There was no relationship between the performance in syntactic awareness and the results related to central coherence, non-verbal intelligence and social interaction deficits, difficulties in communication and restrict patterns interests of subjects with autism. The results suggest that these children seem to follow the development pattern of typically developing 6-year-old children in syntactic awareness abilities, only delayed.

Aims: Identifying effective methods for stimulating language and communication of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is fundamental to the effective use of available resources to support these children. This pilot study was designed to explore the potential benefits of a program of stimulation of executive functions (SEF) on the functional aspects of language and communication through the assessment of the functional communicative profile and social-cognitive performance. Methods: Twenty children, aged 5–12 years, with a diagnosis of ASD participated in the study. Two stimulation programs were offered over a 10- to 12-week period as part of the regular services offered to these children through a University’s speech and language therapy outpatient clinic in São Paulo, Brazil. Children either received SEF intervention in their home implemented by their parent/s, with close monitoring by the speech-language pathologist (SLP) (group 1), or they received SEF by the SLP during regular speech-language therapy individual sessions (group 2). Results: The findings suggested that there were differences between the children’s pre- and posttest performance. Significantly different performances were observed in the areas of occupation of communication space, proportion of communicative interactivity, and social-cognitive performance. Conclusion: The inclusion of activities to stimulate executive function abilities in language intervention for children with ASD warrants further investigation.

Autism is defined by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction in multiple contexts as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. There are also reported difficulties in the dynamic activation and modification of cognitive processes in response to changes in tasks' demands. Such difficulties are believed to be due to poor flexible cognition. This research aimed to assess and intervene in cognitive flexibility in subjects with autism. Ten subjects diagnosed with autism by psychiatrists, aged 5 years to 13 years and 5 months, were assessed in non-verbal intelligence through Raven's Progressive Matrices in pretest. They were also assessed in cognitive flexibility through Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and in patterns of social interactions, behaviors, and communication through Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). An intervention program of 14 to 21 sessions was established to enhance cognitive flexibility. In posttest, they were assessed in WCST and ADI-R. All measures of cognitive flexibility improved in posttest except for failure to maintain set. Among the measures improved in posttest, perseverative errors and responses improved in posttest with statistical significance as well as categories completed. Total scores on ADI-R were lower in posttest as well as scores on communication abilities. The qualitative improvement showed by the individuals of this research concerning cognitive flexibility and also patterns of restricted behavior, social interaction, and communication abilities suggests that individuals with autism can benefit from the development of strategies for the enhancement of cognitive flexibility. Nevertheless, more research is suggested with a larger sample among subjects on the autism spectrum.

No abstract

The integrity of the central auditory system is a fundamental condition for language development. Good language development is related to good academic performance and adaptive behavior. Therefore, the evaluation of auditory processing along with behavior as well as the verification of a possible relationship between them can indicate possible ways on how to deal with both problem behavior and difficulties in language. 187 parents of preschoolers (mean age 3.8 years) were interviewed individually and asked to fill in the CBCL (Child Behavior Checklist), for ages 1(1/2) to 5, providing a behavioral profile concerning externalizing and internalizing behavior. Children were assessed regarding central auditory processing skills through the Simplified Assessment of the Auditory Processing-SAAP (Pereira & Schochat, 1997) including Sound Source Localization (SSL); Non-Verbal Sound Sequence Memory (NVSSM); Verbal Sounds Sequence Memory (VSSM). To investigate a possible association between central auditory processing skills and behavioral problems, all the scores in CBCL and the total scores of Simplified Auditory Processing Assessment were correlated with functional parameters using the Spearman rank correlation. The behaviors "acts too young for age"; "constantly seeks help"; "does not eat well"; "does not seem to feel guilty after misbehaving"; "easily frustrated"; "nervous movements or twitching"; "nervous, highstrung, or tense"; "poorly coordinated or clumsy"; "repeatedly rocks head or body"; "stares into space and seems preoccupied", "sulks a lot" and "wanders away" were correlated with poor auditory pro-C. A. Varanda et al. 1590 cessing skills. This indicates that the school staff along with health professionals should provide informational counseling regarding, not only the communicative difficulties associated with a poor performance on central auditory processing skills but also the psychosocial difficulties that these children may be facing.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) constitute a group of disorders characterized by changes present at early ages and manifesting in the areas of development of communication, behavior, and interpersonal relationship. Because ASD signiicantly afects communication and the social skills, all multicultural context needs to be beter investigated. There is an urgent need to understand the impact of migratory process, bilingual environment exposure on the language development of children with ASD. The present study aims to present the results of 657 foreign residents in Brazil that answered an online questionnaire to know the consolidated information about ASD. Participants from 23 countries responded to the survey. Bolivia and Argentina were the countries with the highest number of participants. The present study found that 100% of the participants have heard of autism. About 80.6% of the sample had a family member with autism. The sociodemographic diversity identiied in this study relects the sociocultural diversity present in Brazil, besides reinforcing the importance of considering this population when thinking about strategies and behaviors directed at individuals with ASD.

This project had the aim of detecting and intervening in difficulties of language and behavior in children at the age of three and four. A hundred seventy-eight children were assessed in behavior, expressive and receptive vocabulary and in central auditory processing. 84 children constituted the experimental group and were engaged in an intervention for the development and refinement of language and management of behavior problems through activities developed in software used in tablets, concrete games and orientation provided to their parents and teachers by a professional team composed by speech therapists, psychologists and psycho pedagogues. Posttest analysis indicated significant difference between the vocabulary and language scores, suggesting that this model of early assessment and intervention can be a successful strategy in school environments.

ResumoEste estudo avaliou a consciência sintática de dez sujeitos no espectro do autismo (com idades entre 5 anos e 7 meses e 14 anos e 8 meses) e investigou o papel que a consciência sintática desempenha nos padrões de linguagem desses sujeitos. Constatou-se a existência de diferentes perfi s linguísticos por meio da Prova de Consciência Sintática (Adaptada). Foram detectados quatro subgrupos com: (a) desempenho inferior em correção de frases agramaticais e frases agramaticais e assemânticas; (b) desempenho inferior em correção de frases agramaticais e assemânticas; (c) desempenho mediano em todos os subtestes e acima da média em julgamento gramatical; e (d) desempenho superior nos quatro subtestes. Esses resultados não são generalizáveis para a população de sujeitos com autismo, mas revelaram evidências da interferência das falhas de habilidades presentes no espectro do autismo nas habilidades envolvidas na realização das tarefas. Palavras-chave: Transtorno autístico, desenvolvimento da linguagem, avaliação, cognição. AbstractTen subjects on the autism spectrum (ages ranging from 5 years and 7 months and 14 years and 8 months) were evaluated with the aim of detecting the existence of syntactic awareness and the role it plays in the patterns of language of these subjects. The existence of different language profi les was found through the Syntactic Awareness Test (adapted version). Four subgroups were detected: (a) inferior performance in the correction of ungrammatical sentences and of ungrammatical and non--semantic sentences; (b) inferior performance in the correction of ungrammatical and non-semantic sentences; (c) average performance in all subtests and above average in grammatical judgment; and (d) superior performance in all four subtests. These results are not generalizable for subjects with autism, but reveal evidence of failures in abilities that are present on the autism spectrum with the abilities required for the accomplishment of the tasks.