Short Report: Social Perception of High School Students with ASD in Norway

An increasing number of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) enroll in inclusive schools and classrooms. The aim of this study was to research how students with ASD experience the social aspect of inclusive high schools. Five adolescences with Asperger syndrome were interviewed, and the results show that high school was perceived as an important platform for social training, and an equally important place to fnd new friends and acquaintances. A majority of the participants had experienced loneliness and bullying in junior high school. However, they experienced high school as a new start, with a more open and inclusive environment. Nevertheless, several of the participants expressed that they used quite a lot of energy on social settings, such as interpreting social situations and on being amongst a larger group of students. In order to support this group of adolescents in their schooling, it is important to look at their strength and resources, and not only focus on the challenges and difculties.publishedVersio

Reading instruction for students with intellectual disabilities who require augmentative and alternative communication: A multiple single case study with baseline, posttest, follow-up, and maintenance

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether seven children, aged 6–10 years, with intellectual disabilities who require augmentative and alternative communication, could acquire phonological awareness and reading skills by using a reading material that is based on research on the evidence-based reading program Accessible literacy learning. The effect of the measures has been examined using a multiple single-case design with baseline, posttest, follow-up, and maintenance. All the teachers were trained to deliver the reading intervention in the students’ familiar place at school. The results indicated that students with intellectual disabilities who require augmentative and alternative communication could acquire phonological awareness and decoding by working systematically with reading material based on evidence-based strategies.publishedVersio

Virtual and augmented reality in social skills interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review

In the last decade, there has been an increase in publications on technology-based interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Virtual reality based assessments and intervention tools are promising and have shown to be acceptable amongst individuals with ASD. This scoping review reports on 49 studies utilizing virtual reality and augmented reality technology in social skills interventions for individuals with ASD. The included studies mostly targeted children and adolescents, but few targeted very young children or adults. Our findings show that the mode number of participants with ASD is low, and that female participants are underrepresented. Our review suggests that there is need for studies that apply virtual and augmented realty with more rigorous designs involving established and evidenced-based intervention strategies.publishedVersio

En Empirisk Studie av Autisme på Film og TV

There has been a rise of character portrayals of persons with Autism or autistic traits in TV and film. In this quantitative study we analyse 26 films and TV-shows with characters with Autistic traits and how these relate to diagnostic criteria in DSM-5. Out of all 26 portrayals, 20 showed at least 10 of all 12 symptom items. Our main findings indicate that portrayals, although aligning closely to diagnostic criteria, run the risk of upholding and increasing stereotypes about the highly complex disorder. Researchers, clinicians and practitioners with knowledge of the disorder have a responsibility to nuance public understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorders.publishedVersio

Enhancing the Understanding of Clinically Meaningful Results: A Clinical Research Perspective

Published research often address aspects related to “statistical significance” but fail to address the clinical and practical importance and meaning of results. Our main objectives in this article are to investigate the merit of common measures of Effect Size in statistical research and to highlight the importance of the simple Relative Risk ratio. In this article we present data where we consider two widely utilized effect size measures (Cohen's d and Pearson's r) in relations to relative risk. We conclude that probability analyses of risk surpass the most commonly used statistical approach used in clinical trials today and should thus be the preferred compared to the misuse and misunderstanding of reporting for instance p-values alone.publishedVersio

Virtual reality and naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder

© 2021 The Author(s).Background: Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI) have been evaluated as the most promising interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder. In recent years, a growing body of literature suggests that technological advancements such as Virtual Reality (VR) are promising intervention tools. However, to the best of our knowledge no studies have combined evidence-based practice with such tools. Aim: This article aims to review the current literature combining NDBI and VR, and provide suggestions on merging NDBI-approaches with VR. Methods: This article is divided into two parts, where we first conduct a review mapping the research applying NDBI-approaches in VR. In the second part we argue how to apply the common features of NDBI into VR-technology. Results: Our findings show that no VR-studies explicitly rely on NDBI-approaches, but some utilize elements in their interventions that are considered to be common features to NDBI. Conclusions and implications: As the results show, to date, no VR-based studies have utilized NDBI in their intervention. We therefore, in the second part of this article, suggests ways to merge VR and NDBI and introduce the term Virtual Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (VNDBI). VNDBI is an innovative way of implementing NDBI which will contribute in making interventions more accessible in central as well as remote locations, while reducing unwanted variation between service sites. VNDBI will advance the possibilities of individually tailoring and widen the area of interventions. In addition, VNDBI can provide the field with new knowledge on effective components enhancing the accuracy in the intervention packages and thus move forward the research field and clinical practice.publishedVersio

Clinical Features of Children With Autism Who Passed 18-Month Screening

We examine birth-cohort trends behind recent changes in the prevalence of functional disability in the older population living in private households in the United Kingdom (UK). By using three different socio-economic indicators available in the nationally representative cross-sectional data on older individuals interviewed between 2002 and 2012 in the Family Resource Survey (FRS) (96,733 respondents), we investigate the extent to which the overall trends have been more favourable among more advantaged than disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. Compared to the cohort of people born in 1924, successive cohorts of older men have lower odds of having at least one functional difficulty (FD), whereas no significant trend was found for women. Among people with at least one FD, however, the number of disabilities increases for each successive cohort of older women (incidence rate ratio 1.027, 95% confidence interval 1.023 to 1.031, P<0.001) and men (incidence rate ratio 1.028, 95% confidence interval 1.024 to 1.033, P<0.001). By allowing interactions between birth cohort and SES indicators, a significant increasing cohort trend in the number of reported FDs was found among older men and women at lower SES, whereas an almost stable pattern was observed at high SES. Our results suggest that the overall slightly increasing birth-cohort trend in functional difficulties observed among current cohorts of older people in the UK hides underlying increases among low SES individuals and a relative small reduction among high SES individuals. Further studies are needed to understand the causes of such trends and to propose appropriate interventions. However, if the SES differentials in trends in FDs observed in the past continue, this could have important implications for the future costs of the public system of care and support for people with care needs

Clinical Features of Children With Autism Who Passed 18-Month Screening

OBJECTIVES: We compared sex-stratified developmental and temperamental profiles at 18 months in children screening negative for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) but later receiving diagnoses of ASD (false-negative group) versus those without later ASD diagnoses (true-negative group). METHODS: We included 68 197 screen-negative cases from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (49.1% girls). Children were screened by using the 6 critical items of the M-CHAT at 18 months. Groups were compared on domains of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and the Emotionality Activity Sociability Temperament Survey. RESULTS: Despite passing M-CHAT screening at 18 months, children in the false-negative group exhibited delays in social, communication, and motor skills compared with the true-negative group. Differences were more pronounced in girls. However, with regard to shyness, boys in the false-negative group were rated as more shy than their true-negative counterparts, but girls in the false-negative group were rated as less shy than their counterparts in the true-negative group. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to reveal that children who pass M-CHAT screening at 18 months and are later diagnosed with ASD exhibit delays in core social and communication areas as well as fine motor skills at 18 months. Differences appeared to be more pronounced in girls. With these findings, we underscore the need to enhance the understanding of early markers of ASD in boys and girls, as well as factors affecting parental report on early delays and abnormalities, to improve the sensitivity of screening instruments. </jats:sec