Attentional bias toward pictures related to circumscribed interests in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Background: Circumscribed interests (CIs) are regarded as one of the common symptoms for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although some studies have found attentional bias toward CI-related stimuli for individuals with ASD, few studies have directly explored the reasons for these findings. Method: Children with ASD (n = 15) and age-matched typically developing (TD) children (n = 15) completed a Stroop-like task and a modified dot-probe task, and their reaction times were measured. The stimuli of these tasks included neutral objects and objects related to CI for individuals with ASD. Results: Children with ASD had longer reaction times to name colors of CI-related stimuli than neutral stimuli in the Stroop-like task. Similarly, in the modified dot-probe task, if the CI-related stimulus was presented simultaneously with the neutral stimulus, children with ASD responded faster to the target that appeared in the previous location of the CI-related stimulus (i.e. congruent condition) than to the neutral stimulus (i.e. incongruent condition). Importantly, the reaction times of children with ASD in the incongruent condition were significantly slower than in the baseline condition, where both neutral stimuli were displayed simultaneously with stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) of 500 ms. In contrast, there was no significant difference in reaction times to CI-related stimuli and neutral stimuli in both tasks for TD children. Conclusions: These findings suggest children with ASD have attentional bias toward CI-related stimuli, because of difficulty disengaging attention from CI-related stimuli with SOA of 500 ms.

Deaf and hearing children: A comparison of face perception.

Deaf and hearing adults perceive faces differently. This study investigates whether these differences are acquired during childhood development. We characterized facial perception in deaf and hearing children aged 7-17 using a perceptual discrimination task. Configural and featural information was manipulated in the eye and mouth facial regions. Participants were asked whether two faces presented simultaneously were different. Deaf and hearing children performed better in featural than configural discriminations and in mouth than eye discriminations. Compared with children with typical hearing, deaf children performed better in featural and mouth judgments but had longer reaction times with strongest effects at 7-8 and 13-14 years old. Type and location contributed jointly in deaf children's face perception with different configural but similar featural discriminations in mouth and eye locations. However, children with typical hearing showed different featural and configural judgments in both locations. Thus, featural and configural information effects on location processing differ between the two groups.

Influence of Social Support Network and Perceived Social Support on the Subjective Wellbeing of Mothers of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This study explored the relations between the social support network of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), perceived social support, and their subjective wellbeing. The participants were mothers of children with ASD in Shanghai. Their social support network structure was explored via the nomination method. Perceived social support was measured using the Revised Social Provisions Scale for Autism (R-SPS-A), and the mothers' subjective wellbeing was assessed using the Index of Wellbeing, Index of General Affect. A significant correlation was observed between the subjective wellbeing of mothers of children with ASD and perceived social support. Meanwhile, perceived social support was significantly correlated with the effectiveness of overall social support. Finally, perceived social support was also significantly correlated with the network size of social support. Moreover, the effectiveness of social support was significantly associated with the network size of social support and was highly significantly associated with the degree of intimacy of social support. Furthermore, the network size of instrumental support has a significant influence on all perceived social support subdimensions. Overall, social support effectiveness plays an important role in the social support network mechanism on perceived social support and subjective wellbeing in China.

Validating the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised for Children in China Aged 3 to 8 with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Research on the repetitive behavior of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has recently gained scholarly attention. Restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) is a core ASD symptom of various patterns and high prevalence. The Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R) is a standard questionnaire used to assess RRB in individuals with ASD. This study collected data from 163 Chinese children aged 3-8 with ASD to analyze the validity and reliability of the RBS-R. Results showed that the original tested items were adaptable to the Chinese cultural environment when treating such disorders. A confirmatory factor analysis was applied to the structuring models, indicating that a 5-factor model was more suitable for evaluating RRB in this context.