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Query: UMLS:C0004352 (autism)
 32,579 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Tests of handedness were carried out with 34 autistic children aged from 4 years 10 months to 18 years 11 months, and with sex-, age-, and IQ-matched retardates and sex- and age-matched normals. There were no significant differences between the groups on frequency of handedness, degree of righthand usage, or degree of dominant-hand usage. There was however a significant increase in the variance of dominant-hand usage from normals and retardates to autistics. These results were taken to indicate that earlier reports of handedness differences in young autistic children may reflect a developmental lag rather than a specific etiology of autism. Some support for this hypothesis was found from a comparison of age-trends between the groups. The relationship of such a developmental delay to the etiology of autism was discussed.
J Autism Child Schizophr 1978 Sep
PMID:Handedness in autistics, retardates, and normals of a wide age range. 69 66

Our previous reports have pointed out that the Rett syndrome (RS) starts from early infancy with autistic behavior and muscle hypotonia, and we have raised the hypothesis in regard to the pathophysiology that RS can be an early developmental disorder of the monoaminergic and indolamine systems. This paper presents the reanalysis of early motor and behavioral features performed on 16 patients. The most frequent complaint was developmental delay, but 2 cases were presented with autistic behaviors. Development showed delay even from head control. Crawling was particularly difficult. Muscle hypotonia was present in all cases. Early autistic behaviors were seen in high degree and the most frequent was the pervasive lack of social association. Autistic behaviors characterizing older autism were seen in various degrees. These findings reconfirm our previous reports and hypothesis. Furthermore, it can be suggested that the onset may even be in the fetal stage and that lesions of specific neuronal systems occurring in early ontogeny could result in specific abnormality in the higher system which manifest later in development, after these structures reach certain levels of maturation.
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PMID:Clinical features of the early stage of the Rett syndrome. 169 43

Three boys are described with a mixed developmental disorder, which so far appears to have a relatively good prognosis. Each boy presented in early infancy with visual unresponsiveness, which spontaneously resolved. This delayed visual maturation was accompanied or followed by severe autistic impairment, general developmental delay, hypotonia and clumsiness. Subsequent progress has been unexpectedly favourable, with striking improvements in language, play, social interest and social competence. Widespread, patchy delay in brain maturation could possibly account for this combination of delayed visual maturation and autism, with a good prognosis.
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PMID:Delayed visual maturation and autism. 169 29

Although many children with early infantile autism cannot maintain attention to externally imposed tasks, they may continue a repetitive behavior of their own choosing for long periods of time. This study examined the performance of autistic and mental age matched normal children on a Continuous Performance Test of sustained attention. Results suggest that autistic children's difficulties in sustaining attention on imposed tasks may be attributable partly to a developmental delay and partly to the motivational contingencies of task rather than to a primary impairment in the ability to sustain attention.
J Autism Dev Disord 1990 Mar
PMID:Sustained attention in children with autism. 232 50

We obtained chart reviews and parent surveys for 75 autistic children to understand better how they, and other children with uneven or unusual behavioral development, are identified and diagnosed. Our goal was to determine when parents became concerned about developmental delay, what concerns they expressed, to whom they expressed them, when evaluations were made, what kinds of evaluations were carried out, and which diagnostic models were most effective. We found that, most often, parents expressed their initial concerns to pediatricians, noting both language and social delays by the time their child was 1 1/2 years old; they began diagnostic evaluations when their child was around 2 1/2 years old, and received diagnoses of autism at around 4 1/2 years. These results are discussed in terms of the role of the child's primary care physician in improving early identification, and placement into early intervention programs. The relationship between problems in the diagnosis of autism and other developmental disabilities is considered.
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PMID:How children with autism are diagnosed: difficulties in identification of children with multiple developmental delays. 246 3

In previous tests of the lowest level of a "theory of mind" (i.e. first-order belief attribution), 80% of autistic children were found to be impaired relative to a non-autistic mentally-handicapped control group. The present study examines the 20% of autistic children who have a theory of mind at the lowest level, and tests their ability to use a theory of mind at higher levels (i.e. second-order belief attribution). This autistic subgroup, in comparison to Down's Syndrome and normal control groups, was found to be severely impaired at the higher level. Autism is discussed as a possible case of specific developmental delay.
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PMID:The autistic child's theory of mind: a case of specific developmental delay. 252 8

