1. Conallen K, Reed P. {{Children with autism spectrum disorder: teaching conversation involving feelings about events}}. {J Intellect Disabil Res};2016 (Oct 10)
BACKGROUND: Two procedures were developed to teach individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders labels (tacts) for various private events (emotions): Study 1 attempted to distinguish them from pure tacts and mands (requests); and Study 2 attempted to train initiating a conversation with grammatically correct subject-verb-comment construction. METHODS: A multiple treatment reversal design was used in both studies, followed by a probe to see if the tacts were used across novel settings. RESULTS: The children were prompted to initiate a series of language exchanges, which resulted in an increased ability to participate in conversations about private events. CONCLUSIONS: Together, the results of both studies suggest that, by providing an effective and reinforcing means of teaching both the function and the form of these tacts, conversations can be successfully initiated by children with ASD.
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2. Locke J, Beidas RS, Marcus S, Stahmer A, Aarons GA, Lyon AR, Cannuscio C, Barg F, Dorsey S, Mandell DS. {{A mixed methods study of individual and organizational factors that affect implementation of interventions for children with autism in public schools}}. {Implement Sci};2016 (Oct 10);11(1):135.
BACKGROUND: The significant lifelong impairments associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), combined with the growing number of children diagnosed with ASD, have created urgency in improving school-based quality of care. Although many interventions have shown efficacy in university-based research, few have been effectively implemented and sustained in schools, the primary setting in which children with ASD receive services. Individual- and organizational-level factors have been shown to predict the implementation of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for the prevention and treatment of other mental disorders in schools, and may be potential targets for implementation strategies in the successful use of autism EBIs in schools. The purpose of this study is to examine the individual- and organizational-level factors associated with the implementation of EBIs for children with ASD in public schools. METHODS: We will apply the Domitrovich and colleagues (2008) framework that examines the influence of contextual factors (i.e., individual- and organizational-level factors) on intervention implementation in schools. We utilize mixed methods to quantitatively test whether the factors identified in the Domitrovich and colleagues (2008) framework are associated with the implementation of autism EBIs, and use qualitative methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors associated with successful implementation and sustainment of these interventions with the goal of tailoring implementation strategies. DISCUSSION: The results of this study will provide an in-depth understanding of individual- and organizational-level factors that influence the successful implementation of EBIs for children with ASD in public schools. These data will inform potential implementation targets and tailoring of strategies that will help schools overcome barriers to implementation and ultimately improve the services and outcomes for children with ASD.
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3. Pirrone A, Dickinson A, Gomez R, Stafford T, Milne E. {{Understanding Perceptual Judgment in Autism Spectrum Disorder Using the Drift Diffusion Model}}. {Neuropsychology};2016 (Oct 10)
Objective: Two-alternative forced-choice tasks are widely used to gain insight into specific areas of enhancement or impairment in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Data arising from these tasks have been used to support myriad theories regarding the integrity, or otherwise, of particular brain areas or cognitive processes in ASD. The drift diffusion model (DDM) provides an account of the underlying processes which give rise to accuracy and reaction time (RT) distributions, and parameterizes these processes in terms which have direct psychological interpretation. Importantly, the DDM provides further insight into the origin of potential group differences in task performance. Here, for the first time, we used the DDM to investigate perceptual decision making in ASD. Method: Adults with (N = 25) and without ASD (N = 32) performed an orientation discrimination task. A drift diffusion model was applied to the full RT distributions. Results: Participants with ASD responded more slowly than controls, the groups did not differ in accuracy. Modeled parameters indicated that: (a) participants with ASD were more cautious than controls (wider boundary separation); (b) nondecision time was increased in ASD; and (c) the quality of evidence extracted from the stimulus (drift rate) did not vary between groups. Conclusions: Taking the behavioral data in isolation would suggest reduced perceptual sensitivity in ASD. However, DDM results indicated that despite response slowing, there was no evidence of differential perceptual sensitivity between participants with and without ASD. Future use of the DDM in investigations of perception and cognition in ASD is highly recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record
