Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has two defining deficits: social communication and stereotyped and repetitive behaviour. This pilot study trialled 5 tasks based on current literature to measure the social cognitive skills of children with ASD, titled the Childhood Autism Social Skills Assessment (CASSA). The five tasks were designed to measure performance-based differences in children with ASD using response time and accuracy to compare 13 controls and 12 autism groups. Quantitative differences were found between the children with autism and the neurotypical controls, as well qualitative results which will be used to increase validity and reliability for these tasks in the future.
Methods: The CASSA was administered within a single session. 27 youth aged 6-17 (13 with ASD, 14 Controls) were assessed using the 5 CASSA tasks. Participants’ parents completed standardized questionnaires as supplemental information. The CASSA is made up of five sections which are the Emotional Stroop, Navon, Blur into Focus, Theory of Mind, and McGurk tasks. The Emotional Stroop task is based on creating the Stroop Effect using an emotional face with an incongruent emotional word over the bridge of the nose. The Navon task measures reaction time of participant’s ability to recognize a target number that may or may not be embedded within a large number made up of small numbers. The Blur-to-focus task requires the participant to identify the emotion displayed on faces (Happy, Sad, Angry or Afraid), that start blurred and gradually come into focus. The CASSA measures Theory of Mind (ToM) development by a series of cartoons depicting the interaction of two children, whose situations become increasingly more complex as the task goes on.
Results and Conclusions: Results indicate that the CASSA may be used as an addition to a clinical assessment battery, specifically using the Navon, Emotional Stroop, and Blur into Focus tasks which were able to produce statistically significant performance differences between groups. The CASSA has the potential to aid in diagnosis as part of a battery as well as to allow researchers and clinicians to assess social skills through electronic assessment. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/25937 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Freedman, Ellis |
| Contributors | Hall, Geoffrey, Psychology |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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