More Cognitively Advanced Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders


Book Description

The second edition of this concise, plain-English guide fully explains all of the common areas of difficulty for more cognitively advanced individuals with autism, Asperger syndrome and PDD/NOS, and provides much-needed support, uncomplicated advice, and practical, positive solutions. Susan J. Moreno provides an accessible summary of up-to-date information on the diagnostic criteria of ASD, including the common traits and characteristics to look out for. She explores common areas of difficulty, offering a wealth of practical advice and tried-and-tested strategies for meeting the needs of each individual. Topics covered include the individual with autism at home, schooling, tips for teaching, sensory issues, and social skills and involvement in the community. The book closes with useful appendices of practical advice for parents, teachers, medical professionals, and others who care. This handy and informative guide is ideal for teachers, parents, health professionals, individuals on the autism spectrum and anyone else who would like to find out more about autism spectrum disorders.




Autism Spectrum Disorders


Book Description

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.




Handbook of Life Course Health Development


Book Description

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. ​This handbook synthesizes and analyzes the growing knowledge base on life course health development (LCHD) from the prenatal period through emerging adulthood, with implications for clinical practice and public health. It presents LCHD as an innovative field with a sound theoretical framework for understanding wellness and disease from a lifespan perspective, replacing previous medical, biopsychosocial, and early genomic models of health. Interdisciplinary chapters discuss major health concerns (diabetes, obesity), important less-studied conditions (hearing, kidney health), and large-scale issues (nutrition, adversity) from a lifespan viewpoint. In addition, chapters address methodological approaches and challenges by analyzing existing measures, studies, and surveys. The book concludes with the editors’ research agenda that proposes priorities for future LCHD research and its application to health care practice and health policy. Topics featured in the Handbook include: The prenatal period and its effect on child obesity and metabolic outcomes. Pregnancy complications and their effect on women’s cardiovascular health. A multi-level approach for obesity prevention in children. Application of the LCHD framework to autism spectrum disorder. Socioeconomic disadvantage and its influence on health development across the lifespan. The importance of nutrition to optimal health development across the lifespan. The Handbook of Life Course Health Development is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology/science; maternal and child health; social work; health economics; educational policy and politics; and medical law as well as many interrelated subdisciplines in psychology, medicine, public health, mental health, education, social welfare, economics, sociology, and law.




School-Based Consultation and Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder


Book Description

School-Based Consultation and Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder examines the preventive and remedial powers of consultation for indirectly supporting the needs of youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), through collaborating with their parents and educators. Given the unprecedented numbers of students with ASD in schools, and the variety of evidence-based interventions currently available, consultation helps ensure appropriate service delivery across the range of student functioning. Focusing on foundational knowledge and skills that school consultants need to incorporate ASD service delivery into their research and practice, this text addresses consistent and effective service delivery for students with ASD to optimize their positive academic, behavioral, adaptive, and social communicative outcomes. Highlighting relevant cross-cultural research throughout its chapters, the book concludes with a section on future directions in the field that includes areas for improvement in meeting the needs of diverse students, families, and schools.




From Like to Love for Young People with Asperger's Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder)


Book Description

If your child rarely shows you that he or she loves you, it can be profoundly distressing. This is the experience of many parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and most fear that it reflects the truth. In fact the truth has generally more to do with the difficulty that young people with an ASD have in communicating like or love for someone physically and verbally. They may not know how to go about expressing themselves in these ways, or understand that family members and friends can find the absence of demonstrative affection upsetting. This book, by world leading experts Tony Attwood and Michelle Garnett, addresses this issue in practical terms. They provide carefully designed activities for parents to work through with their children to help them to understand and express affection. Their child will learn to identify his or her own and others' comfort and enjoyment range for gestures, actions and words of affection and the different ways to express feelings for someone, appropriate to each relationship and situation. The activities are simple, straightforward, and very carefully structured, so that they can be undertaken at the pace that works for the individual family. The book also guides the adult through the challenges faced by the child, leading to greater understanding and confidence in their relationship with their child, and increased ability to nurture the child's ability to form engaged relationships and friendships with others. Readers of Tony Attwood's previous books will recognise his warm, positive and empowering approach. The book will be a transformative resource for parents and family worried about their child's emotional life.




Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder


Book Description

Now revised and expanded, this is the leading resource for psychotherapists working with adults who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without significant cognitive and language impairments (also known as Asperger syndrome). Valerie L. Gaus shows how to adapt the proven techniques of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to build clients' social and coping skills, facilitate self-acceptance, and treat comorbid anxiety and depression. Illustrated with detailed case examples, the book is grounded in cutting-edge knowledge about information-processing differences in ASD. It gives clinicians critical guidance for conceptualizing these clients' presenting problems and optimizing the effectiveness of interventions. Reproducible worksheets can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. First edition title: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adult Asperger Syndrome. New to This Edition *Explains the significant terminology changes in DSM-5 and their impact. *Chapter on mindfulness-based strategies for emotion regulation problems. *Additional strategies and resources for teaching social and coping skills. *Describes new and updated assessment instruments. *Incorporates cutting-edge research on CBT and on clinical problems associated with ASD. See also the author's related self-help resource, Living Well on the Spectrum, an ideal client recommendation.




Early Childhood Music Therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorders


Book Description

This edited book brings together renowned experts in music therapy and related fields to present current research, practical strategies, and policies useful for everyone interested in music as a tool to aid children on the autism spectrum. Case scenarios, examples and tip sheets further support the application of the knowledge-based content.




Handbook of Social Skills and Autism Spectrum Disorder


Book Description

This handbook identifies the various social deficiencies widely associated with children and youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It discusses possible causes as well as the lifelong effects if these deficiencies are not addressed. The handbook presents current behavioral and curriculum-based methods for assessing social deficits. Chapters examine the various interventions that have been used to improve social skills and behavior, including video modeling, peer-mediated interventions, and script fading. Chapters also assess various interventions using empirically based procedures, evaluate the research of each of these procedures, provide guidelines for treatment planning, and offer clinical recommendations. The handbook concludes with future directions for the development of both social behavior and clinical social skills interventions. Topics featured in the Handbook include: Impairments in social behavior that may result in negative outcomes such as depression, loneliness, and suicide in individuals with ASD. Bullying among youth with ASD. Behavioral skills training to promote social behavior of individuals with ASD. The Early Start Denver Model approach to helping young children with ASD. The implementation of social skills groups for individuals diagnosed with ASD. The Handbook of Social Skills and Autism Spectrum Disorder is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in clinical child, school, and developmental psychology, behavioral therapy, and social work, as well as such interrelated disciplines as child and adolescent psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine/therapy, pediatrics, and special education/educational psychology.




Cognitive Biases in Health and Psychiatric Disorders


Book Description

Cognitive Biases in Health and Psychiatric Disorders: Neurophysiological Foundations focuses on the neurophysiological basis of biases in attention, interpretation, expectancy and memory. Each chapter includes a review of each specific bias, including both positive and negative information in both healthy individuals and psychiatric populations. This book provides readers with major theories, methods used in investigating biases, brain regions associated with the related bias, and autonomic responses to specific biases. Its end goal is to provide a comprehensive overview of the neural, autonomic and cognitive mechanisms related to processing biases. - Outlines neurophysiological research on diverse types of information processing bias, including attention bias, expectancy bias, interpretation bias, and memory bias - Discusses both normal and pathological forms of each cognitive biases - Provides specific examples on how to translate research on cognitive biases to clinical applications




The Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Integration in ASD and Typical Cognition


Book Description

This eBook explores within-discipline implications and and across-discipline connections of the Ben Shalom (2009) model. The 12 papers hail from psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy, and biology.