Understanding the literacy difficulties of students with Asperger's syndrome in middle years' classrooms

Among the students in Australian classrooms who are experiencing learning difficulties are increasing numbers of children who have been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Although the general cognitive and language abilities of these students are comparable with most of their peers, they experience significant difficulties with social communication, social interactions and social-emotional/behavioural functioning. Despite indications that there are features inherent in Asperger's syndrome that are likely to have a negative effect on the development of advanced literacy skills, studies to date have primarily focused on social-emotional/behavioural challenges. Without effective literacy skills, however, students' access to educational and career opportunities may be curtailed. This article reviews features of Asperger's syndrome that appear to have a negative impact upon the development of advanced literacy skills and suggests ways in which inclusive classroom teachers could support the development of their learners.

Co-occurring anger in young people with Asperger's syndrome

Objectives: The co-occurrence of anger in young people with Asperger's syndrome (AS) has received little attention despite aggression, agitation, and tantrums frequently being identified as issues of concern in this population. The present study investigated the occurrence of anger in young people with AS and explores its relationship with anxiety and depression. Method: Sixty-two young people (12-23 years old) diagnosed with AS were assessed using the Beck Anger Inventory for Youth, Spence Children's Anxiety Scale, and Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale. Results: Among young people with AS who participated in this study, 41% of participants reported clinically significant levels of anger (17%), anxiety (25.8%) and/or depression (11.5%). Anger, anxiety, and depression were positively correlated with each other. Depression, however, was the only significant predictor of anger. Conclusion: Anger is commonly experienced by young people with AS and is correlated with anxiety and depression. These findings suggest that the emotional and behavioral presentation of anger could serve as a cue for further assessment, and facilitate earlier identification and intervention for anger, as well as other mental health problems.

Cortical processing of speech and non-speech sounds in autism and Asperger syndrome

Autism and Asperger syndrome (AS) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterised by deficient social and communication skills, as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour. The language development in individuals with autism is significantly delayed and deficient, whereas in individuals with AS, the structural aspects of language develop quite normally. Both groups, however, have semantic-pragmatic language deficits. The present thesis investigated auditory processing in individuals with autism and AS. In particular, the discrimination of and orienting to speech and non-speech sounds was studied, as well as the abstraction of invariant sound features from speech-sound input. Altogether five studies were conducted with auditory event-related brain potentials (ERP); two studies also included a behavioural sound-identification task. In three studies, the subjects were children with autism, in one study children with AS, and in one study adults with AS. In children with autism, even the early stages of sound encoding were deficient. In addition, these children had altered sound-discrimination processes characterised by enhanced spectral but deficient temporal discrimination. The enhanced pitch discrimination may partly explain the auditory hypersensitivity common in autism, and it may compromise the filtering of relevant auditory information from irrelevant information. Indeed, it was found that when sound discrimination required abstracting invariant features from varying input, children with autism maintained their superiority in pitch processing, but lost it in vowel processing. Finally, involuntary orienting to sound changes was deficient in children with autism in particular with respect to speech sounds. This finding is in agreement with previous studies on autism suggesting deficits in orienting to socially relevant stimuli. In contrast to children with autism, the early stages of sound encoding were fairly unimpaired in children with AS. However, sound discrimination and orienting were rather similarly altered in these children as in those with autism, suggesting correspondences in the auditory phenotype in these two disorders which belong to the same continuum. Unlike children with AS, adults with AS showed enhanced processing of duration changes, suggesting developmental changes in auditory processing in this disorder.

Linguistic and perceptual processing of communicative cues in Asperger Syndrome

Asperger Syndrome (AS) belongs to autism spectrum disorders where both verbal and non-verbal communication difficulties are at the core of the impairment. Social communication requires a complex use of affective, linguistic-cognitive and perceptual processes. In the four studies included in the current thesis, some of the linguistic and perceptual factors that are important for face-to-face communication were studied using behavioural methods. In all four studies the results obtained from individuals with AS were compared with typically developed age, gender and IQ matched controls. First, the language skills of school-aged children were characterized in detail with standardized tests that measured different aspects of receptive and expressive language (Study I). The children with AS were found to be worse than the controls in following complex verbal instructions. Next, the visual perception of facial expressions of emotion with varying degrees of visual detail was examined (Study II). Adults with AS were found to have impaired recognition of facial expressions on the basis of very low spatial frequencies which are important for processing global information. Following that, multisensory perception was investigated by looking at audiovisual speech perception (Studies III and IV). Adults with AS were found to perceive audiovisual speech qualitatively differently from typically developed adults, although both groups were equally accurate in recognizing auditory and visual speech presented alone. Finally, the effect of attention on audiovisual speech perception was studied by registering eye gaze behaviour (Study III) and by studying the voluntary control of visual attention (Study IV). The groups did not differ in eye gaze behaviour or in the voluntary control of visual attention. The results of the study series demonstrate that many factors underpinning face-to-face social communication are atypical in AS. In contrast with previous assumptions about intact language abilities, the current results show that children with AS have difficulties in understanding complex verbal instructions. Furthermore, the study makes clear that deviations in the perception of global features in faces expressing emotions as well as in the multisensory perception of speech are likely to harm face-to-face social communication.

