Tactile sensitivity of normal and autistic children

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that involves persistent challenges in social interaction, communication and behaviour. The purpose of this study is to apply a machine learning approach to differentiate between autistic and normal children and to evaluate the performance of different classifiers in the detection of autism disorder. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) analysis is one of the strategies used for ASD detection by assessing the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which serves as a biomarker for the autism phenotype. HRV can be derived from the photoplethysmogram (PPG). Logistic Regression, Linear Discriminant Analysis and a Cubic Support Vector Machine (SVM) were chosen to evaluate the performance of HRV features in differentiating between normal and autistic children. Three different combinations of features were selected out of 19 features in total. From the results, Logistic Regression was the best classifier to differentiate between autistic and normal children in a colour stimulus test with 100% accuracy, while Linear Discriminant Analysis was best suited in the baseline test with 90% accuracy. In conclusion, the machine learning approach could be an alternative method of making an early diagnosis of ASD in the near future.

Introduction: Executive Functioning (EF) has been studied separately in both normal and Autistic children but there are no specific studies on the comparative analysis of strength and weaknesses of executive functioning among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and normal children.
 Objective: To evaluate and compare the strength and weakness of executive functioning (EF) among children with autism spectrum disorder and normal children.
 Materials & Methods: A comparative cross-sectional survey was conducted through purposive sampling from July 2018 to February 2019 involving parents of normal school going children and diagnosed Autistic children. Children aged 3 to 8 years old with ASD (n=96) and normally developed children (n=96) were compared on a battery of Executive Functioning (EF) tasks in both groups. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21 for descriptive statistics; comparisons were done by Independent Samples T Test, keeping p≤0.05 as significant.
 Results: There was a male preponderance among the autistic children (67 versus 45 males in normal children). The most represented ages were 4-4.11 years and 7-8 years. Tests of Executive Function showed significant decline in all the abilities (p<0.05), except in Time Management (p=0.21).
 Conclusion: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder show major deficits in Executive Functioning when compared to normal children.

Background: Mitochondrial dysfunction and autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) are closely related with each other. It has also been mitochondrial dysfunction causes impairment in cellular function which may lead to lack of social communications, language deficits and abnormal energy metabolism in autistic spectrum disorder. These are associated with laboratory evidence of lowered mitochondrial function. Objective: To observe the mitochondrial dysfunction and assess serum lactate and CK to in children with autistic spectrum disorder. Methods: This case-control study was conducted in the Department of Physiology of Bangladesh Medical University (BMU), Shahbag, Dhaka from January, 2013 to December, 2013. For this study a total number of 100 male children with age range 3-8 years were randomly selected, among which 50 were normal children and 50 were diagnosed autistic children. The autistic children were selected from the Parent’s Forum, Directorate Generals of Health Service (DOHS), Mohakhali, Dhaka and normal children were selected from some normal school. Serum lactate and creatine kinase (CK) were estimated in all children by standard laboratory method. For statistical analysis independent sample‘t’ test were done as applicable. Result: The mean of both the measured biochemical parameters were found significantly higher (p<0.001) in autistic spectrum disorder children. In addition, elevated levels of serum lactate and CK were found in 94% and 32% of autistic children respectively. Conclusion: The result of this study revealed that mitochondrial dysfunction may occur in children with autistic spectrum disorder. The severity of the autistic spectrum disorder is directly related to the biochemical abnormality for mitochondrial dysfunction. EWMCJ Vol. 13, No. 2, July 2025: 121-124

In this paper, we are looking at the differences between autistic and normal children in term of fine motor movement. Previous findings have shown that there are differences between autistic children and normal children when performing a simple motor movement tasks. Imitating a finger tapping and clinching a hand are two examples of a simple motor movement tasks. Our study had adopted one of the video stimuli for clinching the hand from Brainmarkers. 6 selected autistic children and 6 selected normal children were involved in this study. The data collection is using EEG device and will be analyzed using Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and Multilayer perceptron (MLP) as classifier to discriminate between autistic and normal children. Experimental result shows the potential of verifying between autistic and normal children with accuracy of 92%. The potential of using these techniques to identify autistic children can help early detection for the purpose of early intervention. Moreover, the spectrums of the signals also present big differences between the two groups.

