Wk 12 - Autism Flashcards
(33 cards)
Autism is…(x1)
Whose causes are…(x1)
Which is characterised by…(x1)
Which results in issues within…(x2)
Life-long developmental disability
Genetic - no solid evidence for environmental, eg vaccinations
Various levels of impairment of person’s understanding of what they see/hear/sense
Social/communicative domains, and ‘flexibility’
Under the DSM 4, autism was separate from…(x2)
But within DSM 5, those conditions are seen as…(x3)
With prevalence at…(x2)
Asperger’s, PDDNOS
A spectrum -
One of keys to place in spectrum is whether you have ability to develop
Aspergers (as high-functioning autism) have language ability
1 in 88 kids, 1 in 54 boys
Prominent symptoms of autism…(x6)
Aloof
Lack eye contact
Object not people oriented - Extensive/elaborate fascination with items, not people
Difficulties in social relationships - not incapable of having relationships, but maybe difficult to establish and maintain bonds
Problems with verbal and non-verbal communication - acquisition of language occurs through interaction, so if uninterested in interaction, hard to develop language skills
Measuring the attention that 2-6 month olds pay to eyes involves…(x1)
And finds that… (x2)
Hot maps of where abouts on face/screen ASP and TD kids are looking during video presentation
Those who later get diagnosis of ASD are all over the place,
TD focus on the eyes, at least stay with the face
The relationship between empathy and autism may be indicated in Gowan, Vanman, Nielsen study which involved…(x2)
Finding…(x3)
With implications being that..(x2)
Mapped eye gaze on someone reading story about grandmother getting sick
Measured empathy
Typical empathy are on eyes, lips
Low empathy all up and down the face, no eye fixation
High empathy don’t deviate from the eyes
Autism commonly labelled as diminished empathy capacity – not quite accurate, but…
We see that the eyes are critical to typical development
Five characteristics of ASD…
Take things very literally
Speech is odd – tend to talk at people, monotone, lacking emotion, unaware of others dis/interest – eg non-stop monologue about timetables
More candid and expressive with their emotions than typicals
Tend to have unusual sensory experiences - eg a sense being too/less sensitive, and/or difficulty interpreting a sense (can translate to avoidance of touch).
Strange fascination with objects that can turn into obsession
Autism rates are…(x3)
But….(x4)
Increasing - 1 in 5000 in 1975, to 1 in 100 in 2009
No one knows why…
Maybe environmental change to way we interact
Better awareness, diagnostic methods
Less social stigma now
Prevalence of autism in Australia is…(x1)
Which makes it more common than…(x5)
1 in 160 kids aged 6-12 yrs
Blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, leukaemia and diabetes combined.
Autism is not…(x5)
Mental retardation - can be high IQ
Savant syndrome - occurs, but most aren’t
No relationships
No imagination
No empathy -many of the factors involved in reading another’s feelings are affected – interferes with empathy, doesn’t mean you’re incapable
Many people with autism have discussed how forming affective connections with others has involved…(x2)
Having to explicitly examine behaviour, and
Have rules about how to react to different decisions/behaviours
How do the elements of the course relate to both cumulative culture and autism? (x3 to ignore, plus x5 to consider)
Everyone has childhood, and grandmothers, can be taught,
Left with pretence, social motivation, overimitation, TOM, mirror system
What patterns of results do ASD kids display regarding imitation? (x4)
Long viewed as deficient ability
Evidence points to not imitating in same way as typicals, but
Deficient in non-meaningful or body-oriented gestures, are fine with reproducing others’ object-directed actions
ie when there is a clear functional outcome
Hobson and Lee (1999) conducted study into imitation in ASD, involving…(x3)
Finding…(x4)
16 each ASD and typical
Showed them various actions – stick dragged across timber thing makes clacking sound
To do slow or fast, close to the body or further away
Typical and autistic could reproduce the action
But differed in the way they would do it
Autistic would do at random speed, whereas typical would do slow or fast, as required
And less likely to copy if demonstrated close to the body
Nielsen and Hudry (2010) looked at reproduction of redundant actions in study involving…(x1)
Finding…(x1)
Demonstrating the use of an object to open box
No difference in results for object directed task, between ASD and down syndrome
Nielsen, Slaughter and Dissanayake (2013) looked at overimitation tasks in ASD, involving…(x1)
Finding…(x2)
But this may be a function of…(x1)
Comparing high-functioning autism against typicals
Found no diffs in eg IQ, mental age
Nor in overimitation tasks
Training in intervention programs
Differences in research conclusions about imitation in ASD are likely due to…(x5)
Mark tested HFA, they tested low
Mark’s tasks were novel, little social aspect
Theirs were less novel, less outcome oriented
eg building a tower of blocks is very different process to opening a box
So when tasks start to become social in nature, you start to see a difference
Vivanti et al (2011) conducted study into rational imitation by ASD kids, involving conceptual replication of the hands free/occupied light switch paradigm…(x2)
Finding…(x1)
Measured looking time at video pushing drawer in, with box in hand
Both typical and autistic had longer looking times for hands free condition
Vivanti et al (2011) conducted study into gaze fixation in ASD kids, involving…(x3)
Finding..(x2)
Neutral condition - head still while stacking alternate coloured blocks
Head-turning - stacks, then turns head to incorrect colour
Kids task is to choose correct block
Head turning disrupted all kids ability to work it out right
But autistic performed four times worse
Custance et al (2013)measured imitation in ASD kids using a ghost condition, involving…(x4)
Finding… (x1)
Measuring difference with demonstration by model, ghost condition where object moves without person present, mime of actions without object, and control condition
Same pattern of decreasing imitation through the four conditions
The relationship between pretend play and autism…(x4)
First noted in 1979 (Wing & Gould)
Problems in imagination and pretending are used, in part, in diagnosis of autism
Absence of pretence might be a predictor of later diagnosis - usually no video of kids pretending
Nearly every study has found a deficit
Libby et al (1998) measured the amount of various types of play in autistic, down syndrome, typical and Kruskal-Wallis kids, finding…(x1)
Almost no symbolic play by ASDs
Charman and baron-Cohen (1997) looked at whether ASD had capacity for pretence in study involving…(x1)
Finding…(x1)
Which raises the question of whether…(x1)
Giving them block of wood, and encouraging use as a cup
They could engage in these kind of acts
Pretending is deficient, or whether they’re just not interested
Loth and Gomez (2006) have asserted, re autism and pretend play, that…(x2)
But this means that…(x1)
ASDs are well-documented not to role play or enact cultural scenes
Deficits in pretend and imitation, language, obstruct cultural learning
They show a lack of interest in pretend play, not that they can’t do it
Interest is the critical factor
Craig and Baron-Cohen (1999) tested capacity for creativity in ASD, aspergers and typicals, involving…(x1)
Finding…(x1)
Eg torens test - how many things can you make out of series of lines or shapes?
Significantly less creative solutions by autistic than typical
