Selective responding by autistic children to multiple sensory input.

Reinforced 6 autistic, 5 retarded, and 5 normal children for responding to a complex stimulus involving the simultaneous presentation of auditory, visual, and tactile cues. After discrimination was established, elements of the complex were presented separately to assess which aspects of the complex stimulus had acquired control over the S's behavior. It was found that (a) the autistics responded primarily to only 1 of the cues, normals to all 3 cues, and retardates to 2 cues; and (b) conditions could be arranged such that a cue which had remained nonfunctional when presented in association with other cues could be established as functional when trained separately. Data fail to support theories that any 1 sense modality is impaired in autistic children. When presented with a stimulus complex, autistic Ss' attention was overselective. Findings are related to the literature on selective attention. Since much learning involves contiguous or near-contiguous pairing of 2 or more stimuli, failure to respond to 1 of the stimuli may be an important factor in the development of autism. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ritanserin in autistic children

Ritanserine had a positive effect on children with Rett's syndrome and children with autistic syndrome and mental retardation. The most marked effect was observed in reduction of psychomotor instability, impaired concentration of attention and partly also in autism.     

Motivating autistic children.

A major problem encountered in the field of autism is the children's characteristic lack of motivation. This problem is especially apparent when autistic children attempt to complete learning tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of correct vs incorrect task completion on children's motivation to respond to such tasks. Ss were 3 autistic children aged 6 yrs 1 mo, 11 yrs 11 mo, and 12 yrs 3 mo. Results demonstrate that when Ss worked on tasks at which they were typically incorrect, their motivation for those tasks decreased to extremely low levels. However, designing treatment procedures to prompt Ss to keep responding until they completed the tasks correctly served to increase Ss' motivation to respond to those tasks. The implications of these findings are that (a) autistic children's learning handicaps (which typically lead to low levels of correct responding) may result in few or inconsistent rewards for attempting to respond at all, thus decreasing the children's motivation; and (b) treatment procedures designed to keep the children responding until they complete a task correctly may result in coincidental reinforcement for perseverance, increasing the children's motivation to respond to those tasks. Results are discussed in relation to the literature on learned helplessness. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detection of phenylketonuria in autistic and psychotic children

Sixty-five children with pervasive developmental disturbance (autism and atypical childhood psychosis) were screened by standard urinary amino acid detection testing methods. Three of the children showed abnormalities in these screening tests, leading to the diagnosis of phenylketonuria. This was verified by repeated urinary testing and blood phenylalanine determinations. The children with phenylketonuria were treated with low-phenylalanine diets and have shown improvement in functioning and developmental level since treatment. Urinary genetic screening should be a standard test for all children being evaluated for serious developmental disturbances of childhood.     

Intertrial interval duration and learning in autistic children

This study investigated the influence of intertrial interval duration on the performance of autistic children during teaching situations. The children were taught under the same conditions existing in their regular programs, except that the length of time between trials was systematically manipulated. With both multiple baseline and repeated reversal designs, two lengths of intertrial interval were employed; short intervals with the SD for any given trial presented approximately one second following the reinforcer for the previous trial versus long intervals with the SD presented four or more seconds following the reinforcer for the previous trial. The results showed that: (1) the short intertrial intervals always produced higher levels of correct responding than the long intervals; and (2) there were improving trends in performance and rapid acquisition with the short intertrial intervals, in contrast to minimal or no change with the long intervals. The results are discussed in terms of utilizing information about child and task characteristics in terms of selecting optimal intervals. The data suggest that manipulations made between trials have a large influence on autistic children's learning.     

Favourite objects of autistic children

This paper presents a lumped-parameter model that stimulates the in vivo electrical properties of a guinea pig cochlea implanted with a multielectrode stimulating array. A basic model of the low-frequency electroanatomy in a normally functioning guinea pig cochlea is developed by adding critical membrane capacitances to Strelioff's resistive network model [1]. The basic model of normal cochlear tissues is modified to account for anatomical and physiological differences between a normal and implanted cochlea, which results in an impedance model of an implanted cochlea. Simulating the results of in vivo cochlear stimulation verifies the accuracy with which the modified cochlear model represents electrical properties within an electrically stimulated cochlea. Generalized simulations using this model suggest a straightforward phasing scheme capable of achieving sharply focused, channel-independent multielectrode cochlear stimulation.     

