autism spectrum disorder

Question 1

what is autism

Answer 1

neurodevelopment disorder
atypical brain functioning
unknown cause but genetic + environmental disorder
1 in 100

Question 2

diagnostic criteria: impairment in social communication

Answer 2

impairment in social emotional reciprocity

• sharing /exchange difficulty
• difficulty in conversation

impaired in non verbal communication

• eye gazing
• facial expression
• gestures

impairment in developing, maintaining & understanding relationship

all 3 for disgnostic

Question 3

diagnostic criteria: restricted repetitive behaviours (RRBs)

Answer 3

repetitive movements, use of objects or speech
insistence on sameness, inflexible routine, ritualized behavior
intense and unusual interest
sensory difficulty

Question 4

diagnosis

Answer 4

the autism diagnostic observation schedule

autism diagnostic interview

Question 5

single deficit account

Answer 5

cognitive atypicality should

• be universal n indv w autism
• be unique to autism
• show explanatory power

Question 6

theory of mind

Answer 6

ability to attribute mental states (emotions, desires, beliefs) to the self and others.
belief: more sophisticated than emotions/desires, involves understanding that people act in accordance to what they think about the world rather than how it really is

Question 7

theory of mind in autism

Answer 7

H: autistic indv. don’t have ToM-> mind blindness

the sally-anne task
80% autistic children failed
20% passed

Question 8

anticipatory looking

Answer 8

capture spontanuous false beliefs
would autstic adults who can pass sally anne task show false belief understanding ?

=>absence of spontaneous nd intuitive ToM in autism, despite ability to pass explicit tasks

Question 9

Frith- Happe animatons

Answer 9

measure ToM by coding spontaneous and intuitive use of mental state language
autistic grp: more inappropriate mentalising explanation
performed as well as the control grp for false belief task

Question 10

ToM theory to test

Answer 10

universal: not all autistic indv. fail FB task
unique: can have impaired ToM and not have autism
explanatory : ToM doesnt explain all behavioral symptom in autism

Question 11

ToM theory to test

Answer 11

universal: not all autistic indv. fail FB task
unique: can have impaired ToM and not have autism
explanatory: ToM doesn’t explain all behavioral symptom in autism

Question 12

executive function

Answer 12

‘mental toolbox’
cognitive processes importnat for flexible, goal oriented behaviour especcially şn novel situations
includind: planning, working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility

EF planning: autistic find it difficult to plan moves
EF cognitive flexibility: impaired, difficulty to shift to sorting new rule display
EF inhibition: no impairment

Question 13

EF to test

Answer 13

universal: no
unique : other clinical gro show EF impairment
explanatory: EF does to explain ay social &communication behaviour where EF low

Question 14

why interested in perception

Answer 14

perception is the interpretation of sensory input- what we see, hear, smell, taste and touch
fundamental building block of more complex cognitive and behavioural process

ToM and EF are ‘higher order’ mental processes-> cognitive, but relies on basic perception input

Question 15

enhanced perceptual functioning

Answer 15

H: perceptual processing is superiro in autism, disrupts dev of other behaviour and abilities

1 in5. autistic adolescent had enhanced frequency discrimination characterised by average intellectual delay in language