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Repetitive and restricted behaviors and interests are a major feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Insistence on sameness, rigid adherence to rituals and routines and resistance to change, and related symptoms can have a highly disruptive impact on an individual's ability to transition from one task to the next and progress through the different steps within a task. Difficulties with transitions can represent a major barrier in treatment and care, impede learning, and contribute to significant distress in individuals with an ASD. A number of behavioral approaches to facilitating transitions in persons with an ASD have been investigated. The current paper reviews the available research on strategies to support individuals in transitions between daily activities and tasks. Current trends and future directions are discussed.

For a number of learning community programs, peer mentors provide an additional layer of staffing support. This chapter highlights peer mentor roles from a sample of programs and suggests important components for the construction of these roles.

Challenging behaviors are extremely prevalent within the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) population. To date, numerous factors affecting the rates of challenging behaviors within the ASD population have been examined including age, gender, ethnicity, and intellectual functioning. Controversy has arisen in regard to the effect of gender on challenging behaviors rates in individuals with ASD with some researchers finding differences while others do not. The aim of the current study was to examine the gender effects of children and adolescents with ASD on challenging behavior rates in an effort to assist in clarifying this relationship. Three hundred ninety-one children ages 2 through 17 years participated in the current study and were assigned to one of four groups: male with ASD, male without ASD, female with ASD, and female without ASD. Differences in rates of challenging behaviors between the groups were examined using the "Autism Spectrum Disorder-Behavior Problems for Children". Overall, gender was not found to have an effect on the rates of challenging behaviors among children and adolescents with or without ASD. The implications of this finding are discussed along with possible future avenues of investigation. (Contains 2 tables.)

Functional assessment has now entered the mainstream for evaluation and to aid in the treatment of challenging behaviors, while experimental functional analysis was at the forefront of this movement, this particular methodology has proven to be impractical, and thus has limited utility in real world settings. As a result of these factors standardized test have become a popular alternative for making a functional assessment. The most extensively studied of these scales to date is the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF). This paper reviews the available research on this scale, its current status, and future directions.

Once considered rare, autism is now viewed as a common and highly debilitating condition that has generated great interest among mental health professionals worldwide. The disorder is quite heterogeneous, can be very debilitating, and has a lifelong course. The general consensus among researchers, therefore, is that intervention should start at a very early age as a means of enhancing prognosis. The linchpin of early treatment is early detection and diagnosis. As a result of this recognized goal, psychiatrists and psychologists have been engaged in intensive efforts to develop methodologies and methods which will allow for the identification of autism at two years of age or younger. The current review focuses on research for early detection and diagnosis, relevant issues in identifying the disorder, and available assessment methods and instruments for making a diagnosis. Recommendations for future research are provided.

Three of the Grand Challenges identified by the social work profession are specifically related to health care: healthy youth development, closing the health care gap, and advancing long and productive lives. Idaho State University (ISU) initiated a collaborative interprofessional health education project (IET) over 30 years ago. This collaborative includes ten health care disciplines across five colleges and provides in-depth assessment and referral to three families annually. This study describes the development of a collaborative, high impact, teaching exemplar, and examines the knowledge, perceptions, and competency of participating students using the framework of the IPEC competencies and the CSWE practice competencies for social work education. Results are derived from a pre-post survey administered during the previous two years. The project includes two groups of students: those that engaged in a hands-on experience with a client and those that only observed clients. The Observation-Only group completed the SPICE-R2 and the IEPS. Students that had direct interaction with clients completed the IEPS (pre-post engagement with clients) as well as the ICCAS. Attitudes, perceptions, and perceived competency improved amongst students participating in the IET course from pre-assessment to post-assessment with moderate to large effects being observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]