Young children's understanding of disabilities: the influence of development, context and cognition

Throughout Europe, educational support for children with disabilities has moved towards a model of inclusive education. Such policy changes mean that for all children there will be an increased likelihood of working with and encountering children with differing disabilities and difficulties. Previous research had indicated that children had poorly differentiated views of developmental differences. The present study investigated children?s representations of different disabilities. Seventy-nine 8-9 and 10-11 year old Greek children from an urban school and a rural school completed an attitudes toward school inclusion rating scale and a semi-structured interview. Responses to the attitude scale provided generally positive views of educational inclusion. However, children were less positive about activities that might directly reflect upon themselves. Children?s responses in the interviews indicated that they were developing rich representations of differences and diversities. Children had the greatest understanding of sensory and physical disabilities, followed by learning disabilities. There was limited knowledge of dyslexia and hyperactivity and no child was familiar with the term autism. Both groups of children identified a range of developmental difficulties, with older children being more aware of specific learning disabilities, their origin and impact. Results are discussed in terms of children?s developing knowledge systems and the implications for educational practices

Research summary: Anxiety and Depression from Adolescence to Old Age in Autism Spectrum Disorder

[Excerpt] Our team recently published a journal article reporting on a study that looked at the relationship between anxiety and depression, age, sex (male, female), and autism symptoms in autistic adults. So far there has been little research into mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression across the lifespan of autistic individuals. To inform and provide appropriate supports we need to better understand the challenges experienced by autistic individuals and looking at mental health across the lifespan can help us do that. It is also important to understand what factors can be related to good and poor mental health, so we can investigate that relationship and understand it

Anxiety and Depression in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are thought to be at disproportionate risk of developing mental health comorbidities, with anxiety and depression being considered most prominent amongst these. Yet, no systematic review has been carried out to date to examine rates of both anxiety and depression focusing specifically on adults with ASD. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the rates of anxiety and depression in adults with ASD and the impact of factors such as assessment methods and presence of comorbid intellectual disability (ID) diagnosis on estimated prevalence rates. Electronic database searches for studies published between January 2000 and September 2017 identified a total of 35 studies, including 30 studies measuring anxiety (n = 26 070; mean age = 30.9, s.d. = 6.2 years) and 29 studies measuring depression (n = 26 117; mean age = 31.1, s.d. = 6.8 years). The pooled estimation of current and lifetime prevalence for adults with ASD were 27% and 42% for any anxiety disorder, and 23% and 37% for depressive disorder. Further analyses revealed that the use of questionnaire measures and the presence of ID may significantly influence estimates of prevalence. The current literature suffers from a high degree of heterogeneity in study method and an overreliance on clinical samples. These results highlight the importance of community-based studies and the identification and inclusion of well-characterized samples to reduce heterogeneity and bias in estimates of prevalence for comorbidity in adults with ASD and other populations with complex psychiatric presentations

Stability of the Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised from Pre-School to Elementary School Age in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study examined the stability of scores on the ADI-R from pre-school to elementary school age in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Participants were 35 children who, at T1, all had a clinical diagnosis of ASD. On initial assessment (mean age 3.5 years; SD 0.6), all met ADI-R algorithm criteria for autism. ADI-R assessments were repeated at follow up (FU; mean age 10.5 years; SD 0.8). Changes in ADI-R total, domain and ADI-R algorithm item scores were assessed. Twentyeight children continued to score above the ADI-R cut-off for autism at FU, although significant decreases in ADI-R domain and item scores were also found. In conclusion, while classification of children according to ADI-R criteria, generally remained stable between pre-school and elementary school age, many children demonstrated significant improvements in symptom severity

Exploring autistic adults' psychosocial experiences affecting beginnings, continuity and change in camouflaging over time: A qualitative study in Singapore

Over their lifetimes, many autistic people learn to camouflage (hide or mask) their autism-related differences to forge relationships, find work and live independently in largely non-autistic societies. Autistic adults have described camouflaging as a 'lifetime of conditioning . . . to act normal' involving 'years of effort', suggesting that camouflaging develops over an autistic person's lifetime and may start early on, in childhood or adolescence. Yet, we know very little about why and how autistic people start to camouflage, or why and how their camouflaging behaviours continue or change over time. We interviewed 11 Singaporean autistic adults (9 male, 2 female, 22-45 years old) who shared their camouflaging experiences. We found that autistic adults' earliest motivations to camouflage were largely related to the desire to fit in and connect with others. They also camouflaged to avoid difficult social experiences (such as being teased or bullied). Autistic adults shared that their camouflaging behaviours became more complex and that, for some, camouflaging became a part of their self-identity over time. Our findings suggest that society should not pathologise autistic differences, but instead accept and include autistic people, to reduce the pressure on autistic people to hide who they truly are

