This project sought to determine the utility in using either, or both, of two instruments to diagnose autism, the CARS (Childhood Autism Rating Scale) and the ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule), Modules 1 or 2. Children (n=320) who were seen in the autism diagnostic clinics at the Developmental Disabilities Center of the Kansas University Medical Center, who were under the age of 72 months (6 years), and who had been evaluated with both instruments were chosen as participants in this study. Those children who received the diagnosis of autism after being evaluated numbered 220; 100 received another or no diagnosis. Three levels of data analysis were conducted in this study. The first level included developing item-item correlation matrices for each instrument that was then compared to those in the original, normed study for internal consistency. Results indicated good internal consistency. At the second level, a factor analysis was conducted on each instrument that resulted in weighted factor scores and a correlation matrix of factors for each instrument. Factor analyses resulted in three factors identified for the CARS, two factors for ADOS, Module 1, and three factors for ADOS, Module 2. These factors are consistent with the criteria currently used for the diagnosis of autism. The third level of analysis utilized chi square and stepwise discriminant analysis to predict group membership (autism or no autism) with each instrument. From these results, it was concluded that both instruments are similar in their ability to diagnose autism, although they may be measuring somewhat different factors. Closer examination revealed that communication difficulty is the factor that most closely distinguished autism for this group of children. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. / "July 2005."

In recent years, autism diagnoses have steadily increased, putting a substantial emphasis on early identification as a crucial component for intervention. Autism diagnoses, however, often require a thorough and comprehensive assessment from a highly trained practitioner. Although ideal, such assessments are often time consuming and expensive, creating a need for a quicker, more simplistic method of screening for autism. Clinicians customarily used behavior rating scales to identify a number of various problem behaviors and/or disorders. The purpose of the present study is to examine the utility of two common behavior rating scales in accurately discriminating between a group of preschoolers with autism and a group of referred preschoolers with autism. Parents/guardians of 74 preschoolers with and without autism, who had been referred to a child development clinic due to behavioral or developmental concerns, completed both behavior rating scales as part of a comprehensive assessment. Although analyses revealed significant differences between the two groups of participants on two of the scales from one of the instruments, these findings demonstrate little clinical value for screening purposes.

The present study examined inter-rater agreement on the Anxiety Disorder Interview Schedule DSM-IV Child and Parent Interview (ADIS-IV-C/P) in youth with autism spectrum disorder and if age and ASD diagnosis moderated agreement. Diagnoses established for 70 7-16-year-old youth with ASD during a live administration of the ADIS-IV-C/P were compared to diagnoses identified by a second rater after listening to audiotaped recordings of the interviews. Inter-rater agreement on parent and child reports was excellent (k=1.00). Inter-rater agreement on principal diagnoses (k=0.91), individual anxiety diagnoses (k=0.85-0.97), and other comorbid diagnoses (i.e., major depressive disorder, dysthymia, oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder-Inattention/Hyperactivity/Combined Type) (0.89-1.00) were excellent; agreement did not differ as a function of ASD diagnosis or age. Results suggest that the anxiety disorders and comorbid disorders assessed by the ADIS-IV-C/P can be diagnosed by pairs of clinicians with good reliability.

