1. Brady N, Warren SF, Fleming K, Keller J, Sterling A. {{The effect of sustained maternal responsivity on later vocabulary development in children with Fragile X Syndrome}}. {Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR}. 2013 Sep 10.
PURPOSE: The research question addressed was whether sustained maternal responsivity (a parent-child interaction style characterized by warmth, nurturance and stability as well as specific behaviors such as contingent positive responses to child initiations) was a significant variable predicting vocabulary development of children with FXS through age 9 years. METHOD: Fifty-five mother-child dyads were followed longitudinally when children were between 2 and 10 years of age. Measures of maternal responsivity and child vocabulary were obtained at regular intervals starting at age 2.9 years. Sustained responsivity was indicated by the average responsivity measured over observations 2-5. Responsivity at the first time period, autism symptoms, and cognitive development were used as control variables. RESULTS: After controlling for development and autism symptoms, we found significant effects for sustained responsivity on receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and the rate of different words children produced through age 9. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal responsivity, which is typically a variable of interest during early childhood, continues to be a significant variable, predicting vocabulary development through the middle childhood period. Thus, responsivity is a potential target for language interventions through this age period.
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2. Carbone PS. {{Moving from research to practice in the primary care of children with autism spectrum disorders}}. {Academic pediatrics}. 2013 Sep-Oct;13(5):390-9.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), once thought rare, are now commonly encountered in clinical practice. Academic pediatricians may be expected to teach medical students and pediatric residents about ASD, but most likely received limited exposure to ASD during their training. In recent years, research that informs the clinical guidance provided to pediatricians regarding surveillance, screening, and ongoing management of children with ASD has accelerated. By 24 months of age, children with ASD exhibit delays across multiple domains of development, yet the diagnosis is frequently made much later. Careful developmental surveillance lowers the age of identification of children with ASD. Several screening tools appropriate for use in primary care settings can aid in early identification. Improved surveillance and screening is of benefit because early intensive behavioral intervention has the potential to improve the developmental trajectory of children with ASD. Providing appropriate medical care for children with ASD improves both child and family outcomes. Recent research regarding sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal problems, and epilepsy in children with ASD has led to clinical pathways to evaluate and address these issues within the context of primary care. By being aware of and disseminating these research findings, academic pediatricians can help future and current clinicians improve the care of children with ASD.
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3. Cochran DM, Dvir Y, Frazier JA. {{« Autism-plus » Spectrum Disorders: Intersection with Psychosis and the Schizophrenia Spectrum}}. {Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America}. 2013 Oct;22(4):609-27.
Patients are often encountered clinically who have autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and also have symptoms suggestive of a comorbid psychotic disorder. A careful assessment for the presence of comorbid disorders is important. However, the core deficits seen in ASD, in social reciprocity, communication, and restricted behaviors and interests, can be mistaken for psychosis. Also, there is a subset of patients who present with a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with impairments that cross diagnostic categories. This article reviews the connections between ASD and psychosis, and highlights the key points to consider in patients who present with these « autism-plus » disorders.
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4. Corman MK. {{How Mothers Talk About Placement of Their Child With Autism Outside the Home}}. {Qualitative health research}. 2013 Sep 10.
In this article I use insights offered by the poststructural shift and linguistic turn in social scientific inquiry, specifically discourse analysis, to explore mothers’ talk about the placement of their child with autism outside of the home. By viewing mothers’ talk as data, I bring to light the discourses and interpretive practices that mothers drew on to organize their talk of placement. In doing so, I provide insights into how mothers gave meaning to processes of placement while also expanding on commonsensical discursive notions of « good » mothering, caregiving, and family. Implications of the findings are discussed.
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5. Courty A, Maria AS, Lalanne C, Ringuenet D, Vindreau C, Chevallier C, Pouga L, Pinabel F, Philippe A, Adrien JL, Barry C, Berthoz S. {{Levels of autistic traits in anorexia nervosa: a comparative psychometric study}}. {BMC psychiatry}. 2013 Sep 10;13(1):222.
