Promoting the Social Inclusion of Children with ASD: A Family-Centred Intervention

The social isolation of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is well documented. Their dearth of friends outside of the family and their lack of engagement in community activities places extra strains on the family. A project in Northern Ireland provided post-diagnostic support to nearly 100 families and children aged from 3 to 11 years. An experienced ASD practitioner visited the child and family at home fortnightly in the late afternoon into the evening over a 12-month period. Most children had difficulty in relating to other children, coping with change, awareness of dangers, and joining in community activities. Likewise, up to two-thirds of parents identified managing the child’s behaviour, having time to spend with other children, and taking the child out of the house as further issues of concern to them. The project worker implemented a family-centred plan that introduced the child to various community activities in line with their learning targets and wishes. Quantitative and qualitative data showed improvements in the children’s social and communication skills, their personal safety, and participation in community activities. Likewise, the practical and emotional support provided to parents boosted their confidence and reduced stress within the family. The opportunities for parents and siblings to join in fun activities with the child with ASD strengthened their relationships. This project underscores the need for, and the success of family-based, post-diagnostic support to address the social isolation of children with ASD and their families.

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SOCIAL PEDAGOGICAL WORK WITH DIFFICULT CHILDREN

Knowledge International Journal ◽

10.35120/kij28031021r ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 1021-1026

Author(s):

Rozalia Kuzmanova – Kartalova

Keyword(s):

Social Inclusion ◽

Behavioral Control ◽

Educational Institutions ◽

Process Diagnosis ◽

Road Map ◽

The Social ◽

The Family ◽

Preventive Work ◽

Difficult Behavior ◽

Difficult Children

An analysis of the social pedagogical work with difficult children is presented, outlining characteristics, specifics and approaches for prevention and social accompaniment. In order to highlight the specifics of this group of children, a comparison is made with two other groups of children in a situation of life difficulty - "socially disadvantaged children" and "children at risk". The analysis refers to the understanding that difficult children are children with impaired emotional development, difficulty in communicating with others and disrupted behavioral control, all of which can lead to consequences both on a personal and behavioral level. It is emphasized that difficult children turn into such in situations where adults cannot find an adequate approach to them, and most often these adults are members of the family, parents, or teachers. An overview of scientific positions on difficult children by English, American, Russian and Bulgarian researchers is offered. This is the basis for outlining the main spheres which affect children negatively and categorize them as "difficult children" - emotional-personal; learning-cognitive; behavioral; somatic. The reasons for children’s difficult behavior are examined, including: the family and the flaws in it; the lack of spiritual connection between parents and children; the asocial environment; participation in criminal groups; errors in the work of educational institutions; economic difficulties that have influenced all spheres of public life. The characteristics of problem children are presented that account for the formulation of the principles of social pedagogical work with them. It is emphasized that one of the important approaches in the work is the development of skills for social inclusion, social expression and self-assertion. The model for social pedagogical work with difficult children is developed in two aspects: preventive work and social accompaniment. Preventive work consists in constantly informing all stakeholders - teachers, educators, non-pedagogical staff in educational institutions and the family on the opportunities for preventing "difficult children" on the one hand, and ensuring interaction between the participants in the preventive activities as well as striving to attract more organizations and institutions, on the other. The social accompaniment as a social pedagogical work includes: identification of children with difficult behavior at the earliest stage of the disadaptation process, diagnosis of the factors of the difficult behavior and the reasons for the disadvantage, preparation of an individual road map for working with the child, implementation of the individual program for accompanying the child, measuring and analyzing the results of the child's work and his / her close circle.