The aim of the present study was to search for a sensorimotor marker (i.e., visuopostural tuning) that could be correlated with the severity of motor impairments in children with autistic spectrum disorders. Given that autistic children were previously reported to be posturally hyporeactive to visually perceived environmental motion in comparison with normal control children (Gepner et al., 1995), we sought to determine whether children with Asperger syndrome (AS) would share the same postural hyporeactivity to visual motion. Three autistic children with mild to severe motor impairments, three AS children with soft motor signs, and nine normal control children were tested for overall postural instability and postural reactivity to environmental motion. Results indicate, first, that overall postural instability is significantly reduced in autistic children compared with both AS and normal children. Second, although postural oscillations in the fore-aft axis become more attuned to the oscillation frequency of an immersive dynamic visual display as visual speed is increased, in both control and AS subjects, this is not the case in autistic children. Despite the small number of subjects tested in this study, our data confirm the existence of a visuopostural detuning in autistic children. Third, they argue for a correlation between visuopostural tuning and severity of motor signs in children with autistic spectrum disorders. Finally, they suggest a differentiation between children with autism and children with AS with regard to postural reactivity to fast visual motion. Neurophysiological implications of these results are discussed. In particular, a visuocerebellar pathway deficit hypothesis in autism is proposed.

This study examined autistic children's social behavior, affect, and use of gaze during naturalistic interactions with their mothers. Sixteen autistic children, 30 to 70 months of age, and 16 normal children, matched on receptive language, participated. Children and their mothers were videotaped during three situations: a free-play period, a more structured period during which communicative demand was made on the child, and a face-to-face interaction. In all three situations, autistic and normal children did not differ in the frequency or duration of gaze at mother's face. In the one condition (face-to-face interaction) during which affective expressions were coded, autistic and normal children also were not found to differ significantly in the frequency or duration of smiles displayed, and neither group displayed frowns. However, autistic children were much less likely than normal children to combine their smiles with eye contact in a single act that conveyed communicative intent. Autistic and normal children were not found to differ in the percentages of smiles they displayed to social versus nonsocial events. However, when autistic children's responses to mother's smiles specifically were examined, it was found that they were much less likely to smile in response to mother's smiles than were normal children. Finally, it was found that mothers of autistic children displayed fewer smiles and were less likely to smile in response to their children's smiles, when compared with mothers of normal children. These findings suggest that the autistic child's unusual affective behavior may negatively affect the behavior of others.

This study was designed to assess the effectiveness of using prompts (extra "guiding" stimuli) for teaching normal and autistic children. One group of normal children was pretrained on a color discrimination. Later, the colors were used as prompts (presented simultaneously with new training stimuli) to teach four new discriminations. Another group of normal children was trained on the same discriminations with a trial-and-error procedure (i.e., no prompting). A third group consisted of autistic children who were trained on these discriminations using the prompt procedure. Analyses of the results showed the following. (1) The trial-and-error group of normal children acquired more discriminations than the prompt group of normal children. (2) A comparison of the two prompt groups showed that the autistics failed to transfer from the prompt cue to the training cue more often than the normal children; rather, the autistics generally continued responding to the faded color cue. (3) Autistic and normal children who failed to acquire the discriminations when trained with a prompt procedure did acquire these discriminations when no prompt was used. That is, the results suggest that the presentation of an extra guiding stimulus was detrimental to the acquisition of training discriminations for all subjects, and particularly so far autistic children. Therefore, the common practice of providing extra guiding stimuli in proportion to the severity of the learning disorder may actually be harmful to the learning of new skills. Implications of these results for future research are discussed.

