scholarly journals E-books for children with autism: Best read alone or with a therapist?

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Erin Soares ◽  
Therese Miller ◽  
Kathleen Ciffone ◽  
Kirsten Read

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) seemingly prefer tablets to other methods of intervention, though professionals posit that a therapist’s presence is beneficial. In this experiment, two unique e-stories were created specifically for children with ASD. Ten children with low- or nonverbal ASD heard each story presented on an iPad; one narrated through the iPad, and one read by a therapist trained in Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). The within-participants design enabled researchers to measure the individual benefit of each type of story reading. After hearing each book, participants were tested on their comprehension via multiple choice, sequencing, and open-ended questions. Results indicated that the ideal condition for these young children with low- and nonverbal ASD was the therapist-read condition. These findings suggest that simple stories presented on a rewarding platform, with the minimally intrusive assistance of a therapist, provide young, verbally-challenged children with ASD with a foundation for receiving the benefits of shared storybook reading.

2020 ◽  
pp. 016264342092419
Author(s):  
Karissa J. Marble-Flint ◽  
Kathy H. Strattman ◽  
Marlene A. Schommer-Aikins

This initial study used an equivalent-groups design to evaluate differences in story comprehension scores between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their neurotypical (NT) peers using paper and iPad® storybooks. Fifteen children with ASD of ages 4–6 and 15 NT peers matched for receptive vocabulary age and gender met inclusion criteria. Across two individualized testing sessions, participants answered language abstraction questions about three formats of Pete the Cat stories (paper, iPad adult read, and iPad with the read-to-me feature activated) during shared storybook reading. When examining the entire group of participants, all children performed better with either type of iPad storybook compared to the paper book. The current study indicates storybooks on the iPad function in similar ways for NT children and children with ASD. Further, this research shows promise for using the iPad with young children during shared storybook reading. Directions for future research and implications for special education personnel are provided.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 652
Author(s):  
Ariel Pereira ◽  
Atiqah Azhari ◽  
Chloe Hong ◽  
Gerin Gaskin ◽  
Jessica Borelli ◽  
...  

Savouring is an emotion regulation strategy and intervention that focuses on the process of attending, intensifying and prolonging positive experiences and positive affect associated with these memories. Personal savouring involves a reflection on positive memories that are specific to the individual and do not involve others. In contrast, relational savouring entails reflecting on instances when people were responsive to the needs of their significant others. Such interventions hold potential benefits in enhancing positive affect (PA) and reducing negative affect (NA) for both parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and parents of neurotypical children. Adults with greater symptoms of generalised anxiety have been found to have less PA and more NA. However, no study has investigated the effects of a mother’s anxiety symptoms on the efficacy of savouring in enhancing PA and reducing NA. Thus, this paper combined personal and relational savouring to investigate whether savouring may enhance PA and reduce NA of a pooled sample of mothers of neurotypical children and mothers of children with ASD. 52 mothers of neurotypical children and 26 mothers of children with ASD aged 3–7 years old were given a series of questionnaires and randomly assigned to either relational savouring or personal savouring conditions. In relational savouring, mothers were asked to reflect upon a shared positive experience with their child while in the personal savouring condition, a personal positive experience was recalled. Across mothers of children with ASD and neurotypical children, findings suggest that savouring leads to a decrease in NA (p < 0.01) but not increases in PA. Similarly, mothers with higher levels of anxiety experience a greater decrease in NA (p < 0.001) compared to mothers with lower levels of anxiety post-savouring. This study proposes that a brief savouring intervention may be effective among mothers of preschoolers. As lower levels of negative affect is linked to healthier psychological well-being, mothers might be able to engage in more effective and warm parenting after savouring exercises, which would cultivate positive mother-child relationships that benefit their children in the long-term.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-134
Author(s):  
Maria P. M CHAIM ◽  
Sebastião B. C. NETO, ◽  
Aminn y F. PEREIRA, ◽  
Virgínia E. S. M. COSTA

The quality of life (QOL) of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is related to the symptomatic and idiopathic characteristics of the existential condition of the child and is determined by the subjective understandings attributed according to the individual experience. The primary objective of this article is to describe and understand the subjective constructs about the self-referenced QOL of mothers of children with ASD. It is an empirical study, qualitative and based on a reading of phenomenological psychopathology. Participated 10 mothers of children with ASD, users of public health services in Goiânia. The following instruments were used: a sociodemographic and clinical data questionnaire and a semi-structured interview script about QOL. The interviews were submitted to the construction of thematic categories, according to the methodology of Giorgi (1985), and later were correlated with the existential categories of Augras (2004). It was observed that although a standard is sought to understand QOL, each mother has subjective factors that reflect in her way of experiencing the condition of being a mother of a child with special needs. It is concluded that it is the science, when seeking to understand the quality of life of people with similar characteristics, to consider the relevance of the subjective aspects and the meaning that each mother constructs of its own reality.


Author(s):  
A.B. Sorokin ◽  
E.Yu. Davydova ◽  
A.V. Khaustov

Timely identification of appropriate intervention is prerequisite for amelioration of deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is a complicated choice because of the high heterogeneity of ASD manifestations and insufficient state of knowledge about intervention efficiency. The article introduces an approach that will allow professionals who plan educational and psychological interventions for children with ASD and caregivers to assess the methods in terms of their congruence with the evidence-based criteria. Such assessment is conducted based on published experimental data. The article presents characteristics that are worth considering while making an informed decision about the preferred intervention. They include formal features, such as sample sizes, study length, compliance with the target group description, and validity, as well as subjective criteria that enable appropriate choice of intervention at the individual level.


