Theories of Autism Flashcards
- An online survey showed that … is most preferred by people on the spectrum, and … is most preferred by professionals (Kenny et al., 2016)
‘autistic person’
person with autism
prevalence
1% of population (700k in UK)
Clinically defined by a combination of
Impairments in social-communication
Restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour (including sensory processing differences)
- 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
- 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.
impact of RRBs
RRB (repetetive and restricted) may be functional/helpful
- May increase opportunities for socialisation (Koegel et al., 2013)
Stimming =
self-regulatory mechanism helps calm them
Social communication and interaction
- Keep language simple and concrete
- Allow time for the person to process
- Explain at every stage what you are about to do, what will happen next, and why - difficulty adapting to change
Avoid
- Words with double meanings
- Double negatives
- Humour that could be misunderstood
- Too many instructions at once
- Too many choices (give limited choices)
social model of disability
difficulties experiences by autistic people aren’t located within the autistic person, but actually in the interpersonal space between autistic people and others in their environment
- Autistic peoples difficulties are more the result of the barriers that they face in society, in environments that aren’t adapted for people like them. That don’t take into account their difficulties such as sensory sensitivity.
medical model view of autism
difficulties associated with autism within the autistic person - that is as a disorder or deficit to be treated or cured
3 main cognitive theories
- Theory of Mind
- failure to acknowledge others have their own thoughts and beliefs - Executive Dysfunction
- deficits in inhibition, planning and executive memory - working memory - Weak Central Coherence
- preference for local details over the global whole or context.- Perceptual & conceptual
○ How we see and think about the world
- Perceptual & conceptual
- Baron-Cohen et al 1985
- only 20% of autistic children with a mental age of 4 years old give this correct answer – 80% say that sally will look in the box. So, a majority of autistic children do not take into account Sally’s false belief.
- 85% of typical developing children, and 86% of children with downsyndrome however were able to pass this false belief task. This suggests that ToM difficulties are unique to autism and not associated with general intellectual disability.
- Therefore, Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues concluded that a majority of autistic children had a deficit in ToM.
ToM
those with AD have a deficit in ToM
- Baron-Cohen (1989):
2nd order false belief
- ASD pass 1st order, fail 2nd order
- Proposed that ToM problem was a delay rather than a deficit
- BUT: Aspergers pass 2nd order (Bowler, 1992)
- -> Deficit of ToM not universal!
