interactions, using and/or interpreting verbal and nonverbal social communication, such as eye contact or gestures, understanding others' thoughts and emotions) characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are evident in early childhood and often worsen as an individual matures (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004; Frith, 2004; Rao, Beidel, and Murray, 2008). Despite the emphasis on early intervention or treatment for individuals with ASD and caregiver (e.g., parent, grandparent, etc.) training, few evidence-based interventions exist that purposefully address the development of social skills in preschool-aged children (DeRosier, Swick, Davis, McMillen, and Matthews, 2011; Reichow and Volkmar, 2010) and none appear to actively involve caregivers in treatment (Reichow, Steiner, and Volkmar, 2012). Research indicates that generalization beyond a social skills group setting might occur by including caregivers (DeRosier et al., 2011). The PEERS® program is an evidence-based caregiver-assisted social skills program for adolescents and young adults (Laugeson and Frankel, 2010) that has recently been extended for preschoolers with ASD. An initial randomized controlled trial (RCT) indicated benefits from the PEERS® for Preschoolers (P4P) program, but did not examine caregiver or family outcomes. Researchers also suggest that there is often an effect on the entire family unit of a child with ASD, which in turn has an impact on the child with ASD (Karst and Van Hecke, 2012). This study examined the P4P curriculum with 15 children with ASD and their caregivers, and examined feasibility of the intervention as well as child social skills, caregiver competency, confidence, and parenting skills in interacting with their child, and family functioning in the context of the P4P intervention. Results suggest that this 16-session intervention appears to improve social skills scores in children with ASD, and these improved scores are largely maintained 4-6 weeks after treatment. Increased scores were also noted in caregiver confidence in interacting with their children as well as in their affect/animation and achievement orientation in interaction styles, and may also improve their parenting style scores overall. Therefore, this intervention may have an impact on both the child and caregiver in positive ways. Future research should address the entire family unit, as no changes were noted in the present study, and should also examine the specific factors that lead to these positive results, as further research adds to P4P becoming an evidence-based treatment.

One of the core features of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), social communication impairment, presents in a variety of ways, including reduced functional language use and social initiations, which often warrant intensive intervention services. Additionally, parents of children with ASD demonstrate increased levels of parenting stress when compared to parents of typically developing children and children with developmental delays (Hayes and Watson, 2013). Elevated parenting stress has been shown to diminish positive treatment outcomes (Osborne et al., 2008), which lends support to develop methodologies to concomitantly target child and parent behaviors. The current randomized control trial (RCT) uses a dual-pronged approach to directly target both child communication deficits and parenting stress within a group format. This RCT combined an empirically supported behavioral therapy, Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), with components from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindful Parenting for reducing parenting stress. Fifteen pairs of caregivers and their minimally or pre-verbal child with diagnosed or suspected ASD were randomly assigned to one of the following supplemental conditions: mindfulness-enhanced PRT (mPRT; n = 8) or psychoeducation-enhanced PRT (pPRT; n = 7) as an active control condition. Of these, five pairs completed each condition. The current study assessed feasibility and acceptability in addition to demonstrating proof of concept in regard to additive effects of mPRT compared to pPRT. Results provided mixed support for feasibility and efficacy of a multi-component group treatment approach. There was a low retention rate and the small sample sizes significantly decreased power. However, parents endorsed high satisfaction, demonstrated fidelity of PRT implementation, and children significantly increased their expressive language abilities. In regard to group-level analyses for primary and exploratory aims, the mPRT group showed significant decreases in parenting stress and increases in mindfulness. At the individual level, some parents in both groups showed positive changes in mindfulness, positive feelings toward child, and child problem behavior. Future directions should continue to explore the additive effects of mindfulness-based intervention on group-based parent-mediated treatments using larger sample sizes. / Doctor of Philosophy / Social communication difficulties are one of the core components of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and many treatments are specifically designed to target these challenges. Additionally, parents of children with ASD report higher levels of parenting stress when compared to parents of typically developing children and children with developmental delays (Hayes & Watson, 2013). High parenting stress has been shown to decrease the likelihood of positive treatment outcomes (Osborne et al., 2008). As a result, creating a treatment that targets both parent and child difficulties simultaneously may lead to important outcomes for the family unit. The current study combined treatments that have been shown to increase child language and decrease parenting stress. Fifteen pairs of caregivers and their child with language delays and ASD were randomly assigned (i.e., similar to a flip of a coin) to receive Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) and one of the following: mindfulness (mPRT; n = 8) or psychoeducation (pPRT; n = 7). Ten total families completed the treatment (5 per group). The current study measured the practicality and usefulness of adding either mindfulness or psychoeducation to PRT. Results provided mixed support for the practicality of a group treatment approach that combined two treatments. Approximately two-thirds of the families who started treatment finished treatment. The parents who completed treatment showed high satisfaction ratings and demonstrated that they could accurately perform the treatment techniques taught in group sessions. In addition, children increased their language abilities. Parents in the mindfulness group showed significant decreases in parenting stress and increases in mindfulness. At the individual level, some parents in both groups showed positive changes in mindfulness, positive feelings toward child, and child problem behavior. Future directions include measuring these changes with a larger number of families.

