Brief Report: Structure of Personal Narratives of Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Young adults with High Functioning Autism and a matched comparison group told personal narratives using a standard conversational procedure. Longest narratives were determined (i.e., number of propositions included) and scored using an analysis that looks at the organization of a narrative around a highpoint. The group with Autism Spectrum Disorder produced narratives with significantly poorer HP macrostructure and introduced proportionately fewer propositions with conjunctions. Such impairments in the ability to make sense of personal experiences both reflect and contribute to difficulty in social-emotional functioning.     

Brief Report: Selective Social Anhedonia in High Functioning Autism

Diminished social motivation is one of the most striking features in autism. Yet, few studies have directly assessed the value people with an ASD place on social interactions, or how rewarding they report it to be. In the present study, we directly measure social motivation by looking at responses to a questionnaire assessing self-reported pleasure in social and non social situations. Twenty-nine adolescents with ASD and matched controls took part in the study. Our results reveal that children with an ASD differ from the controls with respect to social enjoyment, but not with respect to physical and other sources of hedonism. Further analyses demonstrate that the degree of social anhedonia correlates with autism severity.     

Brief Report: Autism in Individuals with Down Syndrome

As an off-shoot of a study examining the reliability and validity of an adapted version of the Pre-Linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (A-PL-ADOS), 13 individuals with Down syndrome with IQs ranging between 24 and 48 were administered the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the A-PL-ADOS, which are well-validated interview and observational diagnostic measures. Three out of 13 met lifetime criteria on the ADI-R, but none of these three showed behavior that met the criterion for autism on the A-PL-ADOS (although two nearly did so). However, two individuals did meet the A-PL-ADOS criterion and showed behavior that fell only just short of meeting lifetime criteria on the ADI-R. Altogether, 5 individuals with Down syndrome may be considered to show an autism spectrum disorder. Of the remaining 8, some showed a few autistic features, and some showed none. The findings raise both methodological and conceptual issues.     

Brief Report: Narratives of Personal Events in Children with Autism and Developmental Language Disorders: Unshared Memories

Narrative analysis of personal events provides an opportunity for identifying autism specific issues related to language and social impairments. Eight personal events were elicited from three groups of schoolage children: 14 high-functioning with Autism Spectrum Disorders (HFA), 12 non-autistic with developmental language disorders (DLD), and 12 typically developing matched for chronological age and non-verbal IQ. The coding focused on narrative format (constituents) and style (coherence). The analyses indicate basic knowledge of conventional narrative format in all groups but a consistent lack of high-point in HFA children’s stories interpreted as a consequence of their lack of social understanding of narrative. The results suggest novel interventions to foster autobiographical memory in HFA children which may assist in their self-awareness development. This paper is based on a dissertation submitted by the author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree in Psychology at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York. Portions of this research were presented at a joint meeting of the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders and the International Congress for the Study of Child Language. Madison, WI, in July 2002.     

Brief Report: Social and Communication Abilities and Disabilities in Higher Functioning Individuals with Autism and Asperger Syndrome

Individuals with higher functioning autism (HFA) fail to translate their cognitive potential into real-life adaptation, and the severity of their symptoms is considerable despite their intellectual ability. This paper reports on a subsample from a larger study (A. Klin et al., in press) analyzed here by autism spectrum subtypes. It focuses on the nature of ability and disability in HFA and Asperger syndrome (AS) in relation to age and IQ. Participants included 32 individuals with autism and 35 with AS. Individuals with AS had significantly higher Verbal IQ scores and less symptomatology than individuals with autism, but their Vineland scores were equally impaired, highlighting the adaptive deficits in ASD regardless of classification. No relationship was found between adaptive functioning and symptom severity.     

Brief Report: Inhibitory Control of Socially Relevant Stimuli in Children with High Functioning Autism

The current study explored whether inhibitory control deficits in high functioning autism (HFA) emerged when socially relevant stimuli were used and whether arousal level affected the performance. A Go/NoGo paradigm, with socially relevant stimuli and varying presentation rates, was applied in 18 children with HFA (including children with autism or Asperger syndrome) and 22 typically developing children (aged 8–13 years). Children with HFA did not show inhibitory control deficits compared to the control group, but their performance deteriorated in the slow presentation rate condition. Findings were unrelated to children’s abilities to recognize emotions. Hence, rather than a core deficit in inhibitory control, low arousal level in response to social stimuli might influence the responses given by children with HFA.     

Brief Report: Feasibility of Social Cognition and Interaction Training for Adults with High Functioning Autism

The goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and utility of a group-based cognitive behavioral intervention to improve social-cognitive functioning in adults with high-functioning autism (HFA). We modified the treatment manual of a previously validated intervention, Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT), for optimal use with HFA adults (SCIT-A). We then conducted a pilot study to compare SCIT-A (n = 6) to treatment as usual (TAU) (n = 5) for adults with HFA. Feasibility was supported; attendance was high (92%) and satisfaction reports were primarily positive. Participants in SCIT-A showed significant improvement in theory-of-mind skills and trend level improvements in social communication skills; TAU participants did not show these improvements. Findings indicate SCIT-A shows promise as an intervention for adults with HFA.     

