scholarly journals How Do Children Reason About Mirrors? A Comparison Between Adults, Typically Developed Children, and Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Soranzo ◽  
Marco Bertamini ◽  
Sarah Cassidy
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
The Other ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Teddy Bear ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Inversion

The information about what one can see and what other people can see from different viewpoints is important. There are circumstances in which adults and children make systematic errors when predicting what is visible from their own or others’ viewpoints. This happens for example when reasoning about mirrors. We explored differences among three developmental groups: young adults (N=60) typically developing children (N=30); and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, N=30). We used an illustration of a top-down view of a room with a mirror on a wall (Room Observer and Mirror Perspective test: ROMP). Participants selected (circled on paper) which objects behind the observer in the room were visible, reflected from the mirror and from a given position (viewpoint). For half of each group, the observer in the room was described as a teddy bear; for the other half, it was described as a child. Overall, there were many errors in all groups, which we separate in errors of ignoring the viewpoint (same response to all three locations) and inversion errors (choosing objects on the left instead of the right or vice versa). In addition to the overall task difficulty, the ASD group made relatively more mistakes of ignoring the viewpoint compared to the other groups and underestimated how many objects were visible in the teddy bear condition that is when the viewpoint was an inanimate object. We suggest that this is related to a delay in theory of mind (ToM) development.

scholarly journals Early screening of autism spectrum disorder using cry features

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aida Khozaei ◽  
Hadi Moradi ◽  
Reshad Hosseini ◽  
Hamidreza Pouretemad ◽  
Bahareh Eskandari
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Early Screening ◽  
Classification Approach ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Sensitivity Specificity

AbstractDue to the importance of automatic and early autism screening, in this paper, a cry-based screening approach for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is introduced. During the study, we realized that the ASD specific features are not necessarily observable among all children with ASD and among all instances of each child. Therefore, we proposed a new classification approach to be able to find such features and their corresponding instances. We tested the proposed approach and found two features that can be used to distinguish groups of children with ASD from Typically Developing (TD) children. In other words, these features are present in subsets of children with ASD not all of them. The approach has been tested on a dataset including 14 boys and 7 girls with ASD and 14 TD boys and 7 TD girls, between 18 to 53 months old. The sensitivity, specificity, and precision of the proposed approach for boys were 85.71%, 100%, and 92.85%, respectively. These measures were 71.42%, 100%, and 85.71% for girls, respectively.

Functional changes during visuo-spatial working memory in autism spectrum disorder: 2-year longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Autism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 639-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa M Vogan ◽  
Benjamin R Morgan ◽  
Mary Lou Smith ◽  
Margot J Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Functional Changes

This study examined functional changes longitudinally over 2 years in neural correlates associated with working memory in youth with and without autism spectrum disorder, and the impact of increasing cognitive load. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a visuo-spatial 1-back task with four levels of difficulty. A total of 14 children with autism spectrum disorder and 15 typically developing children (ages 7–13) were included at baseline and followed up approximately 2 years later. Despite similar task performance between groups, differences were evident in the developmental trajectories of neural responses. Typically developing children showed greater load-dependent activation which intensified over time in the frontal, parietal and occipital lobes and the right fusiform gyrus, compared to those with autism spectrum disorder. Children with autism spectrum disorder showed minimal age-related changes in load-dependent activation, but greater longitudinal load-dependent deactivation in default mode network compared to typically developing children. Results suggest inadequate modulation of neural activity with increasing cognitive demands in children with autism spectrum disorder, which does not mature into adolescence, unlike their typically developing peers. Diminished ability for children with autism spectrum disorder to modulate neural activity during this period of maturation suggests that they may be more vulnerable to the increasing complexity of social and academic demands as they progress through adolescence than their peers.

scholarly journals Resistance to temptation in toddlers at genetic risk for autism spectrum disorder

Autism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 1018-1027
Author(s):  
Susan B Campbell ◽  
Jessie B Northrup ◽  
Amy B Tavares
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
High Risk Children

Children with autism spectrum disorder often demonstrate difficulties with self-regulation, although studies of this construct in young children with autism spectrum disorder are limited. In this study, developmental changes were examined using a measure of self-regulation appropriate for young children, resistance to temptation. At 22, 28, and 34 months, toddlers with an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder (high risk) and toddlers with typically developing older siblings (low risk) were presented with an appealing toy and instructed not to touch it. Observers coded whether or not children touched the toy and the strategies they used to resist touching it. At 36 months, children were assessed for autism spectrum disorder, yielding three groups: high risk children with autism spectrum disorder, high risk children without autism spectrum disorder, and low risk children. At 22 months, most children, regardless of group, touched the forbidden toy; at 28 and 34 months, many high risk children without autism spectrum disorder and low risk children resisted the temptation to touch the toy, whereas most of the children with autism spectrum disorder did not. Differences in delay strategies were also evident. Some, but not all group differences, were accounted for by differences in language ability. Results highlight one early index of impulse control that differentiates children with emerging autism spectrum disorder from age-mates prior to the third birthday.