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How to Help Children and Adolescents with Austism SprectrumDisorder during Covid-19 Pandemic

Journal of Psychology and Neuroscience ◽

10.47485/2693-2490.1024 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Social Isolation ◽

Social Communication ◽

Respiratory Infections ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

World Health ◽

Behavioral Strategies ◽

Daily Lives ◽

The Social ◽

The World ◽

Health Organization

The Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD) are distinguished by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. Coronaviruses are an extremely common cause of colds and other upper respiratory infections. COVID-19, short for “coronavirus disease 2019”. The fast spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 has sparked alarm worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared this rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Most of the countries around the world are adopting social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus. There are several possible impacts of this pandemic on the daily lives of individuals with ASD, such as worsening of dysfunctional behaviors and regression of skills already acquired in different domains of development due to the social isolation. The objective of this article is to provide guidance to parents, health and education professionals that live or work with ASD individuals during the social isolation, on how to manage interventions that can be executed in the home environment, like remote training in language and social communication skills, behavioral strategies and sensory integration activities

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Adaptation to Vocal Expressions and Phonemes Is Intact in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Clinical Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/2167702617748401 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 372-381

Author(s):

Patricia E. G. Bestelmeyer ◽

Bethan Williams ◽

Jennifer J. Lawton ◽

Maria-Elena Stefanou ◽

Kami Koldewyn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Social Stimuli ◽

Adaptation Mechanism ◽

Identity Recognition ◽

Children With Asd ◽

The Social ◽

Vocal Expressions

Several recent studies have demonstrated reduced visual aftereffects, particularly to social stimuli, in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This putative impairment of the adaptive mechanism in ASD has been put forward as a possible explanation for some of the core social problems experienced by children with ASD (e.g., facial emotion or identity recognition). We addressed this claim in children with ASD and typically developing children by using an established methodology and morphed auditory stimulus set for eliciting robust aftereffects to vocal expressions and phonemes. Although children with ASD were significantly worse at categorizing the vocal expressions compared with the control stimuli (phoneme categorization), aftereffect sizes in both tasks were identical in the two participant groups. Our finding suggests that the adaptation mechanism is not universally impaired in ASD and is therefore not an explanation for the social perception difficulties in ASD.

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Investigating SOcial Competence and Isolation in children with Autism taking part in LEGO-based therapy clubs In School Environments (I-SOCIALISE): study protocol

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030471 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. e030471

Author(s):

Danielle Varley ◽

Barry Wright ◽

Cindy Cooper ◽

David Marshall ◽

Katie Biggs ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Skills ◽

Usual Care ◽

Peer Relationships ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Skills Training ◽

Well Being ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

School Level ◽

Children With Asd ◽

The Social

IntroductionSocial skills training interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically focus on a skills deficit model rather than building on existing skills or encouraging the child to seek their own solutions. LEGO-based therapy is a child-oriented intervention to help improve social interactional skills and reduce isolation. The therapy is designed for school-age children with ASD and uses group-based play in a school setting to encourage peer relationships and social learning. Despite the reported potential benefits of LEGO-based therapy in a prior randomised controlled trial (RCT) and its adoption by many schools, the evidence to support its effectiveness on the social and emotional well-being of children with ASD is limited and includes no assessment of cost-effectiveness.Methods and analysisThis multicentre, pragmatic, cluster RCT will randomise 240 participants (aged 7–15 years) with a clinical diagnosis of ASD to receive usual care or LEGO-based therapy with usual care. Cluster randomisation will be conducted on a school level, randomising each school as opposed to each individual child within a school. All prospective participants will be screened for eligibility before assenting to the study (with parents giving informed consent on behalf of their child). All participants will be followed up at 20 and 52 weeks after randomisation to assess for social, emotional and behavioural changes. The primary outcome measure is the social skills subscale of the Social Skills Improvement System completed by a teacher or teaching assistant associated with participating children at the 20-week follow-up time point.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval has been obtained via the University of York Research Ethics Committee. The results of the trial will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and will be disseminated to participating families, education practitioners and the third sector including voluntary and community organisations.Trial registration numberISRCTN64852382; Pre-results.

