Syntactic awareness: probable correlations with central coherence and non-verbal intelligence in autism

OBJETIVO: Avaliar consciência sintática, coerência central, inteligência não-verbal, desenvolvimento social e da comunicação, comportamentos e interesses de crianças no espectro autístico e verificar suas prováveis correlações. MÉTODOS: Participaram dez sujeitos diagnosticados dentro do espectro autístico, que utilizavam linguagem oral para a comunicação, sendo oito do gênero masculino e dois do gênero feminino, com idades entre 4 anos e 9 meses e 13 anos e 4 meses (média de idade de 9 anos). Foram utilizadas as provas de: Consciência Sintática (Adaptada); Quebra-cabeça computadorizados com figura e fundo e somente com fundo; e Matrizes Progressivas Coloridas de Raven - Escala Especial. Os pais dos sujeitos responderam ao protocolo Autism Diagnostic Interview - Revised (ADI-R). RESULTADOS: As crianças com autismo apresentaram desempenho em consciência sintática similar ao de crianças de desenvolvimento típico com 6 anos de idade. Do total, 60% das crianças apresentaram nível de inteligência não-verbal médio ou superior. Não houve correlações entre os desempenhos em consciência sintática e as outras variáveis testadas. CONCLUSÃO: Não houve relação entre o desempenho em consciência sintática e os resultados referentes a coerência central, inteligência não-verbal, falhas na interação social, dificuldades de comunicação e padrões restritos de interesses dos sujeitos com autismo. Os resultados fornecem indicações de que essas crianças parecem acompanhar o padrão de desenvolvimento em consciência sintática das crianças de desenvolvimento típico de 6 anos de idade, porém com atraso.PURPOSE: To evaluate syntactic awareness, central coherence, non-verbal intelligence, social and communication development, interests and behavior of children with autistic spectrum disorders and to examine their probable correlations. METHODS: Participants were ten subjects diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder, eight male and two female, with ages between 4 years e 9 months and 13 years and 4 months (mean age 9 years), who used oral language for communication. The following tests were used: Syntactic Awareness Test - Adapted (Prova de Consciência Sintática - Adaptada), Computerized jigsaw puzzles with picture and background and only with background; and Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices - Special Scale. Subjects' parents answered the protocol Autism Diagnostic Interview - Revised (ADI-R). RESULTS: The children with autism presented syntactic awareness performance similar to that of 6-year-old children with typical development. Sixty percent of the subjects showed non-verbal intelligence at a superior or average level. There were no correlations between the performances in syntactic awareness and the other tested variables. CONCLUSION: There was no relationship between the performance in syntactic awareness and the results related to central coherence, non-verbal intelligence and social interaction deficits, difficulties in communication and restrict patterns interests of subjects with autism. The results suggest that these children seem to follow the development pattern of typically developing 6-year-old children in syntactic awareness abilities, only delayed

Information and Impression Regarding ASD Questionnaire Answered by Foreigners Living in Brazil

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) constitute a group of disorders characterized by changes present at early ages and manifesting in the areas of development of communication, behavior, and interpersonal relationship. Because ASD significantly affects communication and the social skills, all multicultural context needs to be better investigated. There is an urgent need to understand the impact of migratory process, bilingual environment exposure on the language development of children with ASD. The present study aims to present the results of 657 foreign residents in Brazil that answered an online questionnaire to know the consolidated information about ASD. Participants from 23 countries responded to the survey. Bolivia and Argentina were the countries with the highest number of participants. The present study found that 100% of the participants have heard of autism. About 80.6% of the sample had a family member with autism. The sociodemographic diversity identified in this study reflects the sociocultural diversity present in Brazil, besides reinforcing the importance of considering this population when thinking about strategies and behaviors directed at individuals with ASD

Identificação Precoce e Intervenção em Déficits de Linguagem e Dificuldades Comportamentais na Educação Infantil