Author(s):  
M. W. G. van Dijk ◽  
M. E. Buruma ◽  
E. M. A. Blijd-Hoogewys

AbstractFeeding problems are prevalent in children with ASD. We investigated whether the Montreal Children’s Hospital Feeding Scale (MCH-FS, Ramsay et al. in Pediatrics and Child Health 16:147–151, 2011) can be used for young children with ASD. Participants (1–6 years) were selected from a clinical ASD sample (n = 80) and a general population sample (n = 1389). Internal consistency was good in both samples. In general, parents of children with ASD reported more feeding problems than those from the population sample. The response patterns on the individual items was highly similar. There was a slight increase in symptoms with age in the population sample, but not in the ASD sample. These results suggest that the MCH-FS can be used in populations that include children with ASD.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea N. Golloher

This study investigated the use of an adapted shared reading protocol with three children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in home settings. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, this investigation replicated and extended a previous investigation by Browder et al. to children with ASD and home settings. In addition, this study was to investigate whether individual components of the intervention package contributed to its overall effectiveness. Finally, the extent to which the participating children generalized their ability to engage in adapted shared reading with the researcher to shared reading with their parents was explored. The results of the investigation indicate that the children with ASD demonstrated improvements in engagement in shared reading and these improvements generalized to shared reading with the children’s parents.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 355-355
Author(s):  
A. Soltanifar ◽  
M. Hojati ◽  
A. Mashhadi ◽  
P. Reebye

IntroductionSeveral approaches have been presented for treatment of children with ASD. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy of Holistic Multidimensional Treatment Model (HMTM) with Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) in the improvement of clinical symptoms of children with ASD.MethodThe present study was an experimental pre and post test research. The statistical population included the 3 to 8 year old children with ASD who were referred to the child psychiatry clinics in two academic Hospitals- Mashhad,Iran. The sample included 20 children who were selected with convenience sampling and randomly divided to 2 groups of ABA (8 boys and 2 girls) and HMTM (7 boys and 3 girls).The diagnosis was made by a child psychiatrist based on DSM-IV-TR criteria and using Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADIR) and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS).Then the children were referred to Noore Hedayat center for the treatment. Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Bender Gestalt Test, Draw-A-Man Test Good enough, Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices Test for children, Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS) and performance charts of children based on their videotaped behaviors. Data analysis was done using ANCOVA test.ResultsFindings showed that in spite of more efficacy of HMTM compared to ABA, the differences of standard tests except Bender Gestalt Test and performance charts did not reach to the significant level(p > 0.05).ConclusionIn conclusion, HMTM at least had the equal efficacy to ABA in the treatment of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Further researches are needed to compare the efficacy of these 2 methods.


Author(s):  
Ariel S. Pereira ◽  
Atiqah Azhari ◽  
Chloe A. Hong ◽  
Gerin E. Gaskin ◽  
Jessica Borelli ◽  
...  

Savouring is an emotion regulation strategy and intervention that focuses on the process of attending, intensifying and prolonging positive experiences and positive affect associated with these memories. Personal savouring involves a reflection on positive memories that are specific to the individual and do not involve others. In contrast, relational savouring entails reflecting on instances when people were responsive to the needs of their significant others. Such interventions hold potential to benefit parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Mothers of children with ASD tend to experience higher anxiety, lower positive affect (PA) and more negative affect (NA) compared to mothers of neurotypical children, leading to a diminished overall well-being. Moreover, ASD has multiplied by up to four times in the recent decade. Thus, this paper investigates whether savouring may enhance the overall well-being of mothers of young children with ASD by increasing positive affect and decreasing negative affect. 52 mothers of neurotypical children and 26 mothers of children with ASD aged 3-7 years old were given a series of questionnaires and randomly assigned to either relational savouring or personal savouring conditions. In relational savouring, mothers were asked to reflect upon a shared positive experience with their child while in the personal savouring condition, a personal positive experience was recalled. Across mothers of children with ASD and neurotypical children, findings suggest that savouring leads to a decrease in NA (p &amp;lt; .01) but not increases in PA. Similarly, mothers with higher levels of anxiety experience a greater decrease in NA (p &amp;lt; .001) compared to mothers with lower levels of anxiety post-savouring. This study proposes that a brief savouring intervention may be effective among mothers of preschoolers. As lower levels of negative affect is linked to healthier psychological well-being, mothers might be able to engage in more effective and warm parenting after savouring exercises, which would cultivate positive mother-child relationships that benefit their children in the long-term.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Kim ◽  
Kathryn Marks ◽  
Stacy Gil

Dance Therapy (DT) is an effective treatment to promote emotional, social, cognitive and physical integration of the individual. Its benefits are of particular interest in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), whose caretakers are burdened with the high cost and rigorous demand of treatment. This paper presents a Dance Therapy program that will attempt to encourage physical, social, and cognitive development amongst students through concepts of mirroring and Teaching Dance for Understanding. This program will require less resources than other types of therapies because children will not have to be supervised individually; routines are consistent and repetitive. Although more quantitative research needs to be conducted, it represents a positive step toward providing children with ASD with an optimal environment.


2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura W. Plexico ◽  
Julie E. Cleary ◽  
Ashlynn McAlpine ◽  
Allison M. Plumb

This descriptive study evaluates the speech disfluencies of 8 verbal children between 3 and 5 years of age with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Speech samples were collected for each child during standardized interactions. Percentage and types of disfluencies observed during speech samples are discussed. Although they did not have a clinical diagnosis of stuttering, all of the young children with ASD in this study produced disfluencies. In addition to stuttering-like disfluencies and other typical disfluencies, the children with ASD also produced atypical disfluencies, which usually are not observed in children with typically developing speech or developmental stuttering. (Yairi & Ambrose, 2005).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document