ASD Flashcards
(32 cards)
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
A developmental disability caused by differences in the brain
● Individuals with ASD may interact, behave, communicate and learn in ways that are different from others
ASD May experience impairments in
Social interactions
○ Restricted or repetitive behaviours or interests
○ Communication
Multi-agency service model:
Includes screening, assessment, resource support, and community
training
● Examples:
* Speech and language pathologist
* Occupational therapist
* Behavioural therapist
* Psychologist
* Special education training
* Early childhood educators
Physical exams before assessing ASD
EEG
* Visual
* Hearing
* Neurologic
* Genetic
* Developmental
How to test vision
Snellen letters
or
allen pictures
hearing testing
Verbal children: regular
hearing test using tones
of various frequencies
Non-verbal children:
Auditory Brainstem
Response (ABR)
Assesement of ASD includes
●Interviews with parents / other important adults
● Standardized tests
● Behavioural observations
diagnosis of ASD is based on
behavioural information
Challenges with testing ASD
Children with ASD are very hard to test
Basic deficits and dysfunctions interfere with test
performance and administration
* Social cues
* Organizing behaviour
* Language delays
Must determine very quick – the point at which the child is unable to succeed
● If the child flounders too long or is confused, it becomes impossible to reorient the child back to the test materials
● Most difficult tasks involve language and conceptual thought
○ Stressful for the child
○ Should be interspersed with other non-verbal items
Impediment to testing for ASD:
Clinicians over expectation of the child’s skills
How to accurately estimate starting point
Best practices
- Try to start the test with a task that the child is likely to perform and have success
- Across the session, alternate between easier and difficult tests
- Leave some pleasurable activities on hold for use in the later part of the session – when a child gets tired or distractible
Language delays ?
Delays in social aspects of language
Prosody - rhythm and sound
○ Initiating and sustaining conversations
○ Understanding the nuances of social communication
Mitigating challenges - 4 options
Rapport
Task Presentation
Rewards and Routine
Standardization
mitigating challenges - establishing rapport
Establishing a rapport is difficult due to deficits in language
Strategies that can be used:
○ Avoid language that is too complex
○ Use short telegraphic sentences / single words
○ Prompts / exaggerated actions
○ May need to rely on child’s ability to draw from structure of the test materials
○ Ideas of Greenspan & Floortime: engage at child’s level – take direction from child and be unintrusive when forming an initial rapport
mitigating challenges task presentation
Task presentation
● How materials are organized and presented becomes important
● Any material important to the CURRENT task are on the table
● Preparation: materials introduced in a way that facilitates quick presentation
● For the hard to test: the materials can help hold interest
○ e.g. imitate the examiner placing blocks in a cup because of
interest in the activity or the effects of the activity (i.e. the sound
produced as the blocks fall into the cup)
mitigating challenges
rewards and routines
Rewards and Routine
● Prepared in advance
○ Preferred foods
○ Time with favourite toy
○ Physical stimulation (e.g. swinging)
○ Social praise
○ Tokens / exchanged for primary reward
● Thin out rate of reinforcement as session proceeds
● Reward serves as a concrete signal – where language is limited
● Establish consistent routines and visual cues identifying ”what comes next”
mitigating challenges
standardization
Flexible test administration
○ Many tests designed to study preschool children have greater
flexibility
● If modifications involve adapting the test situation or the instructions of the task, it becomes reasonable to pass child on correct items
● NOTE: Any special efforts in behaviour management and
communication should be described in the evaluation report
assessing ASD
major focus
– the presence or absence of expressive
language
If expressive language is absent:
○ Examine:
how does assessment focus change
Level of language comprehension
■ Is there communicative intent?
■ Nonverbal communication behaviours (e.g. eye contact,
gesture, shifting of gaze, and symbolic play)
○ Assessment focus → social interactions and play behaviours
If expressive language is present:
Receptive / expressive vocabulary
■ Articulation
■ Spontaneous language use
■ Prosody and pragmatic skills
Receptive vocabulary –
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)
Can score relatively high on receptive
language vocabulary but do more poorly on
tasks involving speech production and
sentences
word - which picture is it
Assessing ASD play impairments
Shows difficulties with simple interactive play such as patty-cake or
peak-a-boo
● Reflect deficiencies in social interest and motor imitation
● Difficulties observed in imaginative or symbolic play skills
Assessing ASD
Repetitive Restricted and Stereotyped Behaviours and Interests
Takes many forms including:
● Body rocking
● Flapping
● Adherence to elaborate and nonfunctional rituals, insistence on sameness
● Overly repetitive play
● Activities highly focused and idiosyncratic circumscribed interests
assessing ASD
adaptive behavior
Adaptive skills
○ Functioning in social contexts
○ Toileting
○ Dressing oneself
○ Social praise
○ Ability to relate to peers, family, and others
● Information from parents & other adults
● Instruments most common – the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales
