|
BREAKING RESEARCH NEWS
Teaching Safety Skills to Children with ASD
Teachers have expressed concern about how to effectively teach safety skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Self, Scudder, Wehebe, and Crumrine (2007) examined the use of virtual reality (VR)—3-D interactive environments—in teaching fire and tornado safety skills to students with ASD. VR training first involved watching a virtually guided building tour that included sight and sound cues of a fire and a fire alarm and the scent cue of smoke. Gradually throughout the safety training period, cues were removed, and ultimately, children were asked to virtually navigate the building with only a fire alarm cue. A separate set of children with ASD took part in safety lessons based on an integrated/visual treatment model, which involves activities such as listening to a story abut fire safety, completing mazes to display how to get out of a building, role playing, and video modeling. After safety training, children with ASD from both groups were observed during real-life school safety drills. Both methods were found to be effective in increasing children’s awareness of the need to respond to drills. These results suggest that children with ASD are able to transfer learning effectively from the virtual world to the real world. In addition, the children with ASD learned safety rules much more quickly when undergoing VR training than integrated/visual training. This study suggests that VR may be a time-effective and useful way to teach safety skills to children with ASD.
Reference:
Self, T., Scudder, R. R., Weheba, G., & Crumrine, D. (2007) A virtual approach to teaching safety skills to children with autism spectrum disorder. Topics in Language Disorders, 27(3), 242–253.
http://www.topicsinlanguagedisorders.com/pt/re/tld/abstract.00011363-200707000-00005.htm;jsessionid=Hh4JTrLYwsJJLL1LsfjDvf7CqztXzKkkpDr7SsPJr8Ghcj11Fq2X!-838444758!181195628!8091!-1
How Children with HFA Interpret Emotional Situations
Researchers have been trying to understand how children with high-functioning autism (HFA) interpret emotional situations. In a recent study, researchers Losh and Capps (2006) asked children with HFA and typically developing children to describe times they experienced simple emotions—happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust, for example. They were also asked to provide examples of when they experienced complex emotions such as shame, doubt, pride, curiosity, and surprise. The group of children with HFA could provide detailed examples of occurrences of simple emotions, but had trouble giving examples of times they dealt with complex emotions, providing only general, vague examples. For instance, the example one child provided about a time he felt shame was: “usually… when I say things.” Results of this study suggest that children with HFA have a unique way of encoding and recalling complex emotional events. What they recall of a complex emotional situation is more likely to be a visual image rather than an emotional response. In comparison, typically developing children tend to encode emotional information strongly in autobiographical memory, and tend to use a detailed narrative style when describing emotional events. In conclusion, children with HFA may primarily remember aspects of an emotional event that typically developing people would view as irrelevant, and fail to recall the event’s meaningful emotional undertones.
Reference:
Losh, M., & Capps, L. (2006). Understanding of emotional experience in autism: Insights from the personal accounts of high-functioning children with autism. Developmental Psychology, 42(5), 809–818. Retrieved January 25, 2008.
http://content.apa.org/journals/dev/42/5/809
New Findings on Joint Attention Behaviors
Children with autism are less likely than typically developing children to engage in joint attention behaviors—behaviors that involve interaction with another person around an object, idea, etc. (i.e. pointing). Recent research by Vismara and Lyons (2007), however, suggests that children with autism can engage in joint attention, but choose not to because they do not view simply connecting or sharing social experiences as rewarding or motivating. What they do find motivating, though, are their own extremely strong interests in a certain topic or activity. Parents of children in this study were trained to use Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT). PRT involves a caregiver following a child with autism’s lead in play behavior, varying tasks to maintain the child’s interest, and rewarding the child for social interaction during play. Parents in this study successfully used PRT and their children’s very strong interests to increase children’s motivation toward joint attention. Children began to participate more frequently in joint attention behaviors (i.e., directing their parent’s attention to an object). Eventually, parents introduced other topics (that their children did not strongly prefer) to play with their children, and the children continued to show an increase in joint attention behaviors. These results show that motivation is an important aspect in increasing joint attention behaviors in children with autism. This research provides us with important knowledge for intervention: by using PRT techniques and by using children’s strong interests in play, parents may be able to increase their children’s sharing of social experiences and decrease social avoidance.
Reference:
Vismara, L. A., & Lyons, G. L. (2007). Using perseverative interests to elicit joint attention behaviors in young children with autism: Theoretical and clinical implications for understanding motivation. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 9(4), 214–228. Retrieved January 25, 2008.
http://pbi.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/9/4/214
Increased Prevalence Rates Reported
Recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are more common among youth in the United States than previous estimates suggested. Large-scale CDC studies in 2000 6 U.S. communities and in 2002 of 14 U.S. communities found that approximately 1 out of 150 8-year-olds in these regions had an ASD. For decades, it was presumed that only 1 in 2,500 American children had an ASD. CDC is unsure of whether rates of ASD have actually increased or if estimates have changed primarily due to improved methods of researching prevalence rates. These estimates, suggesting high ASD rates, are important in helping school systems and health organizations effectively prepare for intervention efforts.
Reference:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2007). CDC releases new data on autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) from multiple communities in the United States. Retrieved January 24, 2008.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/2007/r070208.htm
Parental Strategies for Childhood Transitions
A recent study by Stoner, Angell, House, and Bock (2007) using interviews of parents of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrated that parents are very concerned about their children’s behavior during vertical transitions (i.e., going from first grade to second) and horizontal transitions (day-to-day transitions, i.e., going from school to home). Parents shared strategies they typically employ to limit their children’s anxiety during transition times. Interviewed parents often used a 3-step “identify-observe-explore” strategy. In this model, parents first identify times of change in which their child with ASD may feel anxious and confused. In the second step, parents allow their child with ASD to observe the environment where the transition will take place (i.e., the second-grade classroom where they will be expected to go in the fall) during a stress-free time. In the final step, parents allow their child to explore this new environment. Interviewed parents explained that this process is effective because it considers the distinct needs of each individual with ASD, aids in reducing a child’s anxiety, and builds trust between child and parents. They emphasized that in order for school transitions to be successful, parents and educators must share effective communication strategies. Interviewed parents explained that sending a journal back and forth between school and home is a useful tool to keep both parents and teachers aware of upcoming transitions that may make a child uncomfortable and to keep both parties up-to-date in order to best meet the child’s needs.
Reference:
Stoner, J. B., Angell, M. E., House, J. J., & Bock, S. J. (2007). Transitions: Perspectives from parents of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 19, 23–39. Retrieved January 25, 2008.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/18gg4332856x3w34/fulltext.html
RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS:
Autism research organizations and their websites are excellent sources of
information for parents and professionals. These research organizations
are awarding millions of dollars to the best and brightest researchers who are
working on effective treatments, prevention, and possibly even a cure.
Please do what you can to join in membership, donate to them, and
encourage your friends to do the same!
|
