Rita Jordan

Recall for self and other in autism: children's memory for events experienced by themselves and their peers.

Research on memory processing suggests that memory for events that an individual experiences should be superior to that for similar events that someone else experiences (e.g., Baker-Ward et al., 1990). However, such predictions may not be applicable to individuals with autism. There are already suggestions that individuals with autism have specific difficulties in remembering (Boucher & Lewis, 1989). In addition, they are known to have more general difficulties involving processes related to the “self.” If children with autism have difficulties in encoding information about themselves this could result in a deficit in personal episodic memory. The studies reported here compare memory for personally experienced events with that of memory for events experienced by a peer. An adaption of a method devised by Boucher and Lewis has been employed to assess recall. Two separate studies were conducted to investigate whether children with autism are impaired at recalling personal events. Two groups of children took part in Study 1, a group of children with autism and a control group of typical children matched for verbal mental age. A group of children with moderate learning difficulties were employed in the second study to investigate whether the findings also occur in other groups of individuals who have learning disabilities. Findings indicate that, in the group with autism, events performed by the individual were recalled significantly less well than the observed events performed by a peer. However, the results for the nonautistic children in both studies showed that the opposite was true. Theoretical claims are discussed in the light of these findings.

Social Play and Autistic Spectrum Disorders: A Perspective on Theory, Implications and Educational Approaches

The article considers the nature of the presumed social play deficit in autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). The nature of play and its typical development is outlined and discussed in relation to play development in ASDs. It is suggested that social play is a confluence of two strands of development that are affected in autism: social and emotional development, and the cognitive development of play. It is shown that social play develops in a transactional way and in ASDs initial social difficulties prevent the development of social interaction, with its role in eliciting and enriching spontaneous play. At the same time, cognitive and affective difficulties prevent the play of children with autism developing to the extent of attracting other children and being of a complexity from which social play might develop. This cycle of impoverished play opportunities for children with ASDs may be broken through direct teaching and there are encouraging models of teaching social play with some success.

Spontaneous play in children with autism : A reappraisal

Much controversy remains regarding the ability of children with autism to engage in spontaneous play. In this study children with autism, Down syndrome and typical development with verbal mental ages of approximately 2 years were assessed for play abilities at three data points. Even in this group of children with autism, who had relatively low verbal mental ages, symbolic play skills were not totally absent. However, it was possible to distinguish their pattern of play behaviors from the other two groups. Consequentially, it is argued that there are unusual features in early spontaneous play in children with autism and these atypical patterns are not restricted to their difficulties in the production of symbolic play. Such differences in early spontaneous play raise interesting questions about the etiology of autism, the direction of future research, and the theoretical models that can account for the condition.

Autistic Spectrum Disorders : An Introductory Handbook for Practitioners

Introduction The nature and definition of autism The importance of diagnosis in education and care Autism and behaviour The biological bases of autism Psychological theories on the nature of autism The individual with an autistic spectrum disorder.

Development of symbolic play through the use of virtual reality tools in children with autistic spectrum disorders: two case studies.

Difficulties in understanding symbolism have been documented as characteristic of autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). In general, virtual reality (VR) environments offer a set of potential advantages for educational intervention in ASD. In particular, VR offers the advantage, for teaching pretend play and for understanding imagination, of it being possible to show these imaginary transformations explicitly. This article reports two case studies of children with autism (aged 8:6 and 15:7, both male), examining the effectiveness of using a VR tool specifically designed to work on teaching understanding of pretend play. The results, confirmed by independent observers, showed a significant advance in pretend play abilities after the intervention period in both participants, and a high degree of generalization of the acquired teaching in one of them.

Managing autism and Asperger's syndrome in current educational provision

There is a need to understand the difficulties faced by those with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) in educational settings if one is to manage and help them manage their learning. This paper explores some of the most pertinent problems that arise. It analyses perceptual, social, conceptual, emotional and memorizing barriers to learning and shows how difficulties in communication are exacerbated by educational language, which gives a poor model for those who have no prior understanding of inter-personal communication. The notion of an ‘autism-friendly’ environment is examined as is the process of how schools and other learning institutions might be helped to create such an environment. Education as entitlement is distinguished from education as therapy and the implications for inclusion are examined. It is argued that the best teaching arises from an empathetic understanding and a willingness to be flexible, the worst, from rigidity and an expectation that it is the child who must change. There is no single approach that can meet all the needs of those with ASDs, but nor are needs entirely determined by individual behaviour. It is the understanding of ASD that enables the teacher to correctly identify the childs learning needs and begin to meet them.

Imitation of Pretend Play Acts by Children with Autism and Down Syndrome

Although there has recently been considerable research interest in the difficulties that children with autism have engaging in pretend play, little attention has been paid to the ability of these children to imitate pretend play acts. Furthermore, suggestions that children with Down syndrome have relatively advanced abilities in pretend play have not been accompanied by an examination of their capacity to imitate pretend play. Three groups of children: autistic, Down syndrome, and normally developing were studied for their capacity to imitate single pretend acts and a series of pretend acts that formed scripts. While the children with autism were surprisingly better than the other two groups on the single-scheme task, they demonstrated specific difficulties on the multischeme task. Results are discussed in relation to current theories of autism and the notion of imitation.

Agency and presence: a common dependence on subjectivity?

This paper argues that presence, as shown in virtual environments, can usefully be seen as comprising various subtypes and that these in turn may have common conceptual and ontological features with a sense of agency as defined by Russell (1996, Agency: Its Role in Mental Development, Erlbaum.). Furthermore, an analysis of Russells characterization of the concept of agency may be useful for acquiring insight into the sense of presence itself and the variables affecting it. Empirical evidence from cognitive developmental research and the positive results of attempts to develop symbolic understanding in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in virtual environments suggest that presence may be more about experiencing agency than either pretending to be there or constructing and reconstructing mental models in real time. This analysis is used to shed some light on the current issues of presence research and to open up new philosophical and psychological aspects, in relation to both presence and ASD.

Evaluating Practice Problems and Possibilities

This article seeks to examine some of the issues involved in the evaluation of practice by practitioners themselves. Five questions are posed which represent five different kinds of design suitable for the different purposes of evaluation in each case. For each question, an analysis is made of the problem that the question is addressing, an example is given of the design needed to answer that question, and a further analysis is made of the possible outcomes of the evaluation, suggesting how they may be interpreted. Finally, there is a brief discussion of the issues involved in controlled studies, the ethical issues that arise in research and how participants with autism spectrum disorders may themselves by involved in evaluation. The article makes the point that research should not be an activity carried out by others, using natural settings merely as sources of data, but a process that all practitioners are engaged in at some level. In this way, progress can be made in improving services and the quality of life for people with autism spectrum disorders.

Teaching thinking: the case for principles

Abstract This paper reviews the situation with regard to the teaching of thinking skills as part of the taught curriculum. The case is made for direct teaching of cognitive skills both to meet the particular learning difficulties of children with special educational needs and also to enhance the learning and thinking of all children. The dangers of ‘recipe’ approaches to teaching this aspect of the curriculum are discussed and a ‘principles’ approach is advocated. Some principles are then described which may be used to underpin the designing of problem‐solving activities, through which thinking skills can be taught across the curriculum.