BACKGROUND: A number of characteristics associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are over-represented among patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) as well as among relatives of these patients. Yet the co-occurrence of autistic traits in AN has not been fully explored and no previous study has directly compared self-reported evaluations of cognitive and socio-affective skills in AN and ASD. METHODS: We aimed to determine the degree of overlap between AN and ASD from scores on questionnaires classically used to measure ASD impairments. Fifteen AN participants, 15 ASD participants and two groups of matched controls completed a battery of self-reports measuring: autistic traits (Autism-Spectrum Quotient), empathy (Empathy Quotient-short and Interpersonal Reactivity Index), systemizing (Systemizing Quotient-short) and alexithymia (Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire-B). Univariate comparisons of mean totalled scores were performed on each measure (patients vs. controls, and AN vs. ASD), and a Principal Component Analysis was used to study subject proximities in a reduced-factor space constructed from AQ, BVAQ and IRI subscales. RESULTS: These analyses revealed similarities in a few cognitive domains (Attention Switching, Perspective Taking and Fantasy, lack of emotional introspection) and in some nonspecific affective dimensions (depression and feelings of distress), but also marked dissimilarities in social skills (the ability to communicate emotions to others, empathizing). CONCLUSION: The AN and ASD participants reported similar needs for sameness, and similar difficulties understanding their emotions and taking the perspective of another, but contrasting abilities to feel concerned in interpersonal situations. Our mixed findings encourage further exploration of transdiagnostic similarities and associations between these disorders.
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6. Custance DM, Mayer JL, Kumar E, Hill E, Heaton PF. {{Do Children With Autism Re-Enact Object Movements Rather Than Imitate Demonstrator Actions?}}. {Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research}. 2013 Sep 10.
It has been suggested that autism-specific imitative deficits may be reduced or even spared in object-related activities. However, most previous research has not sufficiently distinguished object movement reenactment (learning about the ways in which object move) from imitation (learning about the topography of demonstrated actions). Twenty children with autism (CWA) and 20 typically developing children (TDC) were presented with puzzle boxes containing prizes. Test objects and experimental conditions were designed to isolate object- and action-related aspects of demonstrations. There were four types of video demonstrations: (a) a full demonstration by an adult; (b) a ghost demonstration with object movements alone; (c) mimed solutions demonstrated adjacent to the objects; and (d) random actions performed on the surface of the objects. There were no significant between-group differences in the degree to which CWA and TDC matched the full demonstrations, the actual demonstrations or in their times to first solution in any of the conditions. Although there was no clear imitative deficit in the CWA, regression analyses were conducted to explore in more detail whether diagnosis, verbal intelligence quotient (VIQ), nonverbal IQ NVIQ, age or motor coordination predicted performance. The results are discussed in relation to the use of extrinsic vs. intrinsic rewards and the interplay between motor coordination and the relative rigidity vs. pliability of objects. Autism Res 2013, : -. (c) 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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7. Emberti Gialloreti L, Pardini M, Benassi F, Marciano S, Amore M, Mutolo MG, Porfirio MC, Curatolo P. {{Reduction in Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2013 Sep 8.
Recent years have seen an increase in the use of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) evaluation as an easy-to-use, reproducible, proxy-measure of brain structural abnormalities. Here, we evaluated RNFL thickness in a group of subjects with high functioning autism (HFA) or with Asperger Syndrome (AS) to its potential as a tool to study autism pathophysiology. All subjects underwent high-resolution spectral domain optical coherence tomography to evaluate RNFL thickness. HFA subjects presented with reduced global RNFL thickness compared both to AS subjects and controls. AS subjects showed a reduced nasal quadrant RNFL thickness compared to controls. Verbal-IQ/performance-IQ discrepancy correlated with RNFL thickness. Our data suggest that RNFL evaluation could help in the development of biological markers of autism pathophysiology.
