PSY2004 S2 W5 Intervention & Support

Question 1

What are different therapies ?

Answer 1

Physical therapy
Behavioural therapy
Speech and Language therapy
Psychological therapy

Question 2

What are the controversies surrounding ABA?

Answer 2

Does ABA help the individual?
Or does it teach them that autistic behaviour is wrong?
Strong opinions in the autism community regarding ABA?

Question 3

What is the difference between William’s syndrome vs autism?

Answer 3

WS – understood as over socialisation
A – understood as lack of social skills/communication

Understood as opposites but actually they are not as opposite as thought, both struggle with socialising, WS – lack of boundaries of socialising, A – lack of communication skills.

William’s Syndrome: Known cause, profile of associated strengths & Weaknesses
Autism: Unknown cause, varied profile of associated strengths & Weaknesses

Question 4

What are the strengths of william’s syndrome?

Answer 4

Strengths in William’s Syndrome tend to be classed as ‘relative’
-Delayed compared to age matched peers
-But a real strength in their OVERALL profile

> Well documented strength = verbal language ability

Question 5

What are relative strengths of william’s syndrome?

Answer 5

Speech production
Fluency
Syntax
Grammar

Question 6

What are some difficulties with William’s syndrome?

Answer 6

Difficulties with pragmatics (understanding intended meaning of words)
Mixed the pragmatics of “dreams” – understood as dreams at night not aspirations

Question 7

What’s the weaknesses of william’s syndrome?

Answer 7

Executive function
Visuospatial abilities o e.g. as measured by the WISC (standardised IQ test)

Question 8

What is meant by executive function as a weakness of William’s syndrome?

Answer 8

Numerous studies suggesting that individuals with William’s Syndrome experience difficulties across several executive functions, including:
-Inhibitory Control
-Planning
-Working Memory

Question 9

What are potential strengths in autism?

Answer 9

Excellent attention to detail & pattern recognition: ‘strong systemising’ abilities = heightened attention to detail and advanced capabilities in pattern recognition (Baron-Cohen et al., 2009).

Superior visual search skills are consistently reported

Shirama, Kato & Kashino (2017) used two visual search tasks and increased the level of difficulty of each task: Conjunction search & Feature search

=> Locate the white X – might make it more difficult

Regardless of the difficulty of the task autistic individuals outperformed neurotypical individuals on every task

Question 10

What are some real life application of the possible strengths?

autism

(Gonzalez et al., 2013)

Answer 10

Airport Luggage X Ray
Both ASD & Control Adults were able to accurately identify when the target was present
BUT ASD Adults improved overtime in accurately rejecting bags where the target wasn’t present

Conclusion:
when tasks tap into particular strengths of ASD enhanced performance may be observed.
Further research should investigate whether autistic individuals are especially well suited to specific real-world visual search tasks

Question 11

What are potential weaknesses of autism?

Answer 11

Executive function
theory of mind: Difficulties in understanding the emotions, thoughts and intentions of others?

Question 12

What is meant by executive function, as a potential weakness of autism?

Answer 12

Numerous studies suggesting that autistic individuals experience difficulties across executive functioning:
-Inhibitory Control
-Cognitive Flexibility
-Working Memory

Question 13

What is the theory of mind and autism?

Answer 13

Traditionally a popular way to assess ToM in Autism was by using false belief tasks, such as the unexpected transfer ‘Sally-Anne’ task.

Autistic children show failures in ToM tasks (Baron-Cohen et al., 1997; Senju et al., 2009; White et al., 2011) BUT research is equivocal (Chevallier et al. 2014)

Question 14

Why is it important to understand and identify the profile of strenht and weakness of each child?

Answer 14

…. allows clinicians, psychologists, parents & educators to identify the best and most appropriate support for that child

Question 15

What are different therapies and intervention?

Answer 15

Physical
Behavioural
Psychological
Language

Question 16

What are physical therapies and interventions?

Answer 16

physiotherapy
Individuals with william’s syndrome often have poor muscle tone, balance & coordinating difficulties

Question 17

What are some behavioural therapies and intervention?

Answer 17

ABA
early start Denver model: developed for autism

Question 18

What are psychological therapies and intervention?

Answer 18

Music therapy
Play therapy

Question 19

What therapies and internveitons are for language?

Answer 19

PECS

Question 20

What is speech and language therapy (PECS)?

Answer 20

Both William’s Syndrome and Autism are associated with delays or difficulties in speech
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) – a form of alternative communication

Question 21

What are the stages of PECS?

Answer 21

1. Picture exchange – swap a picture for an item
2. Generalise to other locations & people – realise they can use PECS outside of the home
3. Two picture exchange – use two pictures to ask for an item
4. Sentence construction – add ‘I Want’ before the picture
5. Verbs, adjectives – more complex aspects of speech
6. Answer a question – use PECS to respond to other’s questions
7. Commenting – more complex sentences e.g. starting with ‘I see’, ‘I hear’

Question 22

What si Makaton?

