4.12 Maternal Whole Blood Serotonin Levels Predict Verbal Ability and Core Symptoms in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract Background High prevalence of sleep problems have been reported in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study aims to investigate the sleep conditions of ASD children in China, and explore the relationship between the common sleep problems and core symptoms and developmental levels. Methods Using a cross-sectional design, we included 2 to 7-year-old children from 13 cities in China: 1310 with ASD and 1158 with typically-developing (TD) children. The neurodevelopmental level was evaluated with the revised Children Neuropsychological and Behavior Scale (CNBS-R2016). ASD were diagnosed with DSM-5 and Child Autism Rating Scale (CARS). the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) and the communication warning behavior sub-scale in CNBS-R2016 valued autism behaviors. The children’ s sleep habits questionnaire (CSHQ) assessed sleep conditions. Results The prevalence of sleep disorders in ASD children was significantly higher than that in TD (67.4% vs. 51%, p < 0.01), and among them the four dimensions with the highest prevalence of sleep problems were bedtime resistance (25.6%), sleep anxiety (22.7%), sleep onset delay (17.9%) and daytime sleepiness (14.7%). ASD children with sleep onset delay or sleep anxiety had higher ABC, SRS scores and higher scores on communication warning behavior with sleep anxiety, with daytime sleepiness had higher ABC, SRS and CARS scores, and with bedtime resistance had higher SRS total scores. Differences in the neurodevelopmental level were not significant. Conclusion Children with ASD have a higher prevalence of sleep problems. Bedtime resistance, anxiety, sleep onset delay and daytime sleepiness may be related to the core symptoms, but not be related to the developmental level in ASD children. In the clinic, sleep assessment should be included in the routine of ASD visits, and during the intervention, sleep hygiene education is as important as the treatment of biological factors. Trial registration The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Approval Number: (2018) IRB (STUDY) NO. 121, and registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (Registration number: ChiCTR2000031194).

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Effectiveness of the Stepping Stones Triple P group parenting program in reducing comorbid behavioral problems in children with autism

Autism ◽

10.1177/1362361319866063 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 423-436 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Daria Kasperzack ◽

Bastian Schrott ◽

Tanja Mingebach ◽

Katja Becker ◽

Roland Burghardt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Behavioral Problems ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Triple P ◽

Stepping Stones ◽

Repeated Measures Design ◽

Core Symptoms ◽

Stepping Stones Triple P

Children with autism spectrum disorders often exhibit comorbid behavioral problems. These problems have an impact on the severity of the core symptoms, the progression of the disorder as well as on the families’ quality of life. We evaluated the effectiveness of the Stepping Stones Triple P group parent training program as a supplementary intervention in the treatment of children with autism spectrum disorder. Therefore, we employed a single group repeated measures design and assessed child variables via parents’ and teachers’ judgments at four successive time points. The participants were parents of 24 children with autism spectrum disorder aged between 3.6 and 12 years. We found a significant reduction of comorbid behavioral problems in the children, primarily in the parents’ judgment at follow-up. Furthermore, a reduction of the autism spectrum disorder core symptoms emerged. The teachers’ judgment particularly revealed an improvement in children’s social relationships. Effect sizes were large ( ƞ2 ranging from 0.14 to 0.23). The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the Stepping Stones Triple P as a supplementary intervention for reducing comorbid behavioral problems in the treatment of children with autism spectrum disorder. Higher parental self-efficacy and parental attributions, including parents’ ability to influence child problem behaviors, are discussed as important factors for the effectiveness of Stepping Stones Triple P.

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Whole Blood Serotonin Levels and Platelet 5-HT2A Binding in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders ◽

10.1007/s10803-019-03989-z ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 49 (6) ◽

pp. 2417-2425 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Elizabeth Aaron ◽

Alicia Montgomery ◽

Xinguo Ren ◽

Stephen Guter ◽

George Anderson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Whole Blood ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Blood Serotonin

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Effects of a Robot-Enhanced Intervention for Children With ASD on Teaching Turn-Taking Skills

Journal of Educational Computing Research ◽

10.1177/0735633119830344 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 58 (1) ◽

pp. 29-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Daniel O. David ◽

Cristina A. Costescu ◽

Silviu Matu ◽

Aurora Szentagotai ◽

Anca Dobrean

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Single Subject ◽

Similar Extent ◽

Children With Asd ◽

Human Partner ◽

Turn Taking ◽

Core Symptoms

Among social skills that are core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, turn-taking plays a fundamental role in regulating social interaction and communication. Our main focus in this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a robot-enhanced intervention on turn-taking abilities. We aim to identify to what degree social robots can improve turn-taking skills and whether this type of intervention provides similar or better gains than standard intervention. This study presents a series of 5 single-subject experiments with children with autism spectrum disorder aged between 3 and 5 years. Each child receives 20 intervention sessions (8 robot-enhanced sessions—robot-enhanced treatment (RET), 8 standard human sessions—standard human treatment, and 4 sessions with the intervention that was more efficient). Our findings show that most children reach similar levels of performance on turn-taking skills across standard human treatment and RET, meaning that children benefit to a similar extent from both interventions. However, in the RET condition, children seemed to see their robotic partner as being more interesting than their human partner, due to the fact that they looked more at the robotic partner compared with the human partner.

