Title: The relationship between treatment attendance, adherence, and outcome in a caregiver-mediated intervention for low-resourced families of young children with autism spectrum disorder
Authors: Carr, Shih, Lawton, Lord, King and Kasari
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315598634
Lay abstract: It has been well established that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) benefit from receiving early intervention. What has been less studied, however, are the factors affecting families’ ability to maintain participation in such interventions – this was the aim of the current study. This study was unique in that families participating were largely recruited from a low-resourced population (a population that has not often been included in autism research). As part of this parent-led intervention, families received either one-on-one coaching in the home or group-based coaching in a community location. Treatment attendance (percentage of intervention sessions attended), treatment adherence (amount of time caregivers reported implementing treatment strategies), and treatment outcome (the time caregivers and children spent engaged during a play interaction) were measured after the intervention. Results demonstrated that the majority of families who received treatment maintained good attendance. Good attendance was linked to receiving one-on-one (as opposed to group-based) intervention and higher socioeconomic status. Greater treatment adherence was linked to group-based intervention, higher caregiver-reported stress, and lower child nonverbal ability. Regarding treatment outcome, families who received one-on-one treatment spent longer amounts of time engaged during a play interaction, which was also influenced by the percentage of treatment sessions the family completed. Overall, the results from this study stress the importance of considering family factors in intervention research when considering barriers to treatment attendance and adherence, and their impact on the outcome of an intervention.
Title: Examining playground engagement between elementary school children with and without autism spectrum disorder
Authors: Locke, Shih, Kretzmann and Kasari
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315599468
Lay abstract: Researchers are learning more and more about the social behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in school settings. While we have an increasing number of observational studies, where researchers observe children with ASD included in general education settings, we often do not have comparable data on their classmates. Without understanding the context in which children with ASD are being compared, it is not possible to determine what is a social deficit in children with ASD. Comparable data on classmates of children with ASD during recess (break times) will allow us to have a better understanding of what may be occurring in mainstreamed settings (i.e. classes in which children with special educational needs in regular classrooms, opposed to separate schools or units). This will allow us to determine whether children with ASD indeed need intervention support. This study documented the naturally occurring engagement and peer interaction behaviors of children with and without ASD in inclusive (mainstream) elementary school settings during recess. Participants included 51 children with ASD and 51 classmates without ASD. We found that children with ASD spent approximately 30% of their recess time engaged in solitary activities, whereas their classmates spent approximately 9% of recess unengaged. In addition, children with ASD spent approximately 40% of the recess period engaged with peers compared to 70% for their classmates. Children with ASD also had fewer initiations and responses and were less frequently successful in initiating and responding as compared to their classmates. These findings provide a context for which to interpret intervention outcomes and gains for children with ASD in inclusive (mainstream) settings.
Title: Using qualitative methods to guide scale development for anxiety in youth with autism spectrum disorder
Authors: Bearss, Taylor, Aman, Whittemore, Lecavalier, Miller, Pritchett, Green and Scahill
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315601012
Lay abstract: Anxiety is common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research on this problem is limited because measures of anxiety in children with ASD are not well developed. To develop a new instrument for measuring anxiety, we conducted a series of focus groups with parents to learn more about anxiety in children with ASD. This paper describes how we conducted the focus groups and how we evaluated the results. Forty-eight parents of children (age 3 to 17) with ASD and at least mild anxiety participated in one of six focus groups at two sites. The focus group transcripts were carefully reviewed to identify parental observations about anxiety in their children. Parents described situations and events that set off the child’s anxiety, what behaviors indicated that the child was anxious, and how they handled the child’s anxiety. From this information, study investigators generated 52 items that could be used to measure anxiety in children with ASD.