Answer 22

Makaton uses symbols (pictures), signs (gestures) and speech to enable people to communicate.
Supports the development of essential communication skills such as attention and listening, comprehension, memory, recall and organisation of language and expression

Two vocabularies (learned sequentially)

Makaton and British Sign Language (BSL) are entirely distinct and are used by very different communities of people

Question 23

What are the two vocabularies in makaton?

Answer 23

Two vocabularies (learned sequentially):
- Core Vocabulary of essential words or concepts presented in stages of increasing complexity
-A much larger, open-ended, topic-based resource vocabulary providing an enormous bank of further signs and symbols covering broader life experiences

Question 24

What is play therapy?

Answer 24

If a child can’t express themselves in an adult world, the therapist should join the child in their world, on their level

Children learn to understand the world and their place in it through play.

It’s where they’re free to act out their inner feelings and deepest emotions.

Toys can act as symbols and take on greater meaning — if you know what to look for.

Question 25

How long is play therapy ?

Answer 25

Typically 30mins – 1 hour once a week. Therapy can take place individually or in groups. Can be directive or non-directive

Question 26

What is directive play therapy?

Answer 26

therapist will take the lead by specifying the toys or games that’ll be used in the session

Question 27

What is non-directive play therapy?

Answer 27

less structured. The child is able to choose toys and games and play in their own way. The therapist will observe closely and participate as appropriate

Question 28

What techniques are included in play therapy?

Answer 28

Techniques include: storytelling, role-playing, toy phones, puppets, dolls, action figures, arts and crafts, blocks and construction toys and more

Question 29

What does play therapy demonstrate?

Answer 29

Demonstrated to reduce behaviours associated with ADHD & social anxiety (Naderi, Heidarie, Bouron & Asgari, 2010) and to increase social-emotional competency in autistic children (Ware Balch & Ray, 2015)

Question 30

What is music therapy?

Answer 30

stimulate language development through songs and turn taking aid self-expression improve concentration strengthen muscle and coordination encourage spontaneous play potential benefits of music therapy help a child to listen Both autism and william's syndrome can be co-morbid with ADHD

Question 31

What are potential benefits of music therapy?

Answer 31

Encourage spontaneous play Stimulate language development through songs and turn taking Aid self-expression Improve concentration Strengthen muscles and coordination Help a child to listen

Question 32

Can music be an education tool in william's syndrome?

Answer 32

Dunning, Martens & Jungers, 2015 2 groups: those with music training, those without Better verbal recall when the information was sung for those without lessons Those with training showed good recall for spoken information Music aids verbal working memory in WS?

Question 33

What is applied behavioural analysis? | ABA

Answer 33

ABA is a type of therapy that can improve social, communication, and learning skills through positive reinforcement. Originally developed to focus on autism (Lovaas, 1987), but is now used across a range of disorder/conditions An intensive therapy, it was originally recommended for 40 hrs per week 1-1, although more recently this contact time has lowered

Question 34

How does ABA work?

Answer 34

Positive conditioning: children are rewarded for showing a desired behaviour. First a therapist will observe the child, consult with the parents and make a plan to address certain behaviours e.g. -Reducing tantrums or harmful behaviours -Increasing or improving communication The plan will include specific strategies caregivers, teachers, and the therapist can use to achieve treatment goals. ABA relies on parents and caregivers to help reinforce desired behaviours outside of therapy.

Question 35

Is ABA effective? | Peters-Scheffer, Didden, Korzilius & Sturmey (2011)

Answer 35

Meta analysis on effectiveness of Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (a type of ABA) 11 studies with 344 children Groups who received EIBI outperformed the control groups on IQ, non-verbal IQ, expressive and receptive language and adaptive behaviour.

Question 36

What did Peters-Scheffer et al. 2011 find? | Reading

Answer 36

Found smaller differences on adaptive behaviour between experimental and control group suggesting that future applied work might focus more intensely to improve child adaptive behaviour. The results showed that experimental groups who received EIBI outperformed the control groups on IQ, non-verbal IQ, expressive and receptive language, and adaptive behavior, with differences ranging from 4.96 to 15.21 points on standardized tests. EIBI is based on principles of operant learning and focuses on remediation of deficient language, imitation, pre-academics, self-help, and social interaction skills No significant differences in cognitive ability, language, play or severity of ASD.

Question 37

What are some limitations of Peters-Scheffer et al. 2011? | Reading

Answer 37

several methodological limitations: small sample sizes, non-randomized assignments to groups, non-uniform assessments protocols, use of quasi-experimental designs, lack of equivalent groups, lack of adequate fidelity measures, unknown characteristics of comparison conditions, and selection bias.