scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

The role of adaptive behavior in autism spectrum disorders: implications for functional outcome.

TL;DR: The results indicate that IQ is a strong predictor of adaptive behavior, the gap betweenIQ and adaptive impairments decreases in lower functioning individuals with ASD, and older individuals have a greater gap between IQ and adaptive skills.
Abstract: The relationship between adaptive functioning and autism symptomatology was examined in 1,089 verbal youths with ASD examining results on Vineland-II, IQ, and measures of ASD severity. Strong positive relationships were found between Vineland subscales and IQ. Vineland Composite was negatively associated with age. IQ accounted a significant amount of the variance in overall adaptive skills (55%) beyond age and ASD severity. Individuals with ASD demonstrated significant adaptive deficits and negligible associations were found between the level of autism symptomatology and adaptive behavior. The results indicate that IQ is a strong predictor of adaptive behavior, the gap between IQ and adaptive impairments decreases in lower functioning individuals with ASD, and older individuals have a greater gap between IQ and adaptive skills.
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This single clinical report updates the 2007 American Academy of Pediatrics clinical reports on the evaluation and treatment of ASD in one publication with an online table of contents and section view available to help the reader identify topic areas within the report.
Abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder with reported prevalence in the United States of 1 in 59 children (approximately 1.7%). Core deficits are identified in 2 domains: social communication/interaction and restrictive, repetitive patterns of behavior. Children and youth with ASD have service needs in behavioral, educational, health, leisure, family support, and other areas. Standardized screening for ASD at 18 and 24 months of age with ongoing developmental surveillance continues to be recommended in primary care (although it may be performed in other settings), because ASD is common, can be diagnosed as young as 18 months of age, and has evidenced-based interventions that may improve function. More accurate and culturally sensitive screening approaches are needed. Primary care providers should be familiar with the diagnosticcriteria for ASD, appropriate etiologic evaluation, and co-occurring medical and behavioral conditions (such as disorders of sleep and feeding, gastrointestinal tract symptoms, obesity, seizures, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, and wandering) that affect the child’s function and quality of life. There is an increasing evidence base to support behavioral and other interventions to address specific skills and symptoms. Shared decision making calls for collaboration with families in evaluation and choice of interventions. This single clinical report updates the 2007 American Academy of Pediatrics clinical reports on the evaluation and treatment of ASD in one publication with an online table of contents and section view available through the American Academy of Pediatrics Gateway to help the reader identify topic areas within the report.

582 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Those most at risk for intellectual disabilities and ASD can be reliably identified at an early age to receive comprehensive treatment, and findings suggest that some cognitively able children with ASD who participate in early intervention have very positive outcomes, although replication with randomized, larger samples is needed.
Abstract: Background The range of outcomes for young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and the early childhood factors associated with this diversity have implications for clinicians and scientists. Methods This prospective study provided a unique opportunity to predict outcome 17 years later for a relatively large sample of children diagnosed with ASD at 2 years old. Diagnostic and psychometric instruments were administered between 2 and 19 with data from 2, 3, and 19 included in this study. Clinicians administered tests without knowledge of previous assessments whenever possible. Caregivers provided additional information through questionnaires. Results Significant intellectual disabilities at 19 were predicted by age 2 about 85% of the time from VIQ and NVIQ scores together, though prediction of young adult outcome for youths with average or higher intelligence was more complex. By 19, 9% of participants had largely overcome core difficulties associated with ASD and no longer retained a diagnosis. These youths with Very Positive Outcomes were more likely to have participated in treatment and had a greater reduction in repetitive behaviors between age 2 and 3 compared to other Cognitively Able youths (VIQ ≥70) with ASD. Very Positive Outcome youths did not differ phenotypically from Cognitively Able ASD individuals at 2 but both groups differed from Cognitively Less Able individuals (VIQ <70). Conclusion Those most at risk for intellectual disabilities and ASD can be reliably identified at an early age to receive comprehensive treatment. Findings also suggest that some cognitively able children with ASD who participate in early intervention have very positive outcomes, although replication with randomized, larger samples is needed. In order to improve understanding of very positive outcomes in ASD, future research will need to identify how variations in child characteristics and environmental factors contribute to the nature and timing of growth across individuals and areas of development.

294 citations


Cites result from "The role of adaptive behavior in au..."

  • ...…significant cognitive impairment, adaptive skills were a relative strength for this group, beyond what their IQ scores would suggest – an encouraging finding which replicates several more recent studies with large ASD samples (e.g. Kanne et al., 2011; Perry, Flanagan, Geier, & Freeman, 2009)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A systems neuroscience rationale for successful cognitive training for neuropsychiatric illnesses is presented, one that emphasizes the distributed nature of neural assemblies that support cognitive and affective processing, as well as their plasticity.

271 citations


Cites background from "The role of adaptive behavior in au..."

  • ...…memory, complex language, and reasoning domains (Minshew et al, 1997) Cognitive capacity predicts adaptive behavior, beyond autism symptom severity (Kanne et al, 2010) Cognitive and language scores at age 2 predict outcome status (Turner et al, 2006) Aging brain and risk for dementia k Auditory…...

