Theories of Autism

11 Key excerpts on "Theories of Autism"

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  Autistic Spectrum Disorders

  An Introductory Handbook for Practitioners

  • Rita Jordan(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • David Fulton Publishers

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 5 Psychological Theories on the Nature of Autism

  Introduction

  As discussed in earlier sections, She level of explanation that is most useful for understanding autism from a treatment perspective is the psychological one. At this level we are dealing with theoretical constructs that help to make sense of observable behaviour, while fitting the constraints imposed by the little we know of the biological basis of that behaviour. Even within the psychological domain, some theories will be closer to biology (neuropsychological theories, for example), some closer to behaviour (learning theories, for example) and some purely abstract (such as information processing theories, based on a computer metaphor of brain functioning or psychodynamic theories based on myth or psychoanalytical theory).

  Autism is a rich source of psychological theorising. At one level this arises because of the intriguing and bizarre behavioural manifestations of the disorder and the wide variation of behaviours displayed. This means that almost any theory can appear to explain, or at least describe, some of the features of autism and so can come to have face validity. At another level, autism involves a unique and early developmental disturbance that can throw light on the developmental process itself and offer insights into the role played by cognitive, affective (emotional), conative (motivational) and social factors in development. Theories of Autism have a privileged status in developmental psychology, for that reason. For those attempting to live and work with people with autism, there is also the daily challenge that methods and approaches that work with all other groups do not seem to work with these individuals. There is, then, the need to understand what is going on, in order to devise better and more specific approaches. The number and variety of theoretical approaches reflect all of these interests and concerns.

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  The Development of Autism

  A Self-Regulatory Perspective

  • Thomas L. Whitman(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Jessica Kingsley Publishers

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 3 Theories of Autism

  with Kathleen J. Kolberg

  Within the scientific enterprise, theories about disorders such as autism serve a variety of functions. Some theories are more descriptive, acting as conceptual organizers about what is known. For example, they describe the nature of a disorder, how it develops, and how it differs from other disorders. A more sophisticated theory also allows predictions to be made; for example, about how people with a particular disorder will behave in the future given their present symptoms. In addition to these descriptive and predictive functions, a comprehensive theory formulates hypotheses regarding the critical processes underlying the development of a disorder and speculates about how interventions might be best structured. Theories are not either wrong or right, but rather are more or less useful. Theories that allow more precise and accurate predictions to be made and/or lead to the design of effective interventions are more useful and for that reason are characterized as having greater validity.

  Theories of Autism can be typically subdivided into those that are psychological or biological. Psychological theories specify the role that different processes, such as those involving the attention or the sensory system, play in symptom development. In contrast, biological theories emphasize how various factors such as genes, neurochemical processes, neurological structures, and environmental toxins influence symptom formation. Ideally, psychological theories should be consistent with what is known biologically about autism. Conversely, biological theories should be consistent with what is known psychologically.

  A variety of Theories of Autism have been proposed. Many of these theories are quite descriptive and not very formalized in their presentation. Most Theories of Autism are quite speculative and in need of empirical verification. Moreover, most theories are narrow in scope, focusing on only a few of the symptoms associated with autism. Theory formulation in the area of autism is particularly difficult because of the number and heterogeneous nature of the symptoms. At present, it is not clear which symptoms of autism are primary, that is, are a critical part of an early process leading to other symptoms. Ideally a comprehensive theory of autism should emphasize how biological, psychological, and environmental factors can work in conjunction to explain the development of autism. Moreover, to be really useful, a theory of autism should specify how biological and/or psychobehavioral interventions can be structured to address the underlying causes of autism so as to prevent or ameliorate the symptoms associated with this disorder. Although there is empirical support for some Theories of Autism, no one theory has emerged that has gained broad acceptance. Because of the rapidly increasing scientific interest in autism, it is likely that the theoretical landscape will change dramatically in the next decade.