Brief Report: Repetitive Behaviours in Greek Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The main objective of this study was to examine the factor structure of restricted repetitive behaviours (RRBs) in a sample of 205 Greek individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), using the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R). Results show that the structure of RRBs in this Greek sample can be described using a 2-factor solution. The current study provides further, cross-cultural support for the distinction between a “high-order” factor reflecting compulsions, rituals, sameness, and restricted behaviours (CRSRB) and a “low-order” factor reflecting stereotyped movements and self-injurious behaviours (SSIB). These factors are most likely located at the top of the RRB structural hierarchy and represent general, independent constructs of ASD behaviours that can be identified not only across studies but also across cultures.     

Brief Report: Perception of Genuine and Posed Smiles by Individuals with Autism

Individuals with autism are impaired in the recognition of fear, which may be due to their reduced tendency to look at the eyes. Here we investigated another potential perceptual and social consequence of reduced eye fixation. The eye region of the face is critical for identifying genuine, or sincere, smiles. We therefore investigated this ability in adults with autism. We used eye-tracking to measure gaze behaviour to faces displaying posed and genuine smiles. Adults with autism were impaired on the posed/genuine smile task and looked at the eyes significantly less than did controls. Also, within the autism group, task performance correlated with social interaction ability. We conclude that reduced eye contact in autism leads to reduced ability to discriminate genuine from posed smiles with downstream effects on social interaction.     

Brief Report: A Comparison of Statistical Learning in School-Aged Children with High Functioning Autism and Typically Developing Peers

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders have impairments in language acquisition, but the underlying mechanism of these deficits is poorly understood. Implicit learning is potentially relevant to language development, particularly in speech segmentation, which relies on sensitivity to transitional probabilities between speech sounds. This study investigated the relationship between implicit learning and current language abilities in school-aged children with high functioning autism and a history of language delay (n = 17) and in children with typical development (n = 24) using a well-studied artificial language learning task. Results suggest that high functioning children with autism (HFA) and TD groups were equally able to implicitly learn transitional probabilities from a lengthy stimulus stream. Furthermore, task performance was not strongly associated with current language abilities. Implications for implicit learning research in HFA are discussed.     

Brief Report: Imitation of Meaningless Gestures in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-functioning Autism

Nineteen people with Asperger syndrome (AS)/High-Functioning Autism (HFA) (ages 7–15) were tested on imitation of two types of meaningless gesture: hand postures and finger positions. The individuals with AS/HFA achieved lower scores in the imitation of both hand and finger positions relative to a matched neurotypical group. The between-group difference was primarily accounted for by performance on a test of visual motor integration, together with a hand imitation deficit which was specifically due to errors in body part orientation. Our findings implicate both visuomotor processes (Damasio and Maurer, 1978) and self-other mapping (Rogers and Pennington, 1991) in ASD imitation deficits. Following Goldenberg (1999), we propose that difficulties with body part orientation may underlie problems in meaningless gesture imitation.     

Brief Report: Relations between Prosodic Performance and Communication and Socialization Ratings in High Functioning Speakers with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Shriberg et al. [Shriberg, L. et al. (2001). Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 44, 1097–1115] described prosody–voice features of 30 high functioning speakers with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to age-matched control speakers. The present study reports additional information on the speakers with ASD, including associations among prosody–voice variables and ratings of communication social abilities. Results suggest that the inappropriate sentential stress and hypernasality previously identified in some of these speakers is related to communication/sociability ratings. These findings and associated trends are interpreted to indicate important links between prosodic performance and social and communicative competence. They suggest the need for careful assessment of inappropriate prosody and voice features in speakers with ASD, and for effective intervention programs aimed at reducing the stigmatization of individuals with these conditions.     

Brief Report: Perceptual Load and the Autism Spectrum in Typically Developed Individuals

A fundamental task of the cognitive system is to prioritize behaviourally relevant sensory inputs for processing at the expense of irrelevant inputs. In a study of neurotypical participants (n = 179), we utilized a brief flanker interference task while varying the perceptual load of the visual display. Typically, increasing perceptual load (i.e., with greater numbers of search items) reduces interference from a competing peripheral distractor. We show that individuals who score above average on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) show stronger interference at high perceptual load than individuals with below-average AQ scores. This is consistent with recent findings in individuals with autism spectrum conditions, and supports the idea that the cognitive style of the autistic brain is reflected in a broader phenotype across the population.     

The Role of Causal and Intentional Judgments in Moral Reasoning in Individuals with High Functioning Autism

In the present study, we investigated the ability to assign moral responsibility and punishment in adults with high functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome (HFA/AS), using non-verbal cartoons depicting an aggression, an accidental harm or a mere coincidence. Participants were asked to evaluate the agent’s causal and intentional roles, his responsibility and the punishment he deserves for his action. Adults with HFA/AS did not differ in judgments of suffering and causality from adults with typical development. However, subtle difficulties with judgments of intentional action and moral judgments were observed in participants with HFA/AS. These results are discussed in the light of emerging studies that deal with integrity of moral reasoning in individuals with autism spectrum disorders.     

Brief Report: Effect of a Focused Imitation Intervention on Social Functioning in Children with Autism

Imitation is an early skill thought to play a role in social development, leading some to suggest that teaching imitation to children with autism should lead to improvements in social functioning. This study used a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effect of a focused imitation intervention on initiation of joint attention and social-emotional functioning in 27 young children with autism. Results indicated the treatment group made significantly more gains in joint attention initiations at post-treatment and follow-up and social-emotional functioning at follow-up than the control group. Although gains in social functioning were associated with treatment, a mediation analysis did not support imitation as the mechanism of action. These findings suggest the intervention improves social functioning in children with ASD.