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed that profiling ASD children based on the nature of their sleep disruption might help to understand symptom and behavioral profiles and therefore lead to better-targeted interventions.
Abstract: Although there is evidence that significant sleep problems are common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and that poor sleep exacerbates problematic daytime behavior, such relationships have received very little attention in both research and clinical practice. Treatment guidelines to help manage challenging behaviors in ASD fail to mention sleep at all, or they present a very limited account. Moreover, limited attention is given to children with low-functioning autism, those individuals who often experience the most severe sleep disruption and behavioral problems. This paper describes the nature of sleep difficulties in ASD and highlights the complexities of sleep disruption in individuals with low-functioning autism. It is proposed that profiling ASD children based on the nature of their sleep disruption might help to understand symptom and behavioral profiles (or vice versa) and therefore lead to better-targeted interventions. This paper concludes with a discussion of the limitations of current knowledge and proposes areas that are important for future research. Treating disordered sleep in ASD has great potential to improve daytime behavior and family functioning in this vulnerable population.

264 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: If effects of non-ASD-specific factors are not addressed, SRS scores are more appropriately interpreted as indicating general levels of impairment, than as severity of ASD-specific symptoms or social impairment.
Abstract: Background: The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) is a parent-completed screening questionnaire often used to measure autism spectrum disorders (ASD) severity. Although child characteristics are known to influence scores from other ASD-symptom measures, as well as parent-questionnaires more broadly, there has been limited consideration of how non-ASD-specific factors may affect interpretation of SRS scores. Previous studies have explored effects of behavior problems on SRS specificity, but have not addressed influences on the use of the SRS as a quantitative measure of ASD-symptoms. Method: Raw scores (SRS-Raw) from parent-completed SRS were analyzed for 2,368 probands with ASD and 1,913 unaffected siblings. Regression analyses were used to assess associations between SRS scores and demographic, language, cognitive, and behavior measures. Results: For probands, higher SRS-Raw were associated with greater non-ASD behavior problems, higher age, and more impaired language and cognitive skills, as well as scores from other parent report measures of social development and ASD-symptoms. For unaffected siblings, having more behavior problems predicted higher SRS-Raw; male gender, younger age, and poorer adaptive social and expressive communication skills also showed small, but significant effects. Conclusions: When using the SRS as a quantitative phenotype measure, the influence of behavior problems, age, and expressive language or cognitive level on scores must be considered. If effects of non-ASD-specific factors are not addressed, SRS scores are more appropriately interpreted as indicating general levels of impairment, than as severity of ASDspecific symptoms or social impairment. Additional research is needed to consider how these factors influence the SRS’ sensitivity and specificity in large, clinical samples including individuals with disorders other than ASD. Keywords: Social Responsiveness Scale, autism spectrum disorder, behavior problems, age, language level.

234 citations


Cites background from "The role of adaptive behavior in au..."

  • ...…reliability and validity in normative samples, and score profiles in children with ASD reflect expected impairments in the Communication and Socialization domains (Sparrow et al., 2005; Kanne et al., 2011), suggesting that this was an appropriate measure of social impairment for both groups....

    [...]

References
More filters
Book
01 Dec 1969
TL;DR: The concepts of power analysis are discussed in this paper, where Chi-square Tests for Goodness of Fit and Contingency Tables, t-Test for Means, and Sign Test are used.
Abstract: Contents: Prefaces. The Concepts of Power Analysis. The t-Test for Means. The Significance of a Product Moment rs (subscript s). Differences Between Correlation Coefficients. The Test That a Proportion is .50 and the Sign Test. Differences Between Proportions. Chi-Square Tests for Goodness of Fit and Contingency Tables. The Analysis of Variance and Covariance. Multiple Regression and Correlation Analysis. Set Correlation and Multivariate Methods. Some Issues in Power Analysis. Computational Procedures.

115,069 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The revised interview has been reorganized, shortened, modified to be appropriate for children with mental ages from about 18 months into adulthood and linked to ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria.
Abstract: Describes the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), a revision of the Autism Diagnostic Interview, a semistructured, investigator-based interview for caregivers of children and adults for whom autism or pervasive developmental disorders is a possible diagnosis. The revised interview has been reorganized, shortened, modified to be appropriate for children with mental ages from about 18 months into adulthood and linked to ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria. Psychometric data are presented for a sample of preschool children.

8,264 citations


"The role of adaptive behavior in au..." refers background in this paper

  • ...In a related study ( Lord and Rutter 1994 ), weighted kappa values for individual items were 0.70 or higher with intraclass correlations ranging from 0.93 to 0.97....

    [...]

Book
01 Jan 1949

5,423 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) as mentioned in this paper includes five scales that provide information on cognitive and motor ability, including Gross Motor (0-33 months only), Visual Reception, Fine Motor, Expressive Language and Receptive Language.
Abstract: Short Description of Instrument: Description: The Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) includes five scales that provide information on cognitive and motor ability. The five scales include: Gross Motor (0–33 months only), Visual Reception, Fine Motor, Expressive Language and Receptive Language. In addition to assessing a child’s strength and weaknesses, this measure is used to assess school readiness. Included in the questionnaire are three different forms depending on the age of the child; 15 minute test for a 1-year old, 25– 35 minute test for 3 year olds and 40–60 minutes for 5 year olds. The report generated from this measure includes a list of tasks that parents can help their child learn at home (based on age).

2,320 citations