Learning set acquisition in autistic children.

Compared the performance of 19 autistic 5-13 yr olds (mean MA: 4 yrs, 3 mo) on an object discrimination learning set task with that of MA and IQ matched control groups of normal and retarded Ss. All but 2 of the autistic Ss acquired a learning set. About 1/2 of the Ss in each control group also acquired a learning set. However, the mean number of problems to criterion was similar for both the autistic and control groups of Ss who acquired a learning set. It is suggested that the superior performance of autistic Ss on a task which is believed to be related to MA indicates that the MA of these children may be higher than that which is usually obtained with standard measuring techniques. Results provided somewhat equivocal evidence for a relation between MA, IQ, and learning set formation in the normal and retarded Ss. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological-educational intervention for autistic children]

A "TEACCH" experience conducted in Lyon, France, with autistic children within the framework of an infant-juvenile psychiatric intersectory is described here: the proposal for an individualized educational project stems from the developmental possibilities of each child; taking children into care is inspired by Schopler's proposals: in a structured environment the child is placed in an educational setting; alternatives to verbal communication are also proposed to the children, who for the most part are non verbal. At the same time, work with families is put into place: it consists of support in the taking in charge by the parents on a daily basis of the handicap of the child: a broad place is given to the harmonization of help to the child in his different life contexts. Contribution and limits of this work are also discussed: the child's capacity to relax, the improvement of his relational capacities and his autonomy are noteworthy; restoration of quality of life and relation with families is clear; the child's mental deficit is obviously a limiting factor.     

The anaesthetic management of autistic children

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of a Kampo medicine (Sai-boku-to) for treatment of patients with glossodynia. STUDY DESIGN: Sai-boku-to or an antianxiety drug (diazepam) with vitamin B complex was administered orally for 3 months to each of 200 patients with glossodynia. Clinical examination evaluated the following subjective symptoms: pain, burning sensation, and discomfort. Effectiveness was evaluated as follows: "markedly effective," all 3 symptoms disappeared; "effective," pain improved; "ineffective," no improvement in pain. RESULTS: The effective rates were 70% after 1 month, 85% after 2 months, and 92% after 3 months of administration of Sai-boku-to (the Kampo group) and 74% after 1 month, 71% after 2 months, and 69% after 3 months of administration of the antianxiety drug with vitamin B complex (the control group). No significant side effect was noted in the Kampo group, but sleepiness was recorded in 33 cases in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that Sai-boku-to may be a clinically useful medicine for the long-term treatment of patients with glossodynia.     

Negativism in verbal and nonverbal responses of autistic children.

Studied negativism in 9 autistic, 9 behavior-disturbed, and 9 normal 5-12 yr olds in 3 different stimulus conditions (verbal requests for verbal responses, verbal requests for nonverbal responses, and nonverbal requests for nonverbal responses). Each condition included 2 tasks, which were requested 15 consecutive times. Ss demonstrated that they could perform the tasks before testing, and their responses were scored according to the similarity between the response and the request. Results demonstrate that the autistic and behavior-disturbed Ss responded similarly, except when requests required verbal responses, in which case the autistic Ss were much more negative. Results suggest applications to diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulation level preferences of autistic children.

Ten autistic, 10 schizophrenic, and 10 outstandingly successful children operated a lever controlling the volume of tape-recorded sound, in a laboratory study designed to follow up clinical reports of abnormal responsiveness to auditory stimulation in autistic children. Results indicated (p     

Establishment and generalization of non-compliant responding in children.

Evaluated the performance of 3 nursery-school children in a 2-option keypressing task. An instruction was given in each trial to respond on 1 of the keys, as designated by color or form cues. Several reinforcement schedules for compliance were presented. High rates of noncompliance were produced by contingencies favoring this choice. Noncompliant responding showed persistent generalization to new color and form cues and in the presence of a new E, even though contingencies did not favor generalization. Noncompliance also persisted for many sessions when contingencies were revised to favor compliance. Results have implications for the study of generalized imitation, generalized compliance, and the problem of noncompliance in problem children. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An open trial of risperidone in young autistic children

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the usefulness of an electropermeabilization method in the administration of a chemotherapeutic agent in bladder cancer in the rat. MATERIALS AND METHODS: N-Butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)-nitrosamine was used to induce bladder tumors in Wistar rats. Rats in group 1 were given a sham treatment. Rats in group 2 received an injection of bleomycin (BLM). Rats in group 3 received a series of eight 100- micros square-wave pulses at an electric field intensity of 1,000 V/cm (electropermeabilization) applied to the bladder. Rats in group 4 were treated with square-wave pulses after the injection of BLM. Nine days after the various treatments, all the bladders were removed and examined histopathologically. RESULTS: Histopathological examination revealed severe damage to tumors in group 4 exclusively. CONCLUSION: The cytotoxic effect of BLM on bladder cancer tissue was enhanced by electropermeabilization.     

