scholarly journals Increased eye contact during parent-child versus clinician-child interactions in young children with autism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliana L. Ajodan ◽  
Elysha Clark-Whitney ◽  
Benjamin Silver ◽  
Melanie R. Silverman ◽  
Audrey Southerland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Communication Difficulties ◽  
Social Gaze ◽  
Interactive Play

Accumulating evidence suggests that when parents are actively involved in therapy, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have better outcomes, yet it is unknown whether children with ASD significantly alter their social behaviour with their parent versus a clinician. During a semi-naturalistic, face-to-face interaction, young children (N = 27, ages 18-60 months) with ASD demonstrated greater duration and frequency of eye contact with their parent compared to a clinician. Children also made more eye contact during snack versus interactive play with both their parent and the clinician, which is consistent with our prior work. The findings suggest that despite social communication difficulties associated with ASD, children with ASD demonstrated increased social gaze with their parent.

scholarly journals Increased eye contact during parent-child versus clinician-child interactions in young children with autism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliana L. Ajodan ◽  
Elysha Clark-Whitney ◽  
Benjamin Silver ◽  
Melanie R. Silverman ◽  
Audrey Southerland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Communication Difficulties ◽  
Young Children With Autism ◽  
Interactive Play

Accumulating evidence suggests that when parents are actively involved in therapy, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have better outcomes, yet it is unknown whether children with ASD significantly alter their social behaviour with their parent versus a clinician. During a face-to-face interaction, young children (N = 27, ages 18-60 months) with ASD demonstrated longer durations and higher frequencies of eye contact with their parent compared to a clinician. Children also made more eye contact during snack versus interactive play with both their parent and the clinician, which is consistent with our prior work. The findings suggest that despite social communication difficulties associated with ASD, children with ASD demonstrated increased eye contact with their parent.

Automated Measures to Understand Communication Opportunities for Young Children With Autism in the Community: A Pilot Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren M. Little ◽  
Joanne P. Rojas ◽  
Anna Bard ◽  
Ying Luo ◽  
Dwight Irvin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Similar Amount ◽  
Social Communication Skills ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Young Children With Autism

Community participation is vital to children’s development and provides opportunities to practice social communication skills. Although previous studies suggest that young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience decreased community participation, there is little empirical evidence on the precise patterns of participation that may influence social communication opportunities. Therefore, this pilot study investigated the communication among families of children with ASD ( n = 5) versus typical development (TD; n = 5) across various community locations. We used automated, objective measures: the Language ENvironmental Analysis (LENA) system™ to measure the amount of communication and integrated this with a Global Positioning System (GPS; that is, Qstarz™) to measure community location. Results showed that families of children with ASD and TD spent a similar amount of time in community locations; however, there were differences in the amount of adult talk directed toward children with ASD versus TD across community locations. Findings suggest that automated measures may be successfully integrated to quantify social communication during community participation.

Disfluency Characteristics Observed in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Preliminary Report

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura W. Plexico ◽  
Julie E. Cleary ◽  
Ashlynn McAlpine ◽  
Allison M. Plumb
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Young Children With Autism ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Developmental Stuttering

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).

scholarly journals Parent-reported feeding and swallowing difficulties of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (aged 3 to 5 years) compared to typically developing peers: a South African study

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 524-532
Author(s):  
Mari Viviers ◽  
Marguerite Jongh ◽  
Lindsay Dickonson ◽  
Roxanne Malan ◽  
Tamaryn Pike
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Young Children ◽  
South African ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Swallowing Difficulties ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

Background: Research on aspects of neurodevelopment such as feeding and swallowing difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is limited in low and middle income countries such as South Africa. Method: A descriptive comparative group design was used to investigate feeding and swallowing difficulties of young children with ASD in comparison to typically developing peers. The Brief Autism Mealtime Behavioural Inventory (BAMBI) was used. Results: Findings indicated a significant difference in the severity of feeding and swallowing difficulties between the two groups. Difficulties such as food selectivity, sensory processing difficulties, oral-motor difficulties and symptoms of dysphagia were iden- tified. The findings added to the existing global literature on feeding and swallowing difficulties in young children with ASD but provide a unique first perspective on these difficulties in South African children with ASD. Conclusion: Findings also highlighted the use of the BAMBI as an adjunct clinical tool to encourage comprehensive parental report during feeding assessment in this population. Cultural adaptation of the BAMBI for future use in African countries should be considered. A better local understanding of the parental perspective on the multidimensional nature of the feeding and swallowing difficulties displayed by young children with ASD was obtained. Keywords: Parent-reported feeding; swallowing difficulties; Autism Spectrum Disorders; South Africa. 