This project had the aim of detecting and intervening in difficulties of language and behavior in children at the age of three and four. A hundred seventy-eight children were assessed in behavior, expressive and receptive vocabulary and in central auditory processing. 84 children constituted the experimental group and were engaged in an intervention for the development and refinement of language and management of behavior problems through activities developed in software used in tablets, concrete games and orientation provided to their parents and teachers by a professional team composed by speech therapists, psychologists and psycho pedagogues. Posttest analysis indicated significant difference between the vocabulary and language scores, suggesting that this model of early assessment and intervention can be a successful strategy in school environments.Esta pesquisa objetivou detectar e intervir nas dificuldades de linguagem e comportamento em crianças de três e quatro anos de idade. Foram avaliadas 178 crianças nas áreas de comportamento, vocabulário expressivo e receptivo e processamento auditivo central. O grupo experimental, com 84 crianças, foi submetido à intervenção para o desenvolvimento e aprimoramento de linguagem e manejo de comportamentos-problema por meio de atividades desenvolvidas em aplicativos usados em tablets, jogos concretos e orientações fornecidas a seus pais e professores por uma equipe de fonoaudiólogos, psicólogos e psicopedagogos. As análises do pós-teste indicaram diferença significativa entre os resultados dos testes de vocabulário e comportamento, sugerindo que esse modelo de avaliação e intervenção precoce pode ser uma estratégia bem-sucedida em ambiente escolar

Syntactic awareness and central coherence in the autistic spectrum disorders

As falhas na comunicação têm sido bastante avaliadas entre sujeitos do espectro autístico por fornecerem, por um lado, parâmetros para diagnóstico e indicações para intervenções e, por outro, por ajudarem no entendimento de como o desenvolvimento da linguagem acontece, de maneira geral. No entanto, grande parte das pesquisas tem se ocupado de investigar o uso que sujeitos no espectro autístico fazem da linguagem, ou seja, a pragmática. Os estudos que investigam a linguagem em seus aspectos formais, em especial, a sintaxe, têm revelado resultados contraditórios. Assim, este estudo teve como objetivo geral oferecer um melhor entendimento do papel que a consciência sintática desempenha nas dificuldades de linguagem de crianças e adolescentes no espectro autístico e como esse desempenho pode estar relacionado aos prejuízos cognitivos que o fundamentam. A consciência sintática, a coerência central, a inteligência não-verbal e as falhas na comunicação, interação social e presença de comportamentos estereotipados e interesses restritos foram investigados. Foram sujeitos da pesquisa 10 indivíduos diagnosticados dentro do espectro autístico, por psiquiatras, de acordo com os critérios propostos pelo DSM-IV e pela CID-10. Dentre os 10 sujeitos, oito (80%) eram do gênero masculino e dois (20%) eram do gênero feminino, com idade entre 4 anos e 9 meses e 13 anos e 4 meses. O Estudo 1 avaliou os sujeitos no espectro autístico em consciência sintática, coerência central, Inteligência não-verbal, desenvolvimento social, da comunicação, comportamentos e interesses, por meio dos resultados da Prova de Consciência Sintática -Adaptada, de quebra-cabeças informáticos com figura e fundo e somente com fundo, do teste Matrizes Coloridas de Raven e das respostas fornecidas pelos pais dos sujeitos na Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) e verificou as prováveis relações entre essas variáveis. O Estudo 2 verificou a existência de diferentes perfis linguísticos com relação à consciência sintática, descrevendo os perfis encontrados, a partir dos resultados obtidos na Prova de Consciência Sintática Adaptada. Depois disso, verificou-se a presença de aglomerados significativos por semelhanças no desempenho em consciência sintática. O Estudo 3 verificou e identificou os vários perfis de desenvolvimento das interações sociais, da comunicação e dos comportamentos estereotipados entre sujeitos diagnosticados no espectro autístico, com a identificação de prováveis subgrupos diferentes, a partir da análise hierárquica de aglomerados (clusters) das respostas fornecidas pelos pais no ADI-R e a análise qualitativa de cada um dos sujeitos. As análises mostraram, de maneira geral, que não houve correlações com significância estatística entre os desempenhos em consciência sintática e coerência central e inteligência