National Autistic Society Research Articles

Impact of LEGO® Based Therapy on Skills Development and Quality of Life in People with Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

This research sets out to evaluate the impact of LEGO® Based Therapy on the development of skills and quality of life for people with neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as for those close to them. Widely used in the United States and the United Kingdom for almost 20 years, LEGO® Based Therapy was developed by Daniel Le Goff, psychologist licensed in Florida and New Jersey who has practiced for over 20 years with children, adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities, including autism, Asperger's syndrome and congenital disabilities, as well as acquired and traumatic brain injuries. Daniel Le Goff has extensive experience as a consultant and expert witness, as well as in direct clinical services, including applied behaviour analysis, cognitive behaviour therapy and cognitive rehabilitation. In 2008, Gina Gómez de la Cuesta completed her PhD at the Centre for Autism Research at the University of Cambridge, where she led and evaluated LEGO®® Based Therapy under the supervision of Daniel LEGO®ff, Simon Baron-Cohen and Ayla Humphrey. She is a teacher and psychologist by training and has worked at the National Autistic Society as Head of Action Research. She founded Play Included in 2018, with support from the Cambridge Social Ventures incubator programme, University of Cambridge to support children's development through play and promote LEGO®Therapy. Initially designed to improve the social skills of people with autism spectrum disorders but no intellectual disabilities, its effectiveness has been demonstrated by studies targeting this specific population. However, no research has yet been carried out in France on its application to a wider population, including various forms of neurodevelopmental disorder. Furthermore, existing studies have not considered the impact on the quality of life of beneficiaries and their families, which this thesis sets out to examine.

Analysis of functional and spatial solutions in selected centres accredited by the National Autistic Society

Analysis of functional and spatial solutions in selected centres accredited by the National Autistic Society

Seeing it my way: A perspective taking intervention alleviates psychological distress in caregivers of autistic children

Cognitively empathic caregivers are able to take the perspective of their autistic child(ren) without experiencing vicarious distressing emotions, and typically report lower psychological distress. Taking the perspective of the autistic child might, through fostering cognitive empathy, might relieve caregivers’ psychological distress. Here we explored whether autism perspective taking videos developed by the National Autistic Society (NAS), intended to raise public awareness about autism, might be effective, packaged as an intervention, for increasing caregivers’ cognitive empathy and reducing their psychological distress. A sample of 24 caregivers of autistic children completed questionnaires capturing psychological distress and cognitive empathy at baseline. For three consecutive days, for two-three minutes per day, caregivers watched perspective taking videos. Follow up assessments were collected 7, 14, and 21 days post intervention. Psychological distress was lower after seven days, and stayed lower 14 and 21 days post intervention compared with baseline. Cognitive empathy was higher after 14 days, and remained higher 21 days post intervention compared with baseline. Taking the perspective of the autistic child, achieved here with publically available NAS videos, seems to be effective for increasing caregivers’ cognitive empathy and reducing their psychological distress for up to three weeks. Future research might use more rigorous methodologies, incorporating control groups and larger samples, to explore moderators of intervention efficacy.

Achieving Autism Accreditation in Cat A Prison

AimsTo ensure autististic prisoners are understood and receive necessary support in custodial environment.Methods1.Prison healthcare staff and discipline staff jointly trained about autism and how it is best managed in prison setting.2.Promotion re-education aids for prisons visually and verbally.3.Prison staff as autistic champions.4.Accessible autistic spectrum lead in healthcare team to coordinate need.Resultspriority that prison becomes autism accredited by national autistic society in progress.ConclusionThere is increase of prisoners with neurodevelopmental disorders and ensuring their needs met in prison and this is CAT A challenging prison environment.