scholarly journals Social Intervention Impacts Action Anticipation, Goal Extraction, and Social Interest in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Joshua L. Haworth ◽  
Klaus Libertus ◽  
Rebecca J. Landa
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Body Motion ◽  
Social Intervention ◽  
Social Reciprocity ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Social Gaze

Anticipatory looking in the context of goal-directed actions emerges during the first year of life. However, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show diminished social gaze and anticipation while observing goal-directed actions. The current study examined a therapist-mediated social intervention targeting action-anticipation, goal-extraction, and social gaze in 18 children with ASD diagnosis. Before and after the intervention period, children viewed a video displaying a toddler repeatedly placing blocks into a bowl using a cross-body motion. Gaze to the actor’s face and anticipatory gaze to the goal location were analyzed. Results revealed that young children with ASD understand repeated actions and demonstrate goal-extraction even before exposure to the intervention. Further, targeted social intervention experience led to a redistribution of attention in favor of the actor’s face, while retaining action intention comprehension of the block transfer activity. Attention to social aspects during action observation by children with ASD could have favorable cascading effects on social reciprocity, social contingency, and theory of mind development.

scholarly journals A New Evaluation Technique Through Serious Games for Children with ASD

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 202
Author(s):  
Najoua Tahiri ◽  
Mohamed El Alami
Keyword(s):  
Serious Games ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Traditional Assessment ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Nonverbal Expression ◽  
Communication Difficulties ◽  
A New Technique

Assessment at preschool age plays a crucial role in the process of learning especially for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), whom encounter communication difficulties as exchanging thoughts or information by speech, writing or nonverbal expression. Therefore, a welldesigned assessment method is necessary in order to guide learning and serve as a powerful tool to reinforce children's motivation to learn. Information about what a child with ASD knows, understands and is able to do is used by tutors to adjust their teaching strategies. All assessment methods have different purposes before, during or after instruction. Besides, formative assessment is the most recommended type that helps improving children's learning and it takes place during the learning process. Also, serious games provide a context for assessing a broader range of skills and constructs compared to traditional assessment approaches. In this article, we propose a new technique for evaluating the degree of concept's assimilation of children with ASD through serious games. It allows identifying concepts that children are struggling to understand and skills they are having difficulty acquiring.

scholarly journals Impaired voice processing in reward and salience circuits predicts social communication in children with autism

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Arthur Abrams ◽  
Aarthi Padmanabhan ◽  
Tianwen Chen ◽  
Paola Odriozola ◽  
Amanda E Baker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Communication ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Editorial Note ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mother’S Voice ◽  
Voice Processing

Engaging with vocal sounds is critical for children’s social-emotional learning, and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often ‘tune out’ voices in their environment. Little is known regarding the neurobiological basis of voice processing and its link to social impairments in ASD. Here, we perform the first comprehensive brain network analysis of voice processing in children with ASD. We examined neural responses elicited by unfamiliar voices and mother’s voice, a biologically salient voice for social learning, and identified a striking relationship between social communication abilities in children with ASD and activation in key structures of reward and salience processing regions. Functional connectivity between voice-selective and reward regions during voice processing predicted social communication in children with ASD and distinguished them from typically developing children. Results support the Social Motivation Theory of ASD by showing reward system deficits associated with the processing of a critical social stimulus, mother’s voice, in children with ASD.Editorial note: This article has been through an editorial process in which the authors decide how to respond to the issues raised during peer review. The Reviewing Editor's assessment is that minor issues remain unresolved (<xref ref-type="decision-letter" rid="SA1">see decision letter</xref>).

scholarly journals Verbal and nonverbal outcomes of toddlers with and without autism spectrum disorder, language delay, and global developmental delay

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 239694151876476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail D Delehanty ◽  
Sheri Stronach ◽  
Whitney Guthrie ◽  
Elizabeth Slate ◽  
Amy M Wetherby
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Developmental Delay ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Developmental Outcomes ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Global Developmental Delay ◽  
Developmental Level ◽  
Communication Delays ◽  
Children With Asd

