Assessing and teaching job‐related social skills to adults with autism spectrum disorder

Few studies have evaluated interventions to improve the job‐related social skills of adults with autism spectrum disorder. In this study, we examined the efficacy of a treatment package for teaching several social skills that are critical to job success, such as responding appropriately to feedback and asking for a task model from the supervisor. Three adults, aged 19 to 27 years, participated. Initial training of each skill consisted of verbal explanations, modeling, and role‐play with feedback, along with stimulus prompts to promote generalization to a different setting. The trainer introduced additional intervention components as needed. We also evaluated generalization across different social skills and evocative situations. Results indicated that the treatment package was generally effective in improving the targeted social skills, and that stimulus prompts may be necessary for generalization to a job setting. However, generalized responding across social skills rarely emerged. These findings have important implications for preparing individuals with autism to function successfully on the job.     

Visuomotor adaptation and its relationship with motor ability in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

The high prevalence rates of motor impairments among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) lead to increased attention to motor learning. The current study examined the visuomotor adaptability in children with and without ASD using a computerized visuomotor adaptation task in which the real-time visual feedback of hand movement was rotated. The relationships between visuomotor adaptability and clinical symptomology were also investigated. Results revealed that the children with ASD showed a slower rate of improvement and smaller after-effects than their peers on the measures of motor planning. Additionally, autistic characteristics significantly moderated the association between individuals' adaptability and fine motor skills. The findings contribute to the growing evidence of compromised visuomotor adaptability, which suggested the importance of addressing these clinical features of ASD.     

Comparison of two video prompting interventions to teach daily living skills to adolescents with autism

The present study used an adapted alternating treatment design to evaluate and compare the effects of video prompting (VP) and video prompting plus frequency building (VP + FB) to teach daily living skills to three adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Results demonstrated all three students made substantial improvements over their baseline performance using VP and VP + FB. Furthermore, a strong intervention effect emerged for VP and VP + FB conditions when compared to the control task. However, in terms of one intervention proving superior to the other (e.g., VP to VP + FB), the data offer a mixed interpretation with VP + FB affecting changes better for two of the three students. The FB component in the VP + FB produced strong, consistent gains for all students in terms of retention.     

Teaching help‐seeking when lost to individuals with autism spectrum disorder

Deficits in safety skills and communication deficits place individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at an increased risk of danger. We used a multiple‐probe across‐participants design to evaluate the effects of video modeling and programming common stimuli to teach low‐ and high‐tech help‐seeking responses to children with ASD when lost. Participants acquired answering or making a FaceTime^® call and exchanging an identification card in contrived and natural settings. Responses generalized to novel community settings and maintained during a one‐ and two‐week follow‐up. Social validity measures showed that the procedures and outcomes of the study were acceptable to indirect and direct consumers, and immediate and extended community members. Implications are that children with ASD can effectively be taught both low‐ and high‐tech help‐seeking responses when lost.     

Stability and predictors of psychopathic traits from mid‐adolescence through early adulthood

High levels of psychopathic traits in youth are associated with multiple negative outcomes including substance misuse, aggressive behavior, and criminality. Evidence regarding stability of psychopathic traits is contradictory. No previous study has examined long‐term stability of psychopathic traits assessed with validated clinical measures. The present study examined the stability of psychopathic traits from mid‐adolescence to early adulthood and explored adolescent factors that predicted psychopathic traits five years later. The sample included 99 women and 81 men who had consulted a clinic for substance misuse in adolescence. At an average age of 16.8 years, the adolescents were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV) and five years later using the PCL‐Revised (PCL‐R). Additionally, extensive clinical assessments of the adolescents and their parents were completed in mid‐adolescence. Among both females and males, moderate to high rank‐order stability was observed for total PCL and facet scores. Among both females and males, there was a decrease in the mean total PCL score, interpersonal facet score, affective facet score, and lifestyle facet score. However, the great majority of females and males showed no change in psychopathy scores over the five‐year period as indicated by the Reliable Change Index. Despite the measures of multiple family and individual factors in adolescence, only aggressive behavior and male sex predicted PCL‐R total scores in early adulthood after taking account of PCL:YV scores. Taken together, these results from a sample who engaged in antisocial behavior in adolescence suggest that factors promoting high psychopathy scores act early in life.     

