Comparison of Neurological Activation Patterns of Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders When Verbally Responding to a Pragmatic Task

This study examined the neurological activation of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) while performing a pragmatic judgment task. In this study, children between the ages of 9 and 15 years responded to questions regarding a social situation, taken from the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language, while concurrently having their brain activity measured. We targeted four brain regions for analysis: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), superior temporal gyrus (STG), and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Ten children with ASD and 20 typically developing (TD) children participated. Matching occurred in a bracketing manner with each child in the ASD group being matched to two control children to account for natural variability. Neuroimgaging was conducted utilizing functional Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). Oxygenated and deoxygenated blood concentration levels were measured through Near‐Infrared light cap with 44 channels. The cap was placed over frontal lobe and the left lateral cortex. The placement was spatially registered using the Polhemus. Analysis indicated that children in the ASD group performed significantly poorer than their controls on the pragmatic judgment task. Mixed repeated measures analysis of variance of neurological data indicated that the children with ASD had lower concentration levels of oxygenated and total hemoglobin across the four regions. There were significantly higher concentration levels for oxygenated and total hemoglobin in the STG. Analysis of correct and incorrect responses revealed significantly more activation in the OFC when responses were correct. Additionally, there was a significant interaction of Accuracy and Group in left DLPFC. Children with ASD presented higher oxygenated hemoglobin concentration values when responding correctly, while children in the control group presented higher oxygenated hemoglobin concentration values for the incorrect items. Statistical Parametric Mapping was performed for each triad to assess the diffusion of neural activation across the frontal cortex and the left lateral cortex. Individual comparisons revealed that 7 out of 10 children with ASD demonstrated patterns consistent with more diffuse brain activation than their TD controls. Findings from this study suggest that an fNIRS study can provide important information about the level and diffusion of neural processing of verbal children and adolescents with ASD

Narrative Intervention for Children with Autism: Targeting Core Symptoms

The purpose of this study was to test whether a fully developed program designed to teach narrative language skills was effective in increasing narrative proficiency, and knowledge of mental state and causal language for 5 children with high functioning autism (ASD). Children between the ages of 8-12 participated in a multiple-baseline across participants, single subject design study. Children were asked to retell and create stories for a baseline period and weekly during the intervention period. Children begin intervention in a staggered fashion as they demonstrated stable baselines and/or stable improvement in oral narratives. Time spent in intervention ranged from 19-32, 45-minute individual sessions. Children demonstrated clear, observable gains in narrative proficiency and knowledge of mental state and causal language. Individual variability was observed and is discussed

Motor and verbal perspective taking in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulty communicating with others nonverbally, via mechanisms such as hand gestures, eye contact and facial expression. Individuals with ASD also have marked deficits in planning future actions (Hughes, 1996), which might contribute to impairments in non-verbal communication. Perspective taking is typically assessed using verbal scenarios whereby the participant imagines how an actor would interact in a social situation (e.g., Sally Anne task; BaronCohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985). Method: The current project evaluated motor perspective taking in five children with ASD (8–11 years old) as they participated in a narrative intervention program over the course of about 16 weeks. The goal of the motor perspective-taking task was to facilitate the action of an experimenter either hammering with a tool or putting it away. Results: Initially, children withASD facilitated the experimenter’s action less than neurotypical control children. As the narrative intervention progressed, children with ASD exhibited increased motor facilitation that paralleled their increased use of mental state and causal language, indicating a link between verbal and motor perspective taking. Conclusions: Motoric perspective taking provides an additional way to assess understanding and communication in children with ASD and may be a valuable tool for both early assessment and diagnosis of children with AS

Motor and verbal perspective taking in children with autism spectrum disorder: Changes in social interaction with people and tools

Background Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulty communicating with others nonverbally, via mechanisms such as hand gestures, eye contact and facial expression. Individuals with ASD also have marked deficits in planning future actions (Hughes, 1996), which might contribute to impairments in non-verbal communication. Perspective taking is typically assessed using verbal scenarios whereby the participant imagines how an actor would interact in a social situation (e.g., Sally Anne task; Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985). Method The current project evaluated motor perspective taking in five children with ASD (8–11 years old) as they participated in a narrative intervention program over the course of about 16 weeks. The goal of the motor perspective-taking task was to facilitate the action of an experimenter either hammering with a tool or putting it away. Results Initially, children with ASD facilitated the experimenter’s action less than neurotypical control children. As the narrative intervention progressed, children with ASD exhibited increased motor facilitation that paralleled their increased use of mental state and causal language, indicating a link between verbal and motor perspective taking. Conclusions Motoric perspective taking provides an additional way to assess understanding and communication in children with ASD and may be a valuable tool for both early assessment and diagnosis of children with ASD

Narrative Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine whether a narrative intervention program that targeted the use of mental state and causal language resulted in positive gains in narrative production for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Method: Five children (2 girls and 3 boys) who had been diagnosed with ASD participated in the study. Children ranged in age from 8 to 12 years and were recruited through an autism clinic. Intervention was provided for two 50-min individual sessions per week for a total of 21–33 sessions (depending on the student). Children’s spontaneous stories, collected weekly, were analyzed for overall story complexity, story structure, and the use of mental state and causal language. Following a multiple-baseline across-participants design, data were collected for lagged baseline and intervention phases over a 6-month period. Results: All of the children made gains on all 3 measures of narration after participating in the instruction, with clear changes in level for all 5 children and changes in trend for 4 of the 5 children. The gains were maintained after intervention was discontinued. Conclusion: The results demonstrate the efficacy of the 3-phase narrative instruction program for improving the fictional narration abilities of children with ASD