Non-verbal IQ and change in restricted and repetitive behavior throughout childhood in autism: a longitudinal study using the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised

Background Restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) is one of the characteristic features of Autism Spectrum Disorder. This domain of symptoms includes a broad range of behaviors. There is a need to study each behavior individually to better understand the role of each in the development of autistic children. Moreover, there are currently no longitudinal studies investigating change in these behaviors over development. Methods The goal of the present study was to explore the association between age and non-verbal IQ (NVIQ) on 15 RRB symptoms included in the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) over time. A total of 205 children with ASD were assessed using the ADI-R at time of diagnosis, at age 6 years, and at age 11 years, and with the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children—Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) at age 8 years. Results The proportion of children showing each RRB tended to diminish with increasing age, except for sensitivity to noise and circumscribed interests, where the proportion increased over time. Although there was no significant main effect of NVIQ, there was a significant interaction between age and NVIQ. This was mainly driven by Difficulties with change in routine, for which higher NVIQ was associated with the behavior remaining relatively stable with age, while lower NVIQ was associated with the behavior becoming more prevalent with age. Limitations The study focused on the presence/absence of each RRB but did not account for potential changes in frequency or severity of the behaviors over development. Furthermore, some limitations are inherent to the measures used. The ADI-R relies on parent report and hence has some level of subjectivity, while the Wechsler intelligence scales can underestimate the intellectual abilities of some autistic children. Conclusions These results confirm that specific RRB are differentially linked to age and NVIQ. Studying RRB individually is a promising approach to better understanding how RRB change over the development of autistic children and are linked to other developmental domains.

AN ANALYSIS OF VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. Autistic is a person affected by autism. The level of autism of each individual is varied. It can range from mild to severe. Due to this condition, the person shares some symptoms of the difficulties with social interaction. To make them involved in social interaction, it needs special effort to make them be able to speech or communicate first. For this reason, there should be the use of the combination between verbal and non-verbal communication. Thus, this study attempted to investigate the process of using both kinds of communication in teaching children with autism since children are easier to be threated than adults. To make the distinct result, the participants were from different level of autism. Then, based on the observation and interview, the findings showed that the verbal and non-verbal communication used by the therapist in teaching the autistic children can enhance their social interaction and communication skills.

Overlapping symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders: more similarities than differences

Background: While Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may intuitively seem to be on the extremes of a single spectrum (ranging from impulsive to rigid), symptoms of ASD and ADHD often co-occur in the same children. This study aimed to provide an in-depth characterization of ADHD and ASD symptoms in children with and without ASD and/or ADHD using questionnaire data. Methods: In total, we included 702 symptom measurements from 484 children aged between 6 and 18 years with ADHD (N=155), ASD (N=141), or typically developing (N=188) and analyzed these using linear mixed-effects models. We used latent-profile analysis (LPA) to investigate patterns of comorbid ADHD and ASD symptoms. Results: The present study investigated restricted and repetitive behavior and symptoms of ADHD across a large sample of children with ASD and/or ADHD, compared to typically developing peers. We found that children with comorbid ASD and ADHD had the most severe symptoms that persisted over development. Children with a primary ADHD diagnosis had elevated levels of restricted and repetitive behavior, and children with ASD also had symptoms of ADHD. Latent profile analysis (LPA) further suggested that patterns of symptom comorbidity are not specific to diagnostic categories.Conclusions: We found severe and persistent ASD and ADHD symptoms in children with comorbid ASD and ADHD. Children with a single diagnosis of ASD or ADHD had more moderate symptoms that improved with age. Furthermore, children with ASD had elevated ADHD symptoms, and vice versa, suggesting that symptoms are not specific to diagnostic categories.

Desenvolvimento de um Software para Auxílio na Comunicação de quem tem Transtorno do Espectro Autista - TEA

Autistic Spectrum Disorder - TEA is marked by a number of characteristics that influence the daily lives of citizens with the disorder. This change consists of difficulty in communicating with society, badly social interaction and restricted and repetitive behavior, of- ten not dealing with changes in routine. Due to these obstacles faced by autists, forms of intervention arise in order to social inclusion towards these people, such as alternative methods that help autistics communicate. The Picture Exchange Communication System - PECS is one of these assistive tools, based on picture communication, one simulates autism and others everyday foods and objects. However, this method has some issues, for example, some of them cannot associate an illustrative figure that represents an object in reality, causing the PECS to be unusable. From this, this project based on the development and implementation of the site “SeuPecs”, based on the above Communication System, with the creation of unique PECS for each autistic in order to contribute to the communication of who has the TEA.

