scholarly journals Development of a Brief Parent-Report Screen for Common Gastrointestinal Disorders in Autism Spectrum Disorder

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 349-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara G. Margolis ◽  
Timothy M. Buie ◽  
J. Blake Turner ◽  
Anna E. Silberman ◽  
Judith F. Feldman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Gastrointestinal Disorders

Co-occurring trajectories of anxiety and insistence on sameness behaviour in autism spectrum disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 218 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
Danielle A. Baribeau ◽  
Simone Vigod ◽  
Eleanor Pullenayegum ◽  
Connor M. Kerns ◽  
Pat Mirenda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Child Behavior Checklist ◽  
Childhood Anxiety ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Diagnostic Interview ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Insistence On Sameness

BackgroundChildren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have increased susceptibility to anxiety disorders. Variation in a common ASD symptom, insistence on sameness behaviour, may predict future anxiety symptoms.AimsTo describe the joint heterogeneous longitudinal trajectories of insistence on sameness and anxiety in children with ASD and to characterise subgroups at higher risk for anxiety.MethodIn a longitudinal ASD cohort (n = 421), insistence on sameness behaviour was measured using the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised at approximately ages 3, 6 and 11 years. Anxiety was quantified at 8 time points between ages 3 and 11 years using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (parent report). Clusters of participants following similar trajectories were identified using group-based and joint trajectory modelling.ResultsThree insistence on sameness trajectories were identified: (a) ‘low-stable’ (41.7% of participants), (b) ‘moderate-increasing’ (52.0%) and (c) ‘high-peaking’ (i.e. increasing then stabilising/decreasing behaviour) (6.3%). Four anxiety trajectories were identified: (a) ‘low-increasing’ (51.0%), (b) ‘moderate-decreasing’ (16.2%), (c) ‘moderate-increasing’ (19.6%) and (d) ‘high-stable’ (13.1%). Of those assigned to the ‘high-peaking’ insistence on sameness trajectory, 95% jointly followed an anxiety trajectory that surpassed the threshold for clinical concern (T-score >65) by middle childhood (anxiety trajectories 3 or 4). Insistence on sameness and anxiety trajectories were similar in severity and direction for 64% of the sample; for 36%, incongruous patterns were seen (e.g. decreasing anxiety and increasing insistence on sameness).ConclusionsThe concurrent assessment of insistence on sameness behaviour and anxiety in ASD may help in understanding current symptom profiles and anticipating future trajectories. High preschool insistence on sameness in particular may be associated with elevated current or future anxiety symptoms.

scholarly journals Effects of pivotal response treatment on reciprocal vocal contingency in a randomized controlled trial of children with autism spectrum disorder

Autism ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1566-1571
Author(s):  
Jena McDaniel ◽  
Paul Yoder ◽  
Madison Crandall ◽  
Maria Estefania Millan ◽  
Christina Mich Ardel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Pivotal Response Treatment ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Child Interaction ◽  
Parent Child Interaction ◽  
Treatment Package

A pivotal response treatment package consisting of clinician-delivered and parent-implemented strategies was recently found to be effective in improving language and social communication deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder. Reciprocal vocal contingency, an automated measure of vocal reciprocity, may provide stronger and complementary evidence of the effects of the pivotal response treatment package. Reciprocal vocal contingency is derived through an automated process from daylong audio samples from the child’s natural environment. Therefore, reciprocal vocal contingency is at lower risk for detection bias than parent report and brief parent–child interaction measures. Although differences were non-significant at baseline and after 12 weeks of intervention for the 48 children with autism spectrum disorder who were randomly assigned to the pivotal response treatment package or a delayed treatment control group, the pivotal response treatment package group had higher ranked reciprocal vocal contingency scores than the control group after 24 weeks ( U = 125, p = .04). These findings are consistent with results from parent report and parent–child interaction measures obtained during the trial. The participants in the pivotal response treatment package exhibited greater vocal responsiveness to adult vocal responses to their vocalizations than the control group. Findings support the effectiveness of the pivotal response treatment package on vocal reciprocity of children with autism spectrum disorder, which may be a pivotal skill for language development. Lay abstract A recent randomized controlled trial found that children with autism spectrum disorder who received a pivotal response treatment package showed improved language and social communication skills following the intervention. The pivotal response treatment package includes clinician-delivered and parent-implemented strategies. Reciprocal vocal contingency is an automated measure of vocal reciprocity derived from daylong audio samples from the child’s natural environment. It may provide stronger and complementary evidence of the effects of the pivotal response treatment package because it is at lower risk for detection bias than parent report and brief parent–child interaction measures. The current study compared reciprocal vocal contingency for 24 children with autism spectrum disorder in the pivotal response treatment package group and 24 children with autism spectrum disorder in the control group. The pivotal response treatment package group received 24 weeks of the pivotal response treatment package intervention. The control group received their usual intervention services during that time. The groups did not differ in reciprocal vocal contingency when the intervention started or after 12 weeks of intervention. However, after 24 weeks the pivotal response treatment package group had higher ranked reciprocal vocal contingency scores than the control group. These findings are consistent with results from parent report and parent–child interaction measures obtained during the trial. The participants in the pivotal response treatment package exhibited greater vocal responsiveness to adult vocal responses to their vocalizations than the control group. Findings support the effectiveness of the pivotal response treatment package on vocal reciprocity of children with autism spectrum disorder, which may be a pivotal skill for language development.

Overall severities of gastrointestinal symptoms in pediatric outpatients with and without autism spectrum disorder

Autism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 524-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venkatraman Thulasi ◽  
Robert A Steer ◽  
Iona M Monteiro ◽  
Xue Ming
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Receiver Operating Characteristic ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Operating Characteristic ◽  
Gastrointestinal Disorder ◽  
Severity Index ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Gastrointestinal Disorders ◽  
Receiver Operating

In order to determine the effectiveness of a Gastrointestinal Severity Index to screen for gastrointestinal disorders, the Gastrointestinal Severity Index was administered to 135 children with autism spectrum disorders and 146 comparisons with and without gastrointestinal disorders. The mean Gastrointestinal Severity Index scores of the groups were 3.53 ± 1.78, 3.15 ± 1.99, 0.81 ± 1.25, and 0.29 ± 0.76 (comparative pediatric patients with gastrointestinal disorder = autism spectrum disorder + gastrointestinal disorder > autism spectrum disorder-gastrointestinal disorder > comparative pediatric patients without gastrointestinal disorder, respectively), Ps < 0.05. Receiver operating characteristic curves and areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated to ascertain which Gastrointestinal Severity Index cutoff scores yielded the highest sensitivity and specificity rates for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal disorders. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.97) for the comparison group was higher (P < 0.001) than the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.85) for autism spectrum disorder children indicating that the Gastrointestinal Severity Index was more effective in screening for gastrointestinal disorders in comparisons. However, the same Gastrointestinal Severity Index cutoff score of 2 and above yielded, respectively, sensitivity and specificity rates of 92% and 93% for comparisons and 80% and 79% for autism spectrum disorder children. The negative and positive predictive values based on these sensitivity and specificity rates were calculated for a range of prevalences of gastrointestinal disorders and indicated that the Gastrointestinal Severity Index may be useful for screening children with and without autism spectrum disorder for gastrointestinal symptoms.

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