Repeated Reading with Performance-Feedback to Improve Oral Reading Fluency in Saudi Arabian Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Whilst there has been a growing interest in children’s welfare in recent years, there has been a lack of consideration for those with special needs or health conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both children with ASD and neurotypical children may be affected by low self-esteem, poor physical condition, or psychological distress at school, which can affect their quality of life. It is therefore important for children and young people to have their quality of life measured and understood. While, for the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, there has been the translation of health-related quality of life tools, there is a need to ensure their validity compared to the original English language versions. In light of this need, this paper presents the development and application of the KIDSCREEN-52 method to measure the quality of life for children with ASD and neurotypical children in schools in Saudi Arabia. A quantitative approach was employed to achieve the development of the method consisting of instrument translation and the standardized assessment of the quality of life for Saudi pupils. This developed method was found to independently and analytically assess the quality of life in Saudi pupils. The results from the application of the developed instrument revealed that although children without ASD rated their quality of life higher than those with ASD, overall, most Saudi Arabian students with ASD enjoy a reasonable quality of life. The findings of this study should be of interest to educators and individuals working with and on behalf of school-aged children and young people in foreign language settings where the application of development instruments could reveal the health-related quality of life.

The complexity of special education and the variability among students Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) require special education teachers to make a concerted effort to provide validated supports that contribute to their students’ learning outcomes. Among the most important considerations for teachers is the use of teaching practices supported as effective by evidence. There is a broad consensus that the use of Evidence Based Practices (EBPs) can lead to significant improvements for students with ASD and their families. The research to practice gap is widely recognised in special education in relation to the selection and implementation of EBPs, with several studies finding that teachers used unsupported teaching practices as frequently as those supported by empirical evidence. Thus, in order to utilise EBPs, teachers must first understand what EBPs mean and how a particular practice comes to be evidence-based. Aligning with this emphasis and the increasing introduction of EBPs in special education globally, this study explored special education teachers’ understanding of evidence, evidence-based, and EBPs in one centre of autism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). In this study, a qualitative approach was used. Within this approach, a single case study design was adopted. The data were collected from six special education teachers of students with ASD using interviews. The findings revealed that teachers referred to their own individual experiences or the experiences of other teachers as evidence. In addition, they referred to their superiors’ advice as being evidence-based and the perceived EBPs as technical tools handed to them by the Centre. This indicated that teachers’ understanding of evidence-based, and EBPs was constructed based on the culture of the Centre. The findings of this study suggest several courses of action for future research, and policymakers and teacher education. Keywords: autism, Evidence Based Practices (EBPs), special education teachers, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Stress and emotional wellbeing of parents due to change in routine for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at home during COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia

Restricted interests and repetitive behavior are characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The likelihood that persons with ASD will respond adversely to unfamiliar situations is great. The novel coronavirus outbreak has resulted in disruptions to all aspects of routine and behavior. Hence, this study proposed to investigate the impact of the outbreak on the eating behavior and routines of children with ASD in Saudi Arabia through the perceptions of their parents. A cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach was utilized to obtain data from 150 parents of children with ASD aged ≤18 years in Saudi Arabia. The data collected included demographic data of the parents, the ASD status of the family, impact of COVID-19 to the family, eating behavior of the children with ASD, and daily routines of the children with ASD. Moreover, parents were able to provide comments regarding their children's eating behavior or daily routines. The study found that changes in the eating behavior of children with ASD were found to differ significantly (p<0.05) based on the number of children with ASD, the age of the children with ASD, the gender of the children with ASD, and the severity of their ASD symptoms. Moreover, changes to dinner-time routines were found to differ significantly (p<0.05) based on the age of the children with ASD. Also, changes to morning routines were found to differ significantly (p<0.05) based on the age of the children with ASD, their gender, and the severity of their ASD symptoms. Additionally, impact of COVID-19 to the family had a significant impact to eating behavior and daily routines of the children with ASD. This study found that the eating behavior and daily routines of children with ASD in Saudi Arabia have been considerably worsened and changed. The study recommends the collaboration of multidisciplinary teams and parents to modify or design interventions that help to change their eating behavior and routine can be implemented in the home. It also recommends the provision of virtual helplines to aid parents of children with ASD in such cases.

