1. Biggs EE, Carter EW. {{Quality of Life for Transition-Age Youth with Autism or Intellectual Disability}}. {Journal of autism and developmental disorders}. 2015 Sep 4.
We examined the subjective health and well-being of 389 transition-age youth with autism or intellectual disability using the parent proxy version of the KIDSCREEN-27. Parents reported well-being of youth with autism and youth with intellectual disability lower than a normative sample in the domains of Physical Well-being, Psychological Well-being, and Social Support and Peers. For both groups of young people, the lowest ratings were reported in Social Support and Peers. Higher ratings of well-being in one or more domains were predicted by minority status, youth character strengths, involvement in community activities, and religious faith. Challenging behaviors, autism, age, and speech as the primary mode of communication were predictive of lower ratings of well-being. We discuss implications for special educators and service providers and offer directions for future research.
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2. Gnanasekaran S, Choueiri R, Neumeyer A, Ajari O, Shui A, Kuhlthau K. {{Impact of employee benefits on families with children with autism spectrum disorders}}. {Autism}. 2015 Sep 4.
The objectives of this study are to evaluate the employee benefits parents of children with autism spectrum disorders have, how benefits are used, work change, and job satisfaction. We conducted a cross-sectional mailed survey study of 435 families with children with autism spectrum disorders residing in the United States. We received 161 surveys for a response rate of 37%. Families reported using the following benefits: 39% paid family leave, 19% unpaid family leave, 91% flexible work arrangements, and 86% telecommuting. Of respondents, 43% reported stopping work, cutting down on hours worked, or changing jobs because of their child’s condition. Having paid family leave was a positive predictor for job satisfaction. Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders have an interest and need for alternative work arrangements.
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3. Kleinhans NM, Richards T, Greenson J, Dawson G, Aylward E. {{Altered Dynamics of the fMRI Response to Faces in Individuals with Autism}}. {Journal of autism and developmental disorders}. 2015 Sep 4.
Abnormal fMRI habituation in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has been proposed as a critical component in social impairment. This study investigated habituation to fearful faces and houses in ASD and whether fMRI measures of brain activity discriminate between ASD and typically developing (TD) controls. Two identical fMRI runs presenting masked fearful faces, houses, and scrambled images were collected. We found significantly slower fMRI responses to fearful faces but not houses in ASD. In addition, the pattern of slow to emerge amygdala activation to faces had robust discriminability [ASD vs. TD; area under the curve (AUC) = .852, p < .001]. In contrast, habituation to houses had no predictive value (AUC = .573, p = .365). Amygdala habituation to emotional faces may be useful for quantifying risk in ASD.
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4. Locke J, Shih W, Kretzmann M, Kasari C. {{Examining playground engagement between elementary school children with and without autism spectrum disorder}}. {Autism}. 2015 Sep 4.
Little is known about the social behavior of children with and without autism spectrum disorder during recess. This study documented the naturally occurring recess engagement and peer interaction behaviors of children with and without autism spectrum disorder in inclusive school settings. Participants included 51 children with autism spectrum disorder and 51 classmates without autism spectrum disorder who served as peer models matched on gender, classroom, grade, age, and ethnicity. Using a timed-interval behavior-coding system, children with autism spectrum disorder spent approximately 30% of their recess time engaged in solitary activities, whereas their classmates only spent approximately 9% of recess unengaged. In addition, children with autism spectrum disorder spent about 40% of the recess period jointly engaged with peers in a reciprocal activity, conversation, or game as compared to 70% for matched classmates. These findings provide a context for which to interpret intervention outcomes and gains for children with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive settings.
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5. Maria BL. {{Autism Spectrum Disorders: Current Understanding and Future Directions}}. {Journal of child neurology}. 2015 Sep 4.
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6. Oerlemans AM, Hartman CA, Franke B, Buitelaar JK, Rommelse NN. {{Does the cognitive architecture of simplex and multiplex ASD families differ?}}. {Journal of autism and developmental disorders}. 2015 Sep 4.