Classification Techniques for Behaviour study of Autism spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum Disorder is a mental imbalance disorder. Research has distinguished that youngsters with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) as a rule show challenges in language securing, proficiency improvement, and social association. Albeit broad examinations have been led to portray shortages in language and social attitudes among youngsters with Autism range issue, inquire about on the proficiency advancement of this gathering is as yet meagre. This is the most valuable data for neurons to take care of a specific issue in light of the fact that the weight typically energizes or hinders the sign that is being conveyed. They will include the provision of information and advocacy, assessment, early intervention therapies, help at school, behavioral support, individual support, supported accommodation and respite. The National Autistic Society’s Pledges initiative, which offers neuro-typical people 18 ways to alter their behaviour in order to help friends and colleagues on the spectrum, they seemed really obvious. Every neuron has an inner state, which is called an actuation signal. Mental imbalance conduct expectation technique helps in dealing with the Autism lack utilizing a few grouping calculations and Neural Networks.

How might we best support the effective and meaningful employment of autistic people and improve outcomes?

PurposeTo determine the most appropriate and effective support to enable autistic people to gain and maintain employment in their chosen field. This paper aims to determine this and by which methods are most suitable for this kind of support, with a focus on mentoring.Design/methodology/approachMentoring is an intervention that has shown promise in assisting people who encounter barriers in finding work (for example, Roycroft, 2014). This research was conducted to determine whether the mentoring of autistic adults is effective in helping them to gain and maintain employment. The study examined the mentoring records of 90 autistic adults who were in receipt of funded mentoring with 18 separate organisations across England.FindingsThe authors found that the nationally recognised statistic of autistic people in full-time employment as 16% (National Autistic Society, 2016) was ambitious and subject to regional variation. Based on the results of a programme providing employment and mentoring support that is available and accessible to autistic people, however, outcomes improve and employment is more likely to be achieved and maintained – including in areas of, especially low employment. It was found that 48% of autistic job seekers who were supported by specialist mentors found paid employment (full-time or part-time), demonstrating a 16% increase in paid employment between those who received mentoring support and those who did not.Research limitations/implicationsA wider study across the UK would first determine if the nationally recognised figure is incorrect and also highlight those areas of the country which perform particularly well or badly.Originality/valueThis paper believes that this is the only research of it is kind in the UK and that it is a springboard for others who have greater resources available to them. This study is two very early-career academics on the autism spectrum with limited resources available to us.

Autism and the autistic spectrum

Nursing and Residential CareVol. 23, No. 4 Guest EditorialAutism and the autistic spectrumJulie SwannJulie SwannCorrespondence to:E-mail Address: [email protected]Independent occupational therapist, UKSearch for more papers by this authorJulie SwannPublished Online:28 Apr 2021https://doi.org/10.12968/nrec.2021.23.4.1AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View article References National Autistic Society. What is autism? 2021. https://tinyurl.com/3xck25ny (accessed 27 March 2021) Google ScholarNHS. Signs of autism in adults. 2021. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/signs/adults/ (accessed 27 March 2021) Google ScholarParliamentary Office of Science and Technology. Autism. 2020. https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0612/ (accessed 8April 2021) Google ScholarSouth West Yorkshire Partnership (2020) Adults with autism service. https://www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk/services/autism/#toc-item-0 (accessed 27 March 2021) Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 2 April 2021Volume 23Issue 4ISSN (print): 1465-9301ISSN (online): 2052-2932 Metrics History Published online 28 April 2021 Published in print 2 April 2021 Information© MA Healthcare LimitedPDF download

"I don't care anymore if she wants to cry through the whole conversation, because it needs to be addressed": Adult siblings' experiences of the dynamics of future care planning for brothers and sisters with a developmental disability.

In families with a member with a developmental disability (DD), future care planning is limited (Brennan et al., Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 31, 2018, 226; Bowey and McGlaughlin, British Journal of Social Work, 31, 2007, 39; Davys et al., Journal of Intellectual Disability, 14, 2010, 167; Davys et al., British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 43, 2014, 219; Davys et al., Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 29, 2016, 220). However, most siblings without disabilities (SWD) expect to be involved in the future care of their brother or sister with DD (Benderix and Sivberg, International Paediatric Nursing, 22, 2007, 410; Gomez de la Cuesta and Cos, We exist too: Valuing the contributions of siblings, UK, National Autistic Society, 2012; Heller and Arnold, Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 7, 2010, 16). Based on qualitative interviews with 25 SWD in Ireland, this article explores how SWD experience future planning. The findings indicate that SWD experience care planning as an ongoing, fluid and emotionally charged process. Parental fears, about future care landscapes they do not control and about passing on intergenerational care responsibilities, emerge as key factors inhibiting planning. Attention to the highly emotive nature of care concerns, and to the tentative pace of planning that is comfortable for families, will help professionals provide optimum planning support.