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LUGAR DE MULHER É... NA FÁBRICA; ESTADO E TRABALHO FEMININO NO BRASIL (1910-1934)

História Questões & Debates ◽

10.5380/his.v34i0.2664 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Giselle Martins VENANCIO

Keyword(s):

Family Structure ◽

Social Groups ◽

Female Labour ◽

Male And Female ◽

Brazilian State ◽

The Social ◽

Political Forces ◽

The Family ◽

Family Based ◽

Do So

Objetiva-se, neste artigo, compreender as formas de atuação dos diversos grupos sociais que debateram, nos primeiros anos do século XX no Brasil, a questão da regulamentação do trabalho feminino com vistas a demonstrar, principalmente, de que maneira o Estado brasileiro atuou, durante os anos 10, 20 e 30, em relação ao processo de regulamentação das leis trabalhistas, mais especificamente em relação à normatização do trabalho feminino. Ao analisar como o Estado se comportou diante do trabalho industrial feminino, buscamos fazê-lo de modo a caracterizar esse Estado enquanto um campo de forças políticas diversas. Como campo de tensão, o Estado republicano brasileiro foi ao mesmo tempo, palco de disputas políticas de vários grupos sociais e local de neutralização desses conflitos através da criação de normas que deveriam ser obedecidas por todos. As leis trabalhistas, criadas principalmente durante os anos 30, funcionaram como uma estratégia que, em nome da sua pretensa imparcialidade, permitia a tentativa de neutralização dos conflitos sociais. Em relação ao trabalho feminino, tal regulamentação, apesar de defender a mulher da superexploração a que estava submetida na fábrica, manteve-se nos limites da defesa de um tipo de família baseada na divisão natural dos papéis sociais, resultando de um debate que vinha se organizando desde o início do século sobre os papéis masculino e feminino e sua ação no interior da família. Abstract The goal of this article is to understand the behaviour of the different social groups which discussed, during the first few years of the XX century in Brazil, the regulation of the female labour, trying to demonstrate, mainly, how the Brazilian state acted, during the 10s, 20s and 30s, in relation to the labour laws regulation, and more specifically in relation to the regulation of the female labour. While analysing how this State has behaved facing the female industrial labour, we try to do so as to characterize this state as a camp with different political forces. As a field of tensions, the republican Brazilian state was at the same time a stage of political disputes by different social groups and a place of neutralization of such conflicts, by the creation of norms which should be followed by everybody. The labour laws, which were created mainly during the 1930s, worked as a strategy in which, due to its impartiality, allowed the search for the neutralization of the social conflicts. In relation to the female labour, that regulation, even though it defended the women from the exploration to which they were submitted in the factories, maintained itself inside the limits of defending the family based on the natural division of the social roles, resulting from a debate which had been going on since the beginning of the century about the male and female roles and their key actions inside the family structure.

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Parent Perceptions of Museum Participation: A Comparison Between Parents of Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorders

Inclusion ◽

10.1352/2326-6988-4.2.109 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 109-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ana Antonetti ◽

Tina Fletcher

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Art Museum ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

The Body ◽

Community Activities ◽

Body Of Knowledge ◽

Children With Asd ◽

Five Factors ◽

Spectrum Disorders

Abstract This study aims to add to the body of knowledge on the experiences of families of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with the goal of promoting increased participation in community activities. Five factors associated with participation in activities at an art museum were explored, comparing families of children with and without ASD. These factors included both children's frequency of participation and parents' perceptions of the importance of community activities. The differences between groups were statistically significant. Parents of children without ASD reported their children's frequency of participation in museum activities was three times more than parents of children with ASD. Parents of children with ASD reported experiencing three times as many negative emotions associated with museum activities than parents of children without ASD.