Perception of moral violations and people’s misbehaviours are crucial elements that allow people to live in the society. The literature suggested that both explicit and implicit processes are involved in the moral cognition (Cameron et al., 2012). However still nowadays, the majority of the literature focused only on the explicit aspects of morality, while scarce attention was given to the study of implicit moral attitudes (Cameron et al., 2018). Furthermore, researchers on morality are currently attracting by the investigation of moral cognition in people with impairments in social cognition (e.g., people with autism spectrum disorder; ASD) who may process the moral violations differently compared neurotypical people (see e.g., Gallese, 2006), However, this line of research is at the beginning stage, and the use of implicit measures to understand the mechanisms underpinning the morality in autism (or in people with high autistic traits) have not yet been considered in previous studies. The present dissertation aimed to investigate important aspects of moral cognition that currently are still under-investigated in literature, offering a wider view on implicit aspects of morality in autism. Through six experiments, this work wanted to provide new empirical findings concerning the implicit mechanisms underpinning moral cognition in both neurotypical and autistic people without intellectual disability. Experiment 1 and 2 According to Moral Foundation Theory (Graham et al., 2013) specific emotions are associated to different types of moral violations. For instance, when people perceive that a victim is physically or emotionally harmed by someone else, they feel anger against the perpetrator. By contrast, people feel disgust when they perceive that someone ate inedible food or made blasphemous practices (Haidt et al., 1993). However, empirical finding that assessed the link between different types of moral violations and specific emotions showed mixed results. Indeed, it was suggested that other important factors might also modulate the relations between different moral violations and emotions (Atari et al., 2020; Kemper &amp; Newheiser, 2018). Specifically, the benign violation hypothesis (McGraw &amp; Warren, 2010) claimed that sometimes people could perceive moral violations as amusing, and this specific emotion seems elicited by specific contextual (e.g., psychological distance) as well as interpersonal factors (e.g., humor traits). However, previous studies never tested whether people perceive amusement in response to all types of moral violation, or whether amusement emerged only in response to specific norm violations (e.g., purity violations). Furthermore recently, Dempsey and colleagues (2020a) emphasized the importance to test the assumptions of Moral Foundation Theory in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Interviewing six autistic participants, the authors found that the participants endorsed all moral domains as morally relevant. However, the relations between emotional reaction and moral domains in autism have never been tested, as well as whether autistic people perceive moral violations as benign and amusing. In the first two experiments of this thesis, it was assessed the amusement reaction in response to different types of moral violations (purity vs. harm) and extending such investigation involving a group of autistic participants. Furthermore, the studies conducted so far on moral cognition has prevalently used explicit methodology. By contrast, in these experiments it was assessed the emotional reaction in response to different types of moral violations analysing the spontaneous facial expressions in neurotypical people (experiment 1), and the cardiac response of both typical and autistic individuals (experiment 2). The aim of these experiments was to investigate whether neurotypical people perceive specific types of moral violations as benign and amusing, and then whether autistic people expressed different emotions compared neurotypical people in response to different types of moral violations. Experiment 3, 4 and 5 As opposite of Moral Foundation Theory, the Dyadic Model claimed that a sine qua non for moral perception is the implicit activation of harm (Gray et al., 2012). In other words, always immorality automatically activates perceptions of harm regardless of someone is harmed (acts which involve physical and emotional damage; harm violations) or not (i.e., acts which involve impure and degradation behaviour; purity violations). Indeed, empirical evidence suggested that, during the reading of a scenario depicting a harmless moral violation in the domain of purity, people nevertheless implicitly infer that harm was involved. Across three experiments, we tested