não-verbal, padrões de desenvolvimento de comunicação, habilidades de interação social e presença de comportamentos estereotipados e interesses restritos. Assim, esses resultados não são generalizáveis para todas as crianças e adolescentes no espectro autístico, mas, no entanto, fornecem indicações de algumas diferenças entre o desempenho da consciência sintática dessas crianças e adolescentes e de outros de desenvolvimento típico. Também apontam para as habilidades comuns que interferem no desempenho de todas as tarefas analisadas. As análises também revelaram quatro subgrupos linguísticos e três subgrupos nos diferentes domínios do desenvolvimento da comunicação, da habilidade em interações sociais e do desenvolvimento de padrões de interesses e comportamentos. Os achados evidenciaram as características da linguagem e do desenvolvimento dos subgrupos encontrados e poderão oferecer possibilidades com melhor direcionamento de propostas de intervenção.Deficits in communication have been widely evaluated among autistic spectrum subjects for providing, on the one hand, parameters for diagnosis and indications for interventions and, on the other, for helping understand how the language development takes place, in general. However, a big part of the research has investigated the use that autistic spectrum subjects make of the language, i.e. the pragmatics. The studies that investigate the language in its formal aspects, specially, the syntax, have revealed contradictory results. So, the main general aim of this study was to offer a better understanding of the role that the syntactic awareness plays in the language difficulties of autistic spectrum children and adolescents and how this development can be related to the cognitive deficits that substantiate it. The syntactic awareness, the central coherence, the non-verbal intelligence the deficits in communication and social interaction as well as the presence of stereotyped behaviors and restricted interests were investigated. Subjects were ten individuals with diagnosis included in the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), by psychiatrists, according to the DSM-IV and the CID-10 criteria. Among the 10 subjects, eight (80%) were of the male gender and two (20%) were of the female gender, with ages varying between 4:9 y and 13:4 y. Study 1 evaluated the autistic spectrum subjects in syntactic awareness, central coherence, non-verbal intelligence, social and communication development, behavior and interests through the results of the Syntactic Awareness Test Adapted (Prova de Consciência Sintática Adaptada), of computerized jigsaw puzzles with picture and background and computerized jigsaw puzzles with only a background, of the Raven\'s Coloured Progressive Matrices Test and of the answers given by the subjects parents in the Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) and verified the probable relationship among these variables. The study 2] verified the existence of different language profiles concerning the syntactic awareness, describing the profiles found, based on the results obtained in the Test of Syntactic Awareness Adapted (Prova de Consciência Sintática - Adaptada). After that, the presence of significant clusters was verified through similarities in the syntactic awareness performance. The study 3 verified and identified the several developmental profiles of the social interactions, communication and the stereotyped behaviors among the autistic spectrum subjects with the identification of probable different subgroups, based on the hierarchical clustering of the answers provided by the parents in the ADI-R and the qualitative analysis of each one of the subjects. The analysis showed that, in general, there was no correlation with statistical significance in the performances of syntactic awareness and central coherence and non-verbal intelligence, patterns of communication development, social interaction abilities and presence of stereotyped behaviors and restrictive interests. Therefore, these results can not be generalized for all the autistic spectrum children and adolescents, but, instead, provide indications of some differences between the syntactic awareness performance of these children and adolescents and of others of typical development. The analysis also revealed four subgroups in different domains of communication development, of social interaction abilities and patterns of interests and behaviors development. The findings highlighted the language and the development characteristics of the subgroups found and can offer possibilities of a better orientation of intervention proposals