scholarly journals Longitudinal associations across vocabulary modalities in children with autism and typical development

Autism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 424-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Bottema-Beutel ◽  
Tiffany Woynaroski ◽  
Rebecca Louick ◽  
Elizabeth Stringer Keefe ◽  
Linda R Watson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorder Group ◽  
Group A ◽  
Longitudinal Associations

We examined differences between children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children over an 8-month period in: (a) longitudinal associations between expressive and receptive vocabulary and (b) the extent to which caregiver utterances provided within an “optimal” engagement state mediated the pathway from early expressive to later receptive vocabulary. In total, 59 children (28–53 months at Time 1) comprised the autism spectrum disorder group and 46 children (8–24 months at Time 1) comprised the typically developing group. Groups were matched on initial vocabulary sizes. Results showed that the association between early expressive and later receptive vocabulary was moderated by group. A moderated mediation effect was also found, indicating linguistic input provided within an optimal engagement state only mediated associations for the autism spectrum disorder group.

scholarly journals Visual Preference for Biological Motion in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dzmitry A. Kaliukhovich ◽  
Nikolay V. Manyakov ◽  
Abigail Bangerter ◽  
Seth Ness ◽  
Andrew Skalkin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
The Other ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Adults With Autism ◽  
Visual Preference ◽  
Monitor Screen

Abstract Participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 121, mean [SD] age: 14.6 [8.0] years) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 40, 16.4 [13.3] years) were presented with a series of videos representing biological motion on one side of a computer monitor screen and non-biological motion on the other, while their eye movements were recorded. As predicted, participants with ASD spent less overall time looking at presented stimuli than TD participants (P < 10–3) and showed less preference for biological motion (P < 10–5). Participants with ASD also had greater average latencies than TD participants of the first fixation on both biological (P < 0.01) and non-biological motion (P < 0.02). Findings suggest that individuals with ASD differ from TD individuals on multiple properties of eye movements and biological motion preference.

Parents’ gesture adaptations to children with autism spectrum disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanako YOSHIDA ◽  
Paul CIRINO ◽  
Sarah S. MIRE ◽  
Joseph M. BURLING ◽  
Sunbok LEE
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Bayesian Estimation ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Developmental Mechanism ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Cue Use

AbstractThe present study focused on parents’ social cue use in relation to young children's attention. Participants were ten parent–child dyads; all children were 36 to 60 months old and were either typically developing (TD) or were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children wore a head-mounted camera that recorded the proximate child view while their parent played with them. The study compared the following between the TD and ASD groups: (a) frequency of parent's gesture use; (b) parents’ monitoring of their child's face; and (c) how children looked at parents’ gestures. Results from Bayesian estimation indicated that, compared to the TD group, parents of children with ASD produced more gestures, more closely monitored their children's faces, and provided more scaffolding for their children's visual experiences. Our findings suggest the importance of further investigating parents’ visual and gestural scaffolding as a potential developmental mechanism for children's early learning, including for children with ASD.

scholarly journals Object-directed imitation in autism spectrum disorder is differentially influenced by motoric task complexity, but not social contextual cues

Autism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lacey Chetcuti ◽  
Kristelle Hudry ◽  
Megan Grant ◽  
Giacomo Vivanti
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Motor Execution ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Socially Responsive

We examined the role of social motivation and motor execution factors in object-directed imitation difficulties in autism spectrum disorder. A series of to-be-imitated actions was presented to 35 children with autism spectrum disorder and 20 typically developing children on an Apple® iPad® by a socially responsive or aloof model, under conditions of low and high motor demand. There were no differences in imitation performance (i.e. the number of actions reproduced within a fixed sequence), for either group, in response to a model who acted socially responsive or aloof. Children with autism spectrum disorder imitated the high motor demand task more poorly than the low motor demand task, while imitation performance for typically developing children was equivalent across the low and high motor demand conditions. Furthermore, imitative performance in the autism spectrum disorder group was unrelated to social reciprocity, though positively associated with fine motor coordination. These results suggest that difficulties in object-directed imitation in autism spectrum disorder are the result of motor execution difficulties, not reduced social motivation.

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