Autism Spectrum Disorder

Question 1

Leo Kanner (1943)

Answer 1

Described autism as ‘Autistic Disturbances of affective Contact’
“We must assume that the children have come into the world with innate inability to form the usual, biologically provided affective contact with people.”

Question 2

Hans Asperger (1944)

Answer 2

Described autism as ‘Autistic Psychopathy’
“The characteristic peculiarity of gaze never fails to be present….They do not make eye
contact… there is a poverty of facial expression & gestures… yet there are many stereotypic movements. The use of language always appears abnormal…..”

Question 3

DSM 5 Criteria 1

Answer 3

1. Clinically significant, persistent deficits in social communication and interactions, as
   manifest by all of the following:
   –Marked deficits in nonverbal and verbal communication used for social interaction;
   –Lack of social reciprocity;
   –Failure to develop and maintain peer relationships appropriate to developmental level.

Question 4

DSM 5 Criteria 2

Answer 4

2. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests and activities, as manifested by at least TWO of the following:
   –Stereotyped motor or verbal behaviours, or unusual sensory behaviours;
   –Excessive adherence to routines and ritualized patterns of behaviour;
   –Restricted, fixated interests.

Question 5

DSM 5 Criteria 3

Answer 5

3. Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities).

Question 6

How is an autistic person diagnosed?

Answer 6

1. Collative information from family/social history and co-morbidity
2. ASD specific developmental history
3. Observational assessment
4. Individual profiling (cognitive assessment, communication/speech and language assessment)

Question 7

What does the Autism Diagnostic Interview - Revised assess

Answer 7

1. General orientation
2. Early developmental history
3. Communication & language
4. Social development & play
5. Repetitive behaviours & interests
6. Other clinical behaviours & special skills

Question 8

Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule 2

Answer 8

An interaction and observation assessment for ASD that identifies behaviours of interests and elicits those behaviours

Question 9

Leekam et al (2006)

Answer 9

Approximately 90% of individuals with ASD experience sensory difficulties

Question 10

Hyper-responsiveness in ASD

Answer 10

An exaggerated or aversive response to sensory stimuli (e.g., refusal to try new foods, dislike of certain materials, extreme sensitivity to sound

Question 11

Hypo-responsiveness in ASD

Answer 11

The absence or a diminished response to sensory stimuli (e.g., not responding to name, not responding to pain)

Question 12

How common is anxiety in ASD?

Answer 12

Anxiety affects around 40% ‐ 50% of children and adults with ASD

Question 13

Theory of Mind definition

Answer 13

Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others and to use such mental state attribution to make sense of behaviour and predict it.

Question 14

First order Theory of Mind

Answer 14

The ability to understand a person’s mental state (eg “He thinks X”)

Question 15

Second order Theory of Mind

Answer 15

When theory of mind is applied recursively to understand what someone is thinking of another person’s mental state (e.g., “He thinks that she thinks x”).

Question 16

Assessments of Theory of Mind

Answer 16

“Sally Anne” and “Smarties Task”

Question 17

Baron-Cohen et al (1985)

Answer 17

¾ of children with autism have difficulties understanding the minds of others and recognising that other peoples beliefs may be different from their own.

Question 18

Hoogenhout and Malcolm-Smith (2017)

Answer 18

Theory of Mind predicts severity of ASD

Question 19

Are Theory of Mind deficits just autism?

Answer 19

Not all autistic people show deficits in Theory of Mind

There are also other atypical groups that show poor performance on Theory of Mind tasks

Question 20

Criticism of Theory of Mind

Answer 20

There are criticisms related to what Theory of Mind tasks assess

There are inconsistencies in the definition used to characterise advanced Theory of Mind

Question 21

Central Coherence (typical)

Answer 21

• People usually have a desire to gain a higher‐level meaning
• Everyday tendency to process incoming information in context (i.e. gist)

Question 22

Processing difficulties in autism

Answer 22

There is a bias towards local processing (an inability yo experience wholes without experiencing the individual parts)

Question 23

Happe (1996)

Answer 23

Autistic people do not succumb to visual illusions

Question 24

Happe (1995)

Answer 24

Autistic people fail to use context in reading

Question 25

Tests autistic people perform better in

Answer 25

Ebbinghaus Illusion and Embedded Figures test

Question 26

Van der Hallen et al (2015)

Answer 26

Did a meta-analysis of 56 articles of 1,000 ASD participants using a wide range of stimuli and tasks to investigate local and global visual processing in ASD

Question 27

Results of Van Der Hallen et al (2015)

Answer 27

No enhanced local visual processing nor a deficit in global visual processing.

Analysis reveals a difference in the temporal pattern of the local–global balance, that is, slow global processing in individuals with ASD

Question 28

Ozonoff et al (1991)

Answer 28

Autistic people have deficits on planning tasks e.g., Tower of Hanoi

Question 29

Prior et al (1990)

Answer 29

Autistic people have deficits on shifting tasks e.g., Wisconsin Card Sorting Task

Question 30

Wang et al (2007)

Answer 30

Autistic people have significant working memory impairments, with the visuo‐spaital sketchpad more severely impaired than phonological loop

Question 31

Christ et al (2007)

Answer 31

Autistic people have impaired performance on inhibition tasks e.g., Flanker task and Go/no‐go task

Question 32

Kercood et al (2014)

Answer 32

Inconsistent evidence for working memory impairments

Question 33

Guests et al (2014)

Answer 33

Inhibition problems are often observed in children with ASD, but there is a large variation between studies

Question 34

Issue with executive function experiments

Answer 34

There are many differences between studies in the tasks used, and some issue of task impurity

Question 35

What could Theory of Mind be responsible for?

Answer 35

Social and communication impairments

Question 36

What could executive function be responsible for?

Answer 36

Repetitive behaviours.

AND PATHOLOGICAL DEMAND AVOIDANCE (Goodson, 2018). Autistic children and adolescents with PDA traits appeared to have more EF deficits than non ASD children.

Question 37

What could weak central coherence be responsible for?

Answer 37

Special talents and peaks in performance

Question 38

Camouflaging / Compensation / Masking definition

Answer 38

The employment of specific behavioural and cognitive strategies by autistic people to adapt to or cope within the predominately non‐autistic social world

Question 39

Examples of masking

Answer 39

Examples include supressing repetitive hand movements, forcing eye contact, using conversational scripts, and using learned rules to respond to others’ non‐verbal behaviour.

Question 40

What is participatory research in autism?

Answer 40

Refers to ways of involving autistic people and their allies (e.g. family members) in making decisions about research.

These decisions can include what research gets done, how it gets done and how research findings are used.

Question 41

Medical model of ASD

Answer 41

There are suggestions that we need to move away from the medical model/ ‘impairment’ view of ASD
* The ‘impairment’ view may be societally harmful
* There is a clear move towards neurodiversity perspectives and inclusive practices

Question 42

Spectrum 10K

Answer 42

A study launched in 2021, pioneered by Baron-Cohen, that was meant to look at genetic causes of autism. 12 autistic people were asked about the ethics of the study prior to recruitment, during recruitment there was a large outcry. Baron-Cohen acknowledges more autistic people should have been asked.