Guided Weak Supervision for Action Recognition with Scarce Data to Assess Skills of Children with Autism

Diagnostic and intervention methodologies for skill assessment of autism typically requires a clinician repetitively initiating several stimuli and recording the child's response. In this paper, we propose to automate the response measurement through video recording of the scene following the use of Deep Neural models for human action recognition from videos. However, supervised learning of neural networks demand large amounts of annotated data that are hard to come by. This issue is addressed by leveraging the `similarities' between the action categories in publicly available large-scale video action (source) datasets and the dataset of interest. A technique called guided weak supervision is proposed, where every class in the target data is matched to a class in the source data using the principle of posterior likelihood maximization. Subsequently, classifier on the target data is re-trained by augmenting samples from the matched source classes, along with a new loss encouraging inter-class separability. The proposed method is evaluated on two skill assessment autism datasets, SSBD and a real world Autism dataset comprising 37 children of different ages and ethnicity who are diagnosed with autism. Our proposed method is found to improve the performance of the state-of-the-art multi-class human action recognition models in-spite of supervision with scarce data.Comment: AAAI 202

Advances in Autism Research

This book represents one of the most up-to-date collections of articles on clinical practice and research in the field of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The scholars who contributed to this book are experts in their field, carrying out cutting edge research in prestigious institutes worldwide (e.g., Harvard Medical School, University of California, MIND Institute, King’s College, Karolinska Institute, and many others). The book addressed many topics, including (1) The COVID-19 pandemic; (2) Epidemiology and prevalence; (3) Screening and early behavioral markers; (4) Diagnostic and phenotypic profile; (5) Treatment and intervention; (6) Etiopathogenesis (biomarkers, biology, and genetic, epigenetic, and risk factors); (7) Comorbidity; (8) Adulthood; and (9) Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP). This book testifies to the complexity of performing research in the field of ASD. The published contributions underline areas of progress and ongoing challenges in which more certain data is expected in the coming years. It would be desirable that experts, clinicians, researchers, and trainees could have the opportunity to read this updated text describing the challenging heterogeneity of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Advances in Autism Research

This book represents one of the most up-to-date collections of articles on clinical practice and research in the field of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The scholars who contributed to this book are experts in their field, carrying out cutting edge research in prestigious institutes worldwide (e.g., Harvard Medical School, University of California, MIND Institute, King’s College, Karolinska Institute, and many others). The book addressed many topics, including (1) The COVID-19 pandemic; (2) Epidemiology and prevalence; (3) Screening and early behavioral markers; (4) Diagnostic and phenotypic profile; (5) Treatment and intervention; (6) Etiopathogenesis (biomarkers, biology, and genetic, epigenetic, and risk factors); (7) Comorbidity; (8) Adulthood; and (9) Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP). This book testifies to the complexity of performing research in the field of ASD. The published contributions underline areas of progress and ongoing challenges in which more certain data is expected in the coming years. It would be desirable that experts, clinicians, researchers, and trainees could have the opportunity to read this updated text describing the challenging heterogeneity of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Lived Experiences of Counselors Providing Counseling to Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of counselors providing counseling to adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Eleven professional counselors participated in the study from various regions of the United States. Four themes and 10 subthemes were found. The resulting themes discuss the counselor reactions, previous experiences with ASD, approaches used in counseling, and counselor self-care. The findings exhibit new evidence in the literature such as counselors’ emotional reactions to working with adults with ASD, challenges in balancing adult clients with ASD and their family members, and professional emotional boundaries used as a self-care tool. Implications are provided specific to counselor educators, counselor supervisors, and practicing counselors in the field. Recommendations include incorporating more education and exposure to individuals with ASD into counseling programs and increasing trainings and research on counseling adults with ASD

Transition-aged autistic youth : functioning, quality of life, and internet-delivered psychoeducation