Objective To test the attachment quality of autism children between 2～6 years with attach-ment Q-Sort,and to understand the difference from normal children. Methods Use the AQS to test the parents of 167 normal children and 55 autism children,which can evaluate the children' attachment types. Results The rate of security attachment in normal children was 68.3% ,and the rate of unsure attachment was 31.7%. The rate of security attachment in autism children was 29.1% ,and the rate of unsure attachment was 70.9% ;and the rates of security attachment in normal and autism children were different significantly(X2=26.16, P<0.01). Attachment quality was not associated with sex both in normal and autism children and neither age was. Conclusions Most of the normal children have the security attachment,and the autism children have the unsure attachment. Neither age nor sex is associated with attachment quality both normal children and autism children. Key words: Attachment Q Sort; Children; Autism; Cross-sectional study

The performance of children meeting DSM-III criteria for schizophrenic disorder and infantile autism and of normal children (ages 7 years 10 months to 14 years 4 months) was compared on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Rey's Tangled Line Test, Benton Judgment of Line Orientation, Digit Symbol Substitution Test, and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The mean performance IQ of the schizophrenic and autistic children was equal and in the normal range. The normal children were of average intelligence as estimated by the PPVT. As compared to normal children, both autistic and schizophrenic children were impaired on the DSST and RTLT. The autistic children had significantly lower scores on the PPVT than schizophrenic and normal children. The schizophrenic children made significantly more perseverative responses on the WCST than did normal children. They significantly increased their nonperseverative errors on the second half of the WCST, after having been taught the correct sorting principles. It is argued that in schizophrenia a core deficit in momentary processing capacity underlies the above performance pattern. In contrast, in autism the core cognitive deficit involves an inability to use language to regulate and control ongoing behavior.

Introduction: One of the problems in the development of a child is autism. Children with autism have limitations in social interaction and communication. There are differences in parenting and food consumption between normal and autistic children that may lead to differences in caries activity. The research was conducted in order to obtain the difference of index def-t and DMF-T between children with autism and normal children. Methods: This study was performed as a cross-sectional analytical research, using equality of two proportions and Mann-Whitney to analyze the differences of index def-t and DMF-T index children with autism and normal children. The research sample consisted of 23 children with autism of Yayasan Our Dream, Yayasan Pelita Hafizh and SLB Prananda and 23 normal children of MI Cikapayang. Results: The results of this research showed that the index def-t of children with autism was 1.21 and normal children was 3.69. The DMF-T index of children with autism was 1.56, while the normal children was 2.26. Conclusion: The conclusion of this research was that there was no significant difference in def-t index in children with autism and normal children except for the "e" (indicated for extraction) and there was a significant difference in DMF-T index between children with autism and normal children.

Background : Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) is one of the most important measures in estimating language acquisition in children. The study of how language develops in these patients can be useful in providing effective treatment strategies. This study aims to investigate the developmental process of MLU in children with ASD and compare them with normal children. Methods : This study is a descriptive, cross-sectional-quantitative one. The statistical society is all 3-6 years of children with ASD in Tehran, and the sample has been selected via cluster sampling among welfare organizations In region 6 (Mantaghe 6). The participants included 10 monolingual Persian children with ASD aged 3-6. In this research, the spoken utterances of children were recorded and transcribed in 30 minutes of free play sessions. The control group included 10 monolingual Persian children aged 2-5, with no previous linguistic and psychological disorders. Two groups were matched based on non-verbal IQ and gender. Results : Based on the findings, the mean and standard deviation of MLU in autistic children were 2.5 and 1.24, respectively and the mean and standard deviation of MLU in normal children were 3.74 and 1.03, respectively. The results of T-test analysis showed a statistically significant difference between two groups with regard to the MLU (t (18)=-2.41, Pvalue=0.02). The results also indicated a statistically significant correlation between MLU and age in children with ASD (Pvalue=0.01, r=0.95) and in normal children (Pvalue=0.000, r=0.95). Conclusions: The study showed that after controlling for vocabulary knowledge, non-verbal IQ and talkativeness, MLU was significantly lower in children with ASD than in normal children. The results also showed that MLU increases with increase of age in both groups. Key words : Autism Spectrum Disorder, language ability, Mean Length of Utterance.