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8. Evans B. {{How autism became autism: The radical transformation of a central concept of child development in Britain}}. {History of the human sciences}. 2013 Jul;26(3):3-31.
This article argues that the meaning of the word ‘autism’ experienced a radical shift in the early 1960s in Britain which was contemporaneous with a growth in epidemiological and statistical studies in child psychiatry. The first part of the article explores how ‘autism’ was used as a category to describe hallucinations and unconscious fantasy life in infants through the work of significant child psychologists and psychoanalysts such as Jean Piaget, Lauretta Bender, Leo Kanner and Elwyn James Anthony. Theories of autism were then associated both with schizophrenia in adults and with psychoanalytic styles of reasoning. The closure of institutions for ‘mental defectives’ and the growth in speech therapy services in the 1960s and 1970s encouraged new models for understanding autism in infants and children. The second half of the article explores how researchers such as Victor Lotter and Michael Rutter used the category of autism to reconceptualize psychological development in infants and children via epidemiological studies. These historical changes have influenced the form and function of later research into autism and related conditions.
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9. Koegel RL, Bradshaw JL, Ashbaugh K, Koegel LK. {{Improving Question-Asking Initiations in Young Children with Autism Using Pivotal Response Treatment}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2013 Sep 7.
Social initiations make up a core deficit for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In particular, initiated questions during social interactions are often minimal or absent in this population. In the context of a multiple baseline design, the efficacy of using the motivational procedures of Pivotal Response Treatment to increase social question-asking for three young children with autism was assessed. Results indicated that participants initiated a greater number of targeted questions following intervention. Additionally, all children exhibited increases in initiation of untargeted questions during social interaction in novel settings. Furthermore, post intervention data revealed collateral gains in communication and adaptive behavior. Theoretical implications of incorporating motivational strategies into intervention to improve social initiations in young children with ASD are discussed.
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10. Louwerse A, Tulen JH, van der Geest JN, van der Ende J, Verhulst FC, Greaves-Lord K. {{Autonomic Responses to Social and Nonsocial Pictures in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research}. 2013 Sep 10.
It remains unclear why individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to respond in an atypical manner in social situations. Investigating autonomic and subjective responses to social vs. nonsocial stimuli may help to reveal underlying mechanisms of these atypical responses. This study examined autonomic responses (skin conductance level and heart rate) and subjective responses to social vs. nonsocial pictures in 37 adolescents with an ASD and 36 typically developing (TD) adolescents. Thirty-six pictures from the International Affective Picture System were presented, divided into six categories based on social content (social vs. nonsocial) and pleasantness (pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant). Both in adolescents with ASD as well as TD adolescents, pictures with a social content resulted in higher skin conductance responses (SCRs) for pleasant and unpleasant pictures than for neutral pictures. No differences in SCRs were found for the three nonsocial picture categories. Unpleasant pictures, both with and without a social content, showed more heart rate deceleration than neutral pictures. Self-reported arousal ratings were influenced by the social and affective content of a picture. No differences were found between individuals with ASD and TD individuals in their autonomic and subjective responses to the picture categories. These results suggest that adolescents with ASD do not show atypical autonomic or subjective responses to pictures with and without a social content. These findings make it less likely that impairments in social information processing in individuals with ASD can be explained by atypical autonomic responses to social stimuli. Autism Res 2013, : -. (c) 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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11. Martyn M, Anderson V, Archibald A, Carter R, Cohen J, Delatycki M, Donath S, Emery J, Halliday J, Hill M, Sheffield L, Slater H, Tassone F, Younie S, Metcalfe S. {{Offering fragile X syndrome carrier screening: a prospective mixed-methods observational study comparing carrier screening of pregnant and non-pregnant women in the general population}}. {BMJ open}. 2013;3(9):e003660.
