Gemma Pastor-Cerezuela

A comparative study of sensory processing in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder in the home and classroom environments

Sensory processing and higher integrative functions impairments are highly prevalent in children with ASD. Context should be considered in analyzing the sensory profile and higher integrative functions. The main objective of this study is to compare sensory processing, social participation and praxis in a group of 79 children (65 males and 14 females) from 5 to 8 years of age (M=6.09) divided into two groups: ASD Group (n=41) and Comparison Group (n=38). The Sensory Processing Measure (SPM) was used to evaluate the sensory profile of the children: parents reported information about their childrens characteristics in the home environment, and teachers reported information about the same characteristics in the classroom environment. The ASD Group obtained scores that indicate higher levels of dysfunction on all the assessed measures in both environments, with the greatest differences obtained on the social participation and praxis variables. The most affected sensory modalities in the ASD Group were hearing and touch. Only in the ASD Group were significant differences found between the information reported by parents and what was reported by teachers: specifically, the teachers reported greater dysfunction than the parents in social participation (p=.000), touch (p=.003) and praxis (p=.010). These results suggest that the context-specific qualities found in children with ASD point out the need to receive information from both parents and teachers during the sensory profile assessment process, and use context-specific assessments.

Sensory processing in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Relationship with non-verbal IQ, autism severity and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder symptomatology.

The main objective of this study was to analyze in a sample of children with ASD the relationship between sensory processing, social participation and praxis impairments and some of the childs characteristics, such as non-verbal IQ, severity of ASD symptoms and the number of ADHD symptoms (inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity), both in the home and main-classroom environments. Participants were the parents and teachers of 41 children with ASD from 5 to 8 years old (M=6.09). They completed the Sensory Processing Measure (SPM) to evaluate sensory processing, social participation and praxis; the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS-2) to evaluate autism severity; and a set of items (the DSM-IV-TR criteria) to evaluate the number of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms in the child. Non-verbal IQ - measured by the Ravens Coloured Progressive Matrices Test - did not show a relationship with any of the SPM variables. The SPM variables were significant predictors of autism severity and had similar weights in the two environments. In the case of ADHD symptoms, the SPM variables had a greater weight in the home than in the classroom environment, and they were significant predictors of both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity - especially inattention - only in the family context. The moderate association between inattention and auditory processing found in the main-classroom suggests the possible utility of certain measures aimed to simplify any classrooms acoustic environment.

Parental Stress and ASD: Relationship With Autism Symptom Severity, IQ, and Resilience

The objectives of this study were (a) to evaluate parental stress in parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD group) and compare it with the stress in parents of children with typical development (comparison group); (b) to study the relationship between parental stress, autism severity, and both verbal and performance IQ; and (c) to study the relationship between parental stress and resilience. Parental stress in the ASD group was clinically significant and higher than in the comparison group. The child’s autism severity was a significant predictor of parental stress related to the child’s distractibility and hyperactivity. The child’s verbal IQ was a significant predictor of parental stress in the child domain. Only for the ASD group, the child’s performance IQ was a significant predictor of parental stress, and parental resilience was a significant predictor of parental stress related to depression and competence variables. These results and implications for intervention are discussed.

Comprehension of Generalized Conversational Implicatures by Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study evaluates the comprehension of generalized conversational implicatures (GCI) in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using a GCI test constructed based on the Levinson model, which distinguishes between three types of implicatures: type Q (or scalar: “what is not referred to does not occur”); type I (“by default, it is not necessary to say what can be assumed”); and type M (“if someone is expressing something in a not very simple or marked way, it is because s/he is describing a situation that is not very typical, frequent, or prototypical”). In addition to the ASD group (n = 22), two comparison groups were utilized: a group matched on chronological age with the ASD group, but with a higher linguistic age (TCD group, n = 22), and a group matched on linguistic age with the ASD group, but with a lower chronological age (TLD group, n = 22). In all cases, linguistic age was assessed with the Peabody test. The performance of the three groups on the GCI test was compared (overall and on each type of implicature), and performance on the three types of implicature was compared within each group. The ASD group obtained worse performance than the other two groups, both overall and for each implicature type, without also obtaining differences in performance on the three implicature types. The TCD group obtained better performance than the TLD group on overall performance, but not on each implicature type, and both groups obtained lower performance on the type M heuristics than on the type I. Based on these results, the children with ASD in our study presented limitations in the comprehension of the three types of GCI, but it was not possible to obtain evidence for an inferential continuum of the three types of GCI. However, in the two typical development groups, this evidence was obtained, leading us to propose an inferential continuum model based on the different levels of dependence on the context of each of the three types of implicatures, with type M implicatures being more contextually dependent.

Semantic Verbal Fluency in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder: Relationship with Chronological Age and IQ

We administered a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task to two groups of children (age range from 5 to 8): 47 diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD Group) and 53 with typical development (Comparison Group), matched on gender, chronological age, and non-verbal IQ. Four specific indexes were calculated from the SVF task, reflecting the different underlying cognitive strategies used: clustering (component of generativity and lexical-semantic access), and switching (executive component, cognitive flexibility). First, we compared the performance of the two groups on the different SVF task indicators, with the ASD group scoring lower than the Comparison Group, although the difference was greater on switching than on clustering. Second, we analyzed the relationships between the different SVF measures and chronological age, verbal IQ and non-verbal IQ. While in the Comparison Group chronological age was the main predictor of performance on the SVF task, in the ASD Group verbal IQ was the best predictor. In the children with ASD, therefore, greater linguistic competence would be associated with better performance on the SVF task, which should be taken into account in speech therapies designed to achieve improvements in linguistic generativity and cognitive flexibility.