Background: Transition-aged autistic youth, ranging from 16 to 25 years of age, often experience challenges in functioning and have a diminished quality of life (QoL). Several factors have been reported to be associated with these outcomes. However, limited studies have examined the self-reporting of transition-aged autistic youth regarding these outcomes, and few have analysed the specific impact of autistic traits and mental health problems on functioning and QoL. To enhance autism knowledge, promote active participation in healthcare, and improve QoL, psychoeducation is commonly recommended as an initial intervention following an autism diagnosis. Aims: The aim of study I was to investigate self-reported functioning and QoL in transition-aged autistic youth and to analyse the relative importance of associated factors on the two outcomes. The aims of studies II and III were to evaluate a new internet-delivered psychoeducative intervention (SCOPE) by investigating (1) feasibility, evaluating intervention completion, credibility and satisfaction (study II); and (2) the pragmatic effectiveness of SCOPE (study III). Methods: In study I, 140 transition-aged autistic youth were interviewed about their functioning and provided self-rating questionnaires about QoL. In addition, participants rated their autism symptom severity, symptoms of mental ill-health and answered a questionnaire on demographic details. We analysed functioning and QoL scores using descriptive statistics. We analysed associations between all variables, followed by entering the significant associations as independent variables into a linear regression model with either functioning or QoL as the dependent variable. In studies II and III, we evaluated SCOPE – containing eight autism-themed modules with weekly digital therapist support. For study II, we recruited n = 28 participants, aged 16-25 years. We evaluated feasibility through intervention completion rates, credibility using a self-report scale and satisfaction using module evaluations. We analysed preliminary effects regarding autism knowledge, symptoms of mental ill-health, life satisfaction and acceptance of diagnosis, collected at pre-, post-intervention and three-month follow-up. In study III we included n = 141 participants, aged 16-25 years, to be randomised according to 2:1:1 to SCOPE, self-study online of informative autism websites, or treatment as usual (TAU). The primary outcome of autism knowledge, and the secondary outcomes of symptoms of mental ill-health, QoL and acceptance of diagnosis were assessed at pre, post and follow-up. Results: In study I, participants reported low functioning, on the 90th percentile compared to general population norms, indicating significant disability, and rated low overall QoL. The predictors that contributed the most to functioning were autism symptom severity and symptoms of anxiety, followed by gender and ADHD-diagnosis. Meanwhile, higher QoL was predicted by fewer anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as having friendships but not by autism symptom severity. In study II we observed 79% completers, as well as good treatment credibility and treatment satisfaction. Additionally, autism knowledge was increased post-intervention. These results were supported by findings in study III, where we found that SCOPE and self-study, but not TAU, increased autism knowledge post-intervention (primary outcome). However, the self-study participants' knowledge scores returned to baseline at the three-month follow-up. SCOPE participants had increased autism knowledge at follow-up compared to self-study and TAU, and the increase in knowledge was not coupled with significant changes in mental health problems. SCOPE participants reported improved QoL (secondary outcome) at post-intervention and three-month follow-up compared to both control conditions. Conclusions: We highlight that functioning and QoL are predicted by several factors, necessitating a comprehensive assessment of transition-aged autistic youth, including information about autism traits and mental health problems, to plan tangible interventions. The SCOPE trials suggest that the internet-delivered psychoeducational intervention SCOPE is a feasible first-line intervention in terms of treatment completion. Further, SCOPE could increase youths’ autism knowledge and improve QoL

Analysis of an Early Intervention Reading Program for First Grade Students

Poor early literacy performance in public elementary schools has been a concern for many years. To that end, the purpose of this study was to examine an Early Intervention Program (EIP) in a public school. First grade students at the participating elementary school struggled with reading skills and were not meeting the grade standards of the local school district. In order to remedy this problem, the school implemented early support to provide struggling students with specific and targeted small group reading instruction. This quantitative program evaluation was intended to explore the effect of the EIP used at the participating elementary school on the reading levels of a convenience sample of 32 struggling first grade readers enrolled in the EIP. The Fountas and Pinnell benchmark reading scores of these students were analyzed using a chi square test to determine the effectiveness of the program. The beginning- and end-of-year benchmark scores showed that students who participated in the program for an entire school year demonstrated growth in their reading levels so that every student in the program was reading on or above grade level. Based on this research, an evaluation report was prepared and included recommendations for possible expansion of the program and teacher professional development focused on reading intervention. This research could help promote positive social change through teacher professional development and allow classroom teachers to receive targeted reading intervention training. These results from the study help to improve student achievement and foster a school environment that is data driven and student achievement centered to support student learning

Children with autism spectrum disorder in the context of Arab countries and cultures

The field of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the Arab world is new. The dearth of ASD research in the Arab world is well recognised. There were no data available in the field of ASD in the Arab context collectively. Therefore, ASD researchers should attempt to discover the state of ASD from the Arab perspective. This thesis has attempted to expand our knowledge of the field of ASD in the Arab context, in particular children with ASD and their families. In Chapter 1 an introduction on Arab countries was presented including geography, religion, language, culture, and information about typical family systems. Further, the current state of ASD in Arab countries and cultures was discussed in terms of its diagnosis, prevalence, services available for individuals with ASD, and Arab parents’ stress and needs profiles. Four empirical studies then followed (Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5). In the first study (Chapter 2) a systematic scoping review of social, educational, and psychological research on individuals with ASD and their family members in Arab countries and cultures was undertaken, highlighting many unexplored areas for research. Chapter 3 then presented an investigation of support needs of Arab families of children with ASD living in the United Kingdom (UK). Chapter 4 explored experiences of special educators from a special school on using a structured numeracy intervention with their pupils with ASD. The final study (Chapter 5) then carried out an initial evaluation of a structured numeracy intervention with children with ASD in Arab families living in the UK by training and supporting their parents to deliver the intervention at home. In Chapter 6 the findings from the four empirical studies were discussed, along with their implications for practice and future research. Overall this thesis has contributed new knowledge in relation to the field of ASD in the Arab context