Gêmeos monozigóticos com Síndrome de Asperger: sociabilidade e cognição

Os obstáculos encontrados por crianças e adolescentes com Síndrome de Asperger em termos de interação social, comunicação e imaginação são notórios e causam sentimentos de angústia nos pais que procuram escolas para inserir seus filhos e centros especializados para tratá-los. As pesquisas tem evoluído sobremaneira através dos anos, desde as primeiras descrições sobre o transtorno na primeira metade do século XX, apontando diferentes visões e modos de intervenção, alguns destes que pudessem ser levados à cabo por pais, professores e cuidadores. Entretanto, em termos de língua portuguesa em geral e da realidade brasileira especificamente, há uma carência de instrumentos que possam ser utilizados no ensino de habilidades sociais e cognitivas à esses indivíduos com Síndrome de Asperger. Aproveitando a experiência de pesquisadores ingleses, que na década de noventa elaboraram um guia prático para pais e professores intitulado Teaching children with autism to mind-read: a practical guide for teachers and parents, partindo da intervenção com tradução para a língua portuguesa, o presente estudo exploratório tem os objetivos de: verificar a efetividade de referido instrumento no ensino de habilidades sociais e cognitivas, identificar as estratégias de ensino utilizadas e comparar o desempenho de dois meninos de doze anos, gêmeos monozigóticos com Síndrome de Asperger, alunos de uma escola da rede pública do município do Rio de Janeiro. A metodologia utilizada implicou na análise comparativa dos escores obtidos na pré e pós intervenção, pela avaliação das habilidades sociais com o Inventário Multimídia de Habilidades Sociais para Crianças e das habilidades cognitivas, em especial as funções executivas, via alguns dos subtestes da Escala de Inteligência Wechsler para Crianças WISC-III; e a filmagem das sessões de intervenção e posterior análise dos vídeos para identificação das estratégias de ensino. A análise mostrou que o instrumento foi efetivo no ensino de habilidades sociais e cognitivas, merecendo novos estudos visando sua adaptação para nossa realidade cultural; que as estratégia de ensino mais utilizadas e que contribuíram para a modificação do comportamento dos sujeitos foram levantamento de questões para verificar a compreensão, explicação de conceitos pouco familiares e a ampliação da resposta verbal.

A Comunicação Alternativa favorecendo a aprendizagem de crianças com autismo, Asperger e Angelman: formação continuada de profissionais de Educação e Saúde