[Truncated abstract] There are few existing screening instruments designed to identify Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) at an early age, such as the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT) and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT). Unfortunately, many are limited in their ability to identify children at risk in the first two years of life while displaying an acceptable level of reliability. Given this limitation, the present study aimed to identify any additional early markers of ASD from either the retrospective analysis of early autistic symptomatology (parental report and video analysis of footage made before the diagnosis) or performance-based measures linked to different theoretical accounts of ASD. Specifically, measures addressing theory of mind, executive dysfunction and weak central coherence were developed. In the first study, parents of three groups of children those of typical development (n = 19, mean CA = 26 months), children with an ASD (n = 39, mean CA = 34 months) and children with developmental delay (n = 14, mean CA = 28 months) were interviewed about their child's early development. In the first study, parents of three groups of children those of typical development (n = 19, mean CA = 26 months), children with an ASD (n = 39, mean CA = 34 months) and children with developmental delay (n = 14, mean CA = 28 months) were interviewed about their child's early development. Several behaviours discriminated children with ASD from children with typical development and children with delayed development. ... A discriminant function analysis using the two factor scores indicated that Factor 1 discriminated the ADI-R groups, while Factor 2 scores did not add to the ability of Factor 1 scores to discriminate the ADI-R groups. Furthermore, while the finding that joint attention behaviours differentiated children with ASD from children with typical development and children with delayed development, more research is needed to determine if this impairment is a precursor of a theory of mind deficit or if this impairment and later appearing impairments in theory of mind are the result of a more global impairment in social-emotional approach behaviours. Additional research is also needed to determine the relationship between the early appearing deficits in joint attention and the impairments in social relating behaviours that appear to develop later in the chronology of ASD development and how both of these relate to the theory of mind hypothesis of ASD.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:40:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana da Silva Lozano Pires.pdf: 409772 bytes, checksum: 81d037638adb091db33dd7aaf8fdeb7f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-12 / Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) is an enduring and persistent behavior disorder, in which its individuals present a diminished quality in communication and social interaction, restricted behavior patterns as well as presence of stereotypes and mannerisms (WHO, 1993; APA, 1995). For a good future development of an individual with PDD, early intervention is needed. Such is many times impaired by Brazil s lack of information and difficulty in a precocious diagnosis. This project s goal was to search via internet what kind of information is found in the main Brazilian privet and public institutions and analyze the quality of this data for posterior elaboration of a web site map containing valid information that can elucidate patients, family members and professionals making use of this source. A complete research on public and privet web sites of PDD specialists indicated institutions and subsequent analyzes of their content took place in order to trace how the matter was treated in each web site. The information found on public institution web sites presented reduced information on PDD. Privet institution web sites displayed more appropriate information in the elucidation of questions regarding the matter, specially those of institutions who exclusively work with PDD patients. With this in mind, one can conclude that public institution web sites require an upgrade of content. An alternative for such would be the establishment of partnerships with universities and PDD specialized institutions. Privet institutions, specially those working with a greater number of deficiencies, do not detain specific information on PDD, however detained information clarifies doubts about the deficiency. All of this information contributed for the creation of a web site map allowing enlightment of non attended doubts in the investigated web sites. / Os Transtornos Invasivos do Desenvolvimento (TID) são uma desordem do comportamento duradoura e persistente, na qual os indivíduos apresentam diminuição qualitativa da comunicação e da interação social, padrões restritos de interesses e presença de comportamentos estereotipados e maneirismos (WHO, 1993; APA, 1995). Para que um indivíduo com TID/autismo tenha um melhor desenvolvimento futuro é preciso uma intervenção o mais precoce possível, que muitas vezes é prejudicada pela falta de informação e dificuldade de diagnóstico precoce no Brasil. O objetivo desse trabalho foi buscar via internet quais informações sobre o assunto são encontradas nas mais importantes instituições brasileiras públicas e privadas e analisar a qualidade dessas informações, para posteriormente elaborar um mapa de um site que contemple informações capazes de esclarecer dúvidas de pacientes, familiares e profissionais que usam essa fonte de informação. Foi realizada pesquisa completa dos sites das instituições públicas e das instituições privadas indicadas por especialistas na área de TID/autismo, sendo utilizada posteriormente análise de conteúdo para apontar como o tema foi tratado em cada um dos sites. Os dados encontrados nos sites das instituições públicas apresentaram poucas informações sobre TID/autismo. Os sites das instituições privadas apresentaram dados mais apropriados para o esclarecimento de questões relacionadas ao tema, especificamente em instituições que trabalham exclusivamente com esses pacientes. Concluiu-se que os sites das instituições públicas necessitam de atualização de seus dados, sendo uma das possíveis alternativas o estabelecimento de parcerias com instituições especializadas em TID/autismo e universidades. As instituições privadas, principalmente que trabalham com várias deficiências, não possuem dados específicos sobre os TID/autismo, mas esclarecem muitas dúvidas em relação à deficiência. Todas essas informações contribuíram para a criação de um modelo de mapa de um site que contemplaria o esclarecimento de dúvidas que não foram sanadas por esses sites investigados.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This search started from the interest of thinking about how learning has been conceived at school. Otherwise, I treat about the learning of a specific group: students with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (authists and psychotics). Based on that, this study has as objective to identify the Social Representations of teachers of a school from Santa Maria/RS, about the learning of those students. The theoretical referents used here, were the psychanalist theory and the social representations theory. Throught the analisys of the mirror phase and social representation, it was stablished a relation between both theories. This way, the maping of social representation stablished the field in which the person of learning is antecipated by the teacher with a qualifying approach, were used as instruments for the search of collecting datas of interviews, examined through the analisys of content, and personal observations at school. The analisys of the data, showed that the socialization is seen for the biggest part of the teachers as the main objective of e learning of those students. Besides that, it revealed the influence of social representations about the learning capacity of those people on the teaching and learning processes. Therefore, been able to remean the social representations that point out to the direction of the incapacity of learning of those student, and the own social representation is essencial to your school-learning process. / Esta pesquisa nasceu do interesse em refletir sobre como a aprendizagem está sendo concebida na escola. Porém, trato de aprendizagem de um grupo específico: alunos com Transtornos Globais de Desenvolvimento (autistas e psicóticos). Com base nisso, este estudo teve por objetivo identificar as Representações Sociais de professores de uma escola de Santa Maria-RS acerca da aprendizagem desses alunos. O referencial teórico utilizado foi a teoria psicanalítica e a teoria das Representações Sociais. Através da articulação entre estágio do espelho e representações sociais estabeleceu-se o diálogo entre as teorias. Assim, o mapeamento das representações sociais estabeleceu o campo no qual o sujeito da aprendizagem é antecipado pelo professor. Em uma abordagem qualitativa, foram utilizados como instrumentos de coleta de dados entrevistas, examinadas através da análise de conteúdo, e observações participantes na escola. A análise dos dados mostrou que a socialização é vista pela maior parte dos professores como o objetivo principal da escolarização desses alunos. Além disso, revelou a influência das representações sociais acerca da capacidade de aprender desses sujeitos no processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Sendo assim, poder ressignificar as representações sociais que apontam para a direção da incapacidade de aprender desses alunos e a própria representação de socialização é essencial para seu processo de escolarização.