Background and Aims Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit a heterogeneous clinical phenotype with wide variability in their language and intellectual profiles that complicates efforts at early detection. There is limited research examining observational measures to characterize differences between young children with and without ASD and co-occurring language delay (LD) and global developmental delay (GDD). The first aim of this study was to compare early social communication measured in the second year of life in children diagnosed at age 3 with ASD, developmental delays (DD), and typical development (TD). The second aim was to compare early social communication in six subgroups of children: ASD, ASD+LD, ASD+GDD, LD, GDD, and TD. Our third aim was to determine the collective and unique contributions of early social communication to predict verbal and nonverbal developmental outcomes at three years of age for children with and without ASD. Methods Analyses of covariance controlling for maternal education were employed to examine group differences in social communication in 431 toddlers recruited through screening in primary care. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate associations between the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) Behavior Sample composite standard scores and Mullen Scales of Early Learning T scores for children with and without ASD. Results Distinct patterns of early social communication were evident by 20 months. Children with TD differed significantly from children with ASD and DD on all three CSBS Behavior Sample composites. Children with ASD had significantly lower scores than those with DD and TD on the social and symbolic composites. Among the six subgroups, all three composites of the CSBS Behavior Sample differentiated children with TD from all other subgroups. Children with ASD+GDD scored significantly lower than all other subgroups on social and symbolic composites. Patterns of social communication emerged for children with and without ASD, which held among subgroups divided by developmental level. The CSBS Behavior Sample social and symbolic composites contributed unique variance in predicting developmental outcomes in both groups. The speech composite contributed unique variance to expressive language, receptive language, and visual reception in children without ASD, and contributed uniquely to expressive language only for children with ASD. Conclusions The CSBS Behavior Sample, an observational measure for children aged 12–24 months, detected social communication delays and explained a significant amount of variance in verbal and nonverbal outcomes a year later in this large sample of young children grouped by ASD diagnosis and developmental level. Implications In light of the continued search for early predictors of ASD and developmental delay, our findings underscore the importance of monitoring early social communication skills, including the expression of emotions, eye gaze, gestures, rate of communication, joint attention, understanding words, and object use in play. There is a need for clinical utility of screening and evaluation tools that can detect social communication delays in very young children. This would enable intervention for infants and toddlers who show social communication delays which may be early signs for ASD or other DD, rather than waiting to confirm a formal diagnosis.

scholarly journals Parenting Behavior in Mothers of Preschool Children with ASD: Development of a Self-Report Questionnaire

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greet Lambrechts ◽  
Jarymke Maljaars ◽  
Hannah Boonen ◽  
Lotte van Esch ◽  
Karla Van Leeuwen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Parenting Behavior ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Factor Analyses ◽  
Factor Solution ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Gender And Age

Parents of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) encounter many daily challenges and often experience much stress. However, little research exists about parenting behavior among these parents. With this study, we aim to address this gap. We examined the structure and internal consistency of a questionnaire intended to measure parenting behavior among mothers of young children with ASD. Furthermore, we compared parenting behavior among mothers of young children with and without ASD between two and six years old. Factor analyses resulted in a factor solution with seven subscales of parenting behavior. Two additional subscales especially relevant for parenting preschoolers with ASD were also considered.Analyses of covariance, controlling for gender and age, showed significantly higher scores forDisciplineandStimulating the Developmentin the control group in comparison with the ASD group. These findings suggest that mothers of preschoolers with ASD are still trying to find strategies to guide and stimulate their child’s behavior and development effectively.

scholarly journals Technology-Assisted Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder using Augmented Reality

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 2156-2162
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
The Social ◽  
Behavior Skills ◽  
And Behavior

Technology-assisted intervention has potentials in improving the social, communication and behavior impairments in of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Augmented reality (AR) offers multitude of possibilities and opportunities for the intervention of children with ASD. Therefore, this study identifies 13 researches from 2012 to 2018 that documented the efficacy of augmented reality applications in supporting the intervention of children with ASD. This study reviews the applications of augmented reality that nhanced the intervention for children with autism in (i) social skills, (ii) communication skills, and (iii) behavior skills. The conclusion reports the significant roles of augmented reality as technology-assisted intervention for children with ASD.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document