Learning and Behaviour Autism Research

1
Learning and Behaviour - Autism Research

• Outline
• What is Autism?
• Prevalence of Autism
• Autistic Spectrum Disorders
• Characteristics of Autism
• Diagnosing Autism
• Intervention
• Behaviour Modification
• Applied Behavior Analysis
• Learning Outcomes
• Reading

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What is Autism?

• complex developmental disability
• Autism first described by Kanner (1943)
• typically appears during the first three years of
  life
• most severe childhood neuropsychiatric condition
• triad of impairments
• socialisation
• communication
• flexible behaviour / imagination

3
Prevalence of Autism

• 2-6 cases per 1,000
• growing at a rate of 10-17 percent per year
• boygirl 41 (or 51)
• Usually identified before 30 months
• No racial or socioeconomic differences

4
Autistic Spectrum Disorders

• Autism is one of five disorders coming under the
  umbrella of Pervasive Developmental Disorders
  (PDD)
• Autistic Disorder
• Asperger's Disorder
• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD)
• Rett's Disorder
• PDD-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)

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Characteristics of Autism

• Persons with autism may exhibit some of the
  following traits.
• Insistence on sameness resistance to change
• Difficulty in expressing needs uses gestures or
  pointing instead of words
• Repeating words or phrases in place of normal,
  responsive language
• Laughing, crying, showing distress for reasons
  not apparent to others
• Prefers to be alone aloof manner
• Tantrums
• Difficulty in mixing with others
• May not want to cuddle or be cuddled
• Little or no eye contact

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Characteristics of Autism (2)

• Unresponsive to normal teaching methods
• Sustained odd play
• Spins objects
• Inappropriate attachments to objects
• Apparent over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to
  pain
• No real fears of danger
• Noticeable physical over-activity or extreme
  under-activity
• Uneven gross/fine motor skills
• Not responsive to verbal cues acts as if deaf
  although hearing tests in normal range.

7
Language development

• delayed and deviant
• peculiar use of sounds and words
• Echolalia
• Pronominal reversal - use 'i' where 'you' is
  meant and vice-versa
• e.g. 'do you want a drink' instead of 'i want a
  drink'
• denial of personal identity? (psychoanalysts)
• or just related to echoing
• Use of '-ing'
• 'daddy piping', 'boy bubbling' (boy blowing
  bubbles) - 9 yr old autistic girl (Wing 1976)

8
Social development

• physical and emotional distance from others
• failure to develop social attachments
• lack of cooperative group play
• difficulties in reacting to or recognising other
  people's feelings

9
Intellectual development

• poor on verbal ability
• may perform above average on memory or spatial
  tasks
• may be talented in music or drawing
• 1/4 - 1/3 have IQgt70

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Diagnosing Autism

• no medical tests for diagnosing autism
• The NICHD lists these five behaviors that signal
  further evaluation is warranted
• Does not babble or coo by 12 months
• Does not gesture (point, wave, grasp) by 12
  months
• Does not say single words by 16 months
• Does not say two-word phrases on his or her own
  by 24 months
• Has any loss of any language or social skill at
  any age.
• tests
• CARS rating system (Childhood Autism Rating
  Scale)
• The Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT)
• The Autism Screening Questionnaire
• The Screening Test for Autism in Two-Year Olds

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Intervention

• Early intervention is critical
• Younger children have a greater degree of brain
  plasticity (Edelman, 1992)
• Variety of autistic behaviours
• Intervention programs must be tailored to
  individual
• Principles of operant conditioning are often of
  practical value
• Intensive Early Behavioural Intervention (IEBI)

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Behaviour Modification

• Based on Skinner (1957)
• Reinforcement
• Positive desirable event after behaviour
• Negative removing aversive stimuli
• Extinction
• Decrease occurrence of reinforcing events
• Punishment
• Aversive event after behaviour
• Removal of pleasurable stimulus

13
Applied Behavior Analysis

• 30 years of research demonstrated the efficacy
  of applied behavioural methods in reducing
  inappropriate behavior and in increasing
  communication, learning, and appropriate social
  behavior (US surgeon general, 1999)
• Lovaas, UCLA
• Intellectual and social gains for children with
  autism
• 1987 study experimental group and 2 control
  groups
• Experimental group (n19) 40 hours of
  one-to-one treatment per week
• Control group 1 (n19) 10 hours or less of
  one-to-one treatment per week
• Control group 2 (n21) no treatment
• By 1999, 250 Lovaas-style programmes in the UK

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Lovaas (1987) Treatment

• 40 hours/week for 2 or more years
• Student therapists and parents trained
• Behaviours targeted programs developed to
  develop behaviours
• Aggressive and self-stimulatory behaviours
  reduced
• Ignored
• Time-out
• Shaping of alternate behaviours
• No! or slap on the thigh
• Compliance to verbal requests
• Imitation
• Toy play
• Expressive language
• Play with peers
• Reading, writing, arithmetic

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Lovaas (1987) Results

• 47 of experimental group achieved normal
  intellectual and educational functioning
• 2 of control group achieved normal intellectual
  and educational functioning

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Problems with intervention programs

• Lots of reported success, but no one proven
  treatment
• Kasari (2002) identifies several issues
• Lack of comparison of treatments
• No random assignment to treatment/control groups
• Small samples
• Different measures used at pre-test and post-test

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Learning Outcomes

• Be able to describe autism and the
  characteristics of the disorder
• Be able to describe and evaluate research on
  autism
• Demonstrate an understanding of intervention
  programs and the debate surrounding their
  efficacy and methodologies

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Reading

• __________________________________________________
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• Papers
• Lovaas, O. I. (1987) Behavioral treatment and
  normal educational and intellectual functioning
  in young autistic children. Journal of Consulting
  and Clinical Psychology, 55, 3-9
• http//rsaffran.tripod.com/research1.html
• Kasari, C. (2002). Assessing change in early
  intervention programs for children with autism.
  Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,
  32, 447-461. (Available from EBSCO)
• Gresham, F. M. MacMillan, D. L. (1998). Early
  intervention project Can its claims be
  substantiated and its effects replicated? Journal
  of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 28, 5-13.
  (EBSCO)
• General books on autism
• Happe, F. (1994). Autism An introduction to
  psychological theory. London UCL Press (at KR)
• Frith, U. (2003). Autism Explaining the enigma.
  Oxford Blackwell
• Useful website - http//rsaffran.tripod.com/aba.ht
  ml