1. Koren-Karie N, Oppenheim D, Dolev S, Yirmiya N. {{Mothers of securely attached children with autism spectrum disorder are more sensitive than mothers of insecurely attached children}}. {J Child Psychol Psychiatry};2009 (May);50(5):643-650.
In the current study we examined the links between maternal sensitivity and children’s secure attachment in a sample of 45 preschool-age boys with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We hypothesized that mothers of securely attached children would be more sensitive to their children than mothers of insecurely attached children. Children’s attachment was assessed using Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Procedure (SSP; Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). Mothers’ sensitivity and children’s responsiveness to their mothers were assessed using the Emotional Availability Scales (Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1993). The findings supported our hypothesis: mothers of securely attached children were more sensitive to their children even when controlling for the severity of children’s diagnosis (Autism Disorder vs. Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)), children’s level of functioning (high vs. low), and children’s levels of responsiveness. The significance of sensitivity for security of attachment in ASD and the implications of these findings for the validity of the SSP in children with ASD are discussed.
2. Thiessen C, Fazzio D, Arnal L, Martin GL, Yu CT, Keilback L. {{Evaluation of a self-instructional manual for conducting discrete-trials teaching with children with autism}}. {Behav Modif};2009 (May);33(3):360-373.
Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is commonly used to implement applied behavior analysis treatment for children with autism. The authors investigated a revised self-instructional manual for teaching university students to implement a 21-component DTT procedure to teach three tasks to confederates role-playing children with autism. Also, as a motivational contingency, for each DTT session in which a student scored at or above 90% accuracy, they received US$10. After an average of 4.5 hr to master the training manual, students’ average DTT performance improved from 52% in baseline to 88% while teaching a confederate. Students averaged 77% DTT performance during subsequent generalization sessions with a child with autism.
3. Welsh TN, Ray MC, Weeks DJ, Dewey D, Elliott D. {{Does Joe influence Fred’s action? Not if Fred has autism spectrum disorder}}. {Brain Res};2009 (Jan 12);1248:141-148.
It has been proposed that the deficits in social interaction seen in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) arise from problems in action perception stemming from a dysfunction of the mirror neuron system (MNS)–a neural network that becomes active during the performance and observation of action. A dysfunction of this system could have a cascading effect leading to deficits in social cognition because poor activation of the MNS during action observation may lead to an incomplete understanding of another person’s actions, intentions and, ultimately, mental states. The present study tested the MNS dysfunction explanation by determining if people with ASD demonstrate a between-person inhibition of return (BP-IOR) effect. The BP-IOR effect, longer reaction times to targets presented at the location of another person’s previous response relative to an unresponded-to location, has been hypothesized to be the result of the MNS co-representing the observed response and subsequently activating the mechanisms that cause IOR when individuals respond on their own (within-person IOR [WP-IOR]). Consistent with the MNS dysfunction hypothesis, participants with ASD did not demonstrate a BP-IOR effect in a condition in which they only observed the movement of the partner. The participants with ASD did demonstrate a WP-IOR effect suggesting that the mechanisms underlying IOR are intact in ASD. The contrast between the BP- and WP-IOR effects in the participants with ASD provides significant behavioural evidence for MNS dysfunction in ASD and has important implications for understanding this disorder.