Title: Autism spectrum disorder etiology: Lay beliefs and the role of cultural values and social axioms
Authors: Qi, Zaroff and Bernardo
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315602372
Lay abstract: There is much evidence that genetic factors play an important role in the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research has also begun to suggest that there may be specific environmental factors that may increase the risk of a child being born with ASD. However, one environmental factor not leading to ASD is parenting style (e.g. whether or not a mother or father may be described by others as ‘warm’ in their parenting approach). In the past, parents were inaccurately (and harmfully) blamed for their child’s ASD. However, today, not only do researchers and health professionals know that this belief is false, but the public also understands that genetic and brain-related factors, not parenting, contribute to a risk for ASD. However, in non-western cultures, this subject has not received as much attention. In the current study, undergraduate university students in Macau (which, like Hong Kong, is a Special Administrative Region of China) were asked their opinion about what causes ASD. Most of the students reported a belief in parenting factors as causing ASD, whereas most disagreed with a belief in genetic factors as being responsible. A belief in parenting factors as being responsible for ASD was predicted to some extent by a value common in Chinese cultures, mind–body holism, a belief that psychological and physical processes cannot be separated (e.g. believing that one’s psychological processes have great influence on one’s body, and vice versa). The present results argue for more international efforts in educating the public about ASD.
Title: Parental romantic expectations and parent–child sexuality communication in autism spectrum disorders
Authors: Holmes, Himle, and Strassberg
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315602371
Lay abstract: Many individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) desire and pursue sexual and romantic relationships and thus could benefit from sexuality education. Parents are usually expected to be the primary sex educators, yet many parents find this to be a daunting task given the unique educational needs of individuals with ASD and the fact that parents receive little guidance or support from healthcare providers or schools. Previous studies suggest that parents choose to cover sexuality and relationship topics based on whether they expect their child to have relationships. In this study, we surveyed 190 parents of adolescents (average age = 14.5 years) to examine whether symptoms of ASD, intellectual ability (IQ), and parental romantic expectations for their children predicted sexuality communication between parents and their children. For youth whose parents reported that they had average or above IQ, we found that more severe ASD symptoms were related to lower parental romantic expectations. However, the severity of ASD symptoms was not related to how parents talked to their children about sexuality. For youth with below average IQ, more severe ASD symptoms were related to parents covering fewer sexuality and relationship topics. Additionally, this was partially linked to parents’ romantic expectations: parents who perceived their child as likely to have a romantic or sexual relationship in the future covered a greater number of topics. Based on these results, we recommend that ASD sexuality researchers carefully consider the role of intellectual functioning, ASD symptoms, and the interaction between child and parent characteristics in sexual development. Additionally, we recommend that healthcare providers and/or school personnel talk to parents about their expectations for their child’s sexual development and provide more guidance and support for parents to provide effective sex education.
Title: Social network analysis of children with autism spectrum disorder: Predictors of fragmentation and connectivity in elementary school classrooms
Authors: Anderson, Locke, Kretzmann, Kasari and the AIR-B Network
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315603568
Lay abstract: Although children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are regularly included in mainstream elementary classrooms, little is known about how well they integrate socially. We evaluated whether factors such as age, gender, and classroom size predicted how children with ASD formed, and lost, friendships over time. We found that classroom size impacted the way social networks evolved, but this changed depending on the gender of the child with ASD. Boys who were placed in larger classrooms lost more social connections, while girls had more social ties when they were in larger classrooms (than smaller classrooms). This relationship was not seen for typically developing children. These results have implications regarding classroom placement, the objectives of interventions, and ongoing school support aimed to increase the social success of children with ASD in public schools.
Title: Preconceptional and prenatal supplementary folic acid and multivitamin intake and autism spectrum disorders
Authors: Virk, Liew, Olsen, Nohr, Catov and Ritz
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315604076
Lay abstract: We aimed to evaluate if supplementing maternal diet with either folic acid or multivitamins early during pregnancy prevents diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in their offspring. We investigated this using data from Danish nationwide health registers. We did not find any evidence to suggest that early supplementation of diet with folic acid or multivitamins reduces the risk for ASD compared with women reporting no supplement use in the same period. Furthermore, we did not find any evidence to corroborate previous reports of a reduced risk for ASDs in offspring of women using folic acid supplements in early pregnancy.
