D. Wimpory

Are infants with autism socially engaged? A study of recent retrospective parental reports.

The purpose of this study was to identify the specific aspects of social engagement that distinguish infants with autism from infants of similar age and developmental level who do not have autism. Ten parents of preschoolers with autism and 10 parents of matched children without autism were given a semistructured interview, the Detection of Autism by Infant Sociability Interview (DAISI), which elicits reports on whether 19 aspects of social engagement characteristic of typically developing infants were present at some time during the childs first 24 months. The reports of infants with autism differed from those of the control group on 16 items. Findings suggest that infants with autism have marked limitation in both person-to-person and person-person-object social engagement, in keeping with the theory that autism involves impairments in primary as well as secondary intersubjectivity (Hobson, 1993a).

Association of Per1 and Npas2 with autistic disorder: support for the clock genes/social timing hypothesis

Clock gene anomalies have been suggested as causative factors in autism. We screened eleven clock/clock-related genes in a predominantly high-functioning Autism Genetic Resource Exchange sample of strictly diagnosed autistic disorder progeny and their parents (110 trios) for association of clock gene variants with autistic disorder. We found significant association (P<0.05) for two single-nucleotide polymorphisms in per1 and two in npas2. Analysis of all possible combinations of two-marker haplotypes for each gene showed that in npas2 40 out of the 136 possible two-marker combinations were significant at the P<0.05 level, with the best result between markers rs1811399 and rs2117714, P=0.001. Haplotype analysis within per1 gave a single significant result: a global P=0.027 for the markers rs2253820–rs885747. No two-marker haplotype was significant in any of the other genes, despite the large number of tests performed. Our findings support the hypothesis that these epistatic clock genes may be involved in the etiology of autistic disorder. Problems in sleep, memory and timing are all characteristics of autistic disorder and aspects of sleep, memory and timing are each clock-gene-regulated in other species. We identify how our findings may be relevant to theories of autism that focus on the amygdala, cerebellum, memory and temporal deficits. We outline possible implications of these findings for developmental models of autism involving temporal synchrony/social timing.

Brief Report: Musical Interaction Therapy for Children with Autism: An Evaluative Case Study with Two-Year Follow-Up.

This case study explores the effects of a therapeutic approach on the social and symbolic development of a young autistic child. It adopts a social-interactionist perspective in recognizing that children with autism have a core difficulty in achieving shared understanding with others.

Musical interaction therapy - therapeutic play for children with autism

Autism and music Children with autism show impairments in social relationships, particularly in their use of eye contact, turntaking and in sharing experience; they also show impairments in body language and spoken language, and preoccupations indicating rigidity of thought patterns (American Psychological Association, 1994). They also seem to have specific difficulties in dealing with temporal perception (Condon, 1975; Hermelin and O’Connor, 1970; Nelson et al., 1984; Evans, 1986), which could be tied in to their early difficulties with communicative interaction. Despite this, children with autism are often reported to be particularly responsive both to music and to traditional music therapy (e.g. Benenzon, 1976; Alvin, 1978; Applebaum et al., 1979; DeMyer, 1979; Sloboda et al., 1985; Thaut, 1987, 1988). The use of music is appropriate as a means both of motivating the child with autism and addressing the proposed fundamental deficit in social timing (Newson, 1984; Wimpory, 1995), which inhibits the development of shared focus.

Knowledge acquisition and research evidence in autism: Researcher and practitioner perspectives and engagement

BACKGROUND Government policy and national practice guidelines have created an increasing need for autism services to adopt an evidence-based practice approach. However, a gap continues to exist between research evidence and its application. This study investigated the difference between autism researchers and practitioners in their methods of acquiring knowledge. METHODS In a questionnaire study, 261 practitioners and 422 researchers reported on the methods they use and perceive to be beneficial for increasing research access and knowledge. They also reported on their level of engagement with members of the other professional community. RESULTS Researchers and practitioners reported different methods used to access information. Each group, however, had similar overall priorities regarding access to research information. While researchers endorsed the use of academic journals significantly more often than practitioners, both groups included academic journals in their top three choices. The groups differed in the levels of engagement they reported; researchers indicated they were more engaged with practitioners than vice versa. CONCLUSIONS Comparison of researcher and practitioner preferences led to several recommendations to improve knowledge sharing and translation, including enhancing access to original research publications, facilitating informal networking opportunities and the development of proposals for the inclusion of practitioners throughout the research process.