Aim:To determine health practitioners' experience of using the culturally adapted Ages and Stages Questionnaire -Talking about Raising Aboriginal Kids (ASQ-TRAK) and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-3 (ASQ-3) with Australian Aboriginal families and their perception about parents' acceptability and understanding of the instruments. Methods: We surveyed a convenience sample of practitioners who had used both the ASQ-TRAK and the ASQ-3 developmental screening tools with Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory and South Australia. We compared their experience and perception about parents' acceptability and understanding of both instruments. Results: All 38 respondents used the ASQ-3 and 35 the ASQ-TRAK; 100% rated the ASQ-TRAK as more acceptable and easier to understand for parents compared with 68% (P < 0.001) and 52.6% (P < 0.001), respectively, for the ASQ-3. A greater proportion of respondents were satisfied using the ASQ-TRAK (100%) than the ASQ-3 (65.7%) (P = 0.003). A higher proportion indicated that the ASQ-TRAK was respectful (85.3% compared with ASQ-3 27.8%, P < 0.001), culturally relevant (70.6% compared to 16.2%, P < 0.001) and engaging (76.5% compared to 16.2%, P < 0.001). Qualitative exploration of respondents' comments supported the quantitative findings. The ASQ-TRAK was considered more culturally appropriate, engaging and useful. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that the culturally adapted ASQ-TRAK is preferred to the ASQ-3 by health practitioners in the Australian Aboriginal context. Failing to address cultural and linguistic factors and applying measurement tools developed for one population to another, is problematic in any setting. While further research is required to explore parents' experience directly, these data provide support for the ASQ-TRAK to be used in this context.

Aim: The Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Talking about Raising Aboriginal Kids (ASQ-TRAK) culturally adapted developmental screening tool is widely used in Australian Aboriginal communities. However, there has been limited exploration of the tool's acceptability to caregivers. The aim of the study is to determine the acceptability of the ASQ-TRAK developmental screening tool to caregivers of Aboriginal children in urban, regional and remote South Australia. Methods: Caregivers of Aboriginal children completed a survey regarding acceptability of the ASQ-TRAK. Convenience samples of caregivers were invited to a telephone interview. Results: Ninety-two caregivers completed the survey (96% response). Acceptability (92%) and caregiver satisfaction (73%) were high. Families perceived the screen as easy to use and understand, strengths-based and providing valuable information about their child's development. Conclusions: The ASQ-TRAK tool was highly acceptable to caregivers in Aboriginal communities in South Australia. The study highlights the importance of culturally safe practice and supports ASQ-TRAK implementation. Broader use and further evaluation of the ASQ-TRAK in Aboriginal communities needs consideration.

Recent neuroimaging and electrophysiological research has shown that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neural systems disorder characterised by atypical connectivity between brain networks (Minshew & Keller, 2010). Such atypical connectivity underlies an impairment in the visual working memory (VisWM) for complex information (Williams, Goldstein & Minshew, 2006). Although research has reported differences in perceptual processing as well as the working memory network of ASD (Williams et al., 2006), there is no published literature to our knowledge on the effects of such differences on the topography of effects of complex information processing in the VisWM of these individuals with ASD. While individuals with ASD have been shown to prefer local to gestalt processing (Minshew and Keller, 2010), there has been no published literature on perceptual closure processes. Perceptual closure, which involves the filling in of details to form a complete image, underlies gestalt processing (Kimchi, 1992). This study investigated how such differences in visual perceptual reasoning may impact the processing of complex information in the VisWM of individuals with ASD. Study 1 and Study 2 used an event-related potential (ERP) VisWM paradigm to examine differences in perceptual closure and the effect of coherence on objectto-scene binding in the VisWM of ASD. The effect of a perceptual training on perceptual closure for ASDs was then examined in Study 3. Nineteen ASD and 17 typically developing (TD) male adolescents from 13 to 16 years old participated in Study 1 and 2. Study 1 looked at the differences in perceptual processing between the adolescents with ASD and TD adolescents. Specifically, the perceptual closure processes involved in object recognition were examined. Perceptual closure involves the interplay between local and global processing, which has been found to be different in individuals with ASD. In this study, perceptual closure processes were indexed by closure negativity (NCL), an ERP component generated within the visual association cortex. x Fragmented images were presented to the TD adolescents and adolescents with ASD. Adolescents with ASD were found to need a slightly higher level of completion before the fragmented object was recognised. When the ERP components were examined, adolescents with ASD and TD adolescents were found to have similar generation of early visual components (P1 and N1) and the NCL in the occipito-temporal regions. However, differences in prefrontal activations were found. While the TD adolescents showed prefrontal and posterior activations in the perceptual closure process, the individuals with ASD showed mainly temporal/parietal and posterior activations. Prefrontal regions have been shown to be involved in gist or low frequency processing. These areas have also been implicated in model selection and comparison processes. This is consistent with previous research that showed a reduced frontal-posterior connectivity in individuals with ASD. This engagement of prefrontal regions could ...