1. Ben Said M, Robel L, Vion E, Golse B, Jais JP, Landais P. {{TEDIS: an Information System Dedicated to Patients with Pervasive Developmental Disorders}}. {Stud Health Technol Inform};160:198-202.
Pervasive Development Disorders (PDD) represent a life disorder which significantly affects individuals and families. It requires long term specialized institutions health care, education and social accompaniment. In France, 350,000 to 600,000 patients are estimated to be affected and 5,000 to 8,000 newborns will develop the disorder every year. In 2005, Autism Resource Centres were created in each of the 23 regions in France, to support the PDD hospital reference centres in providing formal clinical assessment for each patient. Such assessments will support the prescription of health care measures, educative and intuitional orientation and accompaniment. An information system called TEDIS was designed to assist the psychiatrists and multidisciplinary medical experts at Necker child-psychiatry hospital, in organizing PDD patient’s information and providing ground for improving knowledge about the disorder, its epidemiology and underlying biological mechanisms. The professionals’ involvement from the beginning in the development process facilitated TEDIS design and implementation. The results of first experimentations are encouraging. They are described as well as the short term and mid-term deployment planning.
2. Dritschel B, Wisely M, Goddard L, Robinson S, Howlin P. {{Judgements of self-understanding in adolescents with Asperger syndrome}}. {Autism} (Sep 14)
Previous research has demonstrated that adults with high functioning autism (HFA)/Asperger syndrome (AS) judge others as having as much knowledge about their inner mental states as they do. The current study examined whether this pattern also applies to adolescents with HFA/AS because typically developing adolescents, in contrast to younger children, regard themselves as experts on their own inner states. Twenty-two adolescents with HFA/AS and 22 controls judged how much they versus a comparison person knew about 6 aspects of their inner states. In contrast to typically developing adolescents, those with HFA/AS judged the comparison person as having more knowledge about themselves than they did. This study suggests that adolescents with HFA/AS have more pronounced difficulties with this aspect of self-knowledge than do adults with this condition. The implications of this deficit for social functioning are discussed.
3. Farley AJ, Lopez B, Saunders G. {{Self-conceptualisation in autism: Knowing oneself versus knowing self-through-other}}. {Autism} (Sep 14)
This study aimed to extend Lee and Hobson’s (1998) findings regarding self-conceptualisation in autism by using a more verbally able sample. The study also investigated the ability to conceptualise self through other. Sixteen typically developing and sixteen adolescents with ASD matched for chronological and verbal mental age were administered a modified version of Damon and Hart’s (1988) self-as-subject interview, which also required participants to conceptualise themselves from another’s perspective. Self-conceptualisation ability was similar between groups across the categories of distinctiveness and continuity, but reduced in the ASD group under the category of agency. Participants with ASD were, however, less able to conceptualise themselves from another’s perspective. These results are discussed in relation to second-person processes and narrative abilities.
4. Helt MS, Eigsti IM, Snyder PJ, Fein DA. {{Contagious Yawning in Autistic and Typical Development}}. {Child Dev} (Sep);81(5):1620-1631.
The authors tested susceptibility to contagious yawning in 120 children, 1-6 years, to identify the time course of its emergence during development. Results indicated a substantial increase in the frequency of contagious yawning at 4 years. In a second study, the authors examined contagious yawning in 28 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), 6-15 years. Children with ASD showed diminished susceptibility to contagious yawning compared with 2 control groups matched for mental and chronological age, respectively. In addition, children diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) a milder variant of autism, were more susceptible to contagious yawning than were children diagnosed with full Autistic Disorder. The authors explore the implications of these findings for theories about the development of mimicry and emotional contagion.
5. Pellicano E. {{The Development of Core Cognitive Skills in Autism: A 3-Year Prospective Study}}. {Child Dev} (Sep);81(5):1400-1416.
This longitudinal study tested the veracity of one candidate multiple-deficits account of autism by assessing 37 children with autism (M age = 67.9 months) and 31 typical children (M age = 65.2 months) on tasks tapping components of theory of mind (ToM), executive function (EF), and central coherence (CC) at intake and again 3 years later. As a group, children with autism showed poor false-belief attribution, planning ability, and set-shifting, together with enhanced local processing at both time points. At an individual level, however, the profile was far from universal at either intake or follow-up. Moreover, autistic children demonstrated significant changes over time in ToM and EF, but not CC, over the 3-year period. The challenges these findings pose for a multiple-deficits account are discussed.
6. Reddy V, Williams E, Costantini C, Lang B. {{Engaging with the self: Mirror behaviour in autism, Down syndrome and typical development}}. {Autism} (Sep 14)
Children with autism achieve mirror self-recognition appropriate to developmental age, but are nonetheless reported to have problems in other aspects of a sense of self. We observed behaviour in the mirror in 12 pre-school children with autism, 13 pre-school children with Down syndrome (DS) and 13 typically developing (TD) toddlers. Reliable differences in reflecting actions, social relatedness and positive affect towards themselves, and an absence of coy smiles differentiated the children with autism from the others. The children with DS showed the highest interest in their own faces. These differences were largely independent of mirror self-recognition (MSR), broadly supporting arguments for dissociation between interpersonal and conceptual aspects of self. Mirror behaviour may be a subtle but easily elicited measure of the social quality of a sense of self.
7. Scheeren AM, Begeer S, Banerjee R, Meerum Terwogt M, Koot HM. {{Can you tell me something about yourself? Self-presentation in children and adolescents with high functioning autism spectrum disorder in hypothetical and real life situations}}. {Autism} (Sep 14)
The self-presentation skills of children and adolescents with high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder (HFASD) and typically developing (TD) controls were compared, in response to both hypothetical and real life situations. In both situations, 26 HFASD and 26 TD participants were prompted to describe themselves twice, first in a baseline condition, and later in a goal-directed condition where specific information was given about the preferences and demands of the audience. Confirming and extending previous research, both TD and HFASD participants exhibited a tendency to be more positive when describing themselves in a goal-directed condition. However, HFASD participants were less strategic than TD participants in responding to the information they were given about the audience preferences and demands. Possible explanations and implications of the results are discussed.