A Machine Learning and Integration Based Architecture for Cognitive Disorder Detection Used for Early Autism Screening

About 15% of the world’s population suffers from some form of disability. In developed countries, about 1.5% of children are diagnosed with autism. Autism is a developmental disorder distinguished mainly by impairments in social interaction and communication and by restricted and repetitive behavior. Since the cause of autism is still unknown, there have been many studies focused on screening for autism based on behavioral features. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to present an architecture focused on data integration and analytics, allowing the distributed processing of input data. Furthermore, the proposed architecture allows the identification of relevant features as well as of hidden correlations among parameters. To this end, we propose a methodology able to integrate diverse data sources, even data that are collected separately. This methodology increases the data variety which can lead to the identification of more correlations between diverse parameters. We conclude the paper with a case study that used autism data in order to validate our proposed architecture, which showed very promising results.

Sex differences in restricted repetitive behaviors and interests in children with autism spectrum disorder: An Autism Treatment Network study

Compared to the social communication domain, considerably less is known about the cause, development, and impact of restricted, repetitive behaviors interests and activities in children with autism spectrum disorder, including possible sex differences. This study examined sex differences in clinically identified (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) restricted and repetitive behavior symptoms using the largest known sample (N = 1024) of age-matched and intelligence quotient–matched female and male children with autism spectrum disorder. More similarities than differences were observed; however, younger higher functioning and older lower functioning females presented reduced rates on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule restricted and repetitive behavior subcategory unusually repetitive/excessive, stereotyped behaviors compared to similar males. These findings identify key restricted and repetitive behavior similarities and differences among young females and males with autism spectrum disorder and emphasize the need for a deeper understanding of the female autism phenotype.

Factors associated with DSM-5 severity level ratings for autism spectrum disorder

The newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed., DSM-5) introduced substantial changes to the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder, including new severity level ratings for social communication and restricted and repetitive behavior domains. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of these new severity ratings and to examine their relation to other measures of severity and clinical features. Participants included 248 children with autism spectrum disorder who received diagnostic evaluations at one of six Autism Treatment Network sites. Higher severity ratings in both domains were associated with younger age, lower intelligence quotient, and greater Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule–Second Edition domain-specific symptom severity. Greater restricted and repetitive behavior severity was associated with higher parent-reported stereotyped behaviors. Severity ratings were not associated with emotional or behavioral problems. The new DSM-5 severity ratings in both domains were significantly associated with behavioral observations of autism severity but not with measures of other behavioral or emotional symptoms. However, the strong associations between intelligence quotient and DSM-5 severity ratings in both domains suggest that clinicians may be including cognitive functioning in their overall determination of severity. Further research is needed to examine clinician decision-making and interpretation of these specifiers.

Race influences parent report of concerns about symptoms of autism spectrum disorder

Racial differences in parent report of concerns about their child’s development to healthcare providers may contribute to delayed autism spectrum disorder diagnoses in Black children. We tested the hypotheses that compared to White parents, Black parents of children with autism spectrum disorder would report fewer concerns about autism symptoms and would be more likely to report concerns about disruptive behaviors. A sample of 18- to 40-month-old toddlers ( N = 174) with autism spectrum disorder and their parent participated. After screening positive for autism spectrum disorder risk, but prior to a diagnostic evaluation, parents completed free-response questions soliciting concerns about their child’s development. Parent responses were coded for the presence or the absence of 10 possible concerns, which were grouped into autism concerns (e.g. social and restricted and repetitive behavior concerns) or non-autism concerns (e.g. general developmental and disruptive behavior concerns). Compared to White parents, Black parents reported significantly fewer autism concerns and fewer social and restricted and repetitive behavior concerns. However, Black parents did not report significantly fewer non-autism concerns. Race did not influence parent report of disruptive behavior concerns. Lower reporting of autism concerns by Black parents may impact providers’ abilities to identify children who need further screening or evaluation.