Mothers’ Reflections on Cat Ownership for a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder During COVID-19

Animal- assisted interventions are increasingly used as a complementary therapy in clinical practice to support people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with promising outcomes compared to traditional therapies. Less is understood about the therapeutic benefits of more accessible and affordable small pet ownership for families with a child with ASD, alongside the pets’ welfare living in these homes. This study explored the experiences of cat ownership for young people with ASD from the perspective of their mothers during a time of transition generated by COVID-19. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six mothers and transcripts analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Three themes were identified: “Sensory benefits with heightened emotions,” “Special bond between cat and child,” and “Learning through the relationship.” The results highlighted how cat ownership benefited cat and child, encouraging empathy and responsibility skills in children with ASD through the development of a reciprocated relationship between child and cat, while also providing a nurturing home environment for the cats in this study. The relationship and physical presence of each other provided sensory stimulation, a calming influence, and companionship for the children. In conclusion, cats with a sociable and easygoing temperament demonstrated multiple therapeutic benefits for children with ASD and should be considered as an accessible complementary home- based therapy for caregivers who are able to offer a nurturing home to a cat. Cats have the potential to play an important role in a family’s life, particularly for parents managing additional demands and whose children experience sensory overload while outside. Given the importance of cat ownership for children with ASD in this study, this could enhance engagement with clinical practitioners through a shared cat-focused dialogue benefiting the wider development and well- being of children with ASD and their families

Coloured Filters Enhance the Visual Perception of Social Cues in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Coloured filters have been found to reduce visual distortion of text in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We investigated the effect of the overlays on the “mind in the eye” task in children with ASD and controls matched for age, gender, and nonverbal IQ. Children were shown photographs of the periocular region of various faces and were asked to judge which emotion was being expressed in the eyes. In children with ASD, the perception of the emotion was significantly improved when the photograph was covered by a coloured overlay. The improvement was significantly greater than in the controls, who showed no significant effect of the overlay. A perceptual impairment may contribute to the social difficulties shown in ASD

The role of sensory sensitivity in predicting food selectivity and food preferences in children with Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by involuntary, repetitive and non-rhythmic motor and vocal tics. Despite suggestion that diet may affect tics, and the substantial research into children's diet, eating behaviours and sensory processing in comorbid disorders (e.g. ASD), research in TS is lacking. The present study examined differences between children with and without TS in parental reports of child selective eating, food preferences and sensitivity, and aimed to examine sensory sensitivity as a predictor of food selectivity outcomes in children with and without TS. Thirty caregivers of children with TS (M = 10 years 8 months [SD = 2.40]) and the caregivers of 30 age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children (M = 9 years 9 months [SD = 2.50]) completed the following measures online: Short Sensory Profile, Food Preference Questionnaire for Children, Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire. Children with TS were reported to have significantly higher levels of food selectivity and sensory sensitivity, and less preference for fruit and vegetables than TD children. Importantly, while higher levels of overall sensory sensitivity predicted eating outcomes in the TS group, only sensitivity to taste/smell was found to be a predictor of food selectivity and preference for vegetables for both groups of children. The findings suggest that efforts to address food selectivity in children with TS may be enhanced by including strategies that address atypical sensory processing

An Investigation of Behavioural and Self-Reported Cognitive Empathy Deficits in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders and Adolescents With Behavioural Difficulties

© 2021 Vilas, Reniers and Ludlow. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Deficits in empathy have been considered hallmarks in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) but are also considered to underlie antisocial behaviour associated with individuals with callous unemotional traits (CU). Research has suggested that individuals with autism spectrum disorders show more difficulties with cognitive empathy, and that individuals diagnosed with behaviours difficulties, characterised by CU traits and antisocial behaviour, demonstrate low affective empathy. In the current manuscript we present findings of two studies. The first study describes the validation of a new stimulus set developed for the empathic accuracy task, focused on its cognitive component. The second study compares the performance of 27 adolescents with ASD, 27 age matched typically developing adolescents and 17 adolescents with behavioural difficulties on the empathic accuracy task and a self-report measure of empathy. While, no differences were observed between the three groups across the empathy accuracy task, the adolescents with ASD and CD showed deficits in their cognitive empathy across the self-report measure. Adolescents with ASD showed lower scores in particularly their perspective taking abilities, whereas the adolescences with behavioural difficulties showed more difficulties with their online simulation. No differences in self-reported affective empathy across the three groups were observed. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Case Report: Color as a Therapeutic Intervention

Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Confronting the language barrier: theory of mind in deaf children

The current study addressed deaf children's Theory of Mind (ToM) development as measured by a battery of first- and second-order belief tasks. Both a chronological age-matched control group and a younger group of pre-school aged hearing children were compared to a group of deaf children born to hearing parents. A hearing native signer enacted each of the tasks, which were pre-recorded in video clips in English (SSE), British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English, in order to consider all communication preferences of the deaf children. Results revealed no differences in performance between the deaf and the young hearing children. However, despite the inclusion of ToM tasks based on their preferred mode of communication, the deaf children performed significantly worse at the unexpected-content and second-order belief task compared with their age-matched controls. These findings imply a delay rather than a deficit in ToM in deaf children that could be attributed to limited opportunities to converse and overhear conversations about mental states

The relationship between sensory sensitivity, food fussiness and food preferences in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Heightened sensitivity to sensory information has been associated with food fussiness in both atypical and typical development. Despite food fussiness and sensory dysfunction being reported as common concerns for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, the relationship that exists between them, and whether they differ between disorders, has yet to be established. The current study aimed to examine sensory sensitivity as a predictor of food fussiness in three different neurodevelopmental disorders, whilst controlling for comorbidity amongst these disorders. Ninety-eight caregivers of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; n = 17), Tourette Syndrome (TS; n = 27), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; n = 27), and typical development (TD; n = 27) were compared using parental reports of child food fussiness, food preferences and sensory sensitivity. Children with neurodevelopmental disorders were reported to have significantly higher levels of both food fussiness and sensory sensitivity, with children with ASD and TS also showing significantly less preference for fruit than children with TD. Importantly, higher levels of taste/smell sensitivity predicted food fussiness for all four groups of children. In addition, taste/smell sensitivity fully mediated the differences in food fussiness between each group of neurodevelopmental disorders compared to the TD group. The findings highlight that food fussiness is similar across these neurodevelopmental disorders despite accounting for comorbidity, and that greater sensitivity to taste/smell may explain why children with neurodevelopmental disorders are more likely to be fussy eaters

Editorial: Recent advances in understanding Tourette syndrome, tic disorders and functional tics

© 2023 Ludlow, Anderson, Hedderly, Black and Conelea. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Peer reviewe

Understanding the impact of diet and nutrition on symptoms of Tourette Syndrome: A Scoping Review

This document is the accepted manuscript version. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Journal of Child Health Care, December 2017, published by SAGE Publishing, doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1367493517748373.Anecdotal reports frequently suggest some dietary involvement in the maintenance of tics in children with Tourette syndrome (TS). This scoping review aimed to (1) understand the possible influence of diet as a trigger of tics and (2) map out the existing studies documenting dietary interventions in children with TS. Current evidence suggests no single diet to benefit individuals with TS. However, reports from parents of children with TS suggest that certain allergens in food may exacerbate tic-related symptoms. For example, an increase in tics has been related to the consumption of caffeine and refined sugar. Moreover, oligoantigenic diets and sugar-free diets have been identified as significantly reducing tics. More research is urgently needed to develop more accurate guidance for parents and children with TS, as many have reported using dietary and nutritional supplements, despite the lack of evidence detailing any benefits, side effects and recommended doses.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The role of motion and intensity in deaf children’s recognition of real human facial expressions of emotion

© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.There is substantial evidence to suggest that deafness is associated with delays in emotion understanding, which has been attributed to delays in language acquisition and opportunities to converse. However, studies addressing the ability to recognise facial expressions of emotion have produced equivocal findings. The two experiments presented here attempt to clarify emotion recognition in deaf children by considering two aspects: the role of motion and the role of intensity in deaf children’s emotion recognition. In Study 1, 26 deaf children were compared to 26 age-matched hearing controls on a computerised facial emotion recognition task involving static and dynamic expressions of 6 emotions. Eighteen of the deaf and 18 age-matched hearing controls additionally took part in Study 2, involving the presentation of the same 6 emotions at varying intensities. Study 1 showed that deaf children’s emotion recognition was better in the dynamic rather than static condition, whereas the hearing children showed no difference in performance between the two conditions. In Study 2, the deaf children performed no differently from the hearing controls, showing improved recognition rates with increasing rates of intensity. With the exception of disgust, no differences in individual emotions were found. These findings highlight the importance of using ecologically valid stimuli to assess emotion recognition.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio