Increasing Autism Awareness in Inner-City Churches: A Brief Report

Autism diagnosis rates trail significantly in the African American community. This pre-test post-test pilot study evaluated an African American inner-city church health ambassadors (HAs) autism spectrum disorder (ASD) awareness training session. The participants included 12 HAs who attended the 1 hour training session organized by the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. Results of surveys showed higher mean scores post training for (1) HA attitudes about the potential for children to improve with applied behavior analysis therapy; (2) HA self-efficacy for having information about ASD screening materials; (3) strategies HAs could use to help parents/caregivers of children with developmental delays and challenging behaviors; (4) HA confidence in referrals for children with signs of ASD; (5) HA knowledge of measures to take to maximize a child\u27s chance of receiving an ASD evaluation; and (6) HA comfort for talking to parents about children with challenging behaviors. Several of these effects were maintained 3 months later. Findings underscore the usefulness of the intervention for increasing the dissemination of knowledge about ASD and the opportunity to positively affect ASD screening, early intervention, and policy standards applicable to this vulnerable population

Anxiety and ASD: Current Progress and Ongoing Challenges

Symptoms of anxiety add significant burden to many autistic individuals and their loved ones. There is an urgent need for better understanding of the unique underlying mechanisms of anxiety in ASD, and for the development of more specific assessment methods and treatment recommendations. This special issue brings together 24 articles grouped into three themes; mechanisms, measurement, and intervention. The result is a review of current anxiety research in ASD that is both broad and deep. Key themes include recognition of the importance individual differences in aetiology and presentation of anxiety in ASD, the need for a more nuanced understanding of the interactions between anxiety and characteristics of ASD and the need to develop appropriately adapted treatments. This special issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (JADD) aims to showcase the most recent research on anxiety in ASD. Around 50% of autistic individuals will experience anxiety that significantly impacts on their daily lives and the lives of their loved ones. When present, anxiety reduces quality of life and interferes with education, employment, and achievement of potential. The urgent need to address this pressing clinical issue was highlighted by the Autistica Priority Setting Partnership (2015), undertaken in collaboration with the autism community in the UK, which identified mental health concerns as the top priority for autism research with specific emphasis on the development of interventions to reduce anxiety identified as amongst the top five research priorities. The idea for this Special Issue arose as a consequence of discussions which took place at the Anxiety and ASD Special Interest Group at the International Meeting for Autism Research in 2015, with the call for papers issued in summer of 2015. We have been privileged to receive very many high quality submissions, all of which have been subjected to standard peer review processes. The outcome of this endeavour is this special issue, comprising 24 excellent papers from the leading international researchers in the field. Our aspiration was to present to JADD readership the most up-to-date scientific and methodological developments in the field. The papers included in this special issue fall into three broad themes: (1) mechanisms and correlates underpinning the development and maintenance of anxiety in ASD, (2) issues with measurement, assessment, and stability of anxiety in ASD, and (3) interventions for anxiety for autistic people

Applying the Vulnerability Stress Adaptation Model of Marriage to Couples Raising an Autistic Child: A Call for Research on Adaptive Processes

Parents of children on the autism spectrum are particularly susceptible to strain in their romantic relationships due to unique risk factors. While some relationships deteriorate, however, others endure and thrive. The Vulnerability Stress Adaptation (VSA) Model of Marriage (Karney & Bradbury, 1995; Fig. 1) offers a framework to explain, not only poor marital outcomes, but also the process by which degradation of relationships occurs over time. The VSA Model posits that a combination of internal (within-person) vulnerabilities and external stressors influence relationship quality and, in turn, stability, by affecting couples\u27 abilities to collaborate to adapt to stressors and solve problems (i.e., adaptive processes). With robust theoretical grounding, this review comprehensively summarizes and integrates literature pertaining to the romantic relationships of couples raising an autistic child through the lens of the VSA Model. Vulnerabilities, stressors, and adaptive processes relevant to these couples are identified, and empirical evidence pertaining to the proposed pathways in the VSA Model is explored. The body of research reviewed provides support for many of the proposed pathways in the VSA Model, especially related to certain stressors (i.e., child behavior problems) and vulnerabilities (i.e., parent depression), yet it falls short in exploring mechanisms by which these factors beget marital dysfunction (i.e., through adaptive processes). Additional gaps and methodological limitations in the literature are highlighted, and recommendations for future research are provided

Parent and Family Outcomes of PEERS: A Social Skills Intervention for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Raising a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is associated with increased family chaos and parent distress. Successful long-term treatment outcomes are dependent on healthy systemic functioning, but the family impact of treatment is rarely evaluated. The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) is a social skills intervention designed for adolescents with high-functioning ASD. This study assessed the impact of PEERS on family chaos, parenting stress, and parenting self-efficacy via a randomized, controlled trial. Results suggested beneficial effects for the experimental group in the domain of family chaos compared to the waitlist control, while parents in the PEERS experimental group also demonstrated increased parenting self-efficacy. These findings highlight adjunctive family system benefits of PEERS intervention and suggest the need for overall better understanding of parent and family outcomes of ASD interventions

Anticipatory Smiling: Linking Early Affective Communication and Social Outcome

In anticipatory smiles, infants appear to communicate pre-existing positive affect by smiling at an object and then turning the smile toward an adult. We report two studies in which the precursors, development, and consequences of anticipatory smiling were investigated. Study 1 revealed a positive correlation between infant smiling at 6 months and the level of anticipatory smiling at 8 and 10 months during joint attention episodes, as well as a positive correlation between anticipatory smiling and parent-rated social expressivity scores at 30 months. Study 2 confirmed a developmental increase in the number of infants using anticipatory smiles between 9 and 12 months that had been initially documented in the Study 1 sample [Venezia, M., Messinger, D. S., Thorp, D., & Mundy, P. (2004). The development of anticipatory smiling. Infancy, 6(3), 397–406]. Additionally, anticipatory smiling at 9 months positively predicted parent-rated social competence scores at 30 months. Findings are discussed with regard to the importance of anticipatory smiling in early socioemotional development

Simultaneous Robotic Manipulation and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Feasibility in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

An unanswered question concerning the neural basis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is how sensorimotor deficits in individuals with ASD are related to abnormalities of brain function. We previously described a robotic joystick and video game system that allows us to record functional magnetic resonance images (FMRI) while adult humans make goal- directed wrist motions. We anticipated several challenges in extending this approach to studying goal-directed behaviors in children with ASD and in typically developing (TYP) children. In particular we were concerned that children with autism may express increased levels of anxiety as compared to typically developing children due to the loud sounds and small enclosed space of the MRI scanner. We also were concerned that both groups of children might become restless during testing, leading to an unacceptable amount of head movement. Here we performed a pilot study evaluating the extent to which autistic and typically developing children exhibit anxiety during our experimental protocol as well as their ability to comply with task instructions. Our experimental controls were successful in minimizing group differences in drop-out due to anxiety. Kinematic performance and head motion also were similar across groups. Both groups of children engaged cortical regions (frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital) while making goal- directed movements. In addition, the ASD group exhibited task- related correlations in subcortical regions (cerebellum, thalamus), whereas correlations in the TYP group did not reach statistical significance in subcortical regions. Four distinct regions in frontal cortex showed a significant group difference such that TYP children exhibited positive correlations between the hemodynamic response and movement, whereas children with ASD exhibited negative correlations. These findings demonstrate feasibility of simultaneous application of robotic manipulation and functional imaging to study goal-directed motor behaviors in autistic and typically developing children. The findings also suggest the presence of marked changes in neural activation during a sensorimotor task requiring goal- directed movement

Infant Responding to Joint Attention, Executive Processes, and Self-Regulation in Preschool Children

Infant joint attention is related to behavioral and social outcomes, as well as language in childhood. Recent research and theory suggests that the relations between joint attention and social–behavioral outcomes may reflect the role of executive self-regulatory processes in the development of joint attention. To test this hypothesis two studies were conducted. The first, cross-sectional study examined the development of responding to joint attention (RJA) skill in terms of increasing executive efficiency of responding between 9 and 18 months of age. The results indicated that development of RJA was characterized by a decreased latency to shift attention in following another person\u27s gaze and head turn, as well as an increase in the proportion of correct RJA responses exhibited by older infants. The second study examined the longitudinal relations between 12-month measures of responding to joint attention and 36-month attention regulation in a delay of gratification task. The results indicated that responding to joint attention at 12-months was significantly related to children\u27s use of three types of self-regulation behaviors while waiting for a snack reward at 36 months of age. These observations are discussed in light of a developmental theory of attention regulation and joint attention in infancy

Measuring the Plasticity of Social Approach: A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effects of the PEERS Intervention on EEG Asymmetry in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study examined whether the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS: Social skills for teenagers with developmental and autism spectrum disorders: The PEERS treatment manual, Routledge, New York, 2010a) affected neural function, via EEG asymmetry, in a randomized controlled trial of adolescents with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and a group of typically developing adolescents. Adolescents with ASD in PEERS shifted from right-hemisphere gamma-band EEG asymmetry before PEERS to left-hemisphere EEG asymmetry after PEERS, versus a waitlist ASD group. Left-hemisphere EEG asymmetry was associated with more social contacts and knowledge, and fewer symptoms of autism. Adolescents with ASD in PEERS no longer differed from typically developing adolescents in left-dominant EEG asymmetry at post-test. These findings are discussed via the Modifier Model of Autism (Mundy et al. in Res Pract Persons Severe Disabl 32(2):124, 2007), with emphasis on remediating isolation/withdrawal in ASD

Brief Report: Assessment of Intervention Effects on In Vivo Peer Interactions in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a randomized controlled trial of a social skills intervention, the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS: Laugeson et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 39(4): 596–606, 2009), by coding digitally recorded social interactions between adolescent participants with ASD and a typically developing adolescent confederate. Adolescent participants engaged in a 10-min peer interaction at pre- and post-treatment. Interactions were coded using the Contextual Assessment of Social Skills (Ratto et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 41(9): 1277–1286, 2010). Participants who completed PEERS demonstrated significantly improved vocal expressiveness, as well as a trend toward improved overall quality of rapport, whereas participants in the waitlist group exhibited worse performance on these domains. The degree of this change was related to knowledge gained in PEERS

Brief Report: Does Gender Matter in Intervention for ASD? Examining the Impact of the PEERS® Social Skills Intervention on Social Behavior Among Females with ASD

A paucity of research has been conducted to examine the effect of social skills intervention on females with ASD. Females with ASD may have more difficulty developing meaningful friendships than males, as the social climate can be more complex (Archer, Coyne, Personality and Social Psychology Review 9(3):212–230, 2005). This study examined whether treatment response among females differed from males. One hundred and seventy-seven adolescents and young adults with ASD (N = 177) participated in this study. When analyzed by group, no significant differences by gender emerged: PEERS® knowledge (TASSK/TYASSK, p = .494), direct interactions (QSQ, p = .762), or social responsiveness (SRS, p = .689; SSIS-RS, p = .482). Thus, females and males with ASD respond similarly to the PEERS® intervention