Autism has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, thanks to dramatically increasing rates of diagnosis, extensive organizational mobilization, journalistic coverage, biomedical ...research, and clinical innovation. Understanding Autism, a social history of the expanding diagnostic category of this contested illness, takes a close look at the role of emotion--specifically, of parental love--in the intense and passionate work of biomedical communities investigating autism.
Global awareness of autism has skyrocketed since the 1980s, and
popular culture has caught on, with film and television producers
developing ever more material featuring autistic characters.
Autism ...in Film and Television brings together more than a
dozen essays on depictions of autism, exploring how autistic
characters are signified in media and how the reception of these
characters informs societal understandings of autism.
Editors Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer have assembled a
pioneering examination of autism's portrayal in film and
television. Contributors consider the various means by which autism
has been expressed in films such as Phantom Thread,
Mercury Rising , and Life Animated and in
television and streaming programs including Atypical ,
Stranger Things , Star Trek: The Next Generation ,
and Community . Across media, the figure of the brilliant,
accomplished, and "quirky" autist has proven especially appealing.
Film and television have thus staked out a progressive position on
neurodiversity by insisting on screen time for autism but have done
so while frequently ignoring the true diversity of autistic
experience. As a result, this volume is a welcome celebration of
nonjudgmental approaches to disability, albeit one that is still
freighted with stereotypes and elisions.
Autism spectrum disorders are developmental disorders. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders develop differently. These differences are usually present in social interaction, communication, and ...sensory processing, and become visible through a wide variety of behavioral responses that differ from individuals without autism spectrum disorders. Despite significant research efforts, the exact causes of autism spectrum disorders remain poorly understood; however, researchers have gained extensive insights into possible pathomechanisms, even at the molecular level of cells. Many diagnostic criteria have been developed, adapted, and improved. The eight chapters in this book highlight the current state-of-the-art in many areas of autism spectrum disorders. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders and the current knowledge of the underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Chapter 2 summarizes the diagnostic criteria and procedures and highlights present and upcoming therapeutic strategies. Chapter 3 reviews the adverse events and trauma in people with autism spectrum disorders. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on atypical sensory processing, and Chapter 6 discusses the genetic overlap of autism spectrum disorders with other neuropsychiatric disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, and schizophrenia. Chapter 7 focuses on the contribution of abnormalities in mitochondria, and chapter 8 discusses gut-brain interactions and a potential role for microbiota in autism spectrum disorders. This book is aimed primarily at clinicians and scientists, but many areas will also be of interest to the layperson.
PURPOSE: Peer-mediated interventions are effective for improving social outcomes for children with ASD (Chang & Locke, 2016). However, parents often report difficulty identifying a typically ...developing (TD) peer who is willing to participate in an intervention for the child with ASD. For many families a TD sibling is a feasible option as the peer mediator (Ferraioli, Hansford, & Harris, 2012). However, little is known about the differences in play performance of the child with ASD when the play partner is a sibling vs a non-sibling. The Ultimate Guide to Play, Language and Friendship (PLF) is a peer-mediated intervention that has demonstrated effectiveness in improving play performance for 6- to 11-year old children with ASD using both TD sibling and non-sibling peers (Kent, Cordier, Joosten, Wilkes-Gillan, & Bundy, under review). The aim of this investigation was to compare the play of sibling and non-sibling peer play partners and examine the influence of the two types of play partners on the play performance of the child with ASD. DESIGN: Participants were 136 children aged between 6 and 11 years, (68 were diagnosed with ASD; 68 were TD playmates), and participated in a two-group parallel randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of the PLF. We engaged in a retrospective cohort study to investigate the difference in play performance of sibling (n=37) and non-sibling peer dyads (n=27). METHOD: An independent assessor scored using the Test of Playfulness (ToP; Skard & Bundy, 2008) from video recorded play sessions; we compared the play scores using an independent t-test. To identify mediating factors on play performance, we performed hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS: Results revealed a significant difference in ToP scores for children with ASD when they played with a sibling vs a non-sibling play partner (ToP score of children with ASD in sibling dyads M=53.40, SD=12.14; in non-sibling peer dyads M=60.98, SD=12.23, t = -2.43, p=0.018). Individual item differences revealed that the social items 'support of playmate' and 'response to play cues' had the greatest difference, indicating that these need to be a focus of intervention for sibling dyads. CONCLUSION AND IMPACT STATEMENT: The findings revealed that the play performance of children with ASD is influenced significantly by their play partners. Practitioners need to consider these differences explicitly in intervention, particularly when, as is often the case, siblings are the play partners. Improved understanding of the difference in play performance will support practitioners to adapt interventions for children with ASD.