Differences between mentally retarded and normally intelligent autistic children

By means of antibodies labeled with horseradish peroxidase, autologous albumin and IgG were visualized in electron microscopy on the alveolar epithelial surface of the rat lung, as a continuous cell coat, as free granular deposits, or associated with tubular myelin figures. These 2 proteins were detected by immunochemistry in alveolar washing. After ultracentrifugation of alveolar washing, they were still found in the phospholipid-rich precipitate fraction by immunization of rabbits and by immunoelectron microscopy. Thus, albumin and IgG appeared as normal alveolar components in the rat lung; fibrinogen was not found under normal conditions.     

Overselectivity, developmental level, and overtraining in autistic and normal children

Thirteen autistic children were compared to 13 normal children matched to them in mental age, on performance of a visual discrimination task. Form, color, and size were relevant and redundant cues. The groups did not differ significantly in mean trials to reach criterion or in breadth of learning, and both groups increased their breadth of learning after 50 trials of overtraining. Form was preferred to color and size by both autistic and normal children. Within each group, rank on mental age was highly correlated with rank in breadth of learning. Verbal and nonverbal autistic children did not differ in breadth of learning or in dimensional preference. Even nonverbal autistics equaled the performance of their normal controls. Our results suggest that overselective attention is better understood as part of a general developmental lag in cognition in autistic children than as a specific deficit underlying psychotic behavior.     

Identification of consistent responding to auditory stimuli by a functionally "deaf" autistic child

Although the severity of autistic children's unresponsiveness to external stimulation has been frequently reported, little empirical work has been conducted to specifically describe the nature of their unresponsiveness. The child who participated in this experiment was at varying times reported to be deaf, hard of hearing, or functionally deaf; and at other times was reported to have normal hearing. In this experiment, we measured his responses to systematically presented auditory stimuli in order to determine if there was any pattern to his responding. Two types of auditory stimuli were used: (a) white noise, consisting of most of the frequencies within the human range of hearing, and (b) the sound of a candy machine delivering candy. The results showed the following. (1) There was consistent responding to both the white noise and the candy feeder. (2) The thresholds for responding to the white noise were always consistent on a given day, but varied from day to day. (3) Responding to the candy machine stimulus always occurred at sound levels which were well below the threshold for the white noise. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding autism, and in particular in terms of understanding the lack of speech development in mute autistic children.     

Antibodies to myelin basic protein in children with autistic behavior

Based on a possible pathological relationship of autoimmunity to autism, antibodies reactive with myelin basic protein (anti-MBP) were investigated in the sera of autistic children. Using a screening serum dilution of 1:400 in the protein-immunoblotting technique, approximately 58% (19 of 33) sera of autistic children (< or = 10 years of age) were found to be positive for anti-MBP. This result in autistics was significantly (p < or = .0001) different from the controls (8 of 88 or only 9% positive), which included age-matched children with normal health, idiopathic mental retardation (MR) and Down syndrome (DS), and normal adults of 20 to 40 years of age. Since autism is a syndrome of unknown etiology, it is possible that anti-MBP antibodies are associated with the development of autistic behavior.     

Intellectual and personality characteristics of parents of autistic children.

Studied 5 sets of parents with autistic children, and 2 with schizophrenic offspring. Demographic, intelligence, and personality data on their families were examined. Rimland's retrospective checklist (Form E-1) was useful in distinguishing between autistic and schizophrenic disorders. Demographic and IQ findings were not supportive of conjectures about parents' remarkable intelligence and achievement levels. Parental MMPI and "A-B therapist" measures (the Kemp version of the Whitehorn-Betz A-B scale) seemed contradictory to related psychogenic hypotheses about severe childhood disturbances. Results are contrary both to positions depicting parents of autistic children as exceedingly brilliant people and as "emotional refrigerators." (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)