Consciência sintática: correlações no espectro do autismo

Este estudo avaliou a consciência sintática de dez sujeitos no espectro do autismo (com idades entre 5 anos e 7 meses e 14 anos e 8 meses) e investigou o papel que a consciência sintática desempenha nos padrões de linguagem desses sujeitos. Constatou-se a existência de diferentes perfis linguísticos por meio da Prova de Consciência Sintática (Adaptada). Foram detectados quatro subgrupos com:(a) desempenho inferior em correção de frases agramaticais e frases agramaticais e assemânticas; (b) desempenho inferior em correção de frases agramaticais e assemânticas; (c) desempenho mediano em todos os subtestes e acima da média em julgamento gramatical; e (d) desempenho superior nos quatro subtestes. Esses resultados não são generalizáveis para a população de sujeitos com autismo, mas revelaram evidências da interferência das falhas de habilidades presentes no espectro do autismo nas habilidades envolvidas na realização das tarefas

Cognitive flexibility training intervention among children with autism: a longitudinal study

Abstract\ud Autism is defined by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction in multiple contexts as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. There are also reported difficulties in the dynamic activation and modification of cognitive processes in response to changes in tasks’ demands. Such difficulties are believed to be due to poor flexible cognition. This research aimed to assess and intervene in cognitive flexibility in subjects with autism.\ud Ten subjects diagnosed with autism by psychiatrists, aged 5 years to 13 years and 5 months, were assessed in non-verbal intelligence through Raven’s Progressive Matrices in pretest. They were also assessed in cognitive flexibility through Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and in patterns of social interactions, behaviors, and communication through Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). An intervention program of 14 to 21 sessions was established to enhance cognitive flexibility. In posttest, they were assessed in WCST and ADI-R.\ud All measures of cognitive flexibility improved in posttest except for failure to maintain set. Among the measures improved in posttest, perseverative errors and responses improved in posttest with statistical significance as well as categories completed. Total scores on ADI-R were lower in posttest as well as scores on communication abilities.\ud The qualitative improvement showed by the individuals of this research concerning cognitive flexibility and also patterns of restricted behavior, social interaction, and communication abilities suggests that individuals with autism can benefit from the development of strategies for the enhancement of cognitive flexibility. Nevertheless, more research is suggested with a larger sample among subjects on the autism spectrum.The first author thanks the National Council of Technological and Scientific\ud Development in Brazil for the post-doctoral research fellowship during the\ud fisrt year of research (CNPQ - Process: 150739/2012-5)

Cognitive flexibility training intervention among children with autism: a longitudinal study

Abstract Autism is defined by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction in multiple contexts as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. There are also reported difficulties in the dynamic activation and modification of cognitive processes in response to changes in tasks’ demands. Such difficulties are believed to be due to poor flexible cognition. This research aimed to assess and intervene in cognitive flexibility in subjects with autism. Ten subjects diagnosed with autism by psychiatrists, aged 5 years to 13 years and 5 months, were assessed in non-verbal intelligence through Raven’s Progressive Matrices in pretest. They were also assessed in cognitive flexibility through Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and in patterns of social interactions, behaviors, and communication through Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). An intervention program of 14 to 21 sessions was established to enhance cognitive flexibility. In posttest, they were assessed in WCST and ADI-R. All measures of cognitive flexibility improved in posttest except for failure to maintain set. Among the measures improved in posttest, perseverative errors and responses improved in posttest with statistical significance as well as categories completed. Total scores on ADI-R were lower in posttest as well as scores on communication abilities. The qualitative improvement showed by the individuals of this research concerning cognitive flexibility and also patterns of restricted behavior, social interaction, and communication abilities suggests that individuals with autism can benefit from the development of strategies for the enhancement of cognitive flexibility. Nevertheless, more research is suggested with a larger sample among subjects on the autism spectrum

Mutagenicity and antimutagenicity of (−)-hinokinin a trypanosomicidal compound measured by <it>Salmonella</it> microsome and comet assays

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The dibenzylbutyrolactone lignan (−)-hinokinin (HK) was derived by partial synthesis from (−)-cubebin, isolated from the dry seeds of the pepper, <it>Piper cubeba</it>. Considering the good trypanosomicidal activity of HK and recalling that natural products are promising starting points for the discovery of novel potentially therapeutic agents, the aim of the present study was to investigate the (anti) mutagenic∕ genotoxic activities of HK.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The mutagenic∕ genotoxic activities were evaluated by the Ames test on <it>Salmonella typhimurium</it> strains TA98, TA97a, TA100 and TA102, and the comet assay, so as to assess the safe use of HK in the treatment of Chagas’ disease. The antimutagenic ∕antigenotoxic potential of HK were also tested against the mutagenicity of a variety of direct and indirect acting mutagens, such as 4- nitro-<it>o</it>-phenylenediamine (NOPD), sodium azide (SA), mitomycin C (MMC), benzo[<it>a</it>]pyrene (B[<it>a</it>]P), aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), 2-aminoanthracene (2-AA) and 2-aminofluorene (2-AF), by the Ames test, and doxorubicin (DXR) by the comet assay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mutagenicity∕genotoxicity tests showed that HK did not induce any increase in the number of revertants or extent of DNA damage, demonstrating the absence of mutagenic and genotoxic activities. On the other hand, the results on the antimutagenic potential of HK showed a strong inhibitory effect against some direct and indirect-acting mutagens.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Regarding the use of HK as an antichagasic drug, the absence of mutagenic effects in animal cell and bacterial systems is encouraging. In addition, HK may be a new potential antigenotoxic ∕ antimutagenic agent from natural sources. However, the protective activity of HK is not general and varies with the type of DNA damage-inducing agent used.</p