Reducing the risk of abandonment of assistive technologies for people with autism

This paper reports on an investigation that found that conventional techniques for including users in technology design are likely to fail if the user has autism. The heterogeneity of autistic symptomatology across cognitive, social, behavioural and communication domains suggests a 'single user' environment, while rendering typical design interaction techniques meaningless, making the need for assistive technologies great, and the risk of abandonment high. This complex problem of urgency and constraint was addressed through a Delphi study with a panel of psychologists critiquing design activities for people with autism. The major finding is that while each of the activities may work if modified, all require that the designer is well acquainted with autism in general and has a close working relationship based on trust with the individual user. If these requirements are met, there is no reason that the abandonment rate cannot be reduced.

Towards co-design with users who have autism spectrum disorders

People with cognitive disorders, such as autism or Asperger’s syndrome, face many barriers when being involved in the co-design of information and communications technologies (ICT). Cognitive disorders may require that co-design techniques be modified to fit with individual abilities. Up until recently, with technology design, purpose and use being in the hands of ‘experts’ there was little opportunity for customisation. However, ICT bring together various threads that make open many new possibilities. Not only are technologies cheaper, more powerful and more available than ever, but now parents, support agencies and people with autism spectrum disorders expect information technologies to be part of their worlds, and they have the capacity to participate in co-design for customisation. However, co-design techniques have not evolved to the extent that they capture this potential democratisation of the ICT. This paper reports on an investigation of the potential to develop a set of guidelines for co-design techniques to enable people with autism spectrum disorders to participate in ICT design.

Response of the child with autism to preferred prosody during instruction

It has been found that incorporating preferences leads to improvements in target skills for children with autism. No studies have been found, however, that assess the preferences of children for prosody of teacher instruction. Prosody has been defined by fluency of speech, modification of pitch and stress of syllables. This research assessed the preference for, and effectiveness of, prosody of instruction by teachers of children with autism. The preferences of children with autism for monotone, conversational and enthusiastic voice prosodies were assessed. The children's teachers made recording of their own voice reading a story passage in the three selected prosodies. The children with autism were requested to listen to these recordings and select a preferred prosody over thirty three trials. Chi square analyses were conducted to determine the significant preferences from these trials. The selections of prosody of the children with autism were compared with the selections of typical children of the same age. Significant preferences were found for three children with autism and seven typical children. The three children with autism with significant preferences were observed in their classrooms. Teachers were cued with flashcards to use the different prosodies and the children's responses were recorded. An additional twenty instructions were recorded in which the teachers were not given a cue for voice prosody Chi square and Fisher's exact tests indicated that children's preferences did not influence their responses to prosody during classroom instruction. In other words the response in class was not related to prosody preference. Overall children were more likely to not respond to the monotone prosody. The enthusiastic and conversational prosodies were equally effective. Therefore it was concluded that continued and varied use of enthusiastic and conversational prosodies during classroom instruction would be effective for children with autism. It was recommended that future research focus on evaluating the effectiveness of variety of prosody for children with autism.

A cross-cultural examination of social and sexual behaviour in High Functioning Autism and Down Syndrome

The focus of this research was to obtain an understanding of the social and sexual behaviour of adolescents with High Functioning Autism (HFA) or Down Syndrome (DS) in comparison to Typically Developing (TD) adolescents across cultures. The findings highlight the importance of cross-cultural research and indicate the need for sex education. The portfolio presents four case studies which support the proposition that insecure attachment is only likely to lead to depression in the presence of socially-related and other psychological difficulties, since not all insecurely attached children develop depressive symptoms.

Mirror neuron dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are developmental conditions characterized by deficits in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and obsessive/stereotyped patterns of behaviour. Although there is no reliable neurophysiological marker associated with ASDs, dysfunction of the parieto-frontal mirror neuron system has been suggested as a disturbance linked to the disorder. Mirror neurons (MNs) are visuomotor neurons which discharge both when performing and observing a goal directed action. Research suggests MNs may have a role in imitation, empathy, theory of mind and language. Although the research base is small, evidence from functional MRI, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and an electroencephalographic component called the mu rhythm suggests MNs are dysfunctional in subjects with ASD. These deficits are more pronounced when ASD subjects complete tasks with social relevance, or that are emotional in nature. Promising research has identified that interventions targeting MN related functions such as imitation can improve social functioning in ASDs. Boosting the function of MNs may improve the prognosis of ASDs, and contribute to diagnostic clarity.

Self-assessed sexuality in young adults with High-Functioning Autism

The literature has revealed that autistic persons of all ages show an interest in sexuality and relationships, but the poor social and communication skills found among those with autism hinders the experience of this. Unfortunately, most research to date in this domain has relied exclusively upon parental or caregiver reports. Thus there remains a need for research to be undertaken in this area based on direct reports from autistic individuals. We hypothesised that compared to Typically Developing (TD) persons, persons with High-Functioning Autism (HFA) would reveal lesser levels of sexual experience, lower levels of sexual and social behaviour, and less understanding of privacy on various subscales of the Sexualised Behaviour Scale. The results of this present study supported the hypothesis on all scales except Privacy and Sexualised Behaviour. Overall, compared to TD individuals, HFA individuals engaged in fewer social behaviours, had less sex education and fewer sexual experiences, had more pronounced concerns for the future, and showed similar levels of privacy knowledge and public sexualised behaviour. These findings suggest a need for specialised sex education programs for autistic populations; further, since social behaviour was significantly lower for autistic individuals and future concerns were higher, this suggests that sex education programs need to incorporate education about social rules to enhance social communication and understanding.

Relationships and attraction among individuals with autism spectrum disorder

This research investigated attraction among individuals with autism. We found that those with autism prefer partners who assist them to meet their social and cognitive needs. Partners of those with autism chose to trade-off emotional and social skills for other traits. Lastly, those with autism had lower self-perceived mate value.

Oxidative pathways as a drug target for the treatment of autism

Importance of the field: Autism is a severe, pervasive developmental disorder, the aetiology of which is poorly understood. Current pharmacological treatment options for autism are often focused on addressing comorbid behavioural problems, rather than core features of the disorder. Investigation of a new treatment approach is needed.

Areas covered in this review: Recent research has indicated a possible role of abnormalities in oxidative homeostasis in the pathophysiology of autism, based on reports that a range of oxidative biomarkers are significantly altered in people with autism. This article reviews the current findings on oxidative stress in autism, including genetic links to oxidative pathways, changes in antioxidant levels and other oxidative stress markers. We conducted a search of the literature up to June 2010, using Medline, Pubmed, PsycINFO, CINAHL PLUS and BIOSIS Previews.

What the reader will gain: This review provides an overview of the current understanding of the role of oxidative stress in autism. This will assist in highlighting areas of future therapeutic targets and potential underlying pathophysiology of this disorder.

Take home message: Abnormalities in oxidative homeostasis may play a role in the pathophysiology of autism. Antioxidant treatment may form a potential therapeutic pathway for this complex disorder.

Investigating the female profile of autism

An investigation into the hypothesis that females with high functioning autism present in a way that is not congruent with our current understanding of autism, as our current understanding is largely based on a male profile of autism. Autistic females were found to present differently socially, emotionally and behaviourally from autistic males.