A qualitative study on the social-emotional benefits of Drumtastic Ability Beats® for children with autism spectrum disorder

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-47
Author(s):  
Lyn G. Litchke, PhD ◽  
Mary Margaret Bracken, MSRLS-TR

This qualitative collective case study explored the social-emotional benefits of Drumtastic Ability Beats® in a dyadic partnership between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a college graduate student (GS). Fourteen male campers, ages 5-14, engaged in eight, 1-hour Drumtastic Ability Beats® sessions, twice a week, at a 4-week camp for children with ASD. Data collection focused on observational narrative field notes completed by the campers’ GS partner after each session. Thematic analysis revealed three primary themes: (1) familiarization through synchronization, (2) creative self-expression, and (3) self-regulation of emotions. These findings underscore the potential value of group drumming as a means to promote opportunities to enhance social-emotional regulation through facilitating relationships for children with ASD.

Medicina ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan DiPietro ◽  
Arpad Kelemen ◽  
Yulan Liang ◽  
Cecilia Sik-Lanyi

Background and objectives: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges with social interactions, a core feature of the disorder. Social skills therapy has been shown to be helpful. Over the past several years, computer-assisted and robot-assisted therapies have been infiltrating the social skills teaching environment. Rapid progress in the field of technology, especially in the robotics area, offers tremendous possibilities for innovation and treatment or even education for individuals with ASD. This paper’s purpose is to drive awareness of these innovative interventions in order to support the social lives of children with ASD. The aims of the paper are identifying (1) the types of Information Technology platforms that are being evaluated in computer and robot-assisted therapies for children with ASD; (2) the various disciplines or professions studying and utilizing these computer and robot-assisted social skill therapies; (3) the outcomes being evaluated in each trial; and (4) if results demonstrate benefits to children with autism. Materials and Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, Science Direct, and Web of Science databases were searched for clinical trials published over the past five years. Search terms incorporated the subject intersection of autism, and computer or robot-assisted therapy. Results were mined for pediatric populations only and study designs establishing controlled comparisons. Results: Eighteen unique international studies were identified that utilize robot interventions (11 studies) and serious computer game interventions (seven studies). Most demonstrated promising results in improving outcomes for children with ASD. Study implications reveal a rapidly evolving assistive technology for ASD social skills therapy. Conclusions: These interventions show considerable promise, but more effectiveness and cost effectiveness research of high quality should be carried out with larger numbers of children. Also, further studies are necessary to evaluate these technologies’ effectiveness amongst adults with ASD and within unique subsets of the higher functioning autism population.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 2156-2162

Technology-assisted intervention has potentials in improving the social, communication and behavior impairments in of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Augmented reality (AR) offers multitude of possibilities and opportunities for the intervention of children with ASD. Therefore, this study identifies 13 researches from 2012 to 2018 that documented the efficacy of augmented reality applications in supporting the intervention of children with ASD. This study reviews the applications of augmented reality that nhanced the intervention for children with autism in (i) social skills, (ii) communication skills, and (iii) behavior skills. The conclusion reports the significant roles of augmented reality as technology-assisted intervention for children with ASD.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Paynter ◽  
Marleen F. Westerveld ◽  
David Trembath

The social-communication and behavioural difficulties experienced by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are well documented in the research literature; however, relatively little attention has been paid to their commonly experienced reading difficulties. In this article, we synthesise the findings of the research to date and provide practical recommendations for school psychologists and counsellors tasked with assessing and supporting children with ASD who experience reading difficulties. Central to these recommendations is the need for comprehensive multidisciplinary assessment tailored to each child's needs, at all times avoiding common assumptions regarding literacy and learning in children with ASD.


Author(s):  
Christina O’Keeffe ◽  
Sinéad McNally

AbstractChildren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience social communication difficulties which can be compounded by increased social demands and expectations of the school environment. Play offers a unique context for social communication development in educational settings. This systematic review aimed to synthesize play-based interventions for the social communication skills of children with ASD in educational contexts and identified nine studies. Overall, studies in this review provided a promising evidence base for supporting social communication skills through play in education for children with ASD. The review also highlighted gaps in research on play-based interventions for the social communication skills of children with ASD within naturalistic educational settings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 942-953
Author(s):  
Patricia D. Cleinmark ◽  
Ashley N. M. Freeman ◽  
Elizabeth L. W. McKenney ◽  
LeAnna Kehl ◽  
Stephen D. A. Hupp ◽  
...  

