Individuals with autism spectrum disorders : teaching, language, and screening

Sammanfattning: The present dissertation on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) addressed several questions. First, the behavioral symptoms of speaking and mute individuals with ASD were compared on the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), a commonly used diagnostic instrument. In addition, questions about the construction of the ABC were investigated. In Study I it was found that although the two groups did not significantly differ on the total ABC score, the mute group demonstrated significantly more pathology on 21 of 57 items and 3 of 5 subscales. The speaking group obtained significantly higher scores on only 8 items and 1 subscale (Language). The appropriateness of providing greater pathology scores to speaking, rather than mute, individuals with ASD was called into question. In addition, it was speculated that the expressive language items are weighted too heavily, on both the Language subscale and the total score. Second, because the 57 items of the ABC were categorized into 5 subscales on a subjective basis, an empirical investigation of the factor structure of the ABC was performed. In Study II, a 5-factor model that contained 39 of the items accounted for 80% of the total variance in the checklist. No support was found for classifying the 57 items into the existing 5 subscales. Finally, the two most common forms of instruction to teach children with ASD, discrete-trial teaching and incidental teaching, were assessed. In Study III it was ascertained that discrete-trial teaching was more efficient and produced faster acquisition and initially, greater generalization. However, by follow-up, the incidental teaching methods resulted in equal retention, greater generalization, and equal or greater spontaneous usage. The findings indicate that although it takes a longer time for children with autism to learn with incidental teaching procedures, once they have acquired an ability, it may be more permanent.