José Juan Castro Sánchez

Detección temprana del autismo: profesionales implicados

Fundamentos: La importancia de la deteccion temprana del autismo mejora el pronostico de ninos con alteraciones en el desarrollo, en especial con trastornos del espectro autista (TEA). El objetivo de este trabajo es delimitar a que edad surgen las primeras sospechas de un trastorno del espectro autista, a que profesionales recurren las familias, la demora en confirmar el diagnostico y la celeridad en la respuesta de los profesionales de la pediatria. Metodo: Estudio transversal retrospectivo llevado a cabo en la Comunidad Autonoma de Canarias durante el ano 2010. Se solicito la colaboracion voluntaria de las asociaciones y familias que recibian tratamiento en centros especializados. Se recogieron 72 cuestionarios para familias de personas con autismo. Se realizo un analisis descriptivo de frecuencias mediante el programa estadistico SPSS Statistics 19. Resultados: En el 79% de los casos fue la propia familia quien tuvo las primeras sospechas de que algo no iba bien en el desarrollo de los ninos, seguida de los profesionales de la educacion (15%) y la sanidad (pediatras: 4% y psicologos: 2%). El 69% recibieron el primer diagnostico durante los 3 primeros anos, el 32% antes de los dos anos. La demora diagnostica se situo en 16 meses. Conclusiones: La mayoria de los padres de ninos con TEA son conscientes de alteraciones en el desarrollo de sus hijos alrededor de los 18 meses. Se confirmo la tendencia a disminuir el tiempo de respuesta de los profesionales de la sanidad.

Study of Anxiety in Parents and Children with Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder.

The identification of factors that influence attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will help to develop intervention strategies for the personal and social adjustment of these individuals. The goal of the study is to assess the perception of anxiety in a group of children and adolescents with ADHD and the anxiety that their parents believe their children have, through the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorder (SCARED). Participants were 76 children and 76 of their parents who attended a program for educational attention to students with ADHD. The SCARED was applied at the end of one of the sessions in separate spaces for children and parents. Concerning gender, 49.2% of the boys were above the SCARED cutoff point (≥25) compared with 57.1% of the girls. In the case of the parents’ perception of their childrens anxiety, 50% of the fathers scored above the cutoff point versus 72.5% of the mothers. The main findings of the study indicate that there is no significant difference between boys and girls. In the comparison of fathers and mothers, significant differences were only found in the factor of generalized anxiety, favoring the mothers. Lastly, significant differences between girls/boys and parents were found in the total anxiety score of the generalized anxiety factor in favor of the parents. Key words: Attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder, anxiety in parents, anxiety in children, self-report.

Students’ opinion survey on the use of ICT tools

Since the Bologna Declaration was launched in 1999, the signatory countries have freely taken on the challenge of changing their policy frameworks for education in order to create an overall convergence in Europe. The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) in Spain has also taken on this challenge and has promoted since the academic year 2004/2005 the use of ICT integrated environments as the key strategy to ensure the objectives established in the Bologna Declaration. However, the ULPGC is completely conscious that this new way of working is not easy for students, for that reason this educational institution has carried out different research studies to find out important data about this topic. The present paper reports on the results obtained from a students’ opinion survey on the use of ICT tools. In order to carry out this study, it was necessary to design a questionnaire to collect data among all university students. The results show that students find ICT integrated environments a good strategy to acquire important skills; indeed, they are consistent in their way of thinking. For that reason, this research has enormously encouraged the ULPGC to keep working with ICT tools on regular basis.

Parents-Perceived and Self-Perceived Anxiety in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by a series of deficits in social interaction and communication and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped behavior patterns. In addition, a high percentage of ADS is associated with anxiety disorders. The goal of this study is to assess the perception of anxiety in a group of children and adolescents with ASD and the anxiety their parents think their children have, through the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorder (SCARED). Participants were 38 children and 38 parents, one for each child or adolescent. The results indicate that parental perception of anxiety is always higher than that of their children in all factors, and this difference is significant in the factors of generalized anxiety, social phobia, and anxiety in general. The correlations between the children and parents’ scores were high and significant in the factors of generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, and social phobia. The size of the sample and the lack of girls are mentioned as a limitation of the study. Key words: Autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, inter-evaluator agreement, self-report.