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  Transfer Boy

  Perspectives on Asperger Syndrome

  • Teodor Mihail, Michel Ferrari, Ljiljana Vuletic(Authors)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Jessica Kingsley Publishers

    (Publisher)

  (Medical record of November 4, 1997) An Autistic or Asperger Syndrome Child: The Scientific Perspective 89 The biological and neuroscientific perspectives are also important to understand-ing Teodor. These perspectives concern cell and brain features uniquely associ-ated with autism. Specifically, they consider the etiology of autism (its causes), its neurological atypicalities (structural and functional), its neurophysiology, neuropsychology and neurochemistry. Both Leo Kanner (1943, 1971) and Hans Asperger (1944/1991) suggested that autism is an organic condition. Nevertheless, when psychoanalysis was dominant, autism was considered a psychogenic disorder (i.e., caused by psy-chological factors), more specifically, by bad parenting (for a review of early views on autism see Rimland 1964). However, ever since the mid-sixties, autism has been recognized as a neuro/biological disorder. Bernard Rimland (1964) was the first to propose that a specific part of the brain—the reticular formation of the brain stem—is uniquely abnormal in autism, and responsible for its clinical manifestations. Currently, there is a general scientific agreement that autism has a neuro/biological basis; however, there is little agreement about what exactly this basis is. Here, we briefly review several lines of inquiry into what that biological basis might be. The etiology of autism Autism is currently conceptualized as a disorder with a heterogeneous etiology (i.e., it is caused by multiple factors acting together). Genetic and environmental factors, and their interactions, are thought to cause autism (for recent reviews see Folstein and Rosen-Sheidley 2001; Volkmar et al . 2004). Strong evidence from twin and family studies suggests that autism has a genetic basis (Bailey et al . 1995).

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  Disorders of Childhood

  Development and Psychopathology

  • Robin Parritz, Michael Troy(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Etiology Early Hypotheses In their early work, Kanner and Asperger focused on the physiological origins of autism, but these hypotheses were quickly displaced by psychosocial explanations more in tune with the psychoanalytic era. Most frequently associated with Bruno Bettelheim, these explanations focused on poor parenting and cool, distant “refrigerator mothers,” whose infants intuitively understood that they were being rejected and so withdrew from all contact and relationships. The consequences of being blamed for a pervasively debilitating disorder in one’s own child were devastating. In time—although much too late for many parents—these theories were completely discredited. Contemporary research on autism acknowledges both genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity: “Any successful account of the ‘final common pathway’ for autism will have to account for why multiple different genetic, molecular, and neural factors can cause the same syndrome” (Johnson, Jones, & Gliga, 2015, p. 432). This is an example of equifinality (discussed in Chapter 3). Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 120 CHAPTER 7 Autism Spectrum Disorder Examples of alternative routes, cumulative effect models, and cascading effect models are illustrated in Figure 7:4 (Gliga, Jones, Bedford, Charman, & Johnson, 2014).

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  Technology and Isolation

  • Clive Lawson(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  In short, children with autism are considered to be relatively successful at negotiating the physical world of things, but experience severe problems with the sociocultural realm of human interaction. The idea that those with autism experience difficulties in negotiating the social world is supported by a wealth of empirical evidence. Several studies have shown how those with autism have difficulty understand- ing things that are known or believed by others (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985, Perner et al., 2002). Those with autism are portrayed as having problems identifying the meaning of facial expressions, matching them to appropriate gestures (Weeks and Hobson, 1987) or anticipating the kinds of things that a listener needs to know (Baltaxe, 1977, Loveland et al., 1990, Mundy et al., 1986, Wulff, 1985). Often such factors are put together and talked about in terms of the trouble those with autism have detecting the meaning of social situations (Loveland and Tunali, 1991, Lawson et al., 2004). To repeat, it is this difficulty with negotiat- ing the social world that is the major phenomenon that Theories of Autism seek to explain. Theories of Autism The three most prominent Theories of Autism are the ‘theory of mind’, ‘weak central coherence’ and ‘weak executive function’ theories. By far 132 Technology and Autism the most prominent and influential of these is the theory of mind approach, which has largely been associated with the work of Simon Baron-Cohen (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985, Leslie, 1987, Baron-Cohen, 2016, Baron-Cohen et al., 2015). The main idea, also sometimes cap- tured with the term ‘mind-blindness’, is that those with autism are thought not to be able to recognise that others have minds and, it is supposed, it is this that makes social interaction difficult.

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  Autism - The Search for Coherence

  • John Richer, Sheila Coates(Authors)
  • 2001(Publication Date)
  • Jessica Kingsley Publishers

