The use of humor by an adolescent with autism spectrum disorder

The aim of this study was to describe the humor use by an 11-year-old adolescent with ASD. Through an iterative coding process to identify a successful, unsuccessful, and neutral rating of instances of humor, we describe how does an adolescent with ASD uses humor and the functions humor serves in his interactions with a friend. We describe the personal and environmental factors that support the successful use of humor. The adolescent used two main types of humor (self-initiated and environmentally-initiated), consisting of two forms (verbal and physical). We describe 12 main behavioral indicators to identify the instances of humor. Humor appeared to sever as a means of engaging his friend and he appeared to be most successful in using humor with his friend when in a familiar environment and engaging in a familiar activity. The implications for future research are discussed

A proposed framework of an interactive semi-virtual environment for enhanced education of children with autism spectrum disorders

Education of people with special needs has recently been considered as a key element in the field of medical education. Recent development in the area of information and communication technologies may enable development of collaborative interactive environments which facilitate early stage education and provide specialists with robust tools indicating the person's autism spectrum disorder level. Towards the goal of establishing an enhanced learning environment for children with autism this paper attempts to provide a framework of a semi-controlled real-world environment used for the daily education of an autistic person according to the scenarios selected by the specialists. The proposed framework employs both real-world objects and virtual environments equipped with humanoids able to provide emotional feedback and to demonstrate empathy. Potential examples and usage scenarios for such environments are also described

The Academic Performance of Pupils with Autism and Intellectual Impairment in Special and Inclusive Primary Schools in Tanzania

In Tanzania, several initiatives have been made in establishment of special and inclusive schools, mostly in urban areas. The government and community at large show commitments in addressing the needs of pupils with autism and intellectual impairment including the curriculum for learners with mental disabilities of 2008 in primary schools. The question that arises is whether pupils with autism and intellectual impairment in special and inclusive classrooms in Tanzania perform well academically. It is on this premise that this study was based. The study intended to assess academic performance of pupils with autism and intellectual impairment in special and inclusive classrooms in Tanzania. The study employed mixed methods research approach with a quasi-mixed design. Data were collected using pupil’s assessment tool. Five inclusive primary schools were purposively chosen from two regions in Tanzania Mainland. Fifty pupils with autism and intellectual impairment participated in the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. The paired t-test was used to analyse the counting skills of the pupils, while the differences in their academic performance was established by the use of chi-square test. The findings revealed that pupils with intellectual impairment performed relatively higher in all selected tasks (number, communication and vocational skills) comparing to pupils with autism. As such, some deliberate efforts are required for enabling them to acquire competencies as outlined in the curriculum for primary school pupils in Tanzania. Keywords: Academic performance, Autism, Intellectual impairment, Special and inclusive schools, Tanzania DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-20-07 Publication date:July 31st 202

Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder at a Pediatric Hospital: A Systematic Review of the Literature

This review of literature describes the behaviors of hospitalized children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that health care providers find challenging. It also identifies strategies used to address these challenging behaviors. The systematic review of literature identified 34 articles from databases on health care of challenging behaviors of children with ASD. The review identified four categories of challenging behaviors (non-compliance, hyperactivity, sensory defensiveness, self-injury) and several strategies for reducing these behaviors. Partnering with parents to develop strategies is important for children with ASD to deliver timely and safe care

An exploration of using ipads and digital storytelling through westorieswith students who have autism

This study investigated the potential of using weStories, a type of digital storytelling, and the use of iPads with second and third grade students who have autism. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological disorder that affects a person\u27s ability to communicate, comprehend language, and their ability to socially interact with peers. Digital storytelling combines the art of telling stories with photos, videos, audio, and other digital media. This study employed the use of weStories, a collaborative storytelling process that requires students to work in a team while using an iPad. weStories were created by Dr. Glenda Gunter specifically for individuals to learn the fundamental of narrative and story skills to increase their literacy and communication skills. This study was conducted over a series of teachings and observations at the United Cerebral Palsy of Central Florida (UCP). The UCP is a school that serves children with a variety of learning disabilities, including autism. The purpose of this ethnographic thesis was to explore the impact of teaching the story invention process and weStories through iPads with students who have autism. Ethnographic research design was utilized to observe and assess individual changes in student behaviors and investigate the phenomena of story. This study utilized qualitative research methods. The potential of the intervention was measured through interviews and observations. This research on using technologies with students who have autism, such as iPads and weStories, has shown potential in terms of working collaboratively; enhancing problem solving in social situations, and providing exposure to iPads as a learning tool

