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Biomedical subjects

H van Engeland

Publications and source records attributed to H van Engeland.

79 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Differences in the structure of social behaviour of autistic children and non-autistic retarded controls.

Social and task-oriented behaviours of autistic children were compared to those of individually age- and IQ-matched non-autistic retarded controls. Autistic children showed deficits in visual reciprocity, in indicating joint attention and referential head gestures, and in the integration of gaze and gestures when reacting to tasks. The findings confirmed the notion of social and pragmatic communicative deficits in autism. The implications of these findings for theories of social behaviour in autism (avoidance, facial perception, theory of mind) are discussed.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1990

Behavioral effects of Org 2766, a synthetic analog of the adrenocorticotrophic hormone (4-9), in 14 outpatient autistic children.

Fourteen children (12 infantile autism full syndrome present, 2 atypical pervasive developmental disorder) between 5 and 13 years of age participated in a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over trial. Each child received 20 mg Org 2766 (synthetic analog of ACTH 4-9)/day during 4 weeks, or placebo in a randomly assigned sequence. Drug effects were monitored by ethological playroom observation and by Aberrant Behavior Checklist ratings by parents and teachers. Data of the playroom observation pointed to an activating influence of Org 2766, as revealed by a significant decrease of stereotypic behavior and significant increases in "change toys," "locomote," and "talk." Checklist ratings did not show significant changes. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗
PubMed1989

Person perception in children with conduct disorders.

In his object-relations theory, O. Kernberg discerns different levels of personality organization. From a structural point of view these are described with respect to the object-relations. So, according to Kernberg, the antisocial personality is more primitively organized (so-called borderline) than most patients with neurotic disorders, as manifested by his object-relations. We hypothesize that this also applies to children with conduct disorders in comparison with emotionally disturbed children. In this explorative study, we investigated whether suppositions concerning the object/self representations (i.e. the internal object-relations) of children with conduct disorders can be tested using a research method from empirical psychology. We chose the method of the free (written) description of persons, which in the psychology of social cognitions is used to study person perception. The results indicate that person perception (i.e. the conscious part of the object/self representations) in children with conduct disorders differs characteristically from that in a normal age- and intelligence-matched control group.

Acting Out↗
PubMed1985

Some qualitative aspects of the social behaviour of autistic children: an ethological approach.

Quantitative as well as qualitative aspects of the social behaviour of a group of autistic children (n = 20) and a group of primary school children (n = 20) were studied by means of an ethological method. Principal components analysis of the behaviour protocols made clear that the social behaviour of autistic children was less well organized, lacked the factor 'inferential behaviour' and was characterized by a factor 'stereotyped behaviour'. Although the autistic group showed less eye contact than the normal group, no further signs of any particular social avoidance tendency was found.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1984

The electrodermal orienting response to auditive stimuli in autistic children, normal children, mentally retarded children, and child psychiatric patients.

Spontaneous electrodermal activity as well as electrodermal orienting responses to auditive stimuli of moderate intensity were recorded in a group of 35 autistic children and in three control groups. Mean number of spontaneous fluctuations in skin conductance did not differentiate the groups. Autistic children, as compared with the children from the control groups, were significantly more often nonresponsive to the first trial. When responding, autistic children showed electrodermal orienting responses characterized by large amplitudes and fast recovery. The functional significance of nonresponding is discussed, and it is concluded that the response pattern of the autistic child shows a striking resemblance to that of the electrodermal response of schizophrenic persons.

Acoustic Stimulation↗