Teaching conversational speech to children with autism spectrum disorder using text‐message prompting

The present study was designed to teach conversational speech using text‐message prompts to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in home play settings with siblings and peers. A multiple baseline design across children was used. Children learned conversational speech through the text‐message prompts, and the behavior generalized across peers and settings. Maintenance of treatment gains was seen at 1‐month follow‐up probes. Social validity measures indicated that parents of typically developing children viewed the participants' conversational speech as much improved after the intervention. Results are discussed in terms of the efficacy of text‐message prompts as a promising way to improve conversational speech for children with ASD.     

孤独症儿童动作发展障碍的神经机制

动作发展障碍(Developmental motor disorders)是孤独症谱系障碍的常见特征。通过系统回顾孤独症儿童动作发展障碍的神经科学研究, 发现γ-氨基丁酸和5-羟色胺浓度的改变及γ-氨基丁酸相关蛋白和Shank蛋白的表达异常不仅会损害中枢神经系统的发育, 而且还能导致突触兴奋性与抑制性失衡, 进而改变孤独症儿童小脑和大脑皮层运动区的功能连接。孤独症儿童小脑、基底神经节和胼胝体结构的改变对全脑的连通性产生了负面影响。神经生化机制和脑结构的异常共同导致了脑功能的异常, 最终造成孤独症儿童的动作发展障碍。此外, 动作发展障碍与孤独症核心症状共同的神经基础主要包括镜像神经元系统紊乱, 丘脑、基底神经节和小脑异常以及SLC7A5和PTEN 基因突变。未来研究需要关注与运动密切相关的其他神经递质, 如乙酰胆碱和多巴胺; 探索动作发展障碍神经网络的动态机制及其形成; 剖析该障碍的神经机制和自闭症核心症状神经机制的相互作用。     

Sensitivity to differences between enjoyment and non‐enjoyment smiles in children with autism spectrum disorder

The sensitivity of male children (5–15 years) with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to the affective state of others was tested using an emotion recognition task. Only children without ASD could reliably differentiate between enjoyment and non‐enjoyment smiles. Results are considered in terms of the social impairments of children with ASD.     

Patterns of language and discourse comprehension skills in school‐aged children with autism spectrum disorders

Åsberg, J. (2010). Patterns of language and discourse comprehension skills in school‐aged children with autism spectrum disorders. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51, 534–539. The present study examined patterns of language and discourse comprehension skills in Swedish school‐aged children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (n = 16) as compared to a slightly younger group of typically developing children (n = 16) matched for non‐verbal cognitive ability. Results suggested significantly lower abilities in narrative discourse comprehension for the ASD group, but not in oral receptive vocabulary or reception of grammar. This difficulty with discourse‐level comprehension appeared to be of a general nature, as no evidence was found for the hypothesis that participants with ASD would find comprehension of inferential discourse information disproportionally more difficult than stated information, or for the hypothesis that discourse processing in ASD would be characterized by an elevated processing of explicitly stated narrative details. The study has clinical and educational implications, as the findings suggest that children with ASD would benefit from being offered specific support for discourse‐level comprehension.     

Additive effects of social and non‐social attention during infancy relate to later autism spectrum disorder

Emerging findings from studies with infants at familial high risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), owing to an older sibling with a diagnosis, suggest that those who go on to develop ASD show early impairments in the processing of stimuli with both social and non‐social content. Although ASD is defined by social‐communication impairments and restricted and repetitive behaviours, the majority of cognitive theories of ASD posit a single underlying factor, which over development has secondary effects across domains. This is the first high‐risk study to statistically differentiate theoretical models of the development of ASD in high‐risk siblings using multiple risk factors. We examined the prediction of ASD outcome by attention to social and non‐social stimuli: gaze following and attentional disengagement assessed at 13 months in low‐risk controls and high‐risk ASD infants (who were subsequently diagnosed with ASD at 3 years). When included in the same regression model, these 13‐month measures independently predicted ASD outcome at 3 years of age. The data were best described by an additive model, suggesting that non‐social attention, disengagement, and social attention as evidenced by gaze following, have a cumulative impact on ASD risk. These data argue against cognitive theories of ASD which propose that a single underlying factor has cascading effects across early development leading to an ASD outcome, and support multiple impairment models of ASD that are more consistent with recent genetic and neurobiological evidence.     

A comparison of computer‐assisted and therapist‐led instruction for children with autism spectrum disorder

The current investigation applied a model of assessment‐based instruction to an evaluation of the efficacy and efficiency of computer‐assisted and therapist‐led instruction on skill acquisition for 3 participants with autism spectrum disorder. We also evaluated the participant's attending during instruction and the social validity of each format of instruction. The results showed that computer‐assisted instruction was most efficient for 2 of the 3 participants, although attending varied across instructional formats. In addition, the social validity of instructional formats varied across participants.     

