What interests young autistic children? An exploratory study of object exploration and repetitive behavior

Jacques, Claudine; Courchesne, Valérie; Meilleur, Andrée-Anne S.; Mineau, Suzanne; Ferguson, Stephanie L.; Cousineau, Dominique; Labbe, Aurélie; Dawson, Michelle; Mottron, Laurent

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0209251

Cited by 28 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Several studies support the view that intense interests may be associated with well-being in autism (Courchesne et al, 2020;Davey, 2020;Grove et al, 2018;Jacques et al, 2018;South & Sunderland, 2020;Warren et al, 2020). During the pandemic, spending time on their interests was characteristic of many children and adolescents.…”

Section: Are Autistic Interests Facilitators or Obstacles?mentioning

confidence: 94%

Experience of Autistic Children and Their Families During the Pandemic: From Distress to Coping Strategies

Jacques

Saulnier

Éthier

et al. 2021

J Autism Dev Disord

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To understand the perspectives and needs of autistic children and their families in the context of an emergency, 109 parents and 56 autistic children (5.75–18 years) from Canada completed an online survey about needs, barriers and facilitators to coping with the pandemic. Parents’ concerns about their child’s development and difficulties managing their child’s behaviors before and during pandemic were significantly associated. Parents identified maintaining social relationships and implementing appropriate interventions to their child’s characteristics as facilitators during the pandemic. Both children and parents identified lack of socialization as a main difficulty. Among children, 92.9% associated electronic devices with their well-being. This study highlighted the need to consider the child’s autistic characteristics and interests to implement emergency accommodations and services.

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Section: Are Autistic Interests Facilitators or Obstacles?mentioning

confidence: 94%

Experience of Autistic Children and Their Families During the Pandemic: From Distress to Coping Strategies

Jacques

Saulnier

Éthier

et al. 2021

J Autism Dev Disord

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“…Interests are described as "highly restricted, xated and abnormal in intensity or focus" (p. 50, 10). The way people understand autistic interests is changing; perceptions of these traits are more positive than they once were (31)(32)(33)(34)(35). As reported in the DMS-5, "special interests may be a source of pleasure and motivation and provide avenues for education and employment later in life" (p. 54, 10).…”

Section: Supporting Autistic Children and Their Parentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experience of Autistic Children and Their Families During the Pandemic: From Distress to Coping Strategies

Jacques

Saulnier

Éthier

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded during Spring 2020, families experienced multiple upheavals, including lockdown, school closures and ruptures in professional services. We wanted to better understand the experience of autistic children and their families in times of crisis. Methods. 109 parents of autistic children (2.6–18 years) and 56 autistic children (5.75–18 years) from Quebec (Canada) completed an online survey about needs, barriers and facilitators to coping with the pandemic. Quantitative data were analyzed using ANOVA, chi-squares and open-ended questions with thematic analysis. Results. Half of the parents and children considered the pandemic to be a stressful time. Parents who expressed concerns about their child’s development and difficulty managing their child’s behaviors during the pandemic were significantly more likely than other parents to report these concerns before the pandemic, along with the following challenges during the pandemic: social isolation, having to pursue academic goals, feeling powerless over their child’s behaviors and no routine during the pandemic (all p < 0.05). Maintaining social relationships and implementing appropriate strategies, such as a routine, were identified as facilitators by both parents and children. Among children, 92.9% associated technologies with their well-being, but many parents saw too much access to electronics by their child as a barrier, suggesting a need to better understand and use autistic interests. Conclusion. Both autistic children and their parents identified social isolation as one of the main difficulties during the pandemic. We also need to consider autistic characteristics and children’s interests to implement emergency accommodations and services.

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“…The language plateau is not always characterized by complete silence: the absence of communicative language (requests or instances of interactive speech, the use of pragmatic terms) can coexist with 'labels' identifying 'natural kinds' [35]. The child thus names aloud the shapes he/she encounters, most often those belonging to an ordered series that he/she is interested in (letters, numbers, colors, geometric shapes, animals) [36]. When these shapes are letters, the situation has been individualized as hyperlexia.…”

Section: Atypical Language Progressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Widening Inborn Constraints for Language Ability: The Case for Autism

Mottron¹,

Ostrolenk²,

Gagnon³

2021

Preprint

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What does the way autistics bypass, learn, and eventually master language tell us about human linguistic ability? Here, we argue that non-social acquisition of language, in addition to representing a strong argument for nativist models of human language, may be encompassed within the human-specific orientation and mastery of complex embedded structures, of which language represents one realization. Non-social language learning could thus represent the extension of available linguistic, and non-linguistic material processed by human genetic constraints, allowing language acquisition. This deviation from typical developmental language acquisition may ultimately allow access to language, sometimes in its most elaborate forms, and also explains the possibility of the absence of its development when applied to primarily non-linguistic structured material. However, such enlargement of material-specificity does not cast doubts about its human nature. Regardless of the adaptive success or failure of non-social language learning, it is up to science, legal policies, and ethical principles to strive to maintain autism as a human potentiality to further foster our vision of a plural society.

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What interests young autistic children? An exploratory study of object exploration and repetitive behavior

Cited by 28 publications

References 57 publications

Experience of Autistic Children and Their Families During the Pandemic: From Distress to Coping Strategies

Experience of Autistic Children and Their Families During the Pandemic: From Distress to Coping Strategies

Experience of Autistic Children and Their Families During the Pandemic: From Distress to Coping Strategies

Widening Inborn Constraints for Language Ability: The Case for Autism

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