A formação continuada de profissionais de Educação e Saúde se constitui como objeto desta dissertação. Na presente pesquisa pretendi planejar, implementar e avaliar os efeitos de um programa de formação continuada de profissionais de Educação e Saúde, oferecendo instruções e orientações de uso dos recursos da Comunicação Alternativa e Ampliada (CAA), para favorecer a comunicação e aprendizagem de crianças com autismo, Asperger e Angelman. Os estudos foram realizados em uma escola regular e em uma instituição especializada, com abordagem clínica-terapêutica-educacional. O universo da pesquisa abrangeu oito profissionais: duas professoras de classes regulares de ensino, uma professora especialista (Atendimento Educacional Especializado), duas estagiárias (estudantes de Pedagogia), exercendo a função de mediadora do aluno com autismo incluído, uma professora da instituição especializada, um auxiliar da professora e uma psicóloga. Também nove crianças fizeram parte desse universo: uma criança com autismo, incluída em classe regular e oito crianças que frequentavam a instituição especializada, sendo duas com Asperger, quatro com autismo e duas com Angelman. Para responder à pergunta principal do estudo: A Comunicação Alternativa e Ampliada pode favorecer a comunicação e a aprendizagem de crianças com autismo, Asperger e Angelman?, foi necessário conhecer os profissionais, as instituições e as respectivas gestoras, bem como o corpo docente, a equipe técnica e as crianças assistidas pelos profissionais, para verificar as suas necessidades, potencialidades, interesses e limitações. Outro elemento fundamental na proposta de formação dos profissionais foram os procedimentos do ensino e da consultoria colaborativa. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida em três estudos, durante o período de julho de 2010 a abril de 2012. Foi utilizado o delineamento intrasujeitos do tipo A-B (estudo I) e A-B-C (estudos II e III) e análise qualitativa dos resultados. Os procedimentos iniciais adotados foram: aplicação de questionários para os profissionais e os responsáveis pelas crianças, entrevistas semiestruturadas com as gestoras das instituições, observações in loco, filmagens das atividades pedagógicas e anotações de campo. Com base nos questionários, entrevistas, observações e anotações foram levantadas as principais dificuldades e necessidades dos profissionais e das crianças e construídos protocolos de observação dos comportamentos destes sujeitos. Durante o desenvolvimento dos estudos foram realizadas filmagens das atividades pedagógicas e anotações de campo, bem como reuniões com os profissionais, para orientações e planejamento das atividades pedagógicas adaptadas a serem desenvolvidas com as crianças, bem como materiais e recursos da CAA. Os resultados apontaram à presença de algumas modificações nos comportamentos dos profissionais e nos comportamentos das crianças. Revelaram ainda, que este trabalho proporcionou aos profissionais a oportunidade de reverem as suas atuações e as suas crenças, com relação à inclusão de crianças com autismo, Asperger e Angelman em ambientes não protegidos. Foi possível verificar as contribuições dos procedimentos e dos recursos da CAA, para favorecer a comunicação, a autorregulação e a aprendizagem dessas crianças e o quanto os procedimentos do ensino e da consultoria colaborativa se apresentam como promissores para o desenvolvimento dos profissionais.

Tipos humanos particularmente estranhos: a síndrome de Asperger como objeto cultural.

A extraordinária atenção social e cultural que nas últimas décadas tem se dado ao diagnóstico do autismo/síndrome de Asperger convida a uma reflexão mais ampla para contextualizar o seu acontecimento como objeto cultural. É nesta direção que se move o presente trabalho, buscando identificar as coordenadas sociais, institucionais e culturais que levaram a tal exposição da deficiência relacional. Fala da história do espectro do autismo e sua pré-história ou a investigação sobre como as formas de não-conformidade com as expectativas da interação na presença do outro foram contextualizados, antes do modelo médico e em seus primeiros dias. Além disso, também têm procurado articular o discurso da contextualização cultural do espectro do autismo na area dos estudos sobre a deficiência chamada Critical Autism Studies por meio de um levantamento analítico dos autores e dos temas.

Tipos humanos particularmente estranhos: a síndrome de Asperger como objeto cultural.

A extraordinária atenção social e cultural que nas últimas décadas tem se dado ao diagnóstico do autismo/síndrome de Asperger convida a uma reflexão mais ampla para contextualizar o seu acontecimento como objeto cultural. É nesta direção que se move o presente trabalho, buscando identificar as coordenadas sociais, institucionais e culturais que levaram a tal exposição da deficiência relacional. Fala da história do espectro do autismo e sua pré-história ou a investigação sobre como as formas de não-conformidade com as expectativas da interação na presença do outro foram contextualizados, antes do modelo médico e em seus primeiros dias. Além disso, também têm procurado articular o discurso da contextualização cultural do espectro do autismo na area dos estudos sobre a deficiência chamada Critical Autism Studies por meio de um levantamento analítico dos autores e dos temas.

Movement-related potentials in high-functioning autism and Asperger's disorder

Autism and Asperger's disorder (AD) are neurodevelopmental conditions that affect cognitive and social-communicative function. Using a movement-related potential (MRP) paradigm, we investigated the clinical and neurobiological issue of 'disorder separateness' versus 'disorder variance' in autism and AD. This paradigm has been used to assess basal ganglia/supplementary motor functioning in Parkinson's disease. Three groups (high functioning autism [HFA]: 16 males, 1 female; mean age 12y 5mo [SD 4y 4mo]; AD: 11 males, 2 females; mean age 13y 5mo [SD 3y 8mo]; comparison group: 13 males, 8 females; mean age 13y 10mo, [SD 3y 11 mo]) completed a cued motor task during electroencephalogram recording of MRPs. The HFA group showed reduced peak amplitude at Cz, indicating less activity over the supplementary motor area during movement preparation. Although an overall significant between-group effect was found for early slope and peak amplitude, subanalysis revealed that the group with AD did not differ significantly from either group. However, it is suggested that autism and AD may be dissociated on the basis of brain-behaviour correlations of IQ with specific neurobiological measures. The overlap between MRP traces for autism and Parkinson's disease suggests that the neurobiological wiring of motor functioning in autism may bypass the supplementary motor area/primary motor cortex pathway.