Come Play With Me

As Number of Adults With Autism Rise, Need For Better Services Apparent

A New Readability Formula for Primary-Grade Reading Materials

Aim The study aims to study teachers’ own perceptions of their applying Evidence-Based Practice (EBPs) for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to improve social skills and the differences between teachers’ reported knowledge and implementation of EBPs. Methods The study applied a quantitative method using a survey as a research tool. The researcher used a survey as a research instrument given the study approach. A 5-level Likert scale was used in the survey to gather numerical data. The study population encompassed male and female high school educators who work with students with ASD in Riyadh. Considering the small population size, the number of participants that completed the survey was 183 teachers out of a population of 311 in Riyadh province of KSA, 86 females, and 97 males. This implies that 59% of the population participated in the study. All the participants were teachers of students with ASD in high school. Results The research findings substantially contribute to the literature on the topic in multiple ways. Furthermore, the findings of the research indicate that the respondents reported above-average knowledge of EBPs for students with ASD. The data showed that the subjects had adequate levels of conceptual and theoretical foundations of EBPs and their application. Conclusion The findings suggest that teachers of students with ASD in Riyadh implement EBPs to teach social skills among students with ASD. The knowledge of teachers of students with ASD of EBPs is higher than their implementation, implying that teachers need to implement EBP practices more in Saudi Arabia.

Mental Health, Bangladesh) for their support in data collection. They always gave me valuable suggestions how to build up ideas regarding the context of low middle-income countries. I am also grateful to Dr. Nabiul Islam Khan, (Professor, Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline at Khulna University, Bangladesh) for sharing knowledge of 'R' package. I am thankful to the research assistants in Bangladesh (Mst. Fasmaun and Mahjabeen ara) and Maryam Hakim in Germany who helped me to collect data from Bangladesh and Germany. I am particularly grateful to all participants of this study (Mental Health Professionals and special teachers working with children with autism in Bangladesh and Germany) who spent time for the research survey. Finally, I would like to give a heartiest thanks to my beloved husband, Md. Faisal Abedin Khan for his every support and encouragement to fulfil my dreams. Last but not least, I want to give a big hug to my son Rami, who was in Germany during my study period and always gave me unconditional love and inspiration. I am extremely grateful to my entire family for their love, patience, support, and blessings. Without them I would not have been this position today. Thank you all! iii healthcare systems of Bangladesh and Germany are described as well as the organizations that provide services for children and adolescents with ASD. The terms "Evidence-based practice (EBP)" and "Evidence-based practices (EBPs)" are defined. Then, attitudes towards EBP and EBPs as well as what are the barriers and facilitators to the implementation and usage of EBP and EBPs are described. Respective theoretical models are presented. Next, goals, research questions, and basic structure of this dissertation are presented in this chapter. Finally, short summary of the three studies of this dissertation are presented. Chapter 2 presents Paper 1-Pervin, M., Ahmed, H. U., & Hagmayer, Y. (2022). Effectiveness of interventions for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in highv income vs. lower middle-income countries: An overview of systematic reviews and research papers from LMIC. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13.

At present, the incidence rates of children identified with autism spectrum disorders are on the rise, leading to an increased number of school-aged children needing specialized services in public schools. Most intervention efforts in the school setting focus on behavioral interventions and/or communication and social skills remediation services for children with autism spectrum disorders. Up to date, only sparse information is available regarding evidence-based academic interventions targeting reading fluency skills for children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. However, a wide variety of research has demonstrated that stimulus control interventions such as listening passage preview and repeated readings increase oral reading fluency in children with behavioral difficulties, learning disabilities, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The present study aimed to extend the research on reading fluency interventions to the autism spectrum disorder population. A single-subject withdrawal design was used to examine the effectiveness of listening passage preview and repeated readings on oral reading fluency in children on the autism spectrum. Results indicated that all participants increased their overall oral reading fluency, as evidenced by words correct per minute, during the listening passage preview and repeated readings interventions. The repeated readings intervention produced the greatest gains in words correct per minute for all four participants. Thus, the present study provides preliminary evidence for the use of academic, stimulus control interventions to increase oral reading fluency in children with high-functioning autism.