    (Publisher)

  psychiatry and therefore not seen as directly connected, an example perhaps of the fragmentation that leads us to search for coherence. The development of autistic behaviour In the companion paper to this (Chapter 3 in this volume) it is argued that autistic children’s failure to engage in successful interactions from an early age helps account for many aspects of their social difficulties including their Theory of Mind difficulties and their poor integration of self and other. This is not saying that these processes are sufficient to produce this effect, though they may be, and it is certainly not saying that this is ‘the cause’ of autism. It is saying that these mechanisms are likely to be important processes in an autistic child’s development. It seems at the moment that the safest position on the causation of autism is that it is multiple and heterogeneous (Kolvin, Ounsted and Roth 1971; Richer 1983; Zappella, Chapter 10 this volume). For the autistic process to get underway probably requires multiple causal factors adding together, and those factors are different in different children, although they end up on similar developmental paths. Therapy Heterogeneity of aetiology implies that some therapies might be helpful to only a proportion of autistic children, as seems to be the case. To dismiss some therapies, even to disparage them as ‘miracles’ (e.g. Howlin 1997), because they benefit only a proportion of children, is to misunderstand the heterogeneity of autism. Just as when considering the causation of autism we are not looking at a single cause, but at a developmental process of progressively being swept along an autistic developmental path, so when we are looking at therapy we are likewise looking at a number of measures designed to try to remediate ongoing adverse factors, to undo some of the physical and psy-chological damage that has been done and deflect the child on to a more normal developmental path.

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  Autism Spectrum Disorders from Theory to Practice

  Assessment and Intervention Tools Across the Lifespan

  • Belinda Daughrity, Ashley Wiley Johnson(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Summary 13 SUMMARY ASD is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that centers around social communi- cation challenges and includes the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors. Causes of autism include genetic and environmental factors, although the complete cause remains unknown. The DSM-IV had three diagnostic domains required to meet diagnostic criteria for diagnosis: restricted and/or repetitive behaviors, communica- tion, and social interaction challenges. The DSM-V reduced the diagnostic criteria to two domains and collapsed the domains of communication and social interaction to form the criteria of social communication. Current views support the idea of several disorders classified as an autism spectrum rather than former separate diagnostic categories such as PDD-NOS and Asperger’s. Optimal treatment of ASD includes a collaborative approach between several disciplines with respective expertise. Treatment of ASD should focus on promoting communication and independence. The neurodi- versity movement offers a perspective that includes more acceptance of neurological variance. The voices of individuals with autism should be included in their own care. This can be accomplished in part by valuing first-hand accounts, centering the scholarship of researchers with autism, and reconceptualizing the ideas of autism to prioritize strengths of individuals, rather than deficits. 14 Chapter 1 Historical Perspectives of Autism Spectrum Disorder REFLECTIONS ALONG THE PATH I began working with children with disabilities in the late 1970s/early 1980s. We were just starting to work with severely delayed children, who had limited services and support. I was very involved in Child Find efforts, because at the time, school- aged children with disabilities were not given an opportunity to attend public school programs. That changed in the late 1970s with the passage of PL 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975).

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  Childhood Psychological Disorders

  Current Controversies

  • Alberto M. Bursztyn Ph.D.(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  For some parents and individuals with these challenges, one diagnosis can be seen as more socially or personally acceptable than an- other. They may also be informed there are better services and supports for one diagnosis than for another. Any discussion of autism needs to in- clude a clarification of the meaning of the various diagnostic labels in use, a process complicated by the fact that within the mental health field some of those labels are still contested. Defining Asperger Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorders Consideration of autism spectrum disorder and Asperger syndrome (AS) in particular has to take into account the nature of emerging understand- ings over the past decade during which there has been much productive work on brain function and neurophysiology. Yet, despite considerable advances, many questions and concerns still remain for parents of children with ASD or Asperger syndrome. Autism spectrum disorders, also re- ferred to as pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), are neurobiological or neurodevelopmental disorders. Current understanding suggests that there are distinct structural alterations in the brain that result in differences in processing and functioning of affected individuals as they develop. The ASD-PDD spectrum covers a broad continuum of social and behav- ioral functioning and cognitive skills, with varying degrees of three com- mon diagnostic characteristics: (1) a lack or delay in functional language Autism Spectrum Disorders 73 development and use, (2) a lack or significant compromise in the devel- opment of social relatedness with others (especially peers), and (3) signifi- cant repetitive behaviors or narrow areas of interest. A notable number of children also manifest some degree of sensory problems (i.e., intense sen- sitivity to noise, light, smells, touch and texture, or even to food). An ASD diagnosis implies a lifelong psychological disability.