Improving Executive Functioning Skills in Children with Autism through Cognitive Training Program

Autistic spectrum disorders are disorders that affect many aspects of thinking and learning. Specific intervention program should be provided for autistic to overcome the problem due to weaknesses in cognitive process. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of cognitive training in improving executive functioning skills among children with autism. The present study focused on skills in attention, working memory, transitioning, emotional regulation, abstract planning, impulse control, flexibility, and problem solving skills. This case study was conducted at National Autistic Society of Malaysia involving 10 children, age range between four to 12 years old. This study used the Cognitive Training Program which was designed for the purpose to train cognitive skills in children with autism. The data collection period were four months. Data collection methods used were observation, interviews and document analysis. The observation was conducted five times during the training session. Two sets of interview questions were designed and used in four interview sessions. The findings showed that this training were successfully improved executive functioning skills among participants but it depends on their ability to response to the training. Overall findings showed that participants were good in executive functions training. As a conclusion, cognitive training program is necessarily provided to help autistic children expand executive functioning skills effectively. Research implications indicate that cognitive training program should be promoted and expand to parents, teachers, caretaker and anyone who are engage with autistic children as an alternative intervention to be practiced systematically.

Q&A Leo Capella

Abstract The National Autistic Society employee explains how the charity is supporting accessibility in RAS 200 projects – and science outreach generally. Interview by Paul Johnson.

Compensatory strategies below the behavioural surface in autism: a qualitative study

SummaryBackgroundLittle is known about the compensatory profile in autism; that is, people with autism spectrum disorder who show few symptoms in their behavioural presentation, despite continuing to report autism-related cognitive difficulties or differences. Even less is known about the specific compensatory strategies that these individuals use to disguise autism at the behavioural surface, both in the clinic and everyday life. It is also currently unclear whether individuals without a formal autism diagnosis, but experiencing autistic-like difficulties, use similar compensatory strategies, potentially enabling them to sit below the diagnostic threshold. This study aimed to investigate social compensatory strategies, and their effect on diagnosis and clinical outcome, in adults with and without autism.MethodsIn this study, individuals aged 18 years or older who responded to a study advert that was distributed worldwide via social media and the UK National Autistic Society formed a convenience sample. Participants self-reported their use and experiences of compensatory strategies using an online platform. Novel analyses, including a qualitative thematic approach, were used to interpret their responses and gain insight into compensatory strategies in autism.FindingsBetween Oct 19, 2017, and Jan 2, 2018, 136 adults (58 had a clinical diagnosis of autism, 19 self-identified but were not formally diagnosed as autistic, and 59 were not diagnosed or self-identified, but nevertheless reported social difficulties) completed the online study questions. The findings suggested that there are multiple compensatory strategies with distinct characteristics, individual and environmental factors that modulate compensatory strategy use and success, positive (social relationships, independence, employment) and negative (poor mental health, late diagnosis) outcomes associated with compensatory strategy use, and that individuals without a diagnosis use compensatory strategies that are qualitatively similar to individuals with a diagnosis.InterpretationIncreased awareness and measurement of compensatory strategy use in autism should guide future diagnostic guidelines, towards improved diagnostic accuracy and support for people with autism spectrum disorder whose cognitive difficulties are not immediately evident in observable behaviour.FundingUK Medical Research Council and UK National Institute for Health Research.

Feasibility study of the National Autistic Society EarlyBird parent support programme.

