Week 4 - ASD Flashcards
What are the 2 types of ASD diagnostic criteria?
- Social-communication impairments
2. Restricted repetitive behaviours
Social-communication impairments details
- Social-emotional reciprocity: backwards & forwards conversations (one sided in children with ASD)
- Problems developing, maintaining & understanding relationships
- Challenges with non-verbal communication (gestures, eye contact & facial expressions)
Restricted repetitive behaviours details
- Insistence on sameness & routine
- Stereotyped movements, speech or use of objects (hand flapping, repeating words, lining objects up)
- Sensory hyper- or hypo-reactivity or sensory interests
- Highly restricted fixated interests (obsessed with trains or dinosaurs)
Casual factors of ASD
- Genetics: highly hereditary
- Suspected environmental factors (advanced parental age, preterm birth or low birth weight)
Established cognitive theories to explain the processing style of people with ASD
- Theory of Mind
- Weak central coherence
- Executive function
Emerging theory: Predictive coding theory
Theory of mind concept
Children on the spectrum failed the false belief tests
e.g. Smarties box experiment
(unable to perceive that people have beliefs different to their own)
Weak central coherence
- Focus on the local details rather than the global aspects of an object of interest
- Weak central coherence is characteristic of autism
e. g students on the spectrum may be very good at rote learning, however, may miss the point of some lessons. They may also obsess about the details and fail to complete tasks
Executive functioning
- Are essential when a change of plan occurs, when a routine behaviour no longer suffices or when an individual needs to keep several tasks going at the same time
e. g. juggling exams and assignments
Predictive coding
- Brains continually make predictions about what will come next based on current sensory input, and past experiences
- People on the spectrum may:
- have difficulty processing input that is different from what they expected
A 2 year old child has been referred to you for assessment with a query of a diagnosis of ASD. As part
of your information gathering what particular information will you need to look for/focus on
gathering that may help clarify whether or not a diagnosis of ASD is appropriate?
● Behavioral observation in variety of environments
● Nature of communication – verbal and non-verbal language, communication attempts, regression
● Nature of social skills – eye contact, awareness of others, joint attention, shared enjoyment, initiation, coping with
changes in routine, social norms, relating to others
● Nature of behaviour – repetitive interests, transition between tasks, stereotyped behaviours, sensory modulation,
behavioral routines, cognitive flexibility, abstract concepts, skill generalisation
● Assessment of play - observe their independence, communication, social skills, attention, stereotypical
behaviour, eye contact etc.
● Gross and fine motor skills
The three key strategies used to improve occupational performance across contexts for
children with ASD?
● Facilitate child’s ability to follow family routine or create functional routine
● Develop strategies to function within context of sensory processing challenges
● Develop skills for social participation, including self-regulation, social and prosocial skills
● Also - advocacy
ASD patient difficulties
- Motor coordination
- Sensory challenges
- Filtering challenges
Motor Coordination difficulties in ASD patients
- Difficulties in ball skills & fine motor dexterity
- Handwriting challenges
Sensory challenges in ASD patients
Under-reactivity or over-reactivity
Filtering challenges in ASD patients
- Often don’t notice others speaking to them
- Filtering noice perception