Single-Neuron Correlates of Atypical Face Processing in Autism

Saudi parents’ perspectives of the factors influencing the quality of life of their children with autism spectrum disorder

The evidenced-based practices (EBPs) movement in the field of special education began ~20 years ago. This study contributes to that literature. It investigates the teachers' knowledge and use of EBPs to teach students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Saudi Arabia. The Teachers' Knowledge and Use of EBPs Survey was administered to 240 special education teachers. The participants generally reported a medium level of knowledge and use of EBPs for students with ASD. Female teachers' use of EBPs was greater than that of males, and teachers who attended more than five professional development programs reported greater use of EBPs than those that attended fewer programs. Knowledge and use of EBPs were related. Gender and professional development programs were predictors of teachers' use of EBPs for students with ASD. Teachers' knowledge of EBPs for students with ASD is a vital indicator of teachers' use of those practices, professional development programs can improve such knowledge and use, and teachers' use of EBPs for students with ASD could be improved by offering high-quality professional development programs.

Reading fluency is a critical skill to improve the quality of our daily life and working efficiency. The majority of previous studies focused on oral reading fluency rather than silent reading fluency, which is a much more dominant reading mode that is used in middle and high school and for leisure reading. It is still unclear whether the oral and silent reading fluency involved the same underlying skills. To address this issue, the present study examined the relationship between the visual rapid processing and Chinese reading fluency in different modes. Fifty-eight undergraduate students took part in the experiment. The phantom contour paradigm and the visual 1-back task were adopted to measure the visual rapid temporal and simultaneous processing respectively. These two tasks reflected the temporal and spatial dimensions of visual rapid processing separately. We recorded the temporal threshold in the phantom contour task, as well as reaction time and accuracy in the visual 1-back task. Reading fluency was measured in both single-character and sentence levels. Fluent reading of single characters was assessed with a paper-and-pencil lexical decision task, and a sentence verification task was developed to examine reading fluency on a sentence level. The reading fluency test in each level was conducted twice (i.e., oral reading and silent reading). Reading speed and accuracy were recorded. The correlation analysis showed that the temporal threshold in the phantom contour task did not correlate with the scores of the reading fluency tests. Although, the reaction time in visual 1-back task correlated with the reading speed of both oral and silent reading fluency, the comparison of the correlation coefficients revealed a closer relationship between the visual rapid simultaneous processing and silent reading. Furthermore, the visual rapid simultaneous processing exhibited a significant contribution to reading fluency in silent mode but not in oral reading mode. These findings suggest that the underlying mechanism between oral and silent reading fluency is different at the beginning of the basic visual coding. The current results also might reveal a potential modulation of the language characteristics of Chinese on the relationship between visual rapid processing and reading fluency.

As the rates of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) increase and early screening efforts intensify, more toddlers with high likelihood of ASD are entering the United States' (US') publicly funded early intervention system. Early intervention service delivery for toddlers with ASD varies greatly based on state resources and regulations. Research recommends beginning ASD-specific evidence-based practices (EBP), especially caregiver-implemented intervention, as early as possible to facilitate the development of social-communication skills and general learning. Translating EBP into practice has been challenging, especially in low-resourced areas. The main goal of this study was to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of public early intervention system structure, service delivery practices, and factors influencing EBP use for children with ASD in the US. Participants (N = 133) included 8 early intervention state coordinators in 7 states, 29 agency administrators in those states, 57 early intervention providers from those agencies, and 39 caregivers of children with ASD receiving services from those providers. Online surveys gathered stakeholder and caregiver perspectives on early intervention services as well as organizational factors related to EBP implementation climate and culture. Stakeholders identified key intervention needs for young children with ASD. In general, both agency administrators and direct providers reported feeling somewhat effective or very effective in addressing most needs of children with ASD. They reported the most difficulty addressing eating, sleeping, family stress, and stereotyped behaviors. Data indicate that children from families with higher income received significantly higher service intensity. While administrators and providers reported high rates of high-quality caregiver coaching (>60%), caregivers reported low rates (23%). Direct providers with more favorable attitudes toward EBP had greater EBP use. In turn, provider attitudes toward EBP were significantly associated with implementation leadership and culture at their agency. Results suggest that publicly funded early intervention programs in the US require additional resources and training for providers and leaders to support improved implementation climate and attitudes toward ASD EBPs. Results also suggest that more state system support is needed to increase use of ASD-specific EBP use, including high-quality caregiver coaching, to better serve toddlers with ASD. Recommendations for implementation strategies are addressed.