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Caregivers of a child with a neurodevelopmental disability are more vulnerable to mental health difficulties. These difficulties are influenced by the child's challenging behaviours, and the caregiver's coping strategies; factors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. An online mixed methods survey was conducted on caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (n = 43) and children who are typically developing (n = 67). The results showed that presence of challenging behaviours related to neurodevelopmental disability, and caregiver coping strategies predicted caregiver psychological distress during lockdown. Themes that emerged included 'confusing messages and guidance', 'loss of freedom' and 'unsupported and forgotten'. The results demonstrate the pressing need for the implementation of appropriate support to protect the mental health of caregivers across the UK.

An increasing amount of technological solutions aiming to support emotion regulation are being developed for Autistic people. However, there remains a lack of understanding of user needs, and design factors which has led to poor usability and varied success. Furthermore, studies assessing the feasibility of emotion regulation technology via physiological signals for autistic people are increasingly showing promise, yet to date there has been no exploration of views from the autistic community on the benefits/challenges such technology may present in practice. Focus groups with autistic people and their allies were conducted to gain insight into experiences and expectations of technological supports aimed at supporting emotion regulation. Reflexive thematic analysis generated three themes: (1) communication challenges (2) views on emotion regulation technology (3) 'how' technology is implemented. Results provide meaningful insight into the socio-emotional communication challenges faced by autistic people, and explore the expectations of technology aimed at supporting emotion regulation.

Teacher knowledge of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) plays a key role in the successful inclusion of children with the disorder in public schools. It therefore becomes important to understand what impacts upon teachers' knowledge of ASD. As such, we aimed to investigate the role of experience and culture on teachers' knowledge of ASD. Public teachers working in the United Kingdom (UK; n = 51) and People's Republic of China (n = 59) completed questionnaires measuring the experience of teaching children with ASD and levels of knowledge about the disorder. Analysis was then conducted to examine how knowledge of ASD differed as a function of culture and experience. Results showed that teachers who had experience of working with children with ASD demonstrated a higher level of knowledge relating to the disorder. Further, teachers in the UK had significantly more knowledge of ASD than teachers in China. The results suggest cross-cultural differences in teachers' understanding of ASD. Training opportunities which allow teachers to work with children with ASD should be provided in both the UK and in China.

The objective of this study was to explore the role that Autistic identity, sensory processing and camouflaging behaviours have on eating disorder symptomology in Autistic adults. Previous research has focused on cognitive and sensory factors to explain the association between autism and eating disorders, but the roles of social identity and camouflaging are yet to be explored. Autistic participants (N = 180) were recruited from NHS settings and community groups. The participants completed online questionnaires measuring autistic identity, camouflaging behaviours, sensory processing, autistic traits and eating disorder symptoms. Multiple regression revealed that camouflaging significantly predicted eating disorder symptoms. Although sensory processing was related, it did not significantly predict eating disorder symptom severity. In addition, there was no significant relationship between autistic identity and eating disorder symptom severity. This study highlights the impact that camouflaging behaviours and sensory processing can have on eating disorder symptomatology in autism and may indicate important considerations for the treatment of eating disorders in Autistic people. This study aimed to explore the impact of Autistic identity (i.e. feeling like you belong to the Autistic community), sensory profiles (e.g. being over or under responsive to sensations) and camouflaging behaviours (i.e. masking) on eating disorder symptoms in Autistic adults. 180 Autistic people were recruited from the community and NHS. The Autistic people completed online questionnaires measuring Autistic identity, sensory profiles, camouflaging behaviours, autistic traits and eating disorder symptoms. The analysis showed that higher levels of camouflaging behaviour predicted higher levels of eating disorder symptoms. Sensory profiles were related to but did not predict eating disorder symptoms and there was no relationship between level of Autistic identity and eating disorder symptoms. This shows that camouflaging is the most important predictor of eating disorder symptoms in Autistic people, and warrants further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There has been substantial progress made across multiple disciplines to emphasize the importance of perinatal mental health both for parents and offspring. This focuses on what has been termed the 'First 1000 Days' from conception to the child's second birthday. We argue that our understanding of this issue can go further to create an intergenerational approach to mental health. Despite the existence of theoretical frameworks and practical approaches to implementation, there are gaps in the understanding of perinatal and intergenerational mental health including which psychological mechanisms are implicated in the transmission of risk and resilience within the perinatal period; and how to leverage these into treatment approaches. Aims and Methods: In this paper, we explore the potential for mentalization as a candidate psychological approach to intergenerational mental health. Results: We contextualize this issue in terms of the points of contact between mentalization and broader theoretical models such as the social determinants of health and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DoHaD) model. Further, we provide an overview of the existing evidence base for the relevance of mentalization to perinatal mental health. Discussion: Finally, we sketch out an outline model for integrating mentalization into perinatal and intergenerational mental health, highlighting several areas of opportunity to develop research and practice from diverse geographies and demographics. Here, we suggest that integration of mentalization with other conceptual frameworks such as DoHaD can mutually enrich the understanding of each model, pointing the way towards more effective early and preventative interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited knowledge and research on the experiences of having a daughter with autism spectrum condition from a mother's perspective. This study aims to explore the experiences of mothers who care for a daughter with autism spectrum condition, with a particular focus on female autism spectrum condition presentation. Ten mothers of daughters with autism spectrum condition took part in a semi-structured interview. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data. Five superordinate themes emerged: 'Girls have autism too', 'She's a chameleon', 'The impact of the diagnosis', 'Impact on mums' and 'Day-to-day life'. These findings add to our knowledge of how female autism spectrum condition presents and of the experiences directly related to being the mother of a daughter with autism spectrum condition. The findings have implications for clinicians that carry out autism spectrum condition assessments and provide insights into areas where additional support can be provided to mothers and daughters.