The EarlyBird programme is a group-based psychoeducation intervention for parents of young children with autism. Although it is widely used in the United Kingdom, the evidence base for the programme is very limited. Using a mixed method, non-randomised research design, we aimed to test (1) the acceptability of the research procedures (recruitment, retention, suitability of measures), (2) the parental acceptability of EarlyBird (attendance, views of the programme, perceived changes) and (3) the facilitator acceptability of EarlyBird (fidelity, views of the programme, perceived changes). Seventeen families with a 2- to 5-year-old autistic child and 10 EarlyBird facilitators took part. Pre- and post-intervention assessment included measures of the child's autism characteristics, cognitive ability, adaptive behaviour, emotional and behavioural problems and parent-reported autism knowledge, parenting competence, stress and wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were completed at post-intervention with parents and facilitators. For those involved in the study, the research procedures were generally acceptable, retention rates were high and the research protocol was administered as planned. Generally, positive views of the intervention were expressed by parents and facilitators. Although the uncontrolled, within-participant design does not allow us to test for efficacy, change in several outcome measures from pre- to post-intervention was in the expected direction. Difficulties were encountered with recruitment (opt-in to the groups was ~56% and opt-in to the research was 63%), and strategies to enhance recruitment need to be built into any future trial. These findings should be used to inform protocols for pragmatic, controlled trials of EarlyBird and other group-based interventions for parents with young autistic children.

Studio teaching experiments – spatial transitioning for autism schools

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate a teaching model involving an experimental studio project for first-year interior architecture university students.Design/methodology/approachContent, process, teaching style and feedback are examined in a project, run over five years, concerning transitioning between environments for people with autism in an attempt to advance design of autism schools. Research methodology, teaching model, outcomes and group dynamics are critiqued.FindingsFeedback from experienced autism-specific teachers across eight case study schools raise recurring issues framing a series of design problems navigated by students. The teaching model enhances student exploration of how sensory processing difficulties, through spatial transitioning strategies, might be approached, whilst furthering their specialist knowledge as future designers of inclusive spaces.Research limitations/implicationsEach transitioning platform requires deeper research to form a realistic interior typology. A further project to install and evaluate specific “transitioning insertions” into circulation spaces of an autism school is proposed for future research.Practical implicationsThe identification of this teaching model illustrates how to embed design for autism in the university curriculum.Social implicationsThe project brief helps address the National Autistic Society’s public autism awareness campaign “Too Much Information” highlighting anxieties that “unexpected change” causes. Effective design of transitioning spaces can help people with autism to cope with their environment, reducing behaviours and improving learning.Originality/valueThe creation of the “Co-specialist ASD-educator model” will be of value to universities. “Ten Spatial Transitioning Platforms” were uncovered relating to Transitions. This will be of importance to autism researchers and eventually design practitioners.

INSAR President's Message

INSAR President's Message

Neurodiversity and Communication Ethics: How Images of Autism Trouble Communication Ethics in the Globital Age

While research has addressed the ways in which autism is represented in popular culture, in literature and in film, this article points to how autistic cultural assemblages afforded by the unevenly global-digital or globital age act to queer neurotypical communication and media ethics more broadly. The article argues that evidence points to the emergence of new human communication ethics that embraces neurodiversity and that values the sensorial, perceptual, cognitive and communicative variety of human meaning making as well as including the communicative affordances of non-human persons and our environment. . Since communication and ethics are configured through a culture of ‘normalcy’ this article asks how images about, by and with people with autism invite a reorientation of ethical assumptions about images more widely. How do new kinds of digital images of autistic people made possible through the affordances of the globital age trouble or rather unsettle not only a history of troubled images of autistic people in medicine and popular culture but also ontologically challenge the human-centric and neurotypical bias of communication ethics? The article draws on self-advocacy You Tube videos made by and with autistic people, a campaign video made by the UK’s National Autistic Society, and films as ‘translations’ of a nonverbal autistic world to suggest these unsettle and queer a genealogy and history of troubled images of autistic people .

Scoping the evidence for EarlyBird and EarlyBird Plus, two United Kingdom-developed parent education training programmes for autism spectrum disorder.

