Feasibility and acceptability of a parent-toddler programme to support the development of executive functions in children at elevated likelihood of autism or ADHD: pilot findings

This study reports feasibility, fidelity and acceptability of a pilot of START; a 12-week parent-toddler, group-based, neurodiversity-affirming programme aiming to support executive function development in toddlers at elevated likelihood of autism or ADHD. After 4 days' training, community early years practitioner pairs delivered START to 13 UK families with a toddler showing elevated autistic traits, or with a parent or sibling with autism or ADHD, in groups of 6 and 7. Sessions were audio-recorded and rated by practitioners and researchers regarding the extent to which programme and session aims were met. Practitioners' reflections on strengths and challenges in session delivery, adaptations to the session plan and researchers' observations from the audio recordings were probed in weekly debrief calls, and one-to-one interviews at programme end-point. Recruitment and retention were monitored. Parent participants were asked to complete a feedback questionnaire after each session. Results show recruitment to the programme is feasible, but a large minority of parents experience barriers to regular attendance, which is a challenge for achieving exposure targets. Practitioners delivered the programme to a high quality and at least partially met programme and session-specific aims in every session. The most significant barrier to fully meeting session aims was families' late arrival. Parents reported regularly engaging with the suggested activities at home and found the sessions useful, although not all parents responded each week. Overall, the results of this small-scale pilot indicate START is feasible and acceptable as a parent-mediated programme to support toddlers at elevated likelihood of autism or ADHD to thrive

Observational measures of parent-child interaction used with neurodivergent parents or infants: a systematic review

A systematic review on existing observational PCI measures that have been used with families with infants between 9 and 48 months, where the parent and/or infant is neurodivergent

Integration of visual motion and orientation signals in dyslexic children: An equivalent noise approach

Dyslexic individuals have been reported to have reduced global motion sensitivity, which could be attributed to various causes including atypical magnocellular or dorsal stream function, impaired spatial integration, increased internal noise and/or reduced external noise exclusion. Here, we applied an equivalent noise experimental paradigm alongside a traditional motion-coherence task to determine what limits global motion processing in dyslexia. We also presented static analogues of the motion tasks (orientation tasks) to investigate whether perceptual differences in dyslexia were restricted to motion processing. We compared the performance of 48 dyslexic and 48 typically developing children aged 8 to 14 years in these tasks and used equivalent noise modelling to estimate levels of internal noise (the precision associated with estimating each element’s direction/orientation) and sampling (the effective number of samples integrated to judge the overall direction/orientation). While group differences were subtle, dyslexic children had significantly higher internal noise estimates for motion discrimination, and higher orientation coherence thresholds, than typical children. Thus, whilst perceptual differences in dyslexia do not appear to be restricted to motion tasks, motion and orientation processing seem to be affected differently. The pattern of results also differs from that previously reported in autistic children, suggesting perceptual processing differences are condition-specific

Observational Measures of Parent-Child Interaction used with Neurodivergent Parents or Infants: A Systematic Review

Background: Parent-child interaction (PCI) in early childhood plays a key role in children's development. Despite the importance of such interactions for child outcomes, it is possible that observational PCI measures are only suitable for use with neurotypical dyads and are less appropriate when applied to neurodivergent samples (e.g. those who are autistic or have ADHD). Methods: A systematic review of observational PCI measures used with neurodivergent children or parents where the child was aged between 9- and 48-months was conducted. Results: Out of 294 eligible papers, only 19 noted that the PCI measure used had been developed or adapted to ensure that it was appropriate for use with neurodivergent participants. No coding schemes were developed using participatory methods and only one protocol was developed in consultation with the neurodivergent community. Conclusions: Future research should involve the neurodivergent community to develop new PCI measures that are suitable for samples that include neurodivergent individuals, or validate existing measures to check they are appropriate for such samples. Furthermore, researchers need to consider the neurotype of the parent, as well as the child, when applying PCI measures