Inclusion of autistic pupils into mainstream schools is common practice and staff should have adequate knowledge on teaching and managing classroom behaviour. However, autism knowledge among teaching staff may be inconsistent. A mixed-methods design examined differences between school staff in autism knowledge, perceived barriers to inclusion and required support. 138 early years staff, school teachers and pupil support assistants took part. Knowledge and experience were assessed using Knowledge about Childhood Autism among Health Workers questionnaire (KCAHW; [Bakare, M. O., P. O. Ebigbo, A. O. Agomoh, and N. C. Menkiti. 2008. Knowledge about childhood autism among health workers (KCAHW) questionnaire: description, reliability and internal consistency. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health 4 (1): 17]). Qualitative measures addressed perceived barriers to inclusion and recommended supports. Significant differences in the knowledge of autism scores were shown.. Similar themes were identified across all staff, with five themes reflecting barriers to inclusion (Knowledge, Support, Training, Management of ASC features and Parent involvement) and four themes relating to required support (Individualising educational experience, Changes to learning spaces, Opportunities to learn about ASC and Communication). Government inclusion policy should take a whole school approach and consider staffs' actual and perceived barriers to inclusion of autistic children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that adults converge on common referring expressions in dialogue, and that such lexical alignment is important for successful and rewarding communication. The authors show that children with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and chronological- and verbal-age-matched typically developing (TD) children also show spontaneous lexical alignment. In a card game, both groups tended to refer to an object using the same name as their partner had previously used for the same or a different token of the object. This tendency to align on a pragmatically conditioned aspect of language did not differ between ASD and TD groups, and was unaffected by verbal/chronological age, or (in the ASD group) Theory of Mind or social functioning. The authors suggest that lexical priming can lead to automatic lexical alignment in both ASD and TD children's dialogue. Their results further suggest that ASD children's conversational impairments do not involve an all-encompassing deficit in linguistic imitation.

Criminal justice systems rely heavily upon spoken language. This presents significant barriers for young witnesses who may have difficulty putting their experiences into words. In order to give their best evidence these witnesses may require additional scaffolding during an investigative interview. The current study is the first to examine the efficacy of 'Unpacking the Box' – a tool used by police officers and intermediaries to assess children's communication abilities and determine the nature of scaffolding required. The study involved children, aged four to nine, taking part in a staged event. The children were allocated to one of three experimental conditions (assessment, no assessment, colouring). One week later, the children were interviewed about their experiences. Prior to the interviews, predictions were made regarding the children's interview performance. The predictions for the children in the assessment condition were based on the findings of an 'Unpacking the Box' assessment. As for the children in the other conditions the predictions were based on professional judgement. The analysis looked at how closely the predictions reflected the children's interview performance. Communication assessments were found to be superior to professional judgement in ascertaining a child's abilities; thus, enabling interviewers to conduct more effective interviews with children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]