EarlyBird and EarlyBird Plus are parent education and training programmes designed by the UK National Autistic Society in 1997 and 2003, having been delivered to more than 27,000 families in 14 countries. These group-based programmes aim to (1) support parents immediately after diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, (2) empower parents, encouraging a positive perception of their child's autism spectrum disorder and (3) help parents establish good practice. In the absence of any previous comprehensive review, we performed a scoping review of all peer-reviewed publications on EarlyBird/EarlyBird Plus. A search was conducted between February and June 2016 using EbscoHost, Sabinet, SAGE Journals, Directory of Open Access Journals, BioMed Central, Scopus, ScienceDirect and grey literature. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts for inclusion. In total, 18 articles were identified: 16 from the United Kingdom and 2 from New Zealand. We reviewed the context, study populations, design, outcome measures, whether focus was on parental perception, parental change or child changes and programme feasibility. Strong parental support for the acceptability but lower level evidence of efficacy of EarlyBird/EarlyBird Plus was found. Future research should consider randomised controlled trials. There is no research on EarlyBird/EarlyBird Plus in low-resource settings; therefore, we recommend broader feasibility evaluation of EarlyBird/EarlyBird Plus including accessibility, cultural appropriateness and scalability.

Waiting times to diagnose autism increase by 25% in two years

Public Health England and the National Autistic Society have revealed that people with autism are waiting about 25% longer than they did previously to get a diagnostic appointment for autism.

The ‘High Achievers’ project: an assessment of the support for students with autism attending UK universities

In the UK autism is classed as a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. Under the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, higher education institutions in the UK are legally required to make reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities who are placed at a substantial disadvantage in comparison to students without disabilities. Despite the social difficulties associated with autism, and autistic students being at a heightened risk of dropping out of university, high-functioning autistic students are often high achievers academically. The National Audit Office recognises university as a desirable option for academically gifted students with autism. As there have been few studies directly examining the needs of autistic students in post-secondary education by established researchers, we undertook an online questionnaire survey of all UK universities, other than those under foreign ownership, to ascertain current levels of support for students with autism in higher education. This was followed up with Freedom of Information Act requests to establishments that did not respond to the survey. We report our findings based on responses from 99 universities out of approximately 160 establishments in total. As autistic university graduates are at a disadvantage when compared to their non-autistic peers in obtaining employment after graduation, we propose that all higher education establishments follow the government recommendation for providers of services not covered by the Autism Act 2009, but who support people into employment, to adopt the Statutory Guidance issued in connection with the Adult Autism Strategy. Universities should consider seeking accreditation under the National Autistic Society’s accreditation scheme.

Инклюзия в работе с детьми с расстройствами аутистического спектра

Work fellow of Federal recourse center with the support of Moscow state university of psychology and education press-office had an interview with Lorraine Dormand, the director of the Robert Ogden School for children with ASD, managed by UK’s National autistic society. Mrs. Dormand took part in the IV International scientific and practical conference «Inclusive education: continuity of inclusive culture and practice», which was held in the end of June in Moscow. Following issues were discussed: the role of inclusion in the education system of Russia and Great Britain, general impression from the Federal resource center visit and personal experience of working with children with ASD. The interview was held at June 23 2017 during the visit to the Federal Resource Center for Organization of Comrehencive Support for Children with ASD.

Clinical and cytogenetic profiles of children with autism in Kuantan Pahang

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorder. The aetiology is not known in 75 to 80 percent of patients while in 20 to 25 percent a genetic cause is identified. There are very few studies on cytogenetic profile of ASD being carried out locally. This cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the clinical and cytogenetic profiles of paediatric ASD patients attending the Kuantan branch, National Autistic Society of Malaysia School. Methods: All paediatric patients (up to 18 years of age) attending the school in the year 2009/2010 were recruited. Clinical data was obtained by interviewing the guardians and assessment of the patients. Peripheral blood samples were collected for cytogenetic analysis. Results: Guardians of 14 out of 24 patients (58.3%) agreed for their children to be enrolled into the study. The age range was 5 to 12 years of age. The diagnostic subgroups were autistic disorder (13/14 patients) and Asperger syndrome (1/14). Approximately 80% had learning disability and history of allergy. Five patients had hyperactivity and none had history of seizures. There were family histories of developmental delay, mental retardation, epilepsy, psychiatric disorders and allergy. No structural or numerical chromosomal abnormality was detected. Conclusions: Although no cytogenetic abnormalities were identified, most probably due to the small sample size, it is crucial that genetic studies, including molecular genetic be explored as they would provide useful clinical insights and enhance understanding of the pathogenesis.