Developing a user-informed training package for a mentoring programme for people on the autism spectrum

The National Audit Office’s (2009) report ‘Supporting People with Autism through Adulthood’ highlighted the dearth of services for adults on the autism spectrum, and the negative impact this has on this group. It reported that only 12% of adults on the autism spectrum were in full-time paid employment and that 70% had additional mental health problems. At the 2007 forum ‘Successful Futures for Adults with Autism’, people on the autism spectrum were asked to share their thoughts on existing models of support and how they would like support to be. The participants highlighted difficulties they experienced with navigating social life. There was a common feeling that existing models of support for adults on the autism spectrum, such as befriending, were not helpful. Many said that they would benefit from time-limited, goal-oriented, specialised mentoring. Participants identified they would benefit from support with managing practical and financial affairs; accessing education/training opportunities; securing and maintaining employment; and maintaining good physical and mental health. As a result of this, the Research Autism Mentoring Project was instigated with the aim of developing a user-informed and evidence-based mentoring service for adults on the autism spectrum

The development and evaluation of a mentor training programme for those working with autistic adults

This paper evaluates the training developed for potential mentors wanting to work with autistic adults to enable them to work towards their chosen goals. It then gives some initial findings of how the mentoring worked in practice. Research Autism provided the funding to offer a one day training event free to adults who expressed a wish to work as a mentor. Fifty people were trained and 45 of these completed a feedback form. This provided excellent information on the content and delivery. The most highly rated aspect of the training was the fact the much of the content was developed and delivered by autistic adults. The most often cited way to enhance the training would to extend this to two days as a great deal was packed into the day. Not all those who attended the training went on to act as mentors but it was felt they would have gained from receiving the training. It was felt that short-term, goal oriented mentoring was likely to be the most effective. There is little data presented on the goals the mentors worked on and with what degree of success as that is the subject of future papers. Instead the focus was on the training offered. It came to light that some of the mentors who did start to work with autistic adults were not reliable and so future training will stress the importance of this. A key point throughout the paper is the need to involve autistic individuals in training and interventions designed for autistic people. Such work is slowly developing and becoming more common and this paper adds to the literature on this

Does ‘mentoring’ offer effective support to autistic adults?: a mixed methods pilot study

The Research Autism Cygnet Mentoring project was a two-year pilot study, completed in 2016, which aimed to develop, trial and evaluate a mentoring scheme designed with input from autistic people, their families and supporters. The mentoring scheme involved 12 matched pairs (mentor/mentee) meeting once per week for one hour, over a six month period. All mentors attended a training day, led by the principles of Personal Construct Theory (PCT) and an emancipatory research ethos. The project and training involved significant involvement of autistic people in both its design and delivery. Participants on the autism spectrum found their mentoring experience very helpful in enabling them to progress toward self-identified goals, and mentees felt empowered by the person-centred ethos and methods employed on the project. However, a number of aspects of the mentoring project have been identified for requiring further investigation, including: caution over offering mentoring without formal structures, boundary setting, supervision, flexibility, and the matching of mentees with mentors. The project has highlighted the potential benefits of time-limited goal-orientated mentoring and the negligible evidence base underpinning current mentoring practice with adults on the autism spectrum. In order for the project to realise its emancipatory aim, there is a need for a large-scale quantitative study and a health-economics analysis to provide the necessary evidence base for mentoring to be recommended as a cost-effective intervention with clear benefits for individual wellbeing

Executive Summary: Research Autism Cygnet Mentoring Project

The support requirements of intellectually able adults with autism can be just as nuanced as those for people who have significant learning difficulties/disabilities. Intellectual ability can often mask this, leaving individuals without the backup they require in order to thrive. At the 2007 forum ‘Successful Futures for Adults with Autism’ participants’ highlighted challenges around navigating social life, managing practical and financial affairs, accessing education and training opportunities, securing and maintaining employment, and good physical and mental health. Participants deemed existing models of support, often involving being part of a large group, stressful and inadequate. Many expressed preference for a one-to-one relationship (which could then be broadened over time), based on time-limited goal-oriented, specialist mentoring or life coaching

Quick, accurate, smart: 3D computer vision technology helps assessing confined animals' behaviour

