Search

Extreme demand avoidance (EDA) is increasingly described as part of the autism spectrum and is sometimes diagnosed as Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA). Yet little is known, about the educational experiences of children with and without EDA behaviours. Using an online survey collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, 211 parents reported on the school experiences of their autistic children. 57 parents had a child with an additional diagnosis of PDA (AUT-PDA); 91 had a child with no diagnosis of PDA but, according to parent report, displayed EDA behaviours (AUT-EDA); and 63 had a child with neither a PDA diagnosis nor EDA behaviours (AUT). Results demonstrated that there were few group differences in terms of the frequency of failed school placements and exclusions. However, children in the AUT-EDA/-PDA groups had higher levels of behaviour that challenges, which were particularly high in those with a PDA diagnosis. There were no significant differences in school exclusions, but the fact that these occurred across all groups is of concern. Qualitative results suggested overwhelmingly negative school experiences for all groups but especially the AUT-EDA and AUT-PDA groups. Parents attributed such experiences to misunderstanding of their children's diagnoses and a lack of targeted support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Secret Agent Society (SAS) Program, an intervention to enhance social–emotional skills, was provided by schools for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The program was assessed to determine if it improved social skills at school and home, and whether improvements were maintained. Methods: Eighty-four students participated. Key outcomes were parent and teacher ratings of emotion regulation, social skills, and direct child social problem-solving measures. The standard school curriculum served as the control condition. Phase 1 was a two-group waitlist-control comparison of SAS versus the standard curriculum. Phase 2 was a follow up of all participants before and after the intervention and at 12-months post-intervention. Results: Parent and child measures improved after the intervention but not in the waitlist condition. Improvements in parent, child, and teacher measures were apparent at 12 months. Conclusions: The SAS Program warrants further research as a potential program for schools that serve children with ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the highlights of a roundtable discussion convened at The University of Sydney, Australia in August 2014 involving clinicians and/or researchers in the fields of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It provides a summary of the principal issues raised such why there is a need to focus on adults with ASD, why there is a need to focus on adults with ASD and public policy about service delivery for adults with ASD.

Williams syndrome (WS), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder of genetic origin, is characterised by a relative advantage of language over more serious deficits in other cognitive domains. In this study the relationship of phonological short-term memory to WS language, in particular vocabulary, was explored. Using Gathercole and Baddeley's Children's Test of Nonword Repetition (CNRep) (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1996), we examined the pattern of performance by WS participants on that task and compared it to performance on measures of receptive language, visuospatial ability, and digit span. In addition, a comparison was made of WS nonword repetition score with those of two groups of individually matched normally developing 5-year-olds, one on the basis of nonverbal test age and the other on the basis of verbal test age. As expected WS repetition scores showed an effect of nonword length but not of phonological complexity. Nonwords that were relatively wordlike were better repeated than nonwords that were less wordlike. CNRep scores were correlated with test ages on TROG, Ravens, and digit span but not with chronological age. Test age on the CNRep was at a similar level to that on TROG, Ravens, and digit span but significantly lower than on BPVS. The results lend support to the view that phonology in WS is a relative strength. In contrast, despite relatively good productive and receptive vocabulary, certain aspects of the processes of word learning in WS do not seem to develop beyond that of normal 4 year-olds. The good vocabulary scores of older children and adults with WS may be simply due to their relatively good phonological short-term memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]