“Autistic Spectrum Disorder-Putting The Pieces Together” Conference James Coplan,M.D.

Written by: Leonard Caltabiano, Psy.D.

Director of Autism and Behavioral Services 

On December 3^rd , Dr. James Coplan, author of Making Sense of Autism Spectrum Disorders: Create the Brightest Future for Your Child with the Best Treatment Options, presented atLong IslandUniversity. Dr. Coplan, is a medical doctor and board certified in Pediatrics, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. His presentation covered many critical topics related to Autism that are often misunderstood and misrepresented. As a psychologist, I found that one of the most intriguing aspects of the presentation was the eloquent way in which Dr. Coplan emphasizes the importance of understanding the child’s level of cognitive ability (IQ). The comorbidity of autism and intellectual disability has been a very misunderstood and somewhat controversial subject matter (see Charman et. al., 2011), but it has been long recognized that level of cognitive ability is the strongest predictor of future performance, especially academic/ educational performance. Although Dr. Coplan’s book is geared towards parents, it is important for EVERY professional working with students with autism to understand the impact of cognitive ability levels on the child’s progress, and how we MUST consider the child’s cognitive ability when choosing interventions and instructional methods. Dr. Coplan provides an easy-to-understand model that takes into account the child’s cognitive functioning and other important factors including developmental level, language ability, and level of typicality.

 The understanding of a child’s cognitive level is critical to professionals to provide parents with an expectation of what type of attainable goals are appropriate to set for their child. A child on the autism spectrum with cognitive abilities falling in the normal of range of performance or above, can and should be appropriately challenged by instructional methods that allow the child to utilize his/her higher-order reasoning skills, which Dr. Coplan refers to as a top-down approach. Conversely, a bottom-up approach includes strategies such as discrete trial teaching (DTT), that are more appropriate for children who have global cognitive deficits and require a high level of repeated opportunities for learning.  Professionals in the field of autism all too often become dogmatic about what interventions they are using, meaning that their choice of interventions and strategies are those that they have become “aligned” with as opposed to those that capitalize on the child’s strengths and represent a better fit for the child’s learning style. If readers are interested in developing a stronger understanding of cognitive ability and intellectual assessment, a comprehensive publication is Contemporary Intellectual Assessment: Theories, Tests, and Issues, Third Edition (Flanagan, Genshaft, & Harrison (Eds.), 2012).  If parents would like an easy-to-understand explanation of how to interpret and understand IQ scores, please contact the Kidz Therapy office and we will provide you with appropriate material.

http://www.drcoplan.com/

 References:

 Charman, T., Pickles, A.,  Simonoff, E., Chandler, S., Loucas, T; et al. (2011). IQ in children with autism spectrum disorders: Data from the Special Needs and Autism Project (SNAP). Psychological Medicine 41. 3

 Coplan, J. (2010). Making sense of autism spectrum disorders: Create the brightest future for your child with the best treatment options.New York: Bantam

Flanagan, D. P., Genshaft, J. L.,  & Harrison, P. L. (Eds.). (2012). Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues, Third Edition. New York:Guilford

News: early intervention autism

·         Research identifies key autism intervention window

The behaviour of pre-school children with autism improves the most in the first six months of earlyintervention, research at RMIT University has shown. see link to article below.

http://rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=fvvemoi4vgrw

 

Blinking May Yield Clues About Autism (WebMD)

Blinking May Yield Clues About Autism

Autistic Children Blink Differently Than Children Without the Condition

By Denise Mann
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

  

Dec. 12, 2011 — When and why children blink may provide researchers some important clues about how children with autism process and take in information.

Although it may not feel like it, blinking interrupts what we are watching. If a story or scene is engrossing, we can keep our eyes peeled. This is called blink inhibition. There are key differences between toddlers with and without autism spectrum disorder and when they blink their eyes.

The new finding appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The CDC states that one in 110 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder. This is a range of developmental disorders that affect the ability to communicate and relate to others.

In the new study, 2-year-olds with or without autism watched a video of a boy and girl playing. The video included physical movements as well as children interacting with each other. For the typical children, the rate of blinking decreased more when watching the emotional part than during physical movements. This pattern was reversed among children with autism.

Blinking Patterns Shed Light on Autism

“When we blink and when we don’t can actually index how engaged people are with what we’re looking at, and how important they perceive that thing to be,” says Warren Jones, PhD. He is the director of research at the Marcus Autism Center at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. 

Children without autism seem to be able to anticipate what is coming next based on facial expressions and wordplay. This is not the case among children with autism. “Without understanding the social context in which actions happen, children with autism may often be reacting, after the fact, to physical events that have already happened,” Jones says in an email.

The findings give “researchers a new tool for trying to understand how children with autism look at, engage with, and learn from what they see,” he says. “This might give us more information about cues that are distracting to children with autism, and it might also give us information about cues that are naturally engaging to [these] children.”

Study Findings May Help Diagnose, Treat Autism

Autism experts are excited about the implications of the study.

“This is a very well-done study that demonstrates the unique patterns of social attention in autism,” says Thomas Frazier II, PhD. He is the director of research at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital Center for Autism.

“In fact, if replicated, this information may become useful for developing earlier and more objective diagnostic tools,” he says in an email.

Geraldine Dawson, PhD, is the chief science officer for Autism Speaks, an autism advocacy and science group. She says the findings may help researchers develop effective therapies. “This is the first study to my knowledge that has used blinking to assess how engaged a child is with what he or she is viewing,” she says. 

“These results suggest that therapy should focus on helping the child to become more emotionally engaged with the social world and to learn that people are important and rewarding,” Dawson says in an email. “The hope is that, as a result of therapy, the young child with autism will show higher levels of attention.”

What’s more, blinking rate could provide a way to measure social engagement, she says. This “could be used in clinical trials that are testing treatments that aim to increase the child’s interest and engagement with the social world.”

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