Predicting Social Competence in Autistic and Non-Autistic Children: Effects of Prosody and the Amount of Speech Input.

PURPOSE: Autistic individuals often face challenges perceiving and expressing emotions, potentially stemming from differences in speech prosody. Here we explore how autism diagnoses between groups, and measures of social competence within groups may be related to, first, children's speech characteristics (both prosodic features and amount of spontaneous speech), and second, to these two factors in mothers' speech to their children. METHODS: Autistic (n = 21) and non-autistic (n = 18) children, aged 7-12 years, participated in a Lego-building task with their mothers, while conversational speech was recorded. Mean F0, pitch range, pitch variability, and amount of spontaneous speech were calculated for each child and their mother. RESULTS: The results indicated no differences in speech characteristics across autistic and non-autistic children, or across their mothers, suggesting that conversational context may have large effects on whether differences between autistic and non-autistic populations are found. However, variability in social competence within the group of non-autistic children (but not within autistic children) was predictive of children's mean F0, pitch range and pitch variability. The amount of spontaneous speech produced by mothers (but not their prosody) predicted their autistic children's social competence, which may suggest a heightened impact of scaffolding for mothers of autistic children. CONCLUSION: Together, results suggest complex interactions between context, social competence, and adaptive parenting strategies in driving prosodic differences in children's speech.

Brief Report: Alexithymia Trait Severity, Not Autistic Trait Severity, Relates to Caregiver Reactions to Autistic Children's Negative Emotions.

Alexithymia impacts an individual's ability to recognize and understand emotions and frequently co-occurs with autism. This study investigated the relationship between children's alexithymia, autistic traits, and caregiver reactions to their child's negative emotions. Caregivers of 54 autistic and 51 non-autistic children between the ages of 7 and 12 years rated their child's alexithymia and autistic trait severity and their reactions to their child's negative emotions. Caregivers of autistic children reported greater supportive reactions and fewer restrictive/controlling reactions to their child's negative emotions when their child had more alexithymia traits. This study extends previous research by demonstrating that caregivers of autistic children with co-occurring alexithymia traits represent a specific subgroup of caregivers that respond more positively to their child's negative emotions.

Systematic review of factors that may influence the outcomes and generalizability of parent-mediated interventions for young children with autism spectrum disorder.

Parent mediated interventions have the potential to positively influence the interactions and developmental outcomes of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, a range of factors relating to children, parents and caregivers, and study design may impact on outcomes and thus the generalizability of these interventions to the broader community. The objective of this review was to examine factors that may influence the feasibility, appropriateness, effectiveness, and generalizability of parent mediated interventions for children with ASD. We conducted a systematic review, yielding 41 articles. There was substantial variability in the intervention type, intensity, and study quality. Notably, 46 different inclusion/exclusion criteria were reported across studies including factors relating to children's development, access to other services, comorbidities, parental factors, and access to the intervention. Fifteen articles included examination of 45 different factors potentially associated with, or influencing, intervention outcomes including child (e.g., language skills, ASD severity, cognition) and parent (e.g., adherence and fidelity, education) factors. Although there is clear evidence for an increasingly sophisticated (e.g., systematic phased research for some interventions) and diverse (e.g., studies in geographical diverse contexts including low-resource communities) approach to research examining parent mediated interventions, there remains a need for improved study quality and measurement consistency in research, including a detailed examination of factors that may predict, moderate, and mediate intervention effectiveness for children and their parents. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1304-1321. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Parent mediated interventions-in which parents adapt their own behavior or deliver interventions to help their children learn-appear to be effective for some children with autism spectrum disorder. In this review, we identified a range of child, parent, and study design factors that may influence intervention outcomes and ultimately the uptake of these approaches in the community. We suggest that research in this area could be further improved by ensuring that studies include diverse groups of children and parents, and by using study designs that help to establish not only if interventions work, but for whom they work best and why.

Child impairment and parenting self-efficacy in relation to mothers' views of ADHD treatments.

OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the relations of child impairment and parenting self-efficacy with parental views of the acceptability and effectiveness of behavioral, medication, and combined treatments for child ADHD. Child impairment and parenting self-efficacy were also assessed in relation to the effectiveness views of specific behavioral treatment strategies. METHOD: Ninety-five mothers of children with ADHD completed questionnaires assessing child impairment, parenting self-efficacy, perceptions of the overall acceptability and effectiveness of ADHD treatments, and views of the effectiveness of specific behavioral treatment strategies. RESULTS: Hierarchical linear modeling using child impairment and parenting self-efficacy as predictors of treatment views suggests that mothers viewed combined treatments as most acceptable and effective when their child was more impaired, and mothers with higher parenting self-efficacy rated behavioral treatment strategies as more effective. CONCLUSION: Child impairment and parenting self-efficacy are related to perceptions of the acceptability and/or effectiveness of ADHD treatments.