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The Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine ◽

10.1155/2018/1057539 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Boram Lee ◽

Jihong Lee ◽

Jin-Hong Cheon ◽

Hyun-Kyung Sung ◽

Seung-Hun Cho ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Efficacy And Safety ◽

Communication Ability ◽

Mean Differences ◽

Core Symptoms

Objectives. We aimed to summarize and critically evaluate the available evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods. We searched 13 databases for studies published up to December 2016. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture for children with ASD were included. Outcome measures were the overall scores on scales evaluating the core symptoms of ASD and the scores for each symptom, such as social communication ability and skills, stereotypies, language ability, and cognitive function. Effect sizes were presented as mean differences (MD). Results. Twenty-seven RCTs with 1736 participants were included. Acupuncture complementary to behavioral and educational intervention significantly decreased the overall scores on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) (MD −8.10, 95% CI −12.80 to −3.40) and the Autism Behavior Checklist (MD −8.92, 95% CI −11.29 to −6.54); however, it was unclear which of the ASD symptoms improved. Acupuncture as a monotherapy also reduced the overall CARS score. The reported adverse events were acceptable. Conclusions. This review suggests that acupuncture may be effective and safe for pediatric ASD. However, it is not conclusive due to the heterogeneity of the acupuncture treatment methods used in the studies.

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Autism Spectrum Disorder and screen time during lockdown: an Italian study.

F1000Research ◽

10.12688/f1000research.55299.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 1263

Author(s):

Maria Grazia Logrieco ◽

Laura Casula ◽

Giuseppe Niccolò Ciuffreda ◽

Ilaria Nicolì ◽

Maria Spinelli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Screen Time ◽

Online Survey ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Daily Lives ◽

Children With Asd ◽

Core Symptoms ◽

The Relationship

Background: Lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic brought deep changes to the daily lives of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), greatly increasing their amount of time spent at home. Methods: A cohort of 243 parents of children with ASD (2-15 years old) completed an original online survey regarding the child’s screen time and the modification of the ASD symptomatology during lockdown to investigate the relationship between them. Results: The data show that high solitary screen time is related with the worsening of ASD core symptoms. Conclusions: This study may help to increase awareness in the excessive use of screen in children with ASD during the lockdown, both during the pandemic as well as after it ends.

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Brief Report: Whole Blood Serotonin Levels and Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders ◽

10.1007/s10803-015-2646-8 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 46 (3) ◽

pp. 1124-1130 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Sarah Marler ◽

Bradley J. Ferguson ◽

Evon Batey Lee ◽

Brittany Peters ◽

Kent C. Williams ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Whole Blood ◽

Gastrointestinal Symptoms ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Blood Serotonin

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Absence of spontaneous action anticipation by false belief attribution in children with autism spectrum disorder

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579410000106 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 353-360 ◽

Cited By ~ 66

Author(s):

Atsushi Senju ◽

Victoria Southgate ◽

Yui Miura ◽

Tomoko Matsui ◽

Toshikazu Hasegawa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Verbal Ability ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

False Belief ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Belief Attribution ◽

Children With Asd ◽

Spontaneous Action ◽

Subsequent Behavior

AbstractRecently, a series of studies demonstrated false belief understanding in young children through completely nonverbal measures. These studies have revealed that children younger than 3 years of age, who consistently fail the standard verbal false belief test, can anticipate others' actions based on their attributed false beliefs. The current study examined whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who are known to have difficulties in the verbal false belief test, may also show such action anticipation in a nonverbal false belief test. We presented video stimuli of an actor watching an object being hidden in a box. The object was then displaced while the actor was looking away. We recorded children's eye movements and coded whether they spontaneously anticipated the actor's subsequent behavior, which could only have been predicted if they had attributed a false belief to her. Although typically developing children correctly anticipated the action, children with ASD failed to show such action anticipation. The results suggest that children with ASD have an impairment in false belief attribution, which is independent of their verbal ability.

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