The use of matrix training to promote generative language with children with autism.

Matrix training consists of planning instruction by arranging components of desired skills across 2 axes. After training with diagonal targets that each combine 2 unique skill components, responses to nondiagonal targets, consisting of novel combinations of the components, may emerge. A multiple-probe design across participants was used to evaluate matrix training with known nouns (e.

Beat Perception and Sociability: Evidence from Williams Syndrome.

Beat perception in music has been proposed to be a human universal that may have its origins in adaptive processes involving temporal entrainment such as social communication and interaction. We examined beat perception skills in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic, neurodevelopmental disorder. Musical interest and hypersociability are two prominent aspects of the WS phenotype although actual musical and social skills are variable.

Effect of Parent Training on Adaptive Behavior in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Disruptive Behavior: Results of a Randomized Trial.

Objective: This study examined the impact of parent training on adaptive behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and disruptive behavior.

Methods: This was a 24-week, 6-site, randomized trial of parent training versus parent education in 180 children with ASD (aged 3-7 years; 158 boys and 22 girls) and moderate or greater behavioral problems. Parent training included specific strategies to manage disruptive behavior over 11 to 13 sessions, 2 telephone boosters, and 2 home visits.

Psychometric properties of the children's sleep habits questionnaire in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Background And Purpose: Sleep disturbances in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are very common. Psychometrically sound instruments are essential to assess these disturbances. Children's Sleep Habit Questionnaire (CSHQ) is a widely used measure in ASD.

Longitudinal trajectories of intellectual and adaptive functioning in adolescents and adults with Williams syndrome.

Background: Williams syndrome (WS) is associated with a distinct cognitive-behavioural phenotype including mild to moderate intellectual disability, visual-spatial deficits, hypersociability, inattention and anxiety. Researchers typically characterise samples of individuals with WS by their intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour. Because of the low prevalence of the syndrome, researchers often include participants with WS across a broad age range throughout childhood and adulthood and assume participants demonstrate consistent cognitive development across ages.

Clinical outcomes of behavioral treatments for elopement in individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities.

The external validity of behavioral treatments for elopement (i.e. leaving supervision without permission) remains unclear because studies to date include only small samples ( n = 1-3).

Weight Gain and Metabolic Consequences of Risperidone in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Objective: We examine weight gain and metabolic consequences of risperidone monotherapy in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Method: This was a 24-week, multisite, randomized trial of risperidone only versus risperidone plus parent training in 124 children (mean age 6.9 ± 2.

Predicting social and communicative ability in school-age children with autism spectrum disorder: A pilot study of the Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice.

The Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice is introduced as a measure of implicit social cognitive ability in children, addressing a key challenge in quantification of social cognitive function in autism spectrum disorder, whereby individuals can often be successful in explicit social scenarios, despite marked social adaptive deficits. The 19-question Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice, which presents ambiguous stimuli meant to elicit social attribution, was administered to children with autism spectrum disorder (N = 23) and to age-matched and verbal IQ-matched typically developing children (N = 57). The Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice performance differed between autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups, with typically developing children performing significantly better than children with autism spectrum disorder.

Stability of daily preference across multiple individuals.

Preference stability provides clues about the extent to which a clinician might be able to deliver a particular stimulus contingent on behavior as a reinforcer. Previous research has been somewhat mixed in terms of evidence for preference stability. Results of the current study are consistent with studies that have reported correlations between preference assessments, suggesting that preferences are relatively stable across time.

Rare copy number variants and congenital heart defects in the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS; velocardiofacial/DiGeorge syndrome; VCFS/DGS; MIM #192430; 188400) is the most common microdeletion syndrome. The phenotypic presentation of 22q11DS is highly variable; approximately 60-75 % of 22q11DS patients have been reported to have a congenital heart defect (CHD), mostly of the conotruncal type, and/or aortic arch defect.

Dynamic thalamus parcellation from resting-state fMRI data.

The thalamus is a relay center between various subcortical brain areas and the cerebral cortex with delineation of its constituent nuclei being of particular interest in many applications. While previous studies have demonstrated efficacy of connectivity-based thalamus segmentation, they used approaches that do not consider the dynamic nature of thalamo-cortical interactions. In this study, we explicitly exploited the dynamic variation of thalamo-cortical connections to identify different states of functional connectivity and performed state-specific thalamus parcellation.

Compound heterozygous mutations in NEK8 in siblings with end-stage renal disease with hepatic and cardiac anomalies.

We studied two brothers who presented in the newborn period with cardiac, renal, and hepatic anomalies that were initially suggestive of ALGS, although no mutations in JAG1 or NOTCH2 were identified. Exome sequencing demonstrated compound heterozygous mutations in the NEK8 gene (Never in mitosis A-related Kinase 8), a ciliary kinase indispensable for cardiac and renal development based on murine studies. The mutations included a c.

