Multi-informant evaluation in autism spectrum disorder: a review study.

In order to establish a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), assessment by different informants is required. Sometimes, however, there are certain discrepancies between evaluators. With the aim of shedding light on possible discrepancies between informants, this work includes an updated review of the literature to examine the degree of agreement between different informants regarding the characteristic symptomatology of ASD in children and adolescents (up to 17 years of age). A total of 20 studies were analyzed, in which the levels of correlation between the evaluations carried out by different informants were moderate or low. A large part of the studies included in this review found that a greater degree of agreement among informants was associated with lower symptoms, a higher IQ, and better results in cognitive and adaptive skills. Considering these results, it is necessary to continue investigating contextual aspects that may be conditioning the results of multi-informant evaluations

What Motivates Internet Users to Search for Asperger Syndrome and Autism on Google?

Social campaigns are carried out to promote autism spectrum disorder (ASD) awareness, normalization, and visibility. The internet helps to shape perceptions of Asperger syndrome and autism. In fact, these campaigns often coincide with the increase in searches for both diagnoses on Google. We have two study objectives: to use Google Trends to identify the annual time points from 2015 to 2019 with the highest Google search tra c in Spain for the terms 'autism' and 'Asperger', and to identify news and trending topics related to ASD that took place during the weeks with the highest number of Google searches for these terms. Google Trend, MyNews and Trendinalia were used to analyze the volume of searches and trending topics related to ASD. As a result, social marketing campaigns, social networks and the publication of news items act as powerful voices that can provide a realistic or sensationalist picture of the disorder. For this reason, we concluded that campaigns play an important role in the normalization of ASD, and that it is important for organizations concerned with the visibility and social inclusion of people with ASD to check the way ASD is portrayed through the internet, media, and social networks

Multiplicative problem-solving strategies used by students with autism spectrum disorder

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are found to use less efficient problem-solving strategies than their typically developing peers. This work examines the strategies used by 17 first-to-fourth graders with ASD without intellectual disability when solving multiplicative equal-groups problems. The participants mainly resorted to incorrect or low-level strategies, such as modelling. Within the first-to-third graders, all the strategies observed were low-level ones. Within the fourth graders, four of the eight students used operation strategies to solve the multiplication problem and only three to solve the partitive division one. The measurement-division problem was the most difficult for them to solve. These results highlight the difficulties faced by students with ASD when solving multiplicative problems and could guide future design of specific instruction.This work was supported by the research projects PID2019-105677RB-I00 (funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and SUBVTC-2022-0004, and by a "Concepción Arenal" grant (funded by the Gobierno de Cantabria, Spain

Today Is My Day: Analysis of the Awareness Campaigns' Impact on Functional Diversity in the Press, on Google, and on Twitter.

Every day, people with functional diversity face different kinds of difficulties that pose a barrier to their social inclusion. These difficulties often go unnoticed by most citizens. Social networks are a powerful tool to sensitize the population. With this objective, different organizations such as associations, federations, foundations, and other institutions have promoted campaigns through the celebration of world days for different types of functional diversity. This research aims to monitor and analyze the impact of these social campaigns in Spain, including Asperger's syndrome, rare diseases, Down syndrome, autism, hearing and visual impairment, cerebral palsy, dyslexia, ADHD, spina bifida, disability, and dyscalculia world days, between 2015 and 2020. (2) The impact of each campaign on the press, Google, and Twitter has been analyzed using: MyNews, Google Trends, and Trendinalia. (3) The results suggest a close relationship between the impact on the number of pieces of news generated in the press, the searches on Google, and the hashtags in high positions on Twitter. (4) The campaigns with the greatest levels of success are those whose diagnoses involve greater difficulties in adaptive behavior. These results can provide some practical implications for future campaigns

Teachers' Knowledge Regarding Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD): A Systematic Review

The increasing number of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in mainstream education environments require teachers to know how to identify their needs, being capable to adapt their education processes and make their inclusion easier. The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review about teachers' knowledge of ASD, including teachers from any stage and specialization. The research has been conducted from four databases (Web of Science, Scopus, PsycInfo and Google Scholar) during the period of 2015-2020. In total, 25 articles were analyzed. The results show that, in general, teachers' knowledge of ASD is poor. It depends on the education stage (being higher in early childhood teachers and in university professors), prior training and possible prior contact with students with ASD

Teachers Attitudes toward Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review

Teachers' attitudes toward the inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in mainstream schools influence daily educational practices. Depending on whether these attitudes are favorable or not, inclusive education could be fully or partially reached. This systematic review aims to analyze teachers' attitudes toward ASD and to determine the variables that moderate them. (2) We conducted a systematic review in WoS, Scopus, and PsycINFO databases, obtaining an amount of 16 studies included in this review. (3) The results revealed inconclusive levels in teachers' attitudes: Some of the teachers reported positive attitudes, some neutral, and some negative. (4) Among the variables that probably moderate attitudes, we found knowledge, experience, training, and gender. Future research and implications for pre‐service and in‐service teachers, school administrators, and policy makers are suggested

Interventions for Improving Reading Comprehension in Children with ASD: A Systematic Review.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have comorbid learning difficulties in reading comprehension, an essential skill in accessing any area of the curriculum. The aim of this systematic review is to analyze the effectiveness of reading comprehension interventions in students with ASD. We conducted a search for scientific articles published from 2000 to 2019 using the keyword 'autis*' in combination with the terms 'reading comprehension' and 'intervention' or 'instruction' in Psyc Info and Scopus databases. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 25 studies were selected. The content analysis of these studies shows that when specific interventions are carried out, students with ASD are able to take advantage of the instruction they receive and compensate for difficulties. Understanding inferences and the main idea of the text are the most common reading comprehension topics, and direct instruction is the most widely-used intervention method in the reviewed studies. Nonetheless, it must be kept in mind that some of the reviews do not specify which sub-processes are addressed in the intervention. Future work should include this aspect, consider the importance of the interventions being implemented by teachers, and take specific aspects of ICT into account that can contribute to improving reading comprehension

What intervention strategies work in the education of children with autism spectrum disorder? A systematic review in the scientific literature

Raúl Tárraga-Mínguez. Universitat de ValènciaPilar Sanz-Cervera. Universitat de ValènciaRecepción: 17.09.2018 | Aceptado: 30.09.2018Correspondencia a través de ORCID: Raúl Tárraga - 0000-0002-4458-5763La creciente escolarización de estudiantes con trastorno del espectro autista (TEA) en entornos inclusivos requiere que los profesionales, ya no solo especialistas en el ámbito de la educación especial, sino también los maestros generalistas, conozcan procedimientos de intervención empíricamente efectivos para poder trabajar con este tipo de alumnado. Para ello, en el presenta trabajo se incluye una revisión de estudios de metaanálisis o de revisión cualitativa, que han analizado diferentes tipos de intervención educativa con estudiantes con TEA. Las conclusiones obtenidas indican que es necesario que los resultados sean robustos en diferentes estudios y que cumplan con los estándares propuestos por el Council of Exceptional Children. En concreto, se ha obtenido que las intervenciones basadas en análisis conductual aplicado parecen cumplir con estos estándares, además de ofrecer resultados positivos. También se considera el papel de las familias como agentes de intervención imprescindibles para poder transferir los resultados a la vida diaria de los niños con TEA. Esta revisión de la literatura pretende proporcionar algunas certezas que contribuyan a mejorar la práctica docente de los profesionales que intervienen con niños con TEA, además de incluir algunas cuestiones que invitan a la reflexión sobre la eficacia de las diferentes intervenciones.Abstract: The increasing schooling of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in inclusive settings requires that professionals, not only specialists in the field of special education, but also regular teachers, know empirically effective intervention procedures to be able to work with this type of students. To do this, this paper presents a review of meta-analysis studies or qualitative reviews, which have analyzed different types of educational interventions with students with ASD. The conclusions obtained indicate that it is necessary that the results will be robust in different studies and that they meet with the standards proposed by The Council of Exceptional Children. In particular, it has been obtained that interventions based on applied behavioral analysis seem to meet with these standards, in addition to offering positive results. The role of families as essential intervention agents to transfer the results to the daily life of children with ASD is also considered. This literature review aims to provide some certainties that contribute to improving the teaching experience of professionals involved with children with ASD, in addition to including some issues that invite reflection on the effectiveness of the different interventions.Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Psicología Social. Proyecto de Innovación Docente ReiDoCre

Teachers' Attitudes toward Educational Inclusion in Spain: A Systematic Review.

Inclusive education is currently one of the main aspirations of the Spanish educational system and one of the key aspects for its achievement is teachers' attitudes toward educational inclusion. In recent years, many studies worldwide have analyzed this aspect, but so far, any systematic review has specifically focused on the Spanish educational framework. For this reason, the purpose of this paper is to review the studies published from 2010 to 2019 whose aim was to analyze teachers' attitudes towards educational inclusion in Spain. After a literature search in four different databases (PsycInfo, ERIC, Dialnet Plus, and Google Scholar), 34 studies were selected and reviewed. The results suggest that Spanish teachers' attitudes toward educational inclusion are generally positive, although in some cases they are ambiguous. Teachers' attitudes are mainly influenced by the amount of training and their contact or not with students with special educational needs. The discussion highlights that more studies with a greater methodological diversity are required in order to provide a complete analysis of teachers' attitudes toward inclusion and that teacher training is one of the best tools to generate positive attitudes