Sensory Profile of Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Tip-Toe Behavior: Results of an Observational Pilot Study

Atypical sensory processing is frequently reported in persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and it is one of the described diagnostic criteria for ASD. There is also mounting literature supporting the presence of motor impairments in individuals with ASD. Among these motor signs, tip-toe behavior (TTB) is a possible clinical finding, but its etiology is not clearly understood. It is suggested that TTB in ASD could be a sign of a sensory modulation impairment, but evidence is lacking and controversial. The main aim of this pilot study is to explore sensory features in a sample (4 females; 28 males) of children and adolescents with ASD (age range: 7–18). All participants also presented Intellectual Disability. Participants were divided in two groups, matched for age and gender, on the basis of the presence or absence of TTB (16 ASD TTB group vs. 16 ASD NO-TTB group) and then evaluated by using the Short Sensory Profile. We found that both ASD groups tend to significantly present sensory-related behavioral symptoms, but ASD TTB individuals more frequently showed the specific pattern of “under responsive/seeks sensation” than ASD NO-TTB individuals. These preliminary findings support that sensory-motor features might be taken into consideration when rehabilitation for TTB in children and adolescents with ASD is necessary

Additional file 1 of scMuffin: an R package to disentangle solid tumor heterogeneity by single-cell gene expression analysis

Additional file 1. Supplementary methods, Figure S1 and Table S1

Chemical Quest: general knowledge and popular culture quizzes about the elements in a board game for the class

Chemical Quest is an innovative trivia game based on the 102 elements of the periodic table from H to No, developed collaboratively by upper secondary school and university teachers with the aim of increasing the interest of young students (age 14–18) in chemistry. As part of the project, a software version of the game was successfully played in 24 classes. ‘Challenging, sometimes difficult, highly instructive, relaxing, captivating, ….’ are some of the positive comments by students and teachers. In addition, Chemical Quest was conceived to be adaptable since the rules can be modified and the cards can be selected to match the educational objective