“It just fits my needs better”: Autistic students and parents’ experiences of learning from home during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

Background and aims: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to people's lives, especially for families, whose children have been taken out of schools during lockdown restrictions and required to learn from home. Little is known, however, about the perceived impact of the lockdown restrictions on the educational experiences of autistic children and young people – a group whose conventional schooling experiences are already often challenging. In this study, we sought to (1) understand these experiences from the perspectives of autistic young people and their parents, and (2) identify the underlying sources of positive experiences at this challenging time, in order to inform the ways in which autistic children might flourish at school in more normal times. Methods: Ninety-one Australian participants, including 16 autistic young people aged 12–18 years, 32 autistic parents and 43 non-autistic parents of autistic young people aged 3–18 years, took part in semi-structured interviews about their experiences of life during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The interviews were subjected to reflexive, thematic analysis to identify themes and subthemes for each research question. Results: Overall, our participants initially found the transition to learning from home extremely challenging, with parents reporting that the support received from schools was far from adequate. After that initial period of transition, however, many autistic children reported flourishing at home both educationally and personally. For these children and families, we identified three key ingredients essential to this flourishing, including: (i) the importance of connected, trusting relationships (‘people’); (ii) the sensory and social safety of home (‘place’); and (iii) the flexibility to pace and structure learning to suit the individual child (‘time’). Conclusions: While the initial COVID-19 lockdown presented many challenges to children learning at home, there were aspects of this otherwise-unsettling situation that enabled children to thrive and from which we can learn for the future. Implications: These findings have important implications for understanding how and when autistic children might thrive in institutional educational settings once the pandemic subsides, focusing on the relationships between teachers and students, the nature of the physical learning environment and the need for greater flexibility in planning the school day

Brief Report: Testing the Psychometric Properties of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Anxiety is a prevalent and impairing co-morbidity among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet assessment measures, including screening tools, are seldom validated with autism samples. We explored the psychometric properties of the child and parent reports of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the Screen for Anxiety Related Disorder-71 (SCARED-71) with 49 males with ASD (10–16 years, 63% co-occurring anxiety). Both measures had excellent internal consistency and fair-good parent–child agreement. The SCAS has a higher proportion of items evaluating observable behaviors. Predictive power of the measures did not differ. Higher cut-points in the parent reports (SCARED only) and lower cut-points in the child reports may enhance prediction in this sample. Choice of measure and cut-points should be considered alongside intended purpose

Challenging the knowledge-transfer orthodoxy: Knowledge co-construction in technology-enhanced learning for children with autism

Experimental intervention studies constitute the current dominant research designs in the autism education field. Such designs are based on a ‘knowledge-transfer’ model of evidence-based practice in which research is conducted by researchers, and is then ‘transferred’ to practitioners to enable them to implement evidence-based interventions. While these research designs contribute important knowledge, they lead to a gap between what the research evidence may prescribe and what happens in practice, with a concomitant disparity between the priorities of researchers and practitioners. This paper discusses findings from the ESRC-funded ‘SHAPE’ project, which adopted a different model of evidence-based practice, focusing on knowledge co-construction. Pupils (N = 8), teachers (N = 10), a speech and language therapist and a parent in three different school communities investigated creative ways in which children's social communication skills could be enhanced through technology use. Through a participatory methodology, digital stories were used as a method to enable engagement with the practical realities of the classroom and empower practitioners to construct and share their own authentic narratives. Participants articulated precise knowledge about the learning opportunities afforded to them and their pupils through quality interactions that were mediated by the technologies, as evidenced through digital stories. The SHAPE project shows that it is feasible to develop methodologies that enable genuine knowledge co-construction with school practitioners, parents and pupils. Such co-construction could offer realistic opportunities for pedagogical emancipation and innovation in evidence-based practice as an alternative to the currently dominant and narrow model of knowledge transfer

The psychometric properties of the quantitative-checklist for autism in toddlers (Q-CHAT) as a measure of autistic traits in a community sample of Singaporean infants and toddlers

10.1186/s13229-015-0032-1Molecular Autism611-14GUSTO (Growing up towards Healthy Outcomes