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Computer- and Robot-Assisted Therapies to Aid Social and Intellectual Functioning of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Medicina ◽

10.3390/medicina55080440 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 55 (8) ◽

pp. 440 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Joan DiPietro ◽

Arpad Kelemen ◽

Yulan Liang ◽

Cecilia Sik-Lanyi

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Social Skills ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Computer Assisted ◽

Robot Assisted ◽

The Past ◽

Children With Asd ◽

The Social

Background and objectives: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges with social interactions, a core feature of the disorder. Social skills therapy has been shown to be helpful. Over the past several years, computer-assisted and robot-assisted therapies have been infiltrating the social skills teaching environment. Rapid progress in the field of technology, especially in the robotics area, offers tremendous possibilities for innovation and treatment or even education for individuals with ASD. This paper’s purpose is to drive awareness of these innovative interventions in order to support the social lives of children with ASD. The aims of the paper are identifying (1) the types of Information Technology platforms that are being evaluated in computer and robot-assisted therapies for children with ASD; (2) the various disciplines or professions studying and utilizing these computer and robot-assisted social skill therapies; (3) the outcomes being evaluated in each trial; and (4) if results demonstrate benefits to children with autism. Materials and Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, Science Direct, and Web of Science databases were searched for clinical trials published over the past five years. Search terms incorporated the subject intersection of autism, and computer or robot-assisted therapy. Results were mined for pediatric populations only and study designs establishing controlled comparisons. Results: Eighteen unique international studies were identified that utilize robot interventions (11 studies) and serious computer game interventions (seven studies). Most demonstrated promising results in improving outcomes for children with ASD. Study implications reveal a rapidly evolving assistive technology for ASD social skills therapy. Conclusions: These interventions show considerable promise, but more effectiveness and cost effectiveness research of high quality should be carried out with larger numbers of children. Also, further studies are necessary to evaluate these technologies’ effectiveness amongst adults with ASD and within unique subsets of the higher functioning autism population.

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

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.39906 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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>).

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The importance of peer mediation in the social functioning of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Problemy Opiekuńczo-Wychowawcze ◽

10.5604/01.3001.0014.4868 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 594 (9) ◽

pp. 41-50

Author(s):

Ewelina Młynarczyk-Karabin

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Peer Relationships ◽

Peer Mediation ◽

Peer Group ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Great Opportunity ◽

Children With Asd ◽

The Social ◽

Collaborative Activities

The aim of the article is to indicate the role of peer relationships in the functioning of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and to indicate the potential possibilities of establishing interaction with a peer group. Peer mediation is one of the principles that apply to intervening with students with ASD. It is based on the involvement of peers as social skills trainers and mentors of a student with autism. Through the interaction, peers learn ways to involve a child with ASD in collaborative activities that they initiate themselves or that are planned by their teacher. The basic types of peer mediation include: Integrative Play Groups, Colleague Mentor, Peer Group and Group Oriented Approach. Supporting students with ASD through peer mediation is a method that has been shown to be effective in research. It has a positive effect not only on the development of children with ASD, but also on children with typical development. The implementation of mediation in the peer group is a great opportunity for children with ASD to reduce the risk of being rejected by their peers, and in the future to establish friendships between children.

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Child with autistic spectrum disorder: care from the family

Escola Anna Nery ◽

10.1590/2177-9465-ean-2018-0116 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lina Domenica Mapelli ◽

Mayara Caroline Barbieri ◽

Gabriela Van Der Zwaan Broekman Castro ◽

Maria Aparecida Bonelli ◽

Monika Wernet ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Narrative Analysis ◽

Autistic Spectrum Disorder ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Change Of Direction ◽

Descriptive Research ◽

Children With Asd ◽

The Family ◽

Family Acceptance ◽

Stimulation Of

Abstract Objective: To know the experience of the family in the care of the child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and to discuss possibilities of health care. Method: Descriptive research with qualitative approach, carried out with 15 families of children with ASD, living in two municipalities in the interior of the state of São Paulo, from October 2016 to March 2017. The Symbolic Interactionism was used as theoretical reference, and Narrative Analysis, as method. Results: Families perceive signs of autism, however, believe that there are not suspicious behaviors, but the child's personalities. When diagnosis is defined, family acceptance is painful and sad. The mother shows to be the main caretaker, while the father remains in the background. A significant change of direction of the family towards the care/attention/stimulation of the autistic child is observed. Conclusion: Unveiling family experience in the care of children with ASD amplifies strategies for reinforcement and adaptation.

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