Abstract
The feasibility of working on cognitive functions with children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) inside Multisensory Interactive Rooms (MIRs) has been poorly investigated, even if sensory atypicalities are common in ASD and usual intervention rooms could represent a challenging sensory setting for patients with ASD. We hypothesized that the possibility to calibrate the sensory stimulation offered by this type of environment, able to promote a positive emotional state in patients with ASD, can consequently favor the interaction with the therapist and the motivation towards activities targeting cognitive functions. High- and low-functioning children and low-functioning adolescents/adults underwent five sessions in a fully digitalized MIR, working on sustained attention, selective attention, association, single inhibition, receptive communication, verbalization, and turn. We developed specific protocols calibrated for sensory stimulation and difficulty level based on the characteristics of the participants. We found statistically significant improvements in all functions, except association, in the children’s group. Therefore, a fully digitalized MIR seems suitable for intervention on cognitive functions in ASDs, but further investigations are needed to better address possible differences related to age and functioning level.
Highlights
Published: 3 November 2021Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an early-onset neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent difficulties in social communication and interaction and repetitive and restricted behaviors and interests [1]
We decided to test the possibility of working inside the Multisensory Interactive Rooms (MIRs) on the following functions: sustained attention (SA), in our case, the ability to maintain an instruction until the complete execution of the task; selective attention (SeA), i.e., the ability to focus on one or more elements while ignoring distractors; association (A), i.e., the ability to combine two actions, in our case, performing an action while looking at the targets of the action; single inhibition (SI), i.e., the ability to refrain from a behavior, e.g., implemented previously, in favor of another required behavior
We tested whether a fully digitalized MIR is suitable for working on cognitive functions in children, adolescents, and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and different functioning levels
Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an early-onset neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent difficulties in social communication and interaction and repetitive and restricted behaviors and interests [1]. Several studies have shown that sensory challenges in ASD affect all sensory channels [2] It seems that, in particular, atypical sensory responses to smell and taste allow differentiation between children with ASD and others with different neurodevelopmental disorders [3]. Dellapiazza found that children with ASD and ADHD showed more atypical sensory processing than children with only a diagnosis of ASD [23] Considering these sensory peculiarities, it is understandable how everyday environments can be challenging for people with ASD. The strong link between sensory aspects and other ASD traits was highlighted by Woo and Leon They reported that children with ASD undergoing sensorimotor enrichment at home for 6 months showed an improvement in ASD severity and in cognition compared with an ASD control group receiving only standard care [34]
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