This study tests the hypothesis that the development of normal and autistic children differs only in rate and asymptote. A total of 195 normal children between 1 and 5 years of age, 160 normal children between 3 months and 24 months of age, and 41 autistic children between 5 and 11 years of age were evaluated on the eight psychological variables constituting the Behavioral Rating Instrument for Autistic and other Atypical Children (BRIAAC). While many similarities were found, there were a sufficient number of differences to justify DMS-III's statement that certain autistic behaviors are not normal at any stage of development. Differences were particularly prominent when the development of normal infants was compared with that of severely disturbed autistic children. In general, the issue of whether deviant development differs only quantitatively from normal development can best be decided on the basis of developmental data and by utilizing instruments that sample all the major characteristics of both populations.

In a replication and extension of earlier studies by Hermelin & O'Connor, language recoding abilities in autistic, retarded and normal children matched for mental age and digit span, were compared in a verbal recall task. Random word lists, sentences, and anomalous sentences, eight or 12 items in length (for high and low memory span subgroups) were presented and the number of words recalled from each type of input was scored. All low span children recalled sentences better than random lists with normal children superior to retarded and autistic children and the latter group poorer than the retarded group. Autistic children showed a recency effect with both types of input. There were no group differences amongst high span children and sentences were again better recalled than random lists. In Expt II sentences were better recalled than anomalous sentences, with autistic and retarded children equivalent in performance and poorer than normal children. Although low span autistic children were clearly deficient in recall of sentence material when compared with the two control groups, the effect of conditions showed that they were able to use structure to improve recall. Since high span autistic children did not perform differently from controls it is suggested that results from this kind of study may not be generalizable, and that claims for a specific coding deficit in autistic children need further substantiation.

Ontogenic development of EEG-asymmetry in early infantile autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction. Speech is an important form of social communication. Prosody (e.g. vocal pitch, rhythm, etc.), one aspect of the speech signal, is crucial for ensuring information about the emotionality, excitability, and intent of the speaker, is accurately expressed. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of how auditory information is used to regulate speech prosody in autistic and non-autistic children, while exploring the relationship between the prosodic control of speech and social competence. Eighty autistic (M = 8.48 years, SD = 2.55) and non-autistic (M = 7.36 years, SD = 2.51) participants produced vocalizations while exposed to unaltered and frequency altered auditory feedback. The parent-report Multidimensional Social Competence Scale was used to assess social competence, while the Autism-Spectrum Quotient and the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales were used to assess autism characteristics. Results indicate that vocal response magnitudes and vocal variability were similar across autistic and non-autistic children. However, autistic children produced significantly faster responses to the auditory feedback manipulation. Hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that these faster responses were significantly associated with poorer parent-rated social competence and higher autism characteristics. These findings suggest that prosodic speech production differences are present in at least a subgroup of autistic children. These results represent a key step in understanding how atypicalities in the mechanisms supporting speech production may manifest in social-communication deficits, as well as broader social competence, and vice versa. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1880-1892. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC LAY SUMMARY: In this study, autistic and non-autistic children produced vowel sounds while listening to themselves through headphones. When the children heard their vocal pitch shifted upward or downward, they compensated by shifting their vocal pitch in the opposite direction. Interestingly, autistic children were faster to correct for the perceived vowel sound changes than their typically developing peers. Faster responses in the children with ASD were linked to poorer ratings of their social abilities by their parent. These results suggest that autistic and non-autistic children show differences in how quickly they control their speech, and these differences may be related to the social challenges experienced by autistic children.