autism REVISE Flashcards
what type of disorder is autism?
a neuro-developmental disorder
how many neurons are made per second in the peak of being a toddler?
2 million
when do people start making memories and why?
around 3 years old as this is when the language and frontal lobes develop
memeories are conscious recall facilitated through language
how many synapses will the brain have at 3 years old?
1000 trillion
when does process of synaptic pruning begin and slow down
begins at 3
by adolescence around 1/2 synapses have been discarded
which 2 parts of the brain are involved in empathy and fear response?
amygdala and hippocampus
what emotions are we able to display from birth?
content and displeasure
what emotions are we able to display from 6 months?
more complex emotions e.g surprise and sadness
when do girls begin to be able to empathise?
1 year old`
when does Theory of Mind begin to develop?
3 years old
when does complex theory of mind develop?
7-9 years
what is Theory of Mind?
explanation for it’s being impaired in autism?
being able to attribute mental states to others,
to infer what someone is thinking or feeling
know they have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different to one’s own
impaired in those with autism perhaps due to the fact they mainly look at the mouths of people and not the eyes which tend to reveal their emotions
also, no activation in amygdala which helps identify emotions when looking at faces
what is empathy?
ability to understand and share the feelings of another
what is cognitive empathy?
conscious drive to understand and infer what someone else is thinking
(theory of mind)
what is affective empathy?
feel and share their emotion in order to respond appropriately
how does Theory of Mind develop?
babies develop pre-verbal social skills e.g making noises
they begin to use gestures which leads to shared communication and shared perspcetive
normal communication enables a chilld to share in the perceptions and thoughts of those around them
what is a description of austism?
when the ability to connect with people is absent
i.e both cognitive and affective empathy s impaired
what percentage of children with austism have a learning difficulty?
75%
the rest have borderline learning disabilities
is autism roughly equal across culture and social class?
yes
which gender is diagnosed more frequently and is there an explanation for this?
3-4:1 to boys
girls diagnosed less as overlooked as shy and less effective in diagnosing girls than boys
prevalence of autism in children?
affects 1 in every 110 children
parental influences as a cause of austism?
old notion of “refrigerator mother” who is cold and rejecting causing autism in the child
no evidence to support this
although, possible for mother to seem cold if has autism herself
MMR vaccine as a cause of autism?
no evidence for this being correct
however, many mothers stopped children from having this vaccine, leading to many having these diseases which may have onset autism due to brain injury
Kaye found incidence of autism increased from 0.3 to 2.1 per 10 000 from 1988 to 1999 when MMR vaccine at same level
what are the factors in the triad of impairment of people with autism?
socialisation - e.g looking through people and turning their backs on them as see people as unpredictable
language developent - e.g refer to themselves in third person and not understand complex language like sayings or sarcasm
behaviour - e.g engage in repetitive acts
why may people with autism view everything as threating and therefore people as unpredictable?
disconnection between cerebellum and other parts of the brain which acts as a warning system so not regulated
biological causes of autism?
genetics : 91% of MZ twins and about 0% of DZ twins
heritability estimate of 80%
illness : e.g rubella direct cause as causes increased neurobiological abnormality in the brain
neurobiological causes?
brain size increases between ages 2-4 larger than average which could indicate that neurons aren’t being pruned correctly and therefore the brain is not maturing
abnormalities in the cerebellum (linked to less exploratory behaviour)
difference in size of the amygdala at different ages which is associated with social and emotional behaviour
early signs of autism? social impairment
abnormal social play, impaired ability to make friends
behaviours explained by lack of theory of mind as don’t attribute differet emotions to others e.g Sally Anne experiment
problem in joint attention (interactions requiring 2 people to pay attention to each other)
early signs of autism? language impairment
less frequent babbling as a baby
echolalia (echoing someone else)
pronoun reversal and refering in 3rd person
early signs of autism? restricted behavioural repertoire
why they may behave in this way?
obsessional and ritualistic quality to behaviour
distress over changes in routine
play with inanimate objects
why? attempting to impose order on external world as can’t organise inteneral world
psychological treatment of austism?
behavioural interventions and working with parents e.g ‘super-parenting’ at 2/3 years old which is micro parenting by involving experts to change trajectory from definietely autistic to slighty
what are the goals of intervention?
reducing unusual behaviour and improving social and communication skills
issues with intervention?
changing routine which frustrates child
usual rewards such as social praise not rewarding
what percetage of general population vs. prison population is autistic?
1.5% of general pop.
15% of prison pop.
as have poor empathy, frustrated easily, misinterpretation of social cues and exlcuded from schools
what may explain why those with autism find it comforting to act in the way that they do?
they may have wrongly learnt how to self-soothe and comfort themselves due to absense of soothing from and non-engaging parents so never taught the right way to comfort themselves
distorted view of what’s comforting
what must be considered when diagnosising autism and other childhood disorders?
the age of the child and whether their behaviours are atypical for that age
differences in classification of autsim in DSM4 and DSM5?
DSM 4 - autism under umbrella term of ‘pervasive developmental disorders’ along with Asperger’s etc. but distinct disorders
DSM5 - autism and Asperger’s disorder called ‘autism spectrum disorder’ and considered one disorder (only difference is variance in severity)
what is meant by externalising disorders?
which gender are they more common in?
characterised by more outward-directed behaviours
more common in boys
what is meant by internalising disorders?
which gender are they more common in?
characterised by more inward-focused experiences and behaviours
more common in girls
why is it often difficult to distinguish between a child with autism and intellectual development disorder?
and what is the main difference between these 2 disorders?
many children with autism score below 70 on IQ tests
autism - score badly on language questions but well on visuo-spatial tasks
IDD - score badly in everything
which type of children with autsim will generally have the best outcomes?
those with higher IQ and can speak before the age of 6
drug treatments for autism
effectiveness
negatives
comparison to behavioural treatments
haloperidol
may reduce social withdrawal and maladaptive behaviours
no improvement in social functioning and language impairment
side effects e.g dyskinesias
much less effective than behavioural treatments
