Discrimination of foreign speech pitch and autistic traits in non-clinical population

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) are widely suggested to show enhanced perceptual discrimination but inconsistent findings have been reported for pitch discrimination. Given the high variability in ASC, this study investigated whether ASC traits were correlated with pitch discrimination in an undergraduate sample when musical and language experiences were taken into consideration. Results indicated that the Social Skills subscale of the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was associated with foreign speech pitch discrimination, suggesting that individuals who were less sociable and socially skillful were less able to discriminate foreign speech pitch. Current findings have an implication in investigating individual differences in ASC and further investigation is needed for spelling out the relationship between the non-social and social aspects of ASC

Non-adjacent dependency learning in Cantonese-speaking children with and without a history of specific language impairment

Purpose: This study investigated non-adjacent dependency learning in Cantonese-speaking children with and without a history of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in an artificial linguistic context. Method: Sixteen Cantonese-speaking children with SLI history and 16 Cantonese-speaking children with typical language development (TLD) were tested with a non-adjacent dependency learning task using artificial languages that mimic Cantonese. Results: Children with TLD performed above chance and were able to discriminate between trained and untrained non-adjacent dependencies. However, children with SLI history performed at chance and were not able to differentiate trained versus untrained non-adjacent dependencies. Conclusions: These findings, together with previous findings with English-speaking adults and adolescents with language impairments, suggested that individuals with atypical language development, regardless of age, diagnostic status, language and culture, showed difficulties in learning non-adjacent dependencies. This study provides evidence for early impairments to statistical learning in individuals with atypical language development

Comparison between the Clancy Behavior Scale and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers in Taiwan

(1) Background: Precise diagnosis and early intervention are crucial for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to achieve a better prognosis. This study investigated the efficacy of the Clancy Behavior Scale (CBS) and Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) in detecting ASD among toddlers under 30 months of age. (2) Methods: A total of 215 toddlers (117 with ASD and 98 with development delays) aged between 18 and 29 months participated in this study. All the primary caregivers of these toddlers were recruited to complete the CBS and M-CHAT. (3) Results: The findings indicated that the accuracy of the CBS and M-CHAT was promising, and the short forms of these two instruments performed better than their full versions. The CBS:9 critical items presented a sensitivity of 0.75 and a specificity of 0.74, while the M-CHAT:14 brief items showed a sensitivity of 0.72 and a specificity of 0.85. (4) Conclusions: The diagnostic accuracy of high-risk ASD toddlers improved via the combination of CBS and M-CHAT, particularly when the information gathered from these two instruments were consistent. The findings may provide implications for enhancing the early detection of ASD

Parenting stress and child behavior problems in young children with autism spectrum disorder: transactional relations across time

This longitudinal study examined the transactional relations between parenting stress and both internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) over 1.5 years using a cross-lagged panel analysis. Participants included 75 young children with ASD (Time 1; mean age = 25.68 months) and their parents. Parenting stress that was related to parent’s perceptions on child characteristics was found to predict externalizing behavioral problems in young children with ASD across two time points. However, behavioral problems in young children with ASD did not predict parenting stress. These findings provide implications for early intervention and family services for young children with ASD and their families

Does interference between self and other perspectives in Theory of Mind Tasks reflect a common underlying process? Evidence from individual differences in theory of mind and inhibitory control

Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to understand that other agents have different beliefs, desires, and knowledge than oneself, has been extensively researched. Theory of mind tasks involve participants dealing with interference between their self-perspective and another agent’s perspective, and this interference has been related to executive function, particularly to inhibitory control. This study assessed whether there are individual differences in self–other interference, and whether these effects are due to individual differences in executive function. A total of 142 participants completed two ToM (the director task and a Level 1 visual perspective-taking task), which both involve self–other interference, and a battery of inhibitory control tasks. The relationships between the tasks were examined using path analysis. Results showed that the self–other interference effects of the two ToM tasks were dissociable, with individual differences in performance on the ToM tasks being unrelated and performance in each predicted by different inhibitory control tasks. We suggest that self–other differences are part of the nature of ToM tasks, but self–other interference is not a unitary construct. Instead, self–other differences result in interference effects in various ways and at different stages of processing, and these effects may not be a major limiting step for adults’ performance on typical ToM tasks. Further work is needed to assess other factors that may limit adults’ ToM performance and hence explain individual differences in social ability.</p

T-STAT for detecting autism spectrum disorder in toddlers aged 18–24 months

Two studies were conducted to examine the use of the Taiwanese version of the Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds for detecting autism spectrum disorder in toddlers aged 18–24 months. Study 1 used receiver operating characteristics to select a cutoff score for the Taiwanese version of the Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds. It involved two groups of 16 toddlers each, one group with toddlers having autism spectrum disorder and the other group with chronological and mental age-matched toddlers with developmental delay. The result suggested that a cutoff of 2.50 would yield high sensitivity and specificity. In Study 2, we recruited 136 toddlers—30 with autism spectrum disorder, 33 with mild-autism spectrum disorder, and 73 with developmental delay. Using 2.50 as the cutoff score, the concurrent agreement between Taiwanese version of the Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds risk and clinical diagnosis and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule yielded high sensitivity and specificity. The results of this study indicated that the Taiwanese version of the Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds can be used as a Level 2 autism-specific screening tool for the 18–24 months age group

Developing a competency-based education training programme for university tutors

Recently, there has been an increase in the adoption of competency-based approaches (CBA) in higher education and, for some practitioners, this involves modifying existing provision. This case study describes the development, delivery, and evaluation of a transnational training programme that was developed for Chinese university tutors who planned to implement CBA in to their teaching. The 25-hour training programme was designed to be experiential in nature, so practitioners learnt about and experienced CBA simultaneously. Although the participants rated the programme favourably, we identified two main challenges associated with the training course: anxiety around the CBA and the need to be aware of the learners' cultural climate. Recommendations for others who are developing similar training programmes that model a CBA are discussed