Diversity in Clinical and Biomedical Research: A Promise Yet to Be Fulfilled.

Esteban Gonzalez Burchard and colleagues explore how making medical research more diverse would aid not only social justice but scientific quality and clinical effectiveness, too.

Intensive, Manual-based Intervention for Pediatric Feeding Disorders: Results From a Randomized Pilot Trial.

Objectives: The aim of this pilot study was to investigate feasibility and preliminary efficacy of an intensive, manual-based behavioral feeding intervention for children with chronic food refusal and dependence on enteral feeding or oral nutritional formula supplementation.

Methods: Twenty children ages 13 to 72 months (12 boys and 8 girls) meeting criteria for avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder were randomly assigned to receive treatment for 5 consecutive days in a day treatment program (n = 10) or waitlist (n = 10). A team of trained therapists implemented treatment under the guidance of a multidisciplinary team.

Histone Modifier Genes Alter Conotruncal Heart Phenotypes in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome.

We performed whole exome sequence (WES) to identify genetic modifiers on 184 individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS), of whom 89 case subjects had severe congenital heart disease (CHD) and 95 control subjects had normal hearts. Three genes including JMJD1C (jumonji domain containing 1C), RREB1 (Ras responsive element binding protein 1), and SEC24C (SEC24 family member C) had rare (MAF < 0.

Developing Rapport and Therapeutic Alliance During Telemental Health Sessions with Children and Adolescents.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the special considerations for building rapport and establishing a therapeutic alliance when conducting mental health evaluations for children and adolescents via videoconferencing.

Methods: The authors review the literature and describe their experience in conducting mental health evaluations, developing rapport, and establishing a therapeutic alliance during telemental health practice.

Results: Clinical need and shortages of clinicians with expertise in evaluating mental conditions for children and adolescents in underserved communities have stimulated the rapid expansion of telemental health programs while the research base continues to develop.

Extended-Release Guanfacine for Hyperactivity in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Objective: Hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and distractibility are common problems in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Extended-release guanfacine is approved for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but not well studied in ASD.

Method: In a multisite, randomized clinical trial, extended-release guanfacine was compared with placebo in children with ASD accompanied by hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and distractibility.

Tolerability, Safety, and Benefits of Risperidone in Children and Adolescents with Autism: 21-Month Follow-up After 8-Week Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Objective: Risperidone has demonstrated efficacy for acute (8 week) and intermediate length (6 month) management of severe irritability and aggression in children and adolescents with autism. Less is known about the long-term effects of risperidone exposure in this population. We examined the tolerability, safety, and therapeutic benefit of risperidone exposure over a 1-2 year follow-up period.

Assessment of self-restraint using a functional analysis of self-injury.

When self-restraint and self-injurious behavior (SIB) co-occur, self-restraint might be maintained by negative reinforcement through the removal of SIB. The current study evaluated this possibility with an individual who exhibited hand-to-head SIB. Three functional analyses of SIB were conducted: (a) no consequences for self-restraint, (b) self-restraint blocked, and (c) hypothesized aversive effects of SIB blocked.

Comparison of diffusion tractography and tract-tracing measures of connectivity strength in rhesus macaque connectome.

With the mapping of macroscale connectomes by means of in vivo diffusion-weighted MR Imaging (DWI) rapidly gaining in popularity, one of the necessary steps is the examination of metrics of connectivity strength derived from these reconstructions. In the field of human macroconnectomics the number of reconstructed fiber streamlines (NOS) is more and more used as a metric of cortico-cortical interareal connectivity strength, but the link between DWI NOS and in vivo animal tract-tracing measurements of anatomical connectivity strength remains poorly understood. In this technical report, we communicate on a comparison between DWI derived metrics and tract-tracing metrics of projection strength.

Parallel temporal dynamics in hierarchical cognitive control.

Cognitive control allows us to follow abstract rules in order to choose appropriate responses given our desired outcomes. Cognitive control is often conceptualized as a hierarchical decision process, wherein decisions made at higher, more abstract levels of control asymmetrically influence lower-level decisions. These influences could evolve sequentially across multiple levels of a hierarchical decision, consistent with much prior evidence for central bottlenecks and seriality in decision-making processes.

Use of a Modified Chaining Procedure with Textual Prompts to Establish Intraverbal Storytelling.

Echoic, tact, and textual transfer procedures have been proven successful in establishing simple intraverbals (Braam and Poling Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 4, 279-302, 1983; Luciano Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 102, 346-357, 1986; Watkins et al. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 7, 69-81, 1989). However, these strategies may be ineffective for some children due to the complexity of the targeted intraverbals.

Effect of parent training vs parent education on behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder: a randomized clinical trial.

Importance: Disruptive behavior is common in children with autism spectrum disorder. Behavioral interventions are used to treat disruptive behavior but have not been evaluated in large-scale randomized trials.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of parent training for children with autism spectrum disorder and disruptive behavior.