Relatively few measures have been examined for their psychometric properties when assessing anxiety among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the relationship between ASD and anxiety symptoms remains poorly understood. This study examined the relationship between ASD symptoms on the Social Responsiveness Scale ( SRS) and comorbid clinical anxiety. In a sample of 2,435 participants, parents of children with ASD and comorbid anxiety endorsed more frequent or severe ASD symptoms than parents of children without comorbid anxiety. Severity of ASD symptoms was a significant predictor of anxiety status and approached clinical significance. Implications for measurement of anxiety among children with ASD are discussed, including that areas of symptom presentation should be carefully evaluated, and that the onset or worsening of anxiety may affect ASD symptom presentation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 681-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Ridderinkhof ◽  
Esther I. de Bruin ◽  
Sanne van den Driesschen ◽  
Susan M. Bögels

Objective: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show atypical attention. Mindfulness-based programs (MBPs), with self-regulation of attention as a basic component, could benefit these children. Method: We investigated how 49 children with ASD differed from 51 typically developing (TD) children in their attention systems; and whether their attention systems were improved by an MBP for children and their parents (MYmind), using a cognitive measure of attention, the Attention Network Test. Results: Children with ASD did not differ from TD children in the speed of the attention systems, but were somewhat less accurate in their orienting and executive attention. Also, MYmind did not significantly improve attention, although trend effects indicated improved orienting and executive attention. Robustness checks supported these improvements. Conclusion: Trend effects of the MBP on the attention systems of children with ASD were revealed, as well as minor differences between children with ASD and TD children in their attention systems.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinyi Liu ◽  
Qiandong Wang ◽  
Xue Li ◽  
Xiaoyun Gong ◽  
Xuerong Luo ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: This study examined the social synchronization in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) when responding to others’ joint attention. Social synchronization refers to an individuals’ temporal coordination during social interactions, which has been found to play a crucial role in social development. Deficient joint attention has been repeatedly found in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, and previous studies have demonstrated various explanations about it. In a more recent perspective, joint attention could be associated with spontaneous social motor synchronization, and it is possible to explore social synchronization as a pathway to understanding the impairments of joint attention in children with ASD.Methods: Forty-one children aged 5 to 8 with ASD and 43 age-matched typically developing (TD) children watched a video to completed the response to joint attention (RJA) tasks, during which their gaze data were collected. The synchronization of gaze-shift behaviors between children and the female model in the video was measured with the cross-recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA). Results: We found that children with ASD had the ability, to some extent, to synchronize their gaze shifts with the female model in the video during RJA tasks. However, compared to the TD children, children with ASD displayed lower levels of synchronization and longer latency in this synchronized behavior. Limitations: The RJA task in our study was not a real social interaction task but rather a one-way interaction. Social interaction between two persons through live video or a natural scenario should be further explored. Besides, additional work is necessary to determine whether our findings generalize to individuals across the full autism spectrum. Conclusion: These findings provide a new avenue to deepen our understanding of the impairments of joint attention in children with ASD. Notably, the analytic method can be further applied to explore the social synchronization of numerous other social interactive behaviors in ASD. Additionally, the impairment of social synchronization may be a new implicit indicator for the evaluation of autism and can be utilized to screen children with ASD along with other indicators.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faihan Alotaibi ◽  
Nabil Almalki

<p class="apa">The present study sought to examine parents’ perceptions of early interventions and related services for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Saudi Arabia. In this study a survey was distributed to a sample of 80 parents with children who have ASD. Parents also were asked open-ended questions to enable them to provide suggestions. The findings indicate that parents have varying perceptions of early interventions and related services. However, they seem to agree that these services are important in assisting their children. Accordingly, parents have suggested that the government needs to increase these services by providing more centers for children with ASD in Saudi Arabia, providing more specialists to deal with children with ASD, promoting inclusion in regular schools and providing more information on early intervention.</p>


Author(s):  
Ana Gentil-Gutiérrez ◽  
José Luis Cuesta-Gómez ◽  
Paula Rodríguez-Fernández ◽  
Jerónimo Javier González-Bernal

(1) Background: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) frequently have difficulties in processing sensory information, which is a limitation when participating in different contexts, such as school. The objective of the present study was to compare the sensory processing characteristics of children with ASD in the natural context of school through the perception of professionals in the field of education, in comparison with neurodevelopmental children (2) Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study as conducted with study population consisting of children between three and ten years old, 36 of whom were diagnosed with ASD and attended the Autismo Burgos association; the remaining 24 had neurotypical development. The degree of response of the children to sensory stimuli at school was evaluated using the Sensory Profile-2 (SP-2) questionnaire in its school version, answered by the teachers. (3) Results: Statistically significant differences were found in sensory processing patterns (p = 0.001), in sensory systems (p = 0.001) and in school factors (p = 0.001). Children with ASD who obtained worse results. (4) Conclusions: Children with ASD are prone to present sensory alterations in different contexts, giving nonadapted behavioral and learning responses.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document