Lay Abstracts

Abstract

Title: Social Anxiety Mediates the Effect of Autism Spectrum Disorder Characteristics on Hostility in Young Adults

Authors: Williams White, Kreiser, Pugliese and Scarpa

DOI: 10.1177/1362361311431951

Lay abstract: Many adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with social anxiety. In people with ASD, social anxiety might contribute to feelings of hostility or distrust in other people, possibly even verbal or physical aggression. We sought to determine if social anxiety symptoms may partially explain the relationship between ASD traits and feelings of hostility in young adults without diagnosed ASD. Self-report measures of social anxiety, ASD, and types of aggression were collected from 618 college students. Social anxiety was found to partially explain the relationship between ASD features and self-reported hostility. For aggression, results indicate that social anxiety dampened the strength of the relationship between ASD characteristics and verbal and physical aggression. This study’s results underscore the potential influence of associated mental health symptoms in people with ASD. However, it will be important to determine if these relationships are seen among adults with ASD diagnoses.

Title: Confusion and inconsistency in diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome: A review of studies from 1981-2010

Authors: Sharma, Woolfson, and Hunter

DOI: 10.1177/1362361311411935

Lay abstract: This paper presents a review of past and current research on the diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (AS) in children. It is suggested that the widely used criteria for diagnosing AS (in the diagnostic manual known as DSM-IV) are insufficient and invalid for a reliable diagnosis of AS. In addition, when these diagnostic criteria are applied, there is the potential bias of receiving a diagnosis towards the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. Through a critical review of 63 research studies carried out between the years of 1981-2010, this paper shows that six possible criteria for diagnosing AS (specifically, the age at which signs and symptoms related to autism become apparent, language and social communication abilities, intellectual abilities, motor or movement skills, repetitive patterns of behaviour and the nature of social interaction) overlap with the criteria for diagnosing autism. However, there is the possibility that some finer differences in the nature of social interaction, motor skills and speech patterns between groups with a diagnosis of AS and autism exist. These findings are proposed to be of relevance for designing intervention studies aimed at the treatment of specific symptoms in people with an autism spectrum disorder.

Title: Evaluation of the criterion and convergent validity of the Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders in young and low functioning children.

Authors: Maljaars, Noens, Scholte and Van Berckelaer-Onnes

DOI: 10.1177/1362361311402857

Lay abstract: The diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) can be complicated, especially in those with severe or profound ID. It is therefore important to evaluate the tools used to diagnose ASD in people who have ID. The Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders (DISCO) is one interview tool that professionals use to diagnose ASD. This study evaluated how well scores on the DISCO (relative to other tools used to diagnose ASD) can differentiate between children with and without ASD who have different levels of intellectual ability. Results indicated that the DISCO correctly classified a high proportion of children (with and without ID) as having an ASD. However, children with moderate or severe ID who did not have an ASD were often (incorrectly) classified as having an ASD on the DISCO. The DISCO is therefore over inclusive in this group. Despite this, the agreement between the DISCO and other tools for diagnosing ASD was moderate to substantial.

Title: A systematic review of training programs for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders: Single subject contributions

Authors: Patterson, Smith, and Mirenda

DOI: 10.1177/1362361311413398

Lay abstract: This study systematically reviewed 11 reports of interventions designed to help the parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) learn how to support their children’s communication and social skills. For a range of interventions, gains across parent skills, as well as child language and social skills, were observed for a range of interventions. This included those based upon behavioural principles (e.g., training parents to use a teaching strategy called discrete trial techniques), those based on a blend of behavioural principles and more naturalistic teaching strategies (e.g., parent use of a technique called pivotal response training) and those based on parent training in the use of augmentative and alternative communication tools (which are methods for use with those who have spoken or written language difficulties). Such interventions demonstrated that parents have the ability to both acquire and implement intervention strategies with their children with ASD that result in improvements in the areas of attending, imitation, verbal language and other social behaviours. Increased attempts at initialising communication were also noted. However, few research studies received ratings of good quality and the existing evidence does not provide strong evidence in favour of any single parent training approach. The authors conclude that parent training approaches have significant potential to help families of children with ASD but further research is needed to determine the degree to which parents can be expected to extend and modify the strategies as the needs of their children grow and change over time.

Title: Compliance with requests by children with autism: the impact of sentence type

Authors: Kissine, De Brabanter, and Leybaert

DOI: 10.1177/1362361311406296

Lay abstract: It is widely accepted that children with autism have trouble understanding many ‘non-literal’ aspects of the meaning of utterances. Those are often called the ‘pragmatic’ components of meaning. In the present study we have looked at how children with autism understand requests that are performed by non-literal means, that is, by resorting to something else than an imperative sentence. Ten children with low-level autism were videotaped in naturalistic conditions, at a day-care centre or with a therapist they know. Four grammatical sentence-types were distinguished: imperative, declarative, interrogative and sub-sentential (amounting to less than a complete sentence). For each category, it appeared that the children complied with requests significantly more often than they failed to do. Moreover, no differences were observed across categories. These results show that children with autism do not rely exclusively on linguistic form to interpret an utterance as a request. This, in turn, tentatively suggests that they may have more pragmatic competence than they are usually credited with.

Title: I just don’t fit anywhere”: Support experiences and future support needs of individuals with Asperger syndrome in middle adulthood

Authors: Griffith, Totsika, Nash and Hastings

DOI: 10.1177/1362361311405223

Lay abstract: Little is known about the experiences of people with Asperger syndrome in their middle adulthood years (35 years and over). In the present research, 11 adults with Asperger syndrome were interviewed using a technique called Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) IPA is a type of qualitative analysis and aims to get an “insiders perspective,” and to explore how participants make sense of their personal world. Four themes emerged from the analysis (1) Living with Asperger syndrome; (2) Employment issues; (3) Experiences with mainstream support; (4) Future steps towards supporting adults with Asperger syndrome. The findings highlighted the difficulties that people with Asperger syndrome may experience, such as anxiety, depression, and communication difficulties. Participants felt that support they received from services was unsuitable and often unhelpful. All participants wanted to remain as independent as possible, and believed an individualised approach to support would be greatly beneficial. Recommendations are made for future practise to help support adults with Asperger syndrome.