69 research outputs found
Eye-tracking explorations of attention to faces for communicative cues in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Background
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been reported to show socio-communicative impairments which are associated with impaired face perception and atypical gaze behaviour. Attending to faces and interpreting the important socio-communicative cues presented allows us to understand otherâs cognitive states, emotions, wants and desires. This information enables successful social encounters and interactions to take place. Children with ASD not attending to these important social cues on the face may cause some of the socio-communicative impairments observed within this population. Examining how children with ASD attend to faces will enhance our understanding of their communicative impairments.
Aim
The present thesis therefore aimed to use eye-tracking methodology to examine attention allocation to faces for communicative cues in children with ASD.
Method
The first line of enquiry examined how children with ASD (n = 21; age = 13y7m) attended to faces presented within their picture communication systems compared to typically developing children matched on chronological age, verbal ability age and visuo-spatial ability age. The next investigation was conducted on the same group of children and examined how children with ASD attended to faces of different familiarity including, familiar, unfamiliar and the childâs own face. These faces were also presented with direct gaze or averted gaze to investigate how this would impact on the childrenâs allocation of attention. The final exploration highlighted how children with ASD (n = 20; age = 12y3m) attended to socially salient information (faces) and non-socially salient information (objects) presented within social scenes of varying complexity, compared to typically developing controls. Again groups were matched based on chronological age, verbal ability age, and visuo-spatial ability age.
Results
Children with ASD were shown to allocate attention to faces presented within their picture communication symbols similarly compared to their typically developing counterparts. All children were shown to fixate significantly longer on the face images compared to the object images. The children with ASD fixated for similar amounts of time to the eye and mouth regions regardless of familiarity and gaze direction compared to their controlled matches. All groups looked significantly longer at the eye areas compared to the mouth areas of the faces across all familiarity types. The children also fixated longer on the eye and mouth regions of direct gazing faces compared to the regions presented on the averted gazing faces. The children with ASD fixated on the faces and objects presented within social scenes similar to their typically developing counterparts across all complexity conditions. The children were shown to fixate significantly longer on the objects compared to the faces.
Conclusions
Children with ASD showed typical allocation of attention to faces. This suggests that faces are not aversive to them and they are able to attend to the relevant areas such as eye and mouth regions. This may have been influenced by the inclusion of high functioning children with ASD. However these results may also suggest that attention allocation and gaze behaviour are not the only factors which contribute to the socio-communicative impairments observed in ASD
Associations between maternal smartphone use and mother-infant responsiveness:A cluster analysis of potential risk and protective factors
Contradictory results in the extant literature suggests that additional risk factors should be considered when exploring the impacts of maternal smartphone use on mother-infant relationships. This study used cluster analysis to explore whether certain risk factors were implicated in mother-infant dyads with high smartphone use and low mother-infant responsiveness. A cross-sectional survey of 450 participants in the UK measured infant social-emotional development, maternal depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms, wellbeing, social support, smartphone use, and mother-infant responsiveness. Participants were predominantly White (95.3%) and living with a partner (95.2%), with infants who were born full-term (88.9%). Cluster analysis identified three clusters characterized as; cluster (1) âinfant at riskâ showing high infant development concerns, high maternal smartphone use, and low mother-infant responsiveness; cluster (2) âmother at riskâ showing high maternal depressive, anxiety, and stress scores, low social support, high maternal smartphone use, and low mother-infant responsiveness, and cluster (3) âlow riskâ showing low maternal smartphone use and high mother-infant responsiveness. Significant differences were found between all risk factors, except for maternal smartphone use and mother-infant responsiveness between clusters 1 and 2 suggesting that both clusters require early intervention, although interventions should be tailored towards the different risk factors they are presenting with.</p
The I in Autism:severity and social functioning in Autism is related to self-processing
It is well established that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show impaired understanding of others and deficits within social functioning. However, it is still unknown whether self-processing is related to these impairments and to what extent self impacts social functioning and communication. Using an ownership paradigm, we show that children with ASD and chronological- and verbal-age-matched typically developing (TD) children do show the self-referential effect in memory. In addition, the self-bias was dependent on symptom severity and socio-communicative ability. Children with milder ASD symptoms were more likely to have a high self-bias, consistent with a low attention to others relative to self. In contrast, severe ASD symptoms were associated with reduced self-bias, consistent with an âabsent-selfâ hypothesis. These findings indicate that deficits in self-processing may be related to impairments in social cognition for those on the lower end of the autism spectrum
What factors influence dyadic synchrony? A systematic review of the literature on predictors of mother-infant dyadic processes of shared behaviour and affect
Dyadic behavioral synchrony is a complex interactional process that takes place between the mother and her infant. In the first year of life, when the infant is prelinguistic, processes such as synchrony enable the dyad to communicate through shared behavior and affect. To date, no systematic review has been carried out to understand the risk and protective factors that influence behavioral synchrony in the motherâinfant dyad. The aim of this review was to identify and evaluate the factors that influence behavioral synchrony in the motherâinfant dyad, when the infant is between 3 and 9 months old. Key electronic databases were searched between 1970 and April 2021, and 28 eligible studies were identified for review. As the results were largely heterogeneous, four subgroups of factors were identified: (i) infant demographics, (ii) physiological factors, (iii) maternal mental health, and (iv) miscellaneous factors. Identified risk factors and covariates suggest that social determinants of health, underpinned by biological factors, play a large role in influencing behavioral synchrony within the dyad. Implications for the need to identify additional risk and protective factors, as well as design support for atârisk families are discussed