Children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their unaffected siblings from 54 simplex (SPX, one individual in the family affected) and 59 multiplex (MPX, two or more individuals affected) families, and 124 controls were assessed on intelligence, social cognition and executive functions. SPX and MPX ASD probands displayed similar cognitive profiles, but within-family contrasts were highest in SPX families, suggesting SPX-MPX stratification may help parse etiological heterogeneity of ASD. Unaffected siblings (regardless SPX or MPX) were mostly unimpaired, suggesting that cognitive problems may be part of the defining features of ASD, rather than being an endophenotypic trait. Except for affective prosody, which appeared to be the most sensitive cognitive marker for detecting familial risk for ASD.
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7. Pane HM, Sidener TM, Vladescu JC, Nirgudkar A. {{Evaluating Function-Based Social Stories With Children With Autism}}. {Behavior modification}. 2015 Sep 3.
Social Stories are often used with children with autism to provide information about appropriate behaviors in specific contexts. Although Social Stories often target reduction of problem behavior, there is limited research evaluating function-based Social Stories based on the results of experimental functional analyses. This study used a brief functional analysis to assist in developing a Social Story that matched the function of the target behavior for two boys with autism. The differential effects of a Social Story that matched the function of the behavior, a Social Story that did not match the function of the behavior, and a Social Story that described baseline were compared in an alternating treatments design. Results indicated that (a) the function-based Social Story plus functional communication training (FCT) was effective in decreasing target problem behavior and increasing target mands for both participants, (b) both participants selected the function-based Social Story during treatment preference evaluations, and (c) both participants maintained low levels of target problem behavior and maintained target mands when the Social Stories were removed.
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8. Richards C, Jones C, Groves L, Moss J, Oliver C. {{Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder phenomenology in genetic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis}}. {The lancet Psychiatry}. 2015 Sep 1.
BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) phenomenology is reported to be more common in individuals with some genetic syndromes than in the general population; however, no meta-analysis has provided prevalence data within and between syndromes. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to synthesise data from a wide range of papers to provide accurate estimates about ASD phenomenology in genetic and metabolic syndromes. METHODS: We identified syndromes reported as most likely to be associated with ASD. We searched Ovid PsycINFO, Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, and PubMed Central for English-language papers published from database creation up to early 2014 with use of syndrome-specific keywords and a set of ASD keywords. We screened and extracted papers that had ASD prevalence data for ten or more people within a genetic syndrome. With use of a prespecified set of reliable criteria, we applied quality weighting to papers and estimated a quality-effects prevalence of ASD phenomenology for each syndrome. We then calculated relative risks to compare ASD between all syndromes and also calculated odds ratios to compare prevalence with the general population taking the current estimate of one in 68 people. RESULTS: We identified 168 papers reporting the prevalence of ASD phenomenology and found widely varying methods and quality of data. Quality-weighted effect prevalence estimates of ASD phenomenology were established for Rett’s syndrome (female individuals only 61%), Cohen’s syndrome (54%), Cornelia de Lange syndrome (43%), tuberous sclerosis complex (36%), Angelman’s syndrome (34%), CHARGE syndrome (30%), fragile X syndrome (male individuals only 30%; mixed sex 22%), neurofibromatosis type 1 (18%), Down’s syndrome (16%), Noonan’s syndrome (15%), Williams’ syndrome (12%), and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (11%). Relative risks and the odds ratio compared with the general population were highest for Rett’s syndrome and Cohen’s syndrome. In all syndromes, odds ratios showed ASD phenomenology to be significantly more likely than in the general population. INTERPRETATION: ASD phenomenology varied between syndromes, but was consistently more likely than in the general population. Further research is needed in these populations, including how ASD in genetic and metabolic syndromes differs from idiopathic autism and what that can tell us about the mechanisms underlying ASD. FUNDING: Cerebra.
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9. Tavassoli T, Bellesheim K, Siper PM, Wang AT, Halpern D, Gorenstein M, Grodberg D, Kolevzon A, Buxbaum JD. {{Measuring Sensory Reactivity in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Application and Simplification of a Clinician-Administered Sensory Observation Scale}}. {Journal of autism and developmental disorders}. 2015 Sep 4.