INTRODUCTION: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the leading cause of inherited intellectual and developmental disability. Policy development relating to carrier screening programmes for FXS requires input from large studies examining not only test uptake but also psychosocial aspects. This study will compare carrier screening in pregnant and non-pregnant populations, examining informed decision-making, psychosocial issues and health economics. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Pregnant and non-pregnant women are being recruited from general practices and obstetric services. Women receive study information either in person or through clinic mail outs. Women are provided pretest counselling by a genetic counsellor and make a decision about testing in their own time. Data are being collected from two questionnaires: one completed at the time of making the decision about testing and the second 1 month later. Additional data are gathered through qualitative interviews conducted at several time points with a subset of participating women, including all women with a positive test result, and with staff from recruiting clinics. A minimum sample size of 500 women/group has been calculated to give us 88% power to detect a 10% difference in test uptake and 87% power to detect a 10% difference in informed choice between the pregnant and non-pregnant groups. Questionnaire data will be analysed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression models. Interview data will be thematically analysed. Willingness-to-pay and cost effectiveness analyses will also be performed. Recruitment started in July 2009 and data collection will be completed by December 2013. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval has been granted by the Universities of Melbourne and Western Australia and by recruiting clinics, where required. Results will be reported in peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and through a website http://www.fragilexscreening.net.au. The results of this study will make a significant contribution to discussions about the wider introduction of population carrier screening for FXS.
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12. Ozsivadjian A, Hibberd C, Hollocks MJ. {{Brief Report: The Use of Self-Report Measures in Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorder to Access Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression and Negative Thoughts}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2013 Sep 8.
The aims of this study were two-fold; firstly, to investigate whether self-report measures are useful and reflect parent-reported psychiatric symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and secondly, to investigate whether children with ASD are able to access and report their cognitions, a prerequisite skill for cognitive behavior therapies. Thirty children with ASD and 21 comparison children without ASD completed the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale and the Children’s Depression Inventory, with parents completing the parent version of both questionnaires. Intraclass correlations revealed that there was good agreement between ASD children and their parents on both measures, but only on the depression measure in non-ASD children. The children in both groups also completed the Children’s Automatic Thoughts Questionnaires; multiple regression analyses indicated that within the ASD group, child-rated scores on the CATS questionnaire were positively related to increased self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, but not in the comparison group, suggesting that children with ASD are able to accurately report their anxious and depressed cognitions. The implications of these results for both the practice and theory of CBT for children with ASD are discussed.
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13. Rutkowski EM, Brimer D. {{Physical Education Issues for Students With Autism: School Nurse Challenges}}. {The Journal of school nursing : the official publication of the National Association of School Nurses}. 2013 Sep 6.
Extant studies indicate persons with autism have difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, repetitive behaviors, and poor ability to generalize learned skills. Obesity has also been identified as significantly affecting children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Negative experience in physical education (PE) may be the antecedent behavior to lack of activities that are mediators to sedentary lifestyles and contributors to the chronic illnesses associated with overweight and obesity. Students with ASD often cannot perform required activities to meet required PE standards. It is imperative school nurses be aware of the many challenges students with ASD bring into a PE class. School nurses provide education for the members of the school community, including the Individualized Education Plan team, regarding the need for attention to limitations, including physical activity, of students with ASD.
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14. Yoo HJ, Cho IH, Park M, Yang SY, Kim SA. {{Association of the Catechol-o-Methyltransferase Gene Polymorphisms with Korean Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {Journal of Korean medical science}. 2013 Sep;28(9):1403-6.
This study evaluated the family-based genetic association between autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and 5 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the catechol-o-methyltransferase gene (COMT), which was found among 151 Korean ASDs family trios (dominant model Z = 2.598, P = 0.009, P FDR = 0.045). We found a statistically significant allele transmission or association in terms of the rs6269 SNP in the ASDs trios. Moreover, in the haplotype analysis, the haplotypes with rs6269 demonstrated significant evidence of an association with ASDs (additive model rs6269-rs4818-rs4680-rs769224 haplotype P = 0.004, P FDR = 0.040). Thus, an association may exist between the variants of the COMT gene and the occurrence of ASDs in Koreans.