Comprehensive Multi-Disciplinary Assessment Protocol for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Legal mandates established under IDEA specify a student must be assessed in all areas of suspected disability. Never is this task more overwhelming than its application to the assessment of a student suspected of a diagnosis of autism. The assessment of an individual suspected of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis is a complex task and is dependent on the integration of information gleaned from assessments conducted by an array of professionals, each with their own distinct area of expertise. The purpose of this article is to introduce the Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Assessment Protocols-Autism Spectrum Disorder, referred to as the CMAPs, as a mechanism for organizing multidisciplinary team assessments. The CMAPs were developed in response to the challenges experienced by school-based assessment teams in developing appropriate and legally defensible assessment plans. The CMAPs provide teams a systematic, organizational, and comprehensive platform to organize the assessment of students across the spectrum of the disorder with the goal of making the task less overwhelming. Each assessment protocol considers the assessment needs of individuals with ASD using their communication skills as a preliminary starting point

The Comparison of the Effects of Direct Instruction and Project-/Problem-Based Learning to Teach Basic Math Skills for Students with Low-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

The attention toward the mathematics achievement of U.S. students in general education, when they took the national and international assessments, has risen (Przychodzin et al., 2004). However, a limited amount of research focusing on effective mathematics instruction was completed (Baker, Gersten, & Lee, 2002). Mathematics is an important academic area for students with disabilities, including autism, because people with disabilities can increase work or volunteering opportunities and enrich their post-secondary life if they perform functional math skills well (Brown & Snell, 2000). However, Su et al. (2010) described that few studies focusing on learning strategies to support students with autism have been done. Specifically, research on mathematics for students with autism is significantly limited, although some studies in reading were done (National Research Council [NRC], 2001). The purpose of this paper was to review the literature that studied the effectiveness of Direct Instruction (DI) and Problem-/Project-based Learning (PBL) for students with low-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in math. Eleven studies were chosen for review that evaluated the effectiveness of DI and PBL. The foci of this paper are: characteristics of ASD, instructional requirements or needs for students with low-functioning ASD, higher order of thinking, and the differences of effectiveness of DI and PBL

The Silhouettes of Autism

My passion as a student at the Claremont Colleges is to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder grow and learn as normal children and to help prepare them for life outside the Autism Center at Claremont McKenna College. In my thesis project, I am exploring the concept of silhouettes through photography and my perceptions of the stories told to me by the children I teach. Esthetically, I am inspired by Kara Walker’s installation of large cutout silhouettes but I am using different mediums to accomplish my project: Artistically, I am inspired by the detailed descriptions of the obsessive stories and information provided to me by the children at the Autism Center. Primarily, I will be using photographs that I have taken of the children and creating silhouetted images of them through Photoshop. Afterwards, I will paint my perceptions of the detailed and creative descriptions of the different information relayed to me by each individual child. Secondary, there will be some life size black cutouts, on black paper, of different imagined scenarios with the children. In the spring, I see this as an installation with many separate pieces that contain different sizes, depth, and simplicity

Can Narrative Skills Improve in Autism Spectrum Disorder? A Preliminary Study with Verbally Fluent Adolescents Receiving the Cognitive Pragmatic Treatment

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting social and communicative skills, including narrative ability, namely the description of real-life or fictive accounts of temporally and causally related events. With this study, we aimed to determine whether a communicative-pragmatic training, i.e., the version for adolescents of the Cognitive-Pragmatic Treatment, is effective in improving the narrative skills of 16 verbally fluent adolescents with ASD. We used a multilevel approach to assess pre- and post-training narrative production skills. Discourse analysis focused on micro- (i.e., mean length of utterance, complete sentences, omissions of morphosyntactic information) and macrolinguistic measures (i.e., cohesion, coherence errors, lexical informativeness). Results revealed a significant improvement in mean length of utterance and complete sentences and a decrease in cohesion errors. No significant change was found in the other narrative measures investigated. Our findings suggest that a pragmatically oriented training may be useful in improving grammatical efficiency in narrative production