whether ostensibly harmless moral violations activated implicitly the harm concept. In all these three experiments the participants’ implicit attitude in response to moral violations was tested by using the affective misattribution paradigm (AMP; Payne et al., 2014), which is one of the most reliable methods to assess individual unconscious mental processes in psychology (Znanewitz et al., 2018). Specifically, Experiment 3 aimed to replicate previous findings which highlighted the implicit role of harm in response to harmless moral violations (Gray et al., 2014). Experiment 4 extended previous results with an investigation aimed to verify whether people with high autistic traits showed less implicit activation of harm in response to harmless scenarios than people with low autistic traits. Finally, Experiment 5 aimed to investigate whether autistic people (without intellectual disability) implicitly activated the harm concept in response to harmless scenarios as well as neurotypicals. Experiment 6 The majority of the studies which investigated the moral cognition in autism started to the premise that autistic people have a selective impairment in Theory of Mind (ToM; Moran et al., 2011), which is also a fundamental skill to understand the moral behaviours (e.g., Hamlin, 2015). However, the literature is far to show the role of Theory of Mind in the moral processing. Recently, it was suggested that ToM is a cognitive skill that involves both explicit and implicit processes (e.g., Southgate et al., 2007). The born of new implicit measures to assess the ToM brought an initial enthusiasm in this area of study. For instance, studies on clinical psychology, using both explicit and implicit ToM measures in order to understand selective ToM difficulties by autistic individuals without intellectual disability showed that, although this population presented high performance to explicit ToM tasks, they showed lower performance in the newer implicit ToM tasks compared to neurotypical participants (e.g., Schuwerk et al., 2015; Senju et al., 2009). Late unfortunately, these interesting results were put into question by other studies, which argued against the reliability of these new implicit measures (Kulke et al., 2018b). Moreover, another important gap in implicit ToM literature was that, while previous models in developmental psychology and psychopathology have suggested a link between attachment and the development of ToM, the relationship between attachment and implicit ToM has been so far neglected. In this experiment, we assessed both implicit and explicit mental state attribution, by means of a new implicit ToM task, as well as some attachment dimensions, comparing a group of autistic participants, without intellectual disability, and a control group. Specifically, in this experiment it was investigated participants’ spontaneous anticipatory look in response to false beliefs tasks using the eye-tracking methodology (one of the most used implicit ToM paradigms in literature). This study aimed to investigate the Theory of Mind (ToM) at both explicit and implicit level (Southgate et al., 2007), investigating possible differences between neurotypical individuals and autistic people. Furthermore, in the same study it was also investigated the link between the participants’ attachment and the explicit and implicit ToM skills. Moral cognition is a complex object of study that should be investigated with a multi-dimensional approach. In the experiments described in this thesis it was proposed a combined methodology that allowed to gather both explicit and implicit cognitive and emotional mechanisms that stay at the root of the moral judgment. Thanks to this approach it was found that deliberate and involuntary processes did not present convergent responses in the moral cognition of participants. Indeed, self-reported emotions seem to show divergent responses compared to the spontaneous facial expressions and the cardiac response to moral violations. These results support extant literature that raises concerns about the intuitionist assumptions of the moral cognition based on the assessment of only explicit responses of participants (e.g., Gutierrez &amp; Giner-Sorolla, 2007; Nosek, 2007). Furthermore, this thesis highlighted the importance of studying the moral cognition in people affected by the autism spectrum disorder. Despite the social impairments that this neurodevelopmental disorder presents, we found that autistic people with cognitive level in average with the typical population, did not show any differences compared to the control group in both explicit and implicit mechanisms of moral cognition. These interesting findings may bring important theoretical reflections in moral and clinical psychology.