Animal healers
Clive R. Hollin in An Introduction to Human–Animal Relationships, 2021
Ward et al. evaluated a 30-week TR programme for 21 autistic children, mean age 8.1 years. Each session was based on the four themes of orientation, such as preparing food for the horses, followed by mounting and riding, riding skills, and finally closure where the children said goodbye their horse. The teacher ratings of the children showed a significant increase in social interaction, improved sensory processing, and a decrease in symptom severity. Gabriels et al. (2015) carried out a randomised control trial of TR with 116 children aged between 6 and 16 years with a diagnosis of ASD. The TR group showed significant positive changes in social cognition, social communication and language. Anderson and Meints (2016) report a study involving children aged from 5 to 16 years with a diagnosis of ASD. The children engaged in a 5-week programme with a 3-hour session per week addressing therapeutic riding, horsemanship (grooming etc.) and stable management (cleaning, feeding etc.). The findings showed an overall reduction in maladaptive behaviour but no significant change in social and communication skills.
Nutrition and the Microbiome—Implications for Autism Spectrum Disorder
David Perlmutter in The Microbiome and the Brain, 2019
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by the presence of repetitive or restrictive behaviors and deficits in social and communication skills.1 There has been a pervasive increase over the last decade in the number of children being diagnosed with ASD. In 2010, 1-in-68 children were diagnosed with ASD, while new estimates completed in 2014 reported that 1-in-59 children received an ASD diagnosis.2 Although the underlying causes of this increase in the prevalence of ASD are unknown, genetic heritability, exposure to environmental risk factors, gene–environment interactions, improved clinical testing and diagnostic methods, and broader diagnostic criteria are all thought to have contributed, apart or in some combination, to the rise of ASD prevalence.3
Emerging Clinical and Mechanistic Support for CBD Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Betty Wedman-St Louis in Cannabis as Medicine, 2019
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core deficits in social, communication, and motor behaviors.1 Additional common comorbidities such as anxiety, sleep disturbances, hyperactivity, and self-injurious behavior negatively impact quality of life. As a spectrum, the severity of ASD symptoms ranges across individuals as a function of underlying etiology, but we’d like to note here that the following discussion relates the potential utility of cannabis treatment for individuals on the severe end of the ASD spectrum. Any drug should be used only when empirically supported benefits outweigh the potential risks, and as such conversation surrounding the use of cannabis to treat ASD should be for the treatment of severe symptoms, such as severe feeding disorders and self-harm, rather than to limit neurodivergence. The goal is not to eradicate diversity but to improve functioning and quality of life.
The influence of Spanish language on autism spectrum disorder screening: a systematic review
Published in International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 2023
Casie H. Morgan, Monica Abdul-Chani, Gabriela M. Sherrod, Kathryn P. King, Kristi Carter Guest
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social communication and the presence of stereotyped behaviors, interests, and activities (American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2013). In the United States (U.S.), the average age of ASD diagnosis is four years old (Christensen et al.2016); however, early diagnosis, which can occur as early as 18 months of age, is critical for prognostic outcomes, as it allows access to interventions targeting language and behavioral development (MacDonald et al.2014). Consequently, ASD screening procedures have become an important facet of developmental surveillance. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends formal ASD screening at ages 18 and 24 months (Hyman et al.2020), and an estimated 63% of pediatricians report using developmental screening tools in their practice (Lipkin et al.2020).
Effectiveness of virtual reality and computerized training programs for enhancing emotion recognition in people with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Published in International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 2022
Sajjad Farashi, Saeid Bashirian, Ensiyeh Jenabi, Katayoon Razjouyan
Studies included in this meta-analysis contained samples with different severity of ASD symptoms. In some studies, high-functioning autism (HFA) samples were used as ASD target group (Yang et al. 2017, Bölte et al. 2006, Hopkins et al. 2011, Kandalaft et al. 2013, Kim et al. 2015, Babu et al. 2018, Didehbani et al. 2016). In one study, Asperger syndrome (AS) was considered (Beaumont and Sofronoff 2008), while in the remaining studies, the severity of ASD symptoms was not specified or mixed groups of autism subtypes were used. The subgroup analysis by considering the severity of ASD symptoms (Figure 4) showed that when the analysis was performed for distinct subgroups (i.e. mixed ASD or HFA), the significant large or moderate effect of VR/computerized training on emotion recognition was observed (SMD = 0.66 (95%CI = [0.42; 0.91]) and SMD = 0.49 (95%CI = [0.32, 0.66]), for mixed ASD and HFA subgroups, respectively). This result implied that computerized or VR training programs might have higher impact on more severe ASD subjects since a higher pooled effect was obtained for mixed ASD subgroup (labeled as ASD in Figure 4) that contained low-functioning ASD individuals as well as high-functioning and Asperger cases.
The need for and barriers to using assistive technologies among individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders in China
Published in Assistive Technology, 2022
Lingling Deng, Prapa Rattadilok
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disabilities that impact development in social communication and social interaction, accompanied by restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior or interest (Ousley & Cermak, 2014). Autism is described as a Spectrum Disorder because the symptom expression varies and the support that an individual requires also varies depending on the severity of symptoms. The main symptoms of ASD can be characterized into three domains: social communication, stereotypical behavior, and sensory processing (Benssassai et al., 2018). Individuals impacted by ASD may present poor verbal and non-verbal communication, repetitive motor movements, restricted interests, or hypo/hyper-reactivity to sensory input. These symptoms can appear by the age of three and last throughout a person’s life (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019b). It is noteworthy that 70% of individuals with ASD also have at least one coexisting disorder condition, such as intellectual disability, social anxiety disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder (Simonoff et al., 2008). This brings greater stress and heavier raising burden for caregivers of ASD children compared to caregivers of typically developing (TD) children and children with other disabilities (Xiong et al., 2011).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Intellectual Disability
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Epilepsy
- Neurodevelopmental Disorder
- Spectrum Disorder
- NONverbal Autism
- Heritability of Autism
- Epidemiology of Autism
- Psychiatry
- Mental Disorder