Asperger Syndrome and the English curriculum: addressing the challenges

A major criterion for the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome is an impairment of the imagination. This article focuses on the specific difficulties that students with Asperger syndrome have with the imaginative content of the English curriculum. It examines the problems with reading and writing imaginatively of a group of students with AS in a secondary school mainstream setting. Various strategies and interventions are considered and discussed which could aid their understanding and learning in relation to the imaginative element of the English curriculum. While acknowledging that this is an area of real difficulty for these students, recommendations include: treating students with AS as individuals; using a small group setting; providing support through structured frameworks.

Working with Adults with Asperger Syndrome: A Practical Toolkit

Book review

Spontaneous Attention to Faces in Asperger Sndrome using Ecologically Valid Static Stimuli

Previous eye tracking research on the allocation of attention to social information by individuals with autism spectrum disorders is equivocal and may be in part a consequence of variation in stimuli used between studies. The current study explored attention allocation to faces, and within faces,
by individuals with Asperger syndrome using a range of static stimuli where faces were either viewed in isolation or viewed in the context of a social scene. Results showed that faces were viewed typically by the individuals with Asperger syndrome when presented in isolation, but attention to the eyes was significantly diminished in comparison to age and IQ-matched typical viewers when faces were viewed as part of social scenes. We show that when using static stimuli, there is evidence of atypicality for individuals with Asperger syndrome depending on the extent of social context. Our findings shed light on the previous explanations of gaze behaviour that have emphasised the role of movement in atypicalities of social attention in autism spectrum disorders and highlight the importance of consideration of the realistic portrayal of social information for future studies.

Tracking the Links to Social Functioning: Asperger Syndrome and Gaze Patterns

The application of Eye Tracking (ET) to the study of social functioning in Asperger Syndrome (AS) provides a unique perspective into social attention and cognition in this atypical neurodevelopmental group. Research in this area has shown how ET can capture social attention atypicalities within this group, such as diminished fixations to the eye region when viewing still images and movie clips; increased fixation to the mouth region; reduced face gaze. Issues exist, however, within the literature, where the type (static/dynamic) and the content (ecological validity) of stimuli used appear to affect the nature of the gaze patterns reported. Objectives: Our research aims were: using the same group of adolescents with AS, to compare their viewing patterns to age and IQ matched typically developing (TD) adolescents using stimuli considered to represent a hierarchy of ecological validity, building from static facial images; through a non-verbal movie clip; through verbal footage from real-life conversation; to eye tracking during real-life conversation. Methods: Eleven participants with AS were compared to 11 TD adolescents, matched for age and IQ. In Study 1, participants were shown 2 sets of static facial images (emotion faces, still images taken from the dynamic clips). In Study 2, three dynamic clips were presented (1 non-verbal movie clip, 2 verbal footage from real-life conversation). Study 3 was an exploratory study of eye tracking during a real-life conversation. Eye movements were recorded via a HiSpeeed (240Hz) SMI eye tracker fitted with chin and forehead rests. Various methods of analysis were used, including a paradigm for temporal analysis of the eye movement data. Results: Results from these studies confirmed that the atypical nature of social attention in AS was successfully captured by this paradigm. While results differed across stimulus sets,
collectively they demonstrated how individuals with AS failed to focus on the most socially relevant aspects of the various stimuli presented. There was also evidence that the eye movements of the AS group were atypically affected by the presence of motion and verbal information. Discriminant Function Analysis demonstrated that the ecological validity of stimuli was an important factor in identifying atypicalities associated with AS, with more accurate classifications of AS and TD groups occurring for more naturalistic stimuli (dynamic rather than static). Graphical analysis of temporal sequences of eye movements revealed the atypical manner in which AS participants followed interactions within the dynamic stimuli. Taken together with data on the order of gaze patterns, more subtle atypicalities were detected in the gaze behaviour of AS individuals towards more socially pertinent regions of the dynamic stimuli. Conclusions: These results have potentially important implications for our understanding of deficits in Asperger Syndrome, as they show that, with more naturalistic stimuli, subtle differences in social attention can be detected that