Abstract:Few studies address the daily challenges faced by parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. This article reports on a qualitative interview study with 20 parents exploring their experiences, challenges faced, and what has helped them to cope. A thematic analysis of the data identified five core categories: Dealing with challenging behaviour; dealing with judgements from others; lack of support; impact upon the family; coping and the importance of appropriate support. The findings emphasise where the parents themselves believe they still require additional support. It raises key strategies and resources that parents have found helpful.http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jhealthpsychology Journal of Health Psychology .

Whilst hypersensitivity to pitch information appears to be characteristic of many individuals with autism spectrum disorders little is known about the implications of such a tendency for language acquisition and development. Discrimination of systematically varied pitch differences between pairs of words, nonwords, and nonspeech pitch contour analogues was assessed in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and matched controls. The findings revealed superior performance in ASD, although, like controls, discrimination of pitch in speech stimuli was poorer in this group than for nonspeech stimuli. Whilst it was hypothesized that enhanced processing of speech pitch would correlate negatively with receptive language skills in ASD, the findings did not fully support this, and enhanced discrimination skills were observed in individuals without significant language impairment. The implications of these findings for understanding heterogeneity of language ability in ASD are discussed.

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Sensory dysfunctions may underlie key characteristics in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The current study aimed to investigate auditory change detection in children with ASD in order to determine event-related potentials to meaningless and meaningful speech stimuli. 11 high functioning boys with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (mean age = 13.0; SD = 1.08) and 11 typically developing boys (mean age = 13.7; SD = 1.5) participated in a mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm. Results revealed that compared to TD controls, the children with ASD showed significantly reduced MMN responses to both words and pseudowords in the frontal regions of the brain and also a significant reduction in their activation for words in the Central Parietal regions. In order to test the relationship between sensory processing and auditory processing, children completed the Adult and Adolescent Sensory Profile. As predicted, the children with ASD showed more extreme sensory behaviours and were significantly higher than their typically developing controls across three of the sensory quadrants (sensory sensitivity, low registration and sensory avoidance). Importantly, only auditory sensory sensitivity was able to account for the differences displayed for words in the frontal and central parietal regions when controlling for the effect of group, revealing an inverse relationship of the higher sensory sensitivity scores the less activation in response for words. We discuss how the expression of sensory behaviours in ASD may result in deficient neurophysiological mechanisms underlying automatic language processing.

Heightened sensitivity to sensory information has been associated with food fussiness in both atypical and typical development. Despite food fussiness and sensory dysfunction being reported as common concerns for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, the relationship that exists between them, and whether they differ between disorders, has yet to be established. The current study aimed to examine sensory sensitivity as a predictor of food fussiness in three different neurodevelopmental disorders, whilst controlling for comorbidity amongst these disorders. Ninety-eight caregivers of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; n=17), Tourette Syndrome (TS; n=27), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; n=27), and typical development (TD; n=27) were compared using parental reports of child food fussiness, food preferences and sensory sensitivity. Children with neurodevelopmental disorders were reported to have significantly higher levels of both food fussiness and sensory sensitivity, with children with ASD and TS also showing significantly less preference for fruit than children with TD. Importantly, higher levels of taste/smell sensitivity predicted food fussiness for all four groups of children. In addition, taste/smell sensitivity fully mediated the differences in food fussiness between each group of neurodevelopmental disorder compared to the TD group. The findings highlight that food fussiness is similar across these neurodevelopmental disorders despite accounting for comorbidity, and that greater sensitivity to taste/smell may explain why children with neurodevelopmental disorders are more likely to be fussy eaters.

Objectives: Despite the recognition that a high proportion of individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will also reach the diagnostic threshold for at least one other mental health condition, many families struggle to access the appropriate mental health support. This study aimed to systematically explore the lived experiences of raising a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and comorbid mental health condition and describes their attempts to access support via mental health services in the United Kingdom. Methods:Seven mothers of children aged between 11 to 15 years with ASD and who were referred for mental health issues, took part in semi-structured interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of the transcribed interviews revealed gaps and inconsistencies within the process of gaining access to mental health services, in addition to the impact it had on the mothers' own mental health. Results: The themes generated were psychological impact on caregiver; negative experience accessing mental health services, and breakdown in relationships with professionals. Managing the impact of their child's mental health condition, including suicidal ideation and self-harm, alongside their child's neurological condition, commonly led to feelings of isolation, self-blame, guilt and powerlessness; impacting on the mother's own mental health. Conclusions: The themes emphasised the importance of ensuring appropriate referrals are made, enhancing the therapeutic alliance with both the child and parent during the referral process, and in providing continuity of care.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), together with controls matched for age and ability participated in three experiments that assessed the therapeutic benefit of colored overlays. The findings from the first experiment showed that a significantly greater proportion of children with ASD, than controls, increased reading speed when using a colored overlay. This finding was replicated in the second experiment which also showed that therapeutic benefits were only observed when participants were instructed to select colors that improved textual clarity and not when colors were selected on the basis simply of preference. In the final experiment, children were required to discriminate between pictorially presented objects with and without overlays self selected for improvements in clarity. Participants with ASD, both with and without concurrent intellectual impairment, showed significant gains in performance when using an overlay. The beneficial effects of color overlays and the implications of these results for current neuropsychological models of ASD are discussed.

Few studies address the daily challenges faced by parents of children diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome. This article reports on a qualitative interview study with 15 parents exploring their experiences, the challenges they face and the support mechanisms they have found to be most helpful. Thematic analysis identified four core categories which represented shared experiences of the participants: coping with children's challenging behaviours, misconceptions and lack of understanding of professionals and the lay public, negative experiences of their children's education and lack of support and services for families with Tourette's syndrome. The findings highlight the challenges of parenting a child with Tourette's syndrome, particularly with respect to family life and the child's schooling.