Instructional Contexts for Adolescents with Autism: Impact of Educational Setting

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The published version can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022466910366480The present study describes the instructional contexts and activities of adolescents with autism in inclusive and self-contained settings for mathematics and language arts instruction using a descriptive statistics design. In the study, 15 adolescents with autism, and 30 peers of these students, participated. All students were observed over the school year in 50-min intervals each during math and language arts instruction to document student participation in learning situations as well as learning partners, curriculum usage, and instructional formats for students with and without autism in different education settings. Findings indicate between-group differences for those adolescents participating in inclusive and self-contained settings, notably the amount of time spent on breaks and engaged in curricular activities, although differences between students with autism and their peers were not significant. Implications and future directions are discussed

Culture and Parenting: A Guide for Delivering Parenting Curriculums to Diverse Families

As the population becomes increasingly diverse, family support programs must be prepared to address diversity in parenting practices. The University of California Families with Young Children Workgroup conducted a review of parenting curriculums and interviewed collaborators to determine how to best address this need. As a result, Culture and Parenting: A Guide for Delivering Parenting Curriculums to Diverse Families was developed to supplement commonly used parenting curriculums. The guide encourages educators and practitioners to evaluate their work with families by delivering research-based information on how culture influences parenting goals and tips for educators to consider when working with diverse audiences

Individual Education Plan Goals and Services for Adolescents With Autism: Impact of Age and Educational Setting

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The published version can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022466908329825The purpose of this study is to describe the educational programs for adolescents with autism (age 12—16 years) in inclusion and noninclusion settings as reflected in their Individual Education Plan (IEP) goals, services, and curricular adaptations. Students who were included in general education math and language arts instruction had fewer overall IEP goals, but goals focused more on applied skill development, whereas students in noninclusion had goals addressing primarily rote and procedural skills. For students in both groups, all IEP goals were derived from kindergarten through fourth-grade standards. Likewise, for students in both groups, most IEP goals addressed core symptoms of autism (e.g., communication skills) as opposed to academic skill development, along with fewer overall goals and more curricular adaptations as students entered adolescence. Implications for practitioners are discussed

Economic and Demographic Factors Impacting Placement of Students with Autism

Educational placement of students with autism is often associated with child factors, such as IQ and communication skills. However, variability in placement patterns across states suggests that other factors are at play. This study used hierarchical cluster analysis techniques to identify demographic, economic, and educational covariates associated with placement patterns across states in highly inclusive, moderately inclusive, moderately restrictive, and highly restrictive clusters. Findings indicate that highly inclusive states are more rural, have more adults with high school diplomas, and more White citizens compared to other clusters. States that are highly restrictive were largely less economically and racially privileged. These findings suggest an inequitable access to the least restrictive environment for students with autism. Implications of these findings are included

Joint Attention in Preschool Children: Is it a Meaningful Measure?

Abstract The goal of this study was to evaluate the degree to which measuring joint attention an aspect of social attention, is meaningful for the learning and development of preschool children. Joint attention refers to the executive capacity to coordinate visual attention with another person. This pivotal skill begins to develop from 6 to 18 months of age and continues to be refined and coordinated throughout individual developmental trajectories. In this study joint attention was measured in forty-three 4 to 5-year-olds asked to coordinate their attention with that of an unfamiliar adult during a social attention word learning task. The results revealed that there were individual differences in joint attention for children in this age group which suggests that this may be a meaningful construct to measure. These data contribute to a small but growing literature on the potential utility of joint attention theory and measurement in preschool aged children to further our understanding of social attention coordination in classroom contexts

Culture and Parenting: A Guide for Delivering Parenting Curriculums to Diverse Families

As the population becomes increasingly diverse, family support programs must be prepared to address diversity in parenting practices. The University of California Families with Young Children Workgroup conducted a review of parenting curriculums and interviewed collaborators to determine how to best address this need. As a result, Culture and Parenting: A Guide for Delivering Parenting Curriculums to Diverse Families was developed to supplement commonly used parenting curriculums. The guide encourages educators and practitioners to evaluate their work with families by delivering research-based information on how culture influences parenting goals and tips for educators to consider when working with diverse audiences

Grammatical Language Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Exploring Language Phenotypes Beyond Standardized Testing.

Linguistic and cognitive abilities manifest huge heterogeneity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some children present with commensurate language and cognitive abilities, while others show more variable patterns of development. Using spontaneous language samples, we investigate the presence and extent of grammatical language impairment in a heterogeneous sample of children with ASD. Findings from our sample suggest that children with ASD can be categorized into three meaningful subgroups: those with normal language, those with marked difficulty in grammatical production but relatively intact vocabulary, and those with more globally low language abilities. These findings support the use of sensitive assessment measures to evaluate language in autism, as well as the utility of within-disorder comparisons, in order to comprehensively define the various cognitive and linguistic phenotypes in this heterogeneous disorder

Grammatical Language Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Exploring Language Phenotypes Beyond Standardized Testing

Linguistic and cognitive abilities manifest huge heterogeneity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some children present with commensurate language and cognitive abilities, while others show more variable patterns of development. Using spontaneous language samples, we investigate the presence and extent of grammatical language impairment in a heterogeneous sample of children with ASD. Findings from our sample suggest that children with ASD can be categorized into three meaningful subgroups: those with normal language, those with marked difficulty in grammatical production but relatively intact vocabulary, and those with more globally low language abilities. These findings support the use of sensitive assessment measures to evaluate language in autism, as well as the utility of within-disorder comparisons, in order to comprehensively define the various cognitive and linguistic phenotypes in this heterogeneous disorder