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Cognitive Development
In children with autism, intellectual development is complicated
by the common deficits in language acquisition, symbolic functioning,
and social understanding. The other problems seen in children
with autism, lack of joint attention and weak theory of mind,
both involve aspects of communication, cognition, and social understanding.
Children with autism spectrum disorders have difficulties with
imitation of gestures and sounds that begin early and persist.
There is a strong relationship between verbal ability and theory
of mind, but teaching theory of mind concepts does not improve
social behaviour. Children with autism spectrum disorders have
difficulties with organization and planning (termed "executive
functions").
Conclusions:
- There is some evidence that young children with ASDs can learn
to read, but there is very limited evidence for the effectiveness
of interventions design to aid in the development of math skills.
- One study using a case series design demonstrated that a combination
of different standard instructional techniques was effective in
teaching language concepts to school-aged children.
- There is also some evidence that peer-tutoring works with young
children with autism.
- One small study demonstrated that incidental instruction, in
which a skill is taught in a non-deliberate fashion, improved
sight-word recognition in two children.
- There is very limited evidence that computer-assisted instruction
(CAI) can improve performance and sustain interest in academic
tasks.
Recommendations:
- Research is needed to explain how children with ASDs learn problem-solving
skills in the home and at school, rather than in laboratory or
clinical settings.
- Research is also needed to identify what skills are valuable
to the child and his/her family, rather than those that have application
only to academic success.
- There is more work needed to determine if there is a specific
sequence of skills acquisition that works best for individual
children, and how to select those sequences.
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