Title: Examining the relationship between autistic traits and college adjustment
Authors: Trevisan and Birmingham
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315604530
Lay abstract: Previous research has shown that some individuals in the general population, especially family members of people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), may display autistic-like characteristics and behaviors despite not meeting the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of ASD. Sub-clinical autistic traits are often referred to as the “broad autism phenotype (BAP).” The central goal of our study was to examine how higher levels of BAP traits among a sample of 134 undergraduates with no ASD diagnosis may negatively impact college adjustment, defined as “the ability to cope with the academic, social and emotional demands of college life.” We found that higher levels of one facet of the BAP, social communication difficulties, was most strongly associated with lower academic, social, and personal-emotional adjustment as measured by the Student Adjustment to College Questionnaire (SACQ). We also found that BAP traits occurred at higher rates among certain college majors, particularly the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics, and that students in these majors also scored lower on the SACQ. Our findings suggest that social communication difficulties may create problems for college students in a variety of different academic and social contexts, and it may be important for universities to find ways to remediate such difficulties to improve college adjustment and reduce dropout decisions. Given the low attendance and degree completion rates of college students with an ASD diagnosis, future research should replicate this study in participants with ASD to examine how social communication difficulties may impede college success in this population.
Title: Anxiety in high-functioning autism: A pilot study of experience sampling using a mobile platform
Authors: Hare, Gracey and Wood
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315604817
Lay abstract: Anxiety is a major problem for many people with high-functioning autism (HFA), who may have both more worries and fears than people without this condition and also different types of worries and fear. Research has tended to use questionnaires and interviews developed for people without HFA, but completing these can be difficult for people with HFA due to differences in their memory. To get round this problem, this study used small hand-held computers on which people with and without HFA could record their everyday experiences of anxiety. The results showed that people with HFA were much more anxious than people without HFA. Their anxiety was associated with worrying about everyday events and thinking about things for more than ten minutes. People with HFA also tended to think in pictures but this was not associated with feeling anxious. These findings have implications for psychological theories of autism and of anxiety and particularly for psychological therapy for people with HFA, with the possibility of using mobile technology to both assess and to reduce anxiety in people with HFA.
Title: Children with autism spectrum disorder have an exceptional explanatory drive
Authors: Rutherford and Subiaul
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315605973
Lay abstract: Children and adults try to explain ambiguous situations (i.e. situations that are open to interpretation or that do not have one obvious explanation), and this desire is called an “explanatory drive.” Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are interested in how systems work, but it is unknown whether they have a typical explanatory drive. We presented children with and without ASD unsolvable problems in a physical, and in a social context. In the physical task, children were given an L shaped block and were asked to stand it on end. However, because it was specially weighted at the top, this could not be done. In the social task, children were asked to make a non-verbal request for a sticker from a member of the team who, after giving the child several stickers, suddenly became unresponsive. In the physical context (but not the social context), the children with ASD showed a stronger explanatory drive than controls: they were more likely to show that they were seeking an explanation for the problem. These results suggest that children with ASD have an explanatory drive, but only use it in the physical domain.
Title: Early deictic but not other gestures predict later vocabulary in both typical development and autism
Authors: Özçalışkan, Adamson and Dimitrova
DOI: 10.1177/1362361315605921
Lay abstract: Gesture plays an important role in the language development of typically developing children, particularly in learning new words. In our study, we asked whether gesture plays the same role in word learning for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our findings showed that one category of gesture was particularly influential in word learning: Children with ASD who pointed at objects more frequently while playing with their parents used a greater number of words one year later. The pointing gestures may have served this important role in word learning by helping children build a joint focus of attention that the parent can then elaborate with speech.
