Quiz 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder Flashcards
(58 cards)
What were the three domains of core symptoms initially recognized for Autism Spectrum Disorder?
1) Qualitative impairments in social interaction
2) Impairments in communication
3) Presence of a restricted range of interests and behaviors
What are the now highly regarded symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder?
1) Impairment in communication
2) Presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors
Who coined the term “autisim”
Bleuler: he used it originally to describe individuals with schizophrenia who had a loss of contact with reality.
What did Leo Kanner and do?
Independently described childhood disorders involving impaired social relationships, abnormal language, and restricted and repetitive interests.
He also believed that these children had a loss of contact with reality similar to that described by Bleuler, without the concomitant diagnosis of schizophrenia. he noticed that children who fit these symptoms are extremely autistic, lonely, and have an obsessive desire for the maintenance of sameness.
What did Hans Asperger do?
Focused on children’s good language ability before they entered school and spoke like adults. However, despite their good language skills, the children that Asperger studied has impaired conversational skills, and unusual use of volume, tone, and flow of speech.
Who were Bernard Rimland and Eric Schopler?
The first researchers to argue against the theory that parents were responsible for their children’s autism (at the time, autism was believed to be caused by cold-hearted parents).
Rimland proposed that the disorder was due to neurological impairment, and Schopler suggested that rather than treating the parents, the role of intervention was to involve parents as co-therapists working to help their children
What impairments in social communication are affected?
The ability to imitate another person, share a focus of attention with another person, recognize and process faces, and engage in pretend play are all affected and significantly impact one’s ability to learn in a social and nonsocial environment.
What is the hypothesized reason for social impairments in ASD?
That there is an underlying abnormality with the social award neural circuitry.
What does poor imitation ability indicate?
That there may be absent or dysfunctional mirror neurons, which plays a critical role in imitation
What does “shared” and “joint” refer to?
The ability to coordinate attention between interactive social partners with respect to objects or events in order to share awareness of the objects or events.
Why is impairment in the initiation of joint attention is so important?
Failure to coordinate gaze, gesture, and facial expressions as a means of sharing attention with others is among the first symptoms evident in ASD.
What do social attention impairments indicate?
Maybe a reduced sensitivity to the reward value of social stimuli. Furthermore, it has been shown that disruption in brain networks related to reward has been found in individuals with ASD, suggesting that social stimuli do not evoke the same significance and reward value for individuals with ASD
are joint attention and imitation impairments related to social attention?
Yes! Social orienting impairments may lead to joint attention impairments, which leads to delayed language development
Why is Face perception so important?
These abilities are essential for the development of interpersonal relationships, and lack of attention to faces is considered one of the earliest and most reliable indicator risks of ASD.
What does the lack of face recognition in people with ASD indicate?
The neural system related to face processing is less efficient (slower), lacks specificity to faces, and is abnormally represented in the brain.
When does symbolic play (pretending that it is a banana is a phone) start in typical children?
12-22 months, with 20 months being the majority age when children achieve this ability.
What age is the absence of symbolic play an indicator for ASD?
18 months
What do play skills indicate when a child reaches age 8?
Spoken language and cognitive ability.
Do ASD children use symbolic play?
Yes, however, it lacks creativity and playfulness and appears to be more mechanical and repetitive
What type of language do children with ASD display?
atypical language characterized by immediate or delayed echolalia (verbatim repetition of repeated words), abnormal prosody (atypical rhythm, stress, intonation, and loudness), and pronoun reversal (use of “you” instead of “I”)
What are the problems with reciprocal conversation related to?
Difficulties understanding another person’s perspective (theory of mind)
What are RRBs?
Restrictive and Repetitive Behaviors and Interests. These include repetitive motor mannerisms (hand flapping), Repetitive use of objects (lining up toys), inflexible adherence to routine (insistence on driving the same route to school), preoccupations with unusual objects (electrical cords), and unusual responses to sensory information (Visual fascination with lights).
Are RRBs restricted to just ASD?
No! Observed in typical children and children who have been diagnosed with Tourette’s, Down Syndrome, Rett’s Disorder, Parkinson’s, Dementia, Schizophrenia, and intellectual disabilities.
However, RRBs are more frequent in ASD
What are the two categories of RRBs?
Low-level: characterized by repetitive movements
Higher-level: insistence on following more elaborate routines and circumscribed interests.
These two levels are also called (Repetitive Sensorimotor Behaviors and Insistence on Sameness).
