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Trew S. Made to feel different: Families perspectives on external responses to autism and the impacts on family well-being and relationships. AUTISM : THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2024; 28:2120-2139. [PMID: 38240288 PMCID: PMC11301965 DOI: 10.1177/13623613231221684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/07/2024]
Abstract
LAY ABSTRACT The influence of the environment on different groups of people with disabilities has rarely been studied in the context of neurodevelopmental disabilities, such as autism, in adolescence. This study explored how external responses to autism affect the experiences, outcomes and family relationships of autistic adolescents and their family members, including siblings and parents. This study adds to the knowledge of factors that contribute to the social disadvantage and exclusion autistic adolescents and their families face in their communities. Interviews with 30 participants from families with an autistic adolescent show that external factors greatly impact the well-being of autistic adolescents and their families. The school environment, including sensory overload, bullying and negative interactions with teachers, was found to be a key factor that negatively influenced mental health and family relationships. The study also revealed that isolation and stigma are major concerns for families, indicating the importance of public awareness campaigns to increase understanding of autism. In addition, the lack of adequate support and services presented significant challenges for families. The study emphasises the importance of person-centred approaches to providing services, which involve including autistic individuals and their families in designing and delivering support.
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All K, Chawarska K, Macari SL. Early executive functioning predicts externalizing problems in neurodiverse preschoolers. Autism Res 2024; 17:1053-1065. [PMID: 38476104 PMCID: PMC11251695 DOI: 10.1002/aur.3109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 01/31/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024]
Abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit externalizing problems, which have been linked with increased anxiety and depression, peer rejection, and parental stress. Identification of early predictors of externalizing behaviors in autism will facilitate identification of vulnerable children and implementation of early preventative interventions. There is ample evidence that executive functioning, social functioning, and temperament are predictive of later externalizing problems in general populations, but less is known about these relations in ASD and other neurodiverse populations, particularly in the early preschool years. To address this gap, we assessed the relations between executive functioning, social functioning, and temperament at age 3 and externalizing problems at age 5 in a sample of neurodiverse children with ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders and delays. Analyses revealed that severity of early executive functioning impairment predicted increased externalizing problems. Severity of social autism symptoms moderated this relationship such that the effect of executive functioning on externalizing problems decreased as autism symptoms increased. These findings suggest that executive functioning is an important target for identifying and developing interventions for vulnerable children and underscore the necessity of considering severity of autism symptoms when researching the development of externalizing problems in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine All
- Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Katarzyna Chawarska
- Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Suzanne L Macari
- Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
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Soleiman P, Moradi H, Mehralizadeh B, Ameri H, Arriaga RI, Pouretemad HR, Baghbanzadeh N, Vahid LK. Fully robotic social environment for teaching and practicing affective interaction: Case of teaching emotion recognition skills to children with autism spectrum disorder, a pilot study. Front Robot AI 2023; 10:1088582. [PMID: 37207048 PMCID: PMC10190599 DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2023.1088582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2022] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/21/2023] Open
Abstract
21st century brought along a considerable decrease in social interactions, due to the newly emerged lifestyle around the world, which became more noticeable recently of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, children with autism spectrum disorder have further complications regarding their social interactions with other humans. In this paper, a fully Robotic Social Environment (RSE), designed to simulate the needed social environment for children, especially those with autism is described. An RSE can be used to simulate many social situations, such as affective interpersonal interactions, in which observational learning can take place. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed RSE, it has been tested on a group of children with autism, who had difficulties in emotion recognition, which in turn, can influence social interaction. An A-B-A single case study was designed to show how RSE can help children with autism recognize four basic facial expressions, i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, through observing the social interactions of two robots speaking about these facial expressions. The results showed that the emotion recognition skills of the participating children were improved. Furthermore, the results showed that the children could maintain and generalize their emotion recognition skills after the intervention period. In conclusion, the study shows that the proposed RSE, along with other rehabilitation methods, can be effective in improving the emotion recognition skills of children with autism and preparing them to enter human social environments.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Hadi Moradi
- School of ECE, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
- Intelligent Systems Research Institute, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
- *Correspondence: Hadi Moradi,
| | | | - Hamed Ameri
- Department of Psychology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Rosa I. Arriaga
- School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | | | | | - Leila Kashani Vahid
- Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
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4
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McDonald RG, Khawar S, Yacoub N, Cargill MI, Lerner MD, Kang E. Performance- and Theater-Based Interventions for Supporting Social Cognition and Social Communication in Autistic Youth: A Review and Theoretical Synthesis. Semin Speech Lang 2022; 43:255-276. [PMID: 35896405 DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1750763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/16/2022]
