Psychological Studies of Childhood Autism: Can Autistic Children Make Sense of What They See and Hear?

Hermelin, Beate; Frith, Uta

doi:10.1177/002246697100500202

Cited by 50 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…Hermelin (1963) reported how in individuals without autism, "response behavior is structured according to the meaning rather than the modality of the stimulus input … an absence of such a hierarchical structure would lead to behavior which lacks a predictable pattern and appears random … if instead of items of information the input into a system is random noise, the output likewise will be random." Further studies from this group corroborated these findings in showing how individuals with autism struggle when dealing with complex or patterned stimuli (Frith, 1970;Hermelin & Frith, 1971). …”

mentioning

confidence: 70%

Sensory Sensitivities and Performance on Sensory Perceptual Tasks in High-functioning Individuals with Autism

Minshew

Hobson

2008

J Autism Dev Disord

115

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Despite extensive reports of sensory symptoms in autism, there is little empirical support for their neurological basis. Sixty individuals with high-functioning autism and 61 matched typical comparison participants were administered a sensory questionnaire and standardized neuropsychological tests of elementary and higher cortical sensory perception. Thirty-two per cent of participants with autism endorsed more sensory sensitivity items than any of the participants in the comparison group. On the sensory perceptual exam, both groups made few errors on elementary sensory perception items. Controls made few errors on higher cortical sensory perception items, but 30% of the participants with autism made high numbers of errors, though there was no evidence of the neglect syndrome. There was little correlation between the sensory sensitivities and the sensory perceptual deficits, likely due to the low correspondence between the measures. These results support the common occurrence of disturbances in sensory experiences in high functioning individuals with autism based on first person report, and the presence of neurological abnormalities in higher cortical sensory perception. Keywords autism; sensory sensitivities; sensory perception; sensory neglect The nerve endings on my skin were supersensitive. Stimuli that were insignificant to most people were like Chinese water torture. (Grandin, 1992) When Kanner (1943) and Asperger (1944 andAsperger (1991) first described the condition of autism, each reported inappropriate responses to sensory stimulation among the children they observed. Early clinical accounts described sensory dysfunction as central to the condition (Bergman & Escalona, 1949), and some clinicians continue to hold this view (Talay-Ongan & Wood, 2000). Further, sensory sensitivities and peculiarities have been incorporated as diagnostic features of the syndrome (DeMyer, 1976;Hermelin & O'Connor, 1964;Ornitz, 1989;Rogers, Hepburn, & Wehner, 2003;Wing, 1969). In the most recent revisions to the diagnostic system, clinical features associated with autism include "odd responses to sensory stimuli" (e.g., high pain tolerance, over-sensitivity to sound or touch, and excessive reaction to light or odors) (DSM-IV-TR: American Psychiatric Association, 2000). DeMyer, Hingtgen, and Jackson (1981) NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript significant disturbance in sensory processing" but stated that the underlying mechanism for this disturbance has not been established. In a recently published extensive review of empirical evidence for sensory dysfunction in autism, Rogers and Ozonoff (2005) reported that despite evidence for the prevalence and prominence of sensory symptoms in autism, there is little careful empirical work to support an explanation of the unusual sensory responses often associated with this condition. In addition, empirical information regarding the nature and extent of sensory disturbances within the autism population and potential links between sensory di...

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mentioning

confidence: 70%

Sensory Sensitivities and Performance on Sensory Perceptual Tasks in High-functioning Individuals with Autism

Minshew

Hobson

2008

J Autism Dev Disord

115

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“…That many aspects of the visual skills of individuals with autism are preserved or even superior relative to age peers has long been established (e.g., Caron et al 2004, Dawson 1996Hermelin and Frith 1971;Hermelin and O'Connor 1970;Kamio and Toichi 2000;Minshew et al 1997;O'Riordan et al 2001;Tubbs 1966). With this foundation, numerous researchers and clinicians have accepted the importance of visual material for increasing the skills of individuals with autism (American Speech-LanguageHearing Association 2006; Mesibov et al 2002;National Research Council 2001;Stromer et al 2006;Quill 1997).…”

Section: Visual Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The TEACCH Program in the Era of Evidence-Based Practice

Mesibov

Shea

2009

J Autism Dev Disord

201

106

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'Evidence