Relation of cognitive functioning to daily living skills in a geriatric population

A modified version of the Community Competence Scale was administered along with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised (WAIS--R) to 40 geriatric patients with suspected dementia. Scores on the Competence Scale, a measure of functional daily living skills, were correlated .72 with Full Scale IQs and .77 with Verbal IQs and moderately correlated (.55) with Performance IQs. A number of significant correlations were found between WAIS--R subtests and subscales of the competence instrument. Means and standard deviations for the 10 Competence subscale and total scores are presented.     

An interest‐based intervention package to increase peer social interaction in young children with autism spectrum disorder

The literature suggests that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) educated in inclusive settings generally do not interact with typically developing classmates during social activities. This study assessed whether an intervention package consisting of interest‐based structured play activities involving adult instruction, modeling, and response to child questions would result in an increase in social interaction with typically developing peers. A multiple baseline design across four participants with an embedded reversal was used to demonstrate the effects of the intervention on social interaction during structured play sessions. Initiations, responses, and interactive play increased for all participants. Generalization to novel peers was observed, and treatment gains were maintained during 6‐week follow‐up sessions. Recommendations for practitioners working with children with ASD in inclusive settings and potential areas of future research are discussed.     

The mediating role of joint attention in the relationship between motor skills and receptive and expressive language in siblings at risk for autism spectrum disorder

Language problems are highly prevalent in younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (HR-sibs), yet little is known about early predictors. There is growing evidence that motor and language development are linked and this connection might be mediated by joint attention. Developmental changes in motor abilities change how children interact with objects and people (e.g., by showing), which may influence language development. This association has however not yet been studied in HR-sibs. The interrelationship between motor, joint attention and language skills was explored in younger siblings of typically developing children (LR-sibs, N = 31) and HR-sibs (N = 32). In both groups, motor skills (composite of fine and gross motor skills) at 10 months influenced receptive and expressive language at 36 months directly and indirectly through joint attention at 14 months. Group status moderated this direct and indirect effect with mainly significant effects in HR-sibs. This indicates that lower motor skills can have cascading effects on joint attention and language in HR-sibs. Consequently, assessment of early motor skills in HR-sibs might hold promise for early identification of motor difficulties but can also be indicative of language difficulties later in life, especially when difficulties with joint attention are also present.     

Early and persistent motor difficulties in infants at-risk of developing autism spectrum disorder: A prospective study

Analyses were conducted in order to investigate motor development in younger siblings of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Infants at familial risk and low risk of developing ASD were tested longitudinally between the ages of 7 and 36 months. Data were analysed from motor scales on the Mullen Scales of Early Learning and the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales at each age point. Significantly lower motor scores in at-risk infants were evident from the age of 7 months compared to the low-risk group. Infants who were later diagnosed with ASD demonstrated significantly poorer Fine Motor skills at 36 months than at-risk infants without any developmental difficulties. In addition, Gross Motor scores were highly correlated across the two measures for low-risk infants and infants who later developed ASD. Early motor difficulties may be an early indicator of a number of neurodevelopmental disorders, including ASD.     

A blueprint for general‐case procedures illustrated by teaching adolescents with autism spectrum disorder to use a chip‐debit card

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often respond poorly to novel stimulus combinations and may have difficulty discriminating across critical and noncritical stimulus dimensions without direct teaching. General‐case procedures and multiple‐exemplar training have been effectively used to address this deficit. In the current study, the experimenters outlined general‐case procedures with video modeling, prompting and reinforcement to teach three adolescents with ASD a generalized repertoire of using a chip‐debit card. A multiple‐probe across participants design demonstrated the effectiveness of these procedures. All participants acquired the skill, responding generalized from simulated teaching materials to four novel automatic payment machines, and maintained 4 weeks following teaching. Implications of using these general‐case procedures as a blueprint for future researchers to reference when teaching individuals with ASD a generalized repertoire of any skill are discussed.     

Equivalence‐based instruction of academic skills: Application to adolescents with autism

This study evaluated the efficacy of three equivalence‐based instruction procedures on the acquisition of novel academic skills by 3 adolescents diagnosed with autism in a school setting. The skills targeted for instruction were related to topics in history, science, and mathematics, and were taught using different training structures from the PEAK‐E curriculum. All participants demonstrated mastery of the trained relations and the tested derived relations following all variants of equivalence‐based instruction.