Advances in Down syndrome (DS) research depend on the availability of mouse models that replicate the genetic landscape and resulting phenotypes of DS which allow for experimental manipulation to correlate cellular and molecular changes with behavior, in a way that is not possible with human studies alone. These models have been a critical component in understanding the underlying mechanism of the intellectual disability in people with Down syndrome. The Ts(1716)65Dn (Ts65Dn) mouse is one of the most commonly used models as it recapitulates many of the phenotypes seen in individuals with Down syndrome, including neuroanatomical changes and impaired learning and memory. Although Ts65Dn exhibits a number of traits also present in DS, studies have produced variable results across time that call into question the validity of Ts65Dn and its use as a tool for studying Down syndrome. As Ts65Dn is the platform employed to gather preclinical evidence for treatments of DS, a critical assessment regarding the validity of the model over time is necessary. In this study, we conduct a rigorous and comprehensive, comparative analysis of multiple cohorts from the Ts65Dn line to assess the stability and reproducibility of neuroanatomical and behavioral characteristics. We measured gross anatomical brain and body size, neuronal density in the hippocampus and cerebellum, alterations to oligodendrocyte maturation and myelination, acquisition of developmental milestones, and learning and memory performance using the Morris water maze. Our results show a significant amount of variability in Ts65Dn, both across as well as within cohorts. Inconsistent phenotypes in Ts65Dn mice highlight specific cautions and caveats for use of these mice when studying Down syndrome and suggest it is not always the most appropriate model system to use. In addition to phenotypic variability, a major pitfall of the Ts65Dn model is the unintended triplication of 60 non-DS-related genes and the unknown consequences on resulting phenotypes. Recent advances in gene editing strategies have allowed for the gene dosage normalization of those 60 genes and the generation of a new mouse model of Down syndrome, Ts66YAH. As this newly developed line has not yet been characterized, we conducted an analysis complimentary to our study of Ts65Dn to investigate the utility of Ts66YAH for Down syndrome research. We found Ts66YAH mice show no measurable neuroanatomical changes, developmental delays, or learning and memory deficits suggesting that the deleted non-DS-related genes do influence the phenotypes seen in Ts65Dn. Although Ts66YAH is a more genetically representative model of Down syndrome compared to Ts65Dn, it does not exhibit disease relevant phenotypes and therefore, may not be a suitable model for studying DS. The various downfalls identified in the present study may be impacting other mouse models of DS as well and thus, our analysis of Ts65Dn across time and comparative study of Ts66YAH illustrate the need for careful use and increased rigor to ensure translational and reproducible results when working with all mouse models of Down syndrome.

This investigation was concerned with determining the effectiveness of filial therapy as a method of intervention for families of children with pervasive developmental disorders.

No description available.

No description available.