1. Irwin JR, Tornatore LA, Brancazio L, Whalen DH. {{Can Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders « Hear » a Speaking Face?}}. {Child Dev};2011 (Jul 25)
This study used eye-tracking methodology to assess audiovisual speech perception in 26 children ranging in age from 5 to 15 years, half with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and half with typical development. Given the characteristic reduction in gaze to the faces of others in children with ASD, it was hypothesized that they would show reduced influence of visual information on heard speech. Responses were compared on a set of auditory, visual, and audiovisual speech perception tasks. Even when fixated on the face of the speaker, children with ASD were less visually influenced than typical development controls. This indicates fundamental differences in the processing of audiovisual speech in children with ASD, which may contribute to their language and communication impairments.
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2. Reed P, Staytom L, Stott S, Truzoli R. {{Comparison of conditioning impairments in children with Down syndrome, autistic spectrum disorders and mental age-matched controls}}. {J Intellect Disabil Res};2011 (Jul 26)
Background This study investigated the relative ease of learning across four tasks suggested by an adaptation of Thomas’s hierarchy of learning in children with Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorders and mental age-matched controls. Methods Learning trials were carried out to investigate observational learning, instrumental learning, reversal learning and conditional discrimination. Results The sample with autism spectrum disorders performed worse than the other two groups on the observational learning and conditional discrimination tasks, while the Down syndrome sample performed worse on the instrumental learning task. Conclusions These findings are discussed in terms of there implications for reward-based educational intervention programmes.
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3. van Balkom ID, Shaw A, Vuijk PJ, Franssens M, Hoek HW, Hennekam RC. {{Development and behaviour in Marshall-Smith syndrome: an exploratory study of cognition, phenotype and autism}}. {J Intellect Disabil Res};2011 (Jul 26)
Background Marshall-Smith syndrome (MSS) is an infrequently described entity characterised by failure to thrive, developmental delay, abnormal bone maturation and a characteristic face. In studying the physical features of a group of patients, we noticed unusual behavioural traits. This urged us to study cognition, behavioural phenotype and autism in six patients. Methods Information on development, behavioural characteristics, autism symptoms, and adaptive and psychological functioning of six MSS children was collected through in-person examinations, questionnaires, semi-structured interviews of parents and neuropsychological assessments. Results Participants showed moderate to severe delays in mental age, motor development and adaptive functioning, with several similarities in communication, social interactions and behaviour. There was severe delay of speech and motor milestones, a friendly or happy demeanour and enjoyment of social interactions with familiar others. They exhibited minimal maladaptive behaviours. Deficits in communication and social interactions, lack of reciprocal social communication skills, limited imaginary play and the occurrence of stereotyped, repetitive behaviours were noted during assessments. Conclusions Systematic collection of developmental and behavioural data in very rare entities such as MSS allows recognition of specific patterns in these qualities. Clinical recognition of physical,developmental and behavioural features is important not only for diagnosis, prognosis and counselling of families, but also increases our understanding of the biological basis of the human physical and behavioural phenotype.