Abstract
Social skills interventions (SSIs) are commonly used to improve social functioning in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is a condition characterized by differences in social cognition and social communication. Although more traditional SSIs have used knowledge-based, didactic instruction, recent research has explored the utility of performance-based SSIs, which use various activities to support implicit learning of social skills in supportive, enriched environments. This article reviews the extant literature evaluating the effectiveness or efficacy of five performance-based SSIs using theater-based approaches on social cognition and social communication. Overall, this body of literature suggests social communication gains that include increased peer interactions, peer liking, and reciprocal friendships, as well as social cognitive gains in theory of mind and affect recognition. This review also discusses theoretical models that may help explain the emerging strengths of performance- and theater-based SSIs with underlying hypotheses related to the social communication and social cognitive differences in ASD. Limitations of performance-based SSIs in the evidence-base include several approaches in initial stages of research with small sample sizes and limited maintenance of effects. Future research should aim to bridge the research-to-practice gap and use more rigorous designs and more diverse samples, including those with cooccurring intellectual disability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel G McDonald
- Psychology Department, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey
| | - Sadaf Khawar
- Psychology Department, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey
| | - Nardin Yacoub
- Psychology Department, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey
| | - Mary Isaac Cargill
- Psychology Department, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey
| | - Matthew D Lerner
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
| | - Erin Kang
- Psychology Department, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey
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5
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Sari NP, Jansen PW, Blanken LME, Ruigrok ANV, Prinzie P, Tiemeier H, Baron-Cohen S, van IJzendoorn MH, White T. Maternal age, autistic-like traits and mentalizing as predictors of child autistic-like traits in a population-based cohort. Mol Autism 2022; 13:26. [PMID: 35705965 PMCID: PMC9199218 DOI: 10.1186/s13229-022-00507-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 06/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Many empirical studies suggest that higher maternal age increases the likelihood of having an autistic child. However, little is known about factors that may explain this relationship or if higher maternal age is related to the number of autistic-like traits in offspring. One possibility is that mothers who have a higher number of autistic-like traits, including greater challenges performing mentalizing skills, are delayed in finding a partner. The goal of our study is to assess the relationship between maternal age, mentalizing skills and autistic-like traits as independent predictors of the number of autistic-like traits in offspring. Methods In a population-based study in the Netherlands, information on maternal age was collected during pre- and perinatal enrolment. Maternal mentalizing skills and autistic-like traits were assessed using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test and the Autism Spectrum Quotient, respectively. Autistic-like traits in children were assessed with the Social Responsiveness Scale. A total of 5718 mother/child dyads had complete data (Magechild = 13.5 years; 50.2% girls). Results The relationship between maternal age and autistic-like traits in offspring best fits a U-shaped curve. Furthermore, higher levels of autistic features in mothers are linked to higher levels of autistic-like traits in their children. Lower mentalizing performance in mothers is linked to higher levels of autistic-like traits in their children. Limitations We were able to collect data on both autistic-like traits and the mentalizing skills test in a large population of mothers, but we did not collect these data in a large number of the fathers. Conclusions The relationships between older and younger mothers may have comparable underlying mechanisms, but it is also possible that the tails of the U-shaped curve are influenced by disparate mechanisms. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13229-022-00507-4.
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Affiliation(s)
- Novika Purnama Sari
- Department Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. .,Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. .,Generation R Study Group, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
| | - Pauline W Jansen
- Department Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.,Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Laura M E Blanken
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.,Generation R Study Group, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.,Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Amber N V Ruigrok
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Peter Prinzie
- Department Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Henning Tiemeier
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.,Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Simon Baron-Cohen
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Marinus H van IJzendoorn
- Department Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.,Research Department of Clinical Educational and Health Psychology, UCL, University of London, London, UK
| | - Tonya White
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.,Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Feldman M, Hamsho N, Blacher J, Carter AS, Eisenhower A. Predicting peer acceptance and peer rejection for autistic children. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/pits.22739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Melanie Feldman
- TEACCH Autism Program School of Medicine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill North Carolina USA
| | - Narmene Hamsho
- Department of Psychology University of Massachusetts Boston Massachusetts USA
| | - Jan Blacher
- Graduate School of Education University of California Riverside California USA
| | - Alice S. Carter
- Department of Psychology University of Massachusetts Boston Massachusetts USA
| | - Abbey Eisenhower
- Department of Psychology University of Massachusetts Boston Massachusetts USA
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