Taking balance measurement out of the laboratory and into the home: discriminatory capability of novel centre of pressure measurement in fallers and non-fallers

We investigated three methods for estimating centre of pressure excursions, as measured using a portable pressure sensor matrix, in order to deploy similar technology into the homes of older adults for longitudinal monitoring of postural control and falls risk. We explored the utility of these three methods as markers of falls risk in a cohort of 120 community dwelling older adults with and without a history of falls (65 fallers, 55 non-fallers). A number of standard quantitative balance parameters were derived using each centre of pressure estimation method. Rank sum tests were used to test for significant differences between fallers and non-fallers while intra-class correlation coefficients were also calculated to determine the reliability of each method. A method based on estimating the changes in the magnitude of pressure exerted on the pressure sensor matrix was found to be the most reliable and discriminative. Our future work will implement this method for home-based balance measurement

Human-Centered Design with Autistic University Students: Interface, Interaction and Information Preferences

This paper reports on a study aimed at creating an online support toolkit for young autistic people to navigate the transition from school to university, thereby empowering this group in developing their full potential. It is part of the Autism&Uni project, a European-funded initiative to widen access to Higher Education for students on the autism spectrum. Our particular focus is on the Human-Computer Interaction elements of the toolkit, namely the visual design of the interface, the nature of interactions and navigation, and the information architecture. Past research in this area tended to focus on autistic children, often with learning difficulties, and their preferences in terms of interface and interaction design. Our research revealed that the preferences of young autistic adults who are academically competent and articulate, differ considerably from those of autistic children. Key findings are that text is preferred over visual material; visual design should be minimal; content ought to be organized in a logical and hierarchical manner; the tone of language ought to be genuine yet not too negative or patronizing; and images or video are only useful if they illustrate places or people, in other words information that cannot easily be conveyed in other ways

Drawing firmer conclusions: autistic children show no evidence of a local processing bias in a controlled copying task

Drawing tasks are frequently used to test competing theories of visuospatial skills in autism. Yet, methodological differences between studies have led to inconsistent findings. To distinguish between accounts based on local bias or global deficit, we present a simple task that has previously revealed dissociable local/global impairments in neuropsychological patients. Autistic and typical children copied corner elements, arranged in a square configuration. Grouping cues were manipulated to test whether global properties affected the accuracy of reproduction. All children were similarly affected by these manipulations. There was no group difference in the reproduction of local elements, although global accuracy was negatively related to better local processing for autistic children. These data speak against influential theories of visuospatial differences in autism

Understanding executive function in young autistic people: moving from the lab to the everyday

A wealth of empirical research has focused on the executive function (EF) ability of autistic people. This research initially focused predominantly on establishing whether EF difficulties could be causal to the development of autistic traits. More recently, the focus has been on establishing the role of EF in explaining the life chances of autistic people. In this thesis, I aimed to test whether the conclusions drawn from traditional laboratory-based EF assessments have a bearing on the everyday lives of autistic young people. To address this aim, In Chapter 2, I examined whether the group differences between autistic and non-autistic participants on EF assessments commonly reported in the literature result from differences in the latent executive constructs underlying task performance or from task-specific, non-executive characteristics. In Chapter 3, I assessed whether group differences in EF ability emerged on a representatively-designed measure of EF. In Chapter 4, I investigated whether other metrics of real-world functional adjustment were related to individual differences in performance on both the systematically-designed and on the representatively-designed EF tasks, described in Chapters 3 and 4, respectively. In Chapter 5, I sought to understand the personal and parental perspectives about the executive abilities of autistic young people and the realities of these (dis)abilities on everyday life. Finally, in Chapter 6, I discuss how the findings from this thesis relate to the extant literature before making five recommendations on approaches I believe will move the discipline of EF research with autistic people forward. Namely, that to understand how EF difficulties relate to the lives of autistic people, future research should; (i) validate systematically-designed tasks against real-world measures with autistic populations, (ii) employ representatively-designed tasks to capture functional abilities, (iii) triangulate objective assessment with subjective reports, (iv) conduct carefully controlled experiments to elucidate the mechanisms underlying everyday executive difficulties and (v) conceptualise of EF in autism within a dimensional, rather than a categorical, framework

An Exploration of Motor abilities in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Developing a test of imitation that is not confounded by motor abilities

An investigation of motor abilities using the Movement Assessment Battery (MABC-2) for Children showed that a sample of 10 adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders are more impaired on gross whole-body type movements compared to a control sample of 20 typically developing adults. However, the MABC-2 and the clinical kinematic assessment tool found no reliable difference between the two groups on fine motor dexterity. An imitation task was devised requiring participants to imitate movements from videos shown on screen. Participants were required to imitate shapes (a) drawn by a model and (b) drawn by a moving dot in. A 2 x 2 between subjects MANOVA was employed to determine if the correlation of the path length, time and speed of the shape produced by each participant with those produced by the model differed across group or condition. Another 2 x 2 between subjects MANOVA was used to explore if the constant or variable error of path length, time, or speed of participants differed across condition or group. There were no significant main or interaction effects

Autistic People and Telehealth Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Scoping Review

Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated changes to health and social care services, including the use of telehealth. Prior to COVID-19, there was interest in telehealth for autistic people; however, little is known about its use during the pandemic. This scoping review focused on telehealth for autistic people during the pandemic. It was pre-registered on PROSPERO, and the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews was followed. Ten databases identified 45 sources, which were categorised into two themes: (1) the nature of the shift to telehealth during the pandemic and (2) service evaluations. Large disruptions were reported across settings, and experiences were variable. New areas were developed, including telehealth with autistic children and adults, autistic people with intellectual disabilities, and minimally verbal autistic people

sj-doc-1-aut-10.1177_13623613231224093 – Supplemental material for Everyday executive function issues from the perspectives of autistic adolescents and their parents: Theoretical and empirical implications

Supplemental material, sj-doc-1-aut-10.1177_13623613231224093 for Everyday executive function issues from the perspectives of autistic adolescents and their parents: Theoretical and empirical implications by Lorcan Kenny, Anna Remington and Elizabeth Pellicano in Autism</p

“The key to this is not so much the technology. It's the individual who is using the technology”:Perspectives on Telehealth Delivery for Autistic Adults During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a large-scale move to remote delivery of healthcare services. However, little research has directly explored telehealth experiences of autistic adults, a population strongly affected by health inequalities and care access barriers. This study sought telehealth experiences of 11 autistic adults (aged 27–67 years), seven family members/carers (aged 44–75) reporting about autistic people and six service providers. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with all participants, which were then thematically analysed. Two over-arching themes identified were technology aids communication and access – except when it doesn’t, and in/flexibility, with a number of sub-themes. The themes, on one hand, highlighted positives of telehealth delivery, including easing some aspects of communication and decreased stress and, on the other hand, negatives, such as increased rigidity of the healthcare system, amplifying pre-existing barriers. Considering autistic people experience barriers to accessing healthcare, this study highlights such barriers could be, in some instances, addressed via remote delivery, as well as possible limitations of telehealth for some autistic adults