Exploring emotional dysregulation and avoidance with caregivers as the mechanisms linking social communication understanding and aggressive behaviours
PurposeMany autistic adolescents and young adults present with aggressive behaviours, which can be challenging for caregivers. The present study aimed to explore the underlying mechanisms between social communication understanding and aggressive behaviours in autistic and non-autistic adolescents, specifically the role of emotional dysregulation and its impact on avoidance with caregivers. MethodsCaregivers of autistic (n = 275) and non-autistic adolescents (n = 123) completed standardised caregiver-report questionnaires measuring social communication understanding, emotional dysregulation, avoidance between the adolescent and caregiver and aggressive behaviours. ResultsA serial mediation analysis indicated that levels of social communication understanding were indirectly associated with aggressive behaviours. This occurred through increased emotional dysregulation, which may have led to increased avoidance between the autistic and non-autistic adolescents and their caregivers.ConclusionThese findings support a sequential process by which adolescents with low social communication understanding are more likely to behave aggressively through being emotionally dysregulated and the impact of this on the increased avoidance within the caregiver-adolescent dyad. This process was found within autistic and non-autistic adolescents, suggesting a mechanism across individuals with aggression. These findings indicate that interventions based on improving emotion regulation ability and responses between adolescents and their caregivers may aid in reducing aggressive behaviours in adolescents and young adults with lower social communication understanding
Knowledge and barriers to inclusion of ASC pupils in Scottish mainstream schools:A mixed methods approach
Inclusion of autistic pupils into mainstream schools is common practice and staff should have adequate knowledge on teaching and managing classroom behaviour. However, autism knowledge among teaching staff may be inconsistent. A mixed-methods design examined differences between school staff in autism knowledge, perceived barriers to inclusion and required support. 138 early years staff, school teachers and pupil support assistants took part. Knowledge and experience were assessed using Knowledge about Childhood Autism among Health Workers questionnaire (KCAHW; [Bakare, M. O., P. O. Ebigbo, A. O. Agomoh, and N. C. Menkiti. 2008. Knowledge about childhood autism among health workers (KCAHW) questionnaire: description, reliability and internal consistency. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health 4 (1): 17]). Qualitative measures addressed perceived barriers to inclusion and recommended supports. Significant differences in the knowledge of autism scores were shown. Similar themes were identified across all staff, with five themes reflecting barriers to inclusion (Knowledge, Support, Training, Management of ASC features and Parent involvement) and four themes relating to required support (Individualising educational experience, Changes to learning spaces, Opportunities to learn about ASC and Communication). Government inclusion policy should take a whole school approach and consider staffsâ actual and perceived barriers to inclusion of autistic children
Attitudes towards autism:comparison of attitudes and knowledge towards autism based on adult sibling experiences
Using social media to be âsocialâ:Perceptions of social media benefits and risk by autistic young people, and parents
Moving towards trauma-informed policing: An exploration of police officersâ attitudes and perceptions towards Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
In 2018 Ayrshire Division of Police Scotland announced their aim to become a traumainformed division. Subsequently, all officers and staff took part in a Resilience documentary screening event. This project aimed to examine whether this screening influenced police perceptions and attitudes towards becoming a trauma-informed force. Study 1: Officers from Ayrshire (exposed to screening; n = 58) and Lothians and Borders (not exposed; n = 87) divisions completed an online survey, which revealed no significant difference in attitudes towards trauma-informed care for witnesses/victims or perpetrators. Study 2: Four focus groups were conducted with 29 officers across each area of Ayrshire division to explore attitudes towards the Resilience screenings and wider understanding and attitudes towards becoming trauma-informed. Discussion: The lack of difference in attitudes in Study 1 may be due to the Resilience screening being awareness-raising, failing to provide a toolkit for officers to translate these principles into practice. Study 2 showed that officers believe there is merit in becoming traumainformed, however, there is a lack of clarity on what this might be in day-to-day practice and uncertainty regarding where the responsibility lies with regards to trauma-exposed individuals. Importantly, officers are implementing trauma-informed practices which are not necessarily âlabelledâ as such
Sensory processing and eating behaviours in autism:A systematic review
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between sensory processing and a broad range of eating behaviours across the lifespan. METHODS: Five electronic databases of published and unpublished quantitative studies were systematically searched, evaluated for risk of bias and synthesised according to identified eating outcomes. RESULTS: Across 25 studies, there was consistent evidence of a relationship between sensory processing and a range of eating behaviours. There was early evidence for the particular role of taste/smell sensitivities, as well as hypersensitivities, although future research is needed looking at different sensory patterns and modalities. There was also tentative evidence to suggest this relationship extends across development. DISCUSSION: Study findings are discussed in relation to implications for sensoryâbased eating and feeding interventions and the development of eating disorders. Methodological and conceptual limitations are discussed and suggestions for future research are made to address these limitations. A broader investigation of multiâsensory issues and clearly defined eating behaviours, including disordered eating in clinically diagnosed samples, will allow for a more comprehensive and robust understanding of the relationship between sensory processing and eating behaviours in autism
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