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  Understanding Actions, States, and Events

  Verb Learning in Children with Autism

  • Susan Douglas(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter Mouton

    (Publisher)

  Similarly, some individuals may have unerring fine motor skills while others are clumsy. Unusual responses to sensory stimuli as originally recognized by Kanner (1943) are often observed. These include ignoring sounds or oversensitivity towards them, indifference to tactile stimuli such as temperature, pain and even gentle touch and absorption with visual stimuli such as shiny or spinning objects. However, Wing (1988: 97) indicated that these types of responses are more prevalent in young children with autism and those who also have severe intellectual disabilities. The extensive research into the behavioural manifestations of autism which has followed Kanner’s original publication has provided much information in regard to which features of the syndrome are to be considered primary and which features are usually associated but not considered central to the disorder. The groundbreaking work of Wing and Gould (1978; 1979) reinforced the identification of autism as a syndrome as well as providing clear evidence of social impairment as a primary indicator from among the many features observed during the course of clinical research. Moreover, the Autism: The current perspective 23 concept of the autistic spectrum neatly captures the variation of behaviours and abilities within the syndrome which are outside Kanner’s autism. 2.2. Autism and aetiology Despite the significant advances in research over the last few decades, the exact cause of autism remains, as yet, unknown. While many theories have been postulated, there is much evidence to indicate a neurological origin of the disorder. The advent of highly sophisticated neural imaging technology has produced some promising leads, but research attempting to locate the specific site at which brain damage occurs is inconclusive. Nonetheless, much has been learned about the causative agents such as birth trauma and genetic abnormalities which lead to the onset of autism via a common neural pathway which remains unidentified.

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  Early Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders

  A Critical Analysis

  • Johnny L. Matson, Noha F. Minshawi(Authors)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • Elsevier Science

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 1 History and Development of Autism Spectrum Disorders Early Work by Kanner Understanding current knowledge of disorders as complex as those on the autism spectrum requires some appreciation of the condition’s history. We will begin with the original definition of autism that came from Leo Kanner in 1943, the core symptoms of which are still recognized. Kanner observed 11 children with similar patterns of behavior, including abnormal language development and use, social skills deficits and excesses, and insistence on sameness in their environment. An additional common characteristic linking these children was their disregard for or inattention to the outside world, which Kanner referred to as “extreme autistic aloneness” (p. 242). As noted, the basic definition has remained constant since that time. The stability of the definition and the unusual pattern of human behavior that it describes have, as a result, drawn a great deal of attention from professionals and parents. Thus, autism is one of the most studied and discussed topics in the broad field of developmental disabilities and mental health (Tager-Flusberg, Joseph, & Folstein, 2001). Parent reports of the 11 children’s language were similar to the language observed by Kanner himself. The autistic children developed language according to normal milestones, and began memorizing and repeating nursery rhymes, poems, and songs at a very young age (e.g. 2 to 3 years). However, as the children approached school age they did not begin asking or answering questions as most children of their age did. Kanner hypothesized that the language of these children was being used for a function other than communication (Kanner, 1943). Thus, not only was there delayed speech, but the children’s language was characterized as literal and inflexible, and many of the children with autism were unable to generalize or transfer an expression from one object or situation to another.

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  Autistic Spectrum Disorders in Children

  • Vidya Bhushan Gupta(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  1 History, Definition, and Classification of Autistic Spectrum Disorders Vidya Bhushan Gupta New York Medical College and Columbia University, New York, New York, U.S.A. I. ORIGINS The term autism, meaning “living in self” (in Greek aut means self, and ism refers to a state), was coined by a Swiss psychiatrist, Eugen Bleuler, in 1911, to describe self- absorption due to poor social relatedness in schizophrenia (1). Leo Kanner (Fig. 1), in 1943, borrowed this term to describe 11 children who “were oblivious to other people, did not talk or who parroted speech, used idiosyncratic phrases, who lined up toy in long rows, and who remembered meaningless facts.” In his classic paper, “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact,” Kanner described the features of classic autism with uncanny detail (2). Describing the social isolation of his first case, Kanner said, “Donald got happiest when left alone, almost never cried to go with his mother, did not seem to notice his father’s homecomings, and was indifferent to visiting relatives. The father made a special point of mentioning that Donald even failed to pay the slightest attention to Santa Claus in full regalia.” His second child played abnormally, “He never was very good with cooperative play. He doesn’t care to play with the ordinary things that other children play with, anything with wheels on.” The third child said “no recognizable words, although he did make noises (3).” In 1956, Eisenberg and Kanner suggested two essential criteria for the disorder: inability to relate in the ordinary way to people and situations and failure to learn to speak or inability to convey meaning to others through language, both occurring from the beginning of life (4). In 1944, Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician, independently described a condition similar to that described by Leo Kanner and called it autistic psychopathy Figure 1 Leo Kanner, M.D., is credited with the first description of autism.

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