Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

treatments for ASD

• Discrete trial training

• Incidental training

• Operant speech training

Discrete trial training

method of teaching readiness skills involving a step-by-step approach of presenting a stimulus and requiring a specific response

Incidental training

method of teaching readiness skills or other desired behaviours that strengthens the behaviour by capitalizing on naturally-occurring opportunities

Operant speech training

Teaching strategy that involves a step-by-step approach that successively increases the child’s vocalizations and teaches them to imitate sounds

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A condition characterized by significant and persistent deficits in social communication and interaction skills, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour

preservation of sameness

anxious and obsessive insistence on the maintenance of uniformity that no one but the child may disrupt

spectrum disorder

A condition whose symptoms, abilities, and characteristics are expressed in many different combinations and degree of severity

joint attention

The ability to coordinate one’s focus on another person and an object of mutual interest

protoimperative gesture

a movement or vocalization used to express needs, such as pointing to an object that one desires

protodeclarative gesture

a movement or vocalization that directs the visual attention of other people to objects of shared interest

pronoun reversal

the repitition of personal pronouns exactly as heard, without changing them according to the person being referred to

pragmatics

the aspect of language that focuses on its appropriate use in social and communicative contexts

restricted and repetitive behaviour

an action that is characterized by high frequency repetition in a fixed manner, and desire for uniformity

echolalia

child’s immediate or delayed parrot-like repetition of words or word combinations

self-stimulators behaviour

repetitive body movements or movements of objects, such as hand flapping or spinning a pencil

mentalization

the awareness of other people’s and one’s own mental states

theory of mind (ToM)

cognition and understanding of mental states that cannot be observed directly both in one’s self and in others

central coherence

a strong tendency of humans to interpret stimuli in a global way that takes the broader context into account

Schizophrenia

A disorder that involves characteristic disturbances in thinking (delusions), perception (hallucinations), speech, emotion, and behaviour

childhood-onset Schizophrenia (COS)

A rare and possibly severe condition that has an onset prior to age 18 and worse long-term outcomes

delusion

a disturbance in thinking involving disordered thought content and strong beliefs that are misrepresentations of reality

hallucinations

a disturbance in perception in which things are seen, heard, or otherwise sensed even though they are not real

neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia

design in which a genetic vulnerability and early neurodevelopmental insults result in impaired connections between many brain regions

communication deviance

a measure of interpersonal attentional and thought disturbance observed in families of children with schizophrenia or schizotypical personality disorder