Biomedical subjects

N Yirmiya

Publications and source records attributed to N Yirmiya.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

The Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale: differences between diagnostic systems and comparison between genders.

Diagnoses for autism based on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) were examined for 83 individuals with suspected autism. Agreement between systems reached 85.7%. Participants receiving diagnosis of autism based on only one system were significantly younger in age than individuals receiving diagnoses according to both systems. Individuals who did not receive diagnosis of autism on the ADI-R had lower chronological and mental ages and lower CARS scores compared to individuals who received diagnosis of autism based on the ADI-R. Eighteen females and 18 males were matched to examine possible gender differences. No significant findings were revealed, suggesting that the symptoms of autism according to the ADI-R and CARS do not differ between males and females when matched for chronological and mental ages.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Theory of mind abilities in individuals with autism, Down syndrome, and mental retardation of unknown etiology: the role of age and intelligence.

We examined theory of mind abilities of individuals with autism, mental retardation (MR) of unknown etiology, Down syndrome, and normal children. On false belief and deception tasks, normal children performed better than all clinical groups, while no differences emerged among the clinical groups. The groups with MR performed better than the group with autism on the value task only. For individuals with autism, theory of mind abilities correlated with verbal ability. For individuals with MR nonverbal abilities correlated with deception and false belief scores. Findings are discussed in terms of the specificity of the theory of mind deficit to autism.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Seriation, conservation, and theory of mind abilities in individuals with autism, individuals with mental retardation, and normally developing children.

Seriation, conservation, and theory of mind abilities were examined in individuals with autism (N = 16), mental retardation (N = 16), and in normally developing children (N = 16). Seriation tasks included seriation of tubes, blocks, and flat squares. Conservation tasks included conservation of area, number, substance, quantity, and weight. Theory of mind tasks involved predicting false belief and understanding value and fact beliefs. Participants with autism performed better than participants with mental retardation on seriation, while no differences emerged between these groups on conservation and false belief. Individuals with autism performed less well than individuals with mental retardation on the value and fact belief tasks; however, when verbal ability was held as a covariant, the difference was no longer significant. Normally developing children performed better than the other two groups on all tasks. These results suggest that autism does not involve a specific impairment in theory of mind and that theory of mind deficits are not unique to autism.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1995

From categorization to classification: a comparison among individuals with autism, mental retardation, and normal development.

Free-sorting, matrix, and class-inclusion tasks were administered to 16 participants with autism, 16 participants with mental retardation (MR), and 16 normal children, matched for mental age. On perceptual matrices, participants with MR performed less well than those with autism, who performed less well than normal children. On functional matrices, participants with autism and those with MR performed less well than normal children. Participants with autism performed less well than participants with MR and normal children in free-sorting representational objects and in the class-inclusion tasks, which require higher operational thought. These results suggest that individuals with autism have difficulties with tasks that necessitate internal manipulation of information. This impairment is discussed in relation to the cognitive deficit characterizing autism.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Comparison between diagnostic instruments for identifying high-functioning children with autism.

Two instruments for identifying autism in children and adolescents with intellectual abilities in the normal range were compared. Diagnostic tools consisted of the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI). The sample was composed of 18 children who were all diagnosed as having either infantile autism or infantile autism, residual state based on DSM-III criteria by a clinical team using observations, parental interviews, and interactions with the children. Only 4 of the children met diagnostic cutoffs for autism on the current ABC but all met criteria for diagnosis on the ABC using parental recall of the child's behavior at 3-5 years of age. The ADI had somewhat greater specificity in that 3 children did not meet criteria for diagnosis although 2 of these children also received ABC scores based on parental recollection that were in the borderline range.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

Parental perception of emotional expressiveness in children with autism.

Parents' perceptions of their children's emotional expressiveness, and possible bases for these perceptions, were investigated in a study comparing older, nonretarded autistic and normal children and in another study comparing young autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children. Both groups of autistic children were perceived as showing more negative emotion and less positive emotion than comparison children. In the younger sample, parental perceptions correlated with the children's attention and responsiveness to others' displays of emotion in 2 laboratory situations. Findings contradict the view that autism involves the "absence of emotional reaction" (American Psychiatric Association, 1987, p. 35).

Affective Symptoms↗

PubMed1992

Understanding of simple and complex emotions in non-retarded children with autism.

Non-retarded autistic children are compared to normal controls on measures of emotion expression and recognition. In general, autistic subjects recounted appropriate examples of simple and complex emotions, and accurately labeled relatively ambiguous affect expression in pictures. Autistic children manifested some difficulty talking about socially derived emotions, pride and embarrassment. They required more time and more prompts, their responses were more tentative and "scripted", and they displayed limited understanding of the salience of others in embarrassing situations. Results are discussed in relation to theory of mind impairment and compensation strategies in autism.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Responses to the negative emotions of others by autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children.