This paper continues our earlier investigation of autistic children's deficit in attributing beliefs to others--in their "theory of mind." Three experiments are reported. The first tests the prediction that autistic children will fail to distinguish mental and physical entities. The second tests the prediction that they will also be unaware of the mental function of the brain. The third tests the prediction that they will be unable to take into account their own mental states. This latter prediction was tested using Appearance-Reality (A-R) tasks. All three predictions were supported. Deficits in these areas were not found among mentally handicapped or normal children of the same or lower mental and chronological age, suggesting that they may be autism-specific and independent of general developmental delay. It is argued that autistic children's failure to make A-R distinctions is consistent with Leslie's (1987) metarepresentation theory of autism.
J Autism Dev Disord 1989 Dec
PMID:Are autistic children "behaviorists"? An examination of their mental-physical and appearance-reality distinctions. 260 86

Although behavioral treatment is the most effective intervention currently available for autistic children, there have been no attempts to present a comprehensive behavioral theory of autistic children since Ferster (1961). The present paper is intended to fill this gap. Behavioral work is distinguished from traditional work with autistic children in three ways: (a) it focuses on specific behaviors rather than on the diagnostic entity of autism; (b) it emphasizes the immediate environment rather than etiology or early history; and (c) research is inductive rather than hypothetico-deductive. The behavioral theory derived from such work has four tenets: (a) autistic children's behaviors are consistent with laws of learning derived from the behavior of other organisms; (b) autistic children have many separate behavioral difficulties best described as a developmental delay; (c) despite their difficulties, many autistic children learn as much as other human beings in certain environments; and (d) their difficulties can be viewed as a mismatch between a deviant nervous system and average or typical environments rather than as a disease. A number of practical and theoretical problems remain that require further research and that would add to the present theory.
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PMID:A comprehensive behavioral theory of autistic children: paradigm for research and treatment. 267 Oct 48

Phasic changes in respiratory period, electrodermal activity, and the vasoconstrictive peripheral pulse amplitude response, were examined in matched groups of autistic, retarded, and normal children using repeated presentation of simple visual and auditory stimuli of differing magnitudes. Analysis of response magnitudes as a function of group membership, trials, stimulus magnitude, and age, indicated both similarities and differences between the autistic and control groups. The autistic group differed from the control groups in its failure to show response habituation to repeatedly presented stimuli. However, data indicated that autistic children coded stimulus magnitude similarly to controls, suggesting that the failure to adequately process stimulus novelty does not reflect a general processing failure. Autistic children also exhibited relative hyperreactivity in all measures. Age effects showed this to be interpretable as reflecting developmental delay. These two differences support a recent two-factor theory of autism.
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PMID:Coding of stimulus parameters in autistic, retarded, and normal children: evidence for a two-factor theory of autism. 339 16

Delay in language development may be associated with an underlying anatomical, neurosensory, or psychological disorder such as: deafness, cerebral palsy, cleft palate, autism, or mental retardation. A condition called specific developmental language delay may occur in children devoid of any other identifiable disorder or developmental delay. Language delay associated with early onset, severe-to-profound hearing impairment has been well documented. Controversial studies have also appeared in the communicative disorders' literature suggesting that fluctuating conductive hearing loss in early childhood can significantly affect the development of language and related academic skills. Some authors have claimed that these deleterious effects can be irreversible. This study focuses on 3 groups of preschool children, in whom hearing acuity has been documented: One group with recurrent otitis and language delay; a second group with an equally well documented otitis history but without language delay; and a third group with documented language delay in the absence of any known predisposing conditions, including early-onset, recurrent otitis media. Prenatal, birth and developmental histories of the children in each group were compared in detail to identify any factors which may enhance or ameliorate the effects of fluctuating conductive hearing loss on language development. In a population of 1864 children (ages 9-59 months) referred for otolaryngologic and/or communicative evaluation, 480 otherwise normal children (67.6% males; 32.4% females) were found to have a history of early-onset, recurrent otitis media and/or delayed speech and language development on the basis of an extensive evaluation battery. This population was further subdivided into 3 groups (I = otitis-positive/normal language; II = otitis-positive/language delay; and III = otitis-free/language delay). Among the 329 children with positive histories for early otitis media (Groups I & II), a significantly higher percentage of those demonstrating language delay were from homes in the lower socio-economic category. Race and sex showed no significant relationship to language delay among the otitis-positive groups, although males were twice as numerous as females in the over-all study population. Articulation errors on speech measures and borderline delays in other developmental milestones (standing, walking, and toilet training) were also significantly greater in the language-delayed group when compared with otitis-positive children whose language was age-appropriate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Medical profile of the language-delayed child: otitis-prone versus otitis-free. 358 81


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