INTERVENCIÓN EN HABILIDADES SOCIALES DE LOS NIÑOS CON TRASTORNO DE ESPECTRO AUTISTA: UNA REVISIÓN BIBLIOGRÁFICA

140 l Trastorno de Espectro Autista (TEA) constituye un diagnóstico encuadrado en el DSM-5 (APA, 2013), dentro de los trastornos del neurodesarrollo, que se caracteriza por dificultades de comunicación e interacción social, así como patrones repetitivos y restringidos de conductas, actividades e intereses, presentes desde la infancia y que alteran el funcionamiento diario de la persona (Alcantud & Alonso, 2015). Una de las características definitorias del TEA son las dificultades que estas personas tienen para el desarrollo de habilidades sociales (HS) y de comunicación, con la consecuente limitación para entender señales de naturaleza social que esto supone. Las personas con TEA tienen dificultades en el procesamiento del lenguaje no literal, esto es, la comprensión del doble sentido, la ironía o el lenguaje metafórico (Rundblad & Annaz, 2010), les resulta compleja la interpretación de las expresiones faciales, los gestos o el tono de voz, y les cuesta en muchas ocasiones mantener el contacto visual con el interlocutor (Spence, 2003). Existen diversas teorías explicativas que tratan de dar cuenta de las posibles causas de estas dificultades, entre ellas, la teoría de la disfunción ejecutiva (Hill, 2004) y la teoría de la coherencia central débil (Frith & Happé, 1994). Aunque probablemente la que más relación presenta con las limitaciones sociales de las personas con TEA es la que alude a las dificultades en la construcción de la Teoría de la Mente (Theory of Mind, ToM) (Baron-Cohen, 1991), entendida como la “capacidad que desarrolla el ser humano para atribuir pensamientos a las otras personas” (Argitas, 1999, p.121) e interpretar sus acciones y actitudes, tomando en cuenta estos pensamientos y creencias. Según este enfoque, las dificultades definitorias del TEA, y especialmente las de tipo social, INTERVENCIÓN EN HABILIDADES SOCIALES DE LOS NIÑOS CON TRASTORNO DE ESPECTRO AUTISTA: UNA REVISIÓN BIBLIOGRÁFICA INTERVENTION IN SOCIAL SKILLS OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER: A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Comparative study of sensory modulation vulnerabilities in children with and without ASD in family and school contexts

ABSTRACT Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may present sensory processing alterations that are specific to each environment in which they develop, inevitably impacting their daily functioning. Method: The aim of this study is to compare the different types of sensory modulation vulnerabilities (over-responsiveness, under-responsiveness, and sensory-seeking behavior) in different sensory modalities, between a group of children with ASD (n = 41) and a group of children with typical development (n = 38), in both the home and school environments. The sensory processing measure (SPM) was used to evaluate the children’s sensory profile. Results: The ASD group obtained scores that indicate higher levels of dysfunction on all the assessed measures in both environments, with greater differences obtained in the school environment. Under-responsiveness was the sensory response that showed differences in all the sensory modalities and in both environments, whereas for over-responsiveness and sensory-seeking behavior, no differences were found for some of the sensory modalities in the home environment. Conclusions: Under-responsiveness could be the most prominent and exclusive sensory symptom of children with ASD, with the school being the environment where sensory differences seem to be noted to a greater extent.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Knowledge, Misconceptions and Gaps About Autism Spectrum Disorder

The inclusive education framework and the increase in autism diagnoses have led to an overwhelming challenge for pre-service teachers who need to be qualified to teach all children. To test the quality of their training, the main purpose of this study was to compare 866 pre-service teachers’ knowledge, misconceptions, and gaps about autism in their first and final year at university, using the Autism Knowledge Questionnaire. The results show that fourth-year students obtained higher levels of knowledge and fewer gaps than the first-year students, although they also had more misconceptions. Special education specialists obtained significantly more knowledge and fewer misconceptions than the general education pre-service teachers. Specific training and experience had a significant influence on the knowledge and gaps, but it had no influence on the number of misconceptions. These results suggest that university preparation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might not adequately train all future teachers.

Sensory Processing in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the Home and Classroom Contexts

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders often show impairments in sensory processing (SP) and higher functions. The main objective of this study was to compare SP, praxis and social participation (SOC) in four groups of children: ASD Group (n = 21), ADHD Group (n = 21), ASD+ADHD Group (n = 21), and Comparison Group (n = 27). Participants were the parents and teachers of these children who were 5–8 years old (M = 6.32). They completed the Sensory Processing Measure (SPM) to evaluate the sensory profile, praxis and SOC of the children in both the home and classroom contexts. In the home context, the most affected was the ASD+ADHD group. The ADHD group obtained higher scores than the ASD group on the Body Awareness (BOD) subscale, indicating a higher level of dysfunction. The ASD group, however, did not obtain higher scores than the ADHD group on any subscale. In the classroom context, the most affected were the two ASD groups: the ASD+ADHD group obtained higher scores than the ADHD group on the Hearing (HEA) and Social Participation (SOC) subscales, and the ASD group obtained higher scores than the ADHD group on the SOC subscale. Regarding sensory modalities, difficulties in proprioception seem to be more characteristic to the ADHD condition. As for higher-level functioning, social difficulties seem to be more characteristic to the ASD condition. Differences between the two contexts were only found in the ASD group, which could be related to contextual hyperselectivity, an inherent autistic feature. Despite possible individual differences, specific intervention programs should be developed to improve the sensory challenges faced by children with different diagnoses.