Mankind directly controls the environment and lifestyles of several domestic species for purposes ranging from production and research to conservation and companionship. These environments and lifestyles may not offer these animals the best quality of life. Behaviour is a direct reflection of how the animal is coping with its environment. Behavioural indicators are thus among the preferred parameters to assess welfare. However, behavioural recording (usually from video) can be very time consuming and the accuracy and reliability of the output rely on the experience and background of the observers. The outburst of new video technology and computer image processing gives the basis for promising solutions. In this pilot study, we present a new prototype software able to automatically infer the behaviour of dogs housed in kennels from 3D visual data and through structured machine learning frameworks. Depth information acquired through 3D features, body part detection and training are the key elements that allow the machine to recognise postures, trajectories inside the kennel and patterns of movement that can be later labelled at convenience. The main innovation of the software is its ability to automatically cluster frequently observed temporal patterns of movement without any pre-set ethogram. Conversely, when common patterns are defined through training, a deviation from normal behaviour in time or between individuals could be assessed. The software accuracy in correctly detecting the dogs' behaviour was checked through a validation process. An automatic behaviour recognition system, independent from human subjectivity, could add scientific knowledge on animals' quality of life in confinement as well as saving time and resources. This 3D framework was designed to be invariant to the dog's shape and size and could be extended to farm, laboratory and zoo quadrupeds in artificial housing. The computer vision technique applied to this software is innovative in non-human animal behaviour science. Further improvements and validation are needed, and future applications and limitations are discussed.</p

The Maintenance of Traditions in Marmosets: Individual Habit, Not Social Conformity? A Field Experiment

Social conformity is a cornerstone of human culture because it accelerates and maintains the spread of behaviour within a group. Few empirical studies have investigated the role of social conformity in the maintenance of traditions despite an increasing body of literature on the formation of behavioural patterns in non-human animals. The current report presents a field experiment with free-ranging marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) which investigated whether social conformity is necessary for the maintenance of behavioural patterns within groups or whether individual effects such as habit formation would suffice.Using a two-action apparatus, we established alternative behavioural patterns in six family groups composed of 36 individuals. These groups experienced only one technique during a training phase and were thereafter tested with two techniques available. The monkeys reliably maintained the trained method over a period of three weeks, despite discovering the alternative technique. Three additional groups were given the same number of sessions, but those 21 individuals could freely choose the method to obtain a reward. In these control groups, an overall bias towards one of the two methods was observed, but animals with a different preference did not adjust towards the group norm. Thirteen of the fifteen animals that discovered both techniques remained with the action with which they were initially successful, independent of the group preference and the type of action (Binomial test: exp. proportion: 0.5, p<0.01).The results indicate that the maintenance of behavioural patterns within groups 1) could be explained by the first rewarded manipulation and subsequent habit formation and 2) do not require social conformity as a mechanism. After an initial spread of a behaviour throughout a group, this mechanism may lead to a superficial appearance of conformity without the involvement of such a socially and cognitively complex mechanism. This is the first time that such an experiment has been conducted with free-ranging primates

Gaze sensitivity: function and mechanisms from sensory and cognitive perspectives

Sensitivity to the gaze of other individuals has long been a primary focus in sociocognitive research on humans and other animals. Information about where others are looking may often be of adaptive value in social interactions and predator avoidance, but studies across a range of taxa indicate there are substantial differences in the extent to which animals obtain and use information about other individuals' gaze direction. As the literature expands, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make comparisons across taxa as experiments adopt and adjust different methodologies to account for differences between species in their socioecology, sensory systems and possibly also their underlying cognitive mechanisms. Furthermore, as more species are found to exhibit gaze sensitivity, more terminology arises to describe the behaviours. To clarify the field, we propose a restricted nomenclature that defines gaze sensitivity in terms of observable behaviour, independent of the underlying mechanisms. This is particularly useful in nonhuman animal studies where cognitive interpretations are ambiguous. We then describe how socioecological factors may influence whether species will attend to gaze cues, and suggest links between ultimate factors and proximate mechanisms such as cognition and perception. In particular, we argue that variation in sensory systems, such as retinal specializations and the position of the eyes, will determine whether gaze cues (e.g. head movement) are perceivable during visual fixation. We end by making methodological recommendations on how to apply these variations in socioecology and visual systems to advance the field of gaze research

Applied neurophysiology of the horse; implications for training, husbandry and welfare

Understanding the neural circuits underlying equine behaviour has the potential to help optimise strategies of husbandry and training. This review discusses two areas of neurophysiological research in a range of species and relates this information to the horse. The first discussion focuses on mechanisms of learning and motivation and assesses how this information can be applied to improve the training of the horse. The second concerns the identification of the equine neurophysiological phenotype, through behavioural and genetic probes, as a way of improving strategies for optimal equine husbandry and training success. The review finishes by identifying directions for future research with an emphasis on how neurophysiological systems (and thus behaviour) can be modified through strategic husbandry. This review highlights how a neurophysioloigical understanding of horse behaviour can play an important role in attaining the primary objectives of equitation science as well as improving the welfare of the hors