Attention, facial affect, and behavioral responses to adults showing distress, fear, and discomfort were compared for autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children. The normal and mentally retarded children were very attentive to adults in all 3 situations. In contrast, many of the autistic children appeared to ignore or not notice the adults showing these negative affects. As a group, the autistic children looked at the adults less and were much more engaged in toy play than the other children during periods when an adult pretended to be hurt. The autistic children were also less attentive to adults showing fear, although their behavior was not different from the normal children. Few of the children in any group showed much facial affect in response to these situations. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of affect in the social learning experiences of the young child.

Affect↗

PubMed1992

Empathy and cognition in high-functioning children with autism.

This study compares the ability of nonretarded autistic children (9-16 years of age) with the ability of normally developing children (9-14 years of age) to discriminate between various emotional states, to take the perspective of another regarding emotional states, and to respond affectively. The children's understanding of conservation was also assessed. While the children with autism did surprisingly well on the empathy-related measures, they performed less well than the normal children on these measures and on conservation. There was a closer association between cognitive abilities and affective understanding in the group of autistic children than in the control group.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Affective sharing in the context of joint attention interactions of normal, autistic, and mentally retarded children.

Disturbances in the development of joint attention behaviors and the ability to share affect with others are two important components of the social deficits of young autistic children. We examined the association of shared positive affect during two different communicative contexts, joint attention and requesting. The pattern for the normal children was one of frequent positive affect displayed toward the adult during joint attention situations. Compared to the normal children, the autistic children failed to display high levels of positive affect during joint attention whereas the mentally retarded children displayed high levels of positive affect during requesting as well as joint attention situations. These results lend support to the hypothesis that the joint attention deficits in autistic children also are associated with a disturbance in affective sharing.

Affect↗

PubMed1990

Affect and attention in children with Down syndrome.

The association of the affective responsiveness and attention regulation with communication and language skills of children with Down syndrome was examined. Results both replicate and extend previous research on the attentional and affective characteristics of children with Down syndrome. These children tended to look more often to the face of the social partner but less often to nonfocal toys. They also tended to shift affect expressions more frequently but did not differ from MA-matched nonretarded children in overall durations of affect. The association of these variables with communication and language indicated that the more positive affect displayed toward people and the shorter the average looks to the partner's face, the higher the verbal language skills of young children with Down syndrome.

Affect↗

PubMed1989

Facial expressions of affect in autistic, mentally retarded and normal children.

This study examined the facial affect expressions of autistic, mentally retarded and normal children. Affect was coded using the Maximally Discriminative Movement Coding System. Results indicated that the autistic children were more flat/neutral in their affect expression than the mentally retarded children. Moreover, they displayed a variety of ambiguous expressions not displayed by any of the other children. This unique pattern may be related to the difficulties that autistic children have in sharing affect, and to the difficulties that others experience in reading their affective signals.

Affect↗

PubMed1988

Caregiver interactions with autistic children.

Caregiver interactions with young autistic children were contrasted with those involving caregivers and developmentally matched mentally retarded and normal infants. Caregivers of autistic children were similar to other caregivers in their responsiveness to child nonverbal communication bids and in their engagement in mutually sustained play. Caregivers of autistic children were similar to caregivers of mentally retarded children in their greater use of control strategies. However, these two groups of caregivers differed in the particular strategies they used to shape their children's behavior. Caregivers of mentally retarded children pointed to objects while caregivers of autistic children spent more time physically holding their children on task. Individual differences within the autistic sample indicated that caregivers regulated their children's behavior less and showed more mutual play and positive feedback to more communicatively able autistic children. These findings suggest that caregivers respond differentially to the specific deficiencies shown by their children.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed1988

Nonverbal communication skills in Down syndrome children.

The goal of this research was to examine the nonverbal communication competence of 18-48-month-old Down syndrome children. The results indicated that Downs children displayed strengths and weaknesses in nonverbal communication skills. Relative to MA matched normal children, they displayed a significant strength in nonverbal social interaction skills. However, they also displayed a significant deficit in nonverbal requests for objects or assistance with objects compared to normals. This pattern of strength and weakness in nonverbal skills appeared to be specific to Down syndrome since this pattern was not displayed by a comparison sample of non-Downs mentally retarded children. Nonverbal object-requesting skill was also significantly associated with a measure of expressive language in the Downs sample. This relation was notable because the Downs children also displayed a deficit in expressive language. Thus, the results of this study suggest that a deficit in expressive language is associated with a deficit in earlier-developing nonverbal requesting skill among Down syndrome children.

Child, Preschool↗