Sensory reactivity is a new DSM-5 criterion for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study aims to validate a clinician-administered sensory observation in ASD, the Sensory Processing Scale Assessment (SPS). The SPS and the Short Sensory Profile (SSP) parent-report were used to measure sensory reactivity in children with ASD (n = 35) and typically developing children (n = 27). Sixty-five percent of children with ASD displayed sensory reactivity symptoms on the SPS and 81.1 % on the SSP. SPS scores significantly predicted SSP scores. We next identified the five SPS tasks that best differentiated groups. Our results indicate that a combination of parent-report and at least the five most differentiating observational tasks may be most sensitive in identifying the presence of sensory reactivity issues.
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10. Wang Y, Hensley MK, Tasman A, Sears L, Casanova MF, Sokhadze EM. {{Heart Rate Variability and Skin Conductance During Repetitive TMS Course in Children with Autism}}. {Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback}. 2015 Sep 4.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder marked by difficulty in social interactions and communication. ASD also often present symptoms of autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning abnormalities. In individuals with autism the sympathetic branch of the ANS presents an over-activation on a background of the parasympathetic activity deficits, creating an autonomic imbalance, evidenced by a faster heart rate with little variation and increased tonic electrodermal activity. The objective of this study was to explore the effect of 12 sessions of 0.5 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on autonomic activity in children with ASD. Electrocardiogram and skin conductance level (SCL) were recorded and analyzed during each session of rTMS. The measures of interest were time domain (i.e., R-R intervals, standard deviation of cardiac intervals, NN50-cardio-intervals >50 ms different from preceding interval) and frequency domain heart rate variability (HRV) indices [i.e., power of high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) components of HRV spectrum, LF/HF ratio]. Based on our prior pilot studies it was proposed that the course of 12 weekly inhibitory low-frequency rTMS bilaterally applied to the DLPFC will improve autonomic balance probably through improved frontal inhibition of the ANS activity, and will be manifested in an increased length of cardiointervals and their variability, and in higher frequency-domain HRV in a form of increased HF power, decreased LF power, resulting in decreased LF/HF ratio, and in decreased SCL. Our post-12 TMS results showed significant increases in cardiac intervals variability measures and decrease of tonic SCL indicative of increased cardiac vagal control and reduced sympathetic arousal. Behavioral evaluations showed decreased irritability, hyperactivity, stereotype behavior and compulsive behavior ratings that correlated with several autonomic variables.
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11. Warnell F, George B, McConachie H, Johnson M, Hardy R, Parr JR. {{Designing and recruiting to UK autism spectrum disorder research databases: do they include representative children with valid ASD diagnoses?}}. {BMJ open}. 2015;5(9):e008625.
OBJECTIVES: (1) Describe how the Autism Spectrum Database-UK (ASD-UK) was established; (2) investigate the representativeness of the first 1000 children and families who participated, compared to those who chose not to; (3) investigate the reliability of the parent-reported Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnoses, and present evidence about the validity of diagnoses, that is, whether children recruited actually have an ASD; (4) present evidence about the representativeness of the ASD-UK children and families, by comparing their characteristics with the first 1000 children and families from the regional Database of children with ASD living in the North East (Daslne), and children and families identified from epidemiological studies. SETTING: Recruitment through a network of 50 UK child health teams and self-referral. PATIENTS: Parents/carers with a child with ASD, aged 2-16 years, completed questionnaires about ASD and some gave professionals’ reports about their children. RESULTS: 1000 families registered with ASD-UK in 30 months. Children of families who participated, and of the 208 who chose not to, were found to be very similar on: gender ratio, year of birth, ASD diagnosis and social deprivation score. The reliability of parent-reported ASD diagnoses of children was very high when compared with clinical reports (over 96%); no database child without ASD was identified. A comparison of gender, ASD diagnosis, age at diagnosis, school placement, learning disability, and deprivation score of children and families from ASD-UK with 1084 children and families from Daslne, and families from population studies, showed that ASD-UK families are representative of families of children with ASD overall. CONCLUSIONS: ASD-UK includes families providing parent-reported data about their child and family, who appear to be broadly representative of UK children with ASD. Families continue to join the databases and more than 3000 families can now be contacted by researchers about UK autism research.
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12. Wright HF, Hall S, Mills DS. {{Additional Evidence is Needed to Recommend Acquiring a Dog to Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Response to Crossman and Kazdin}}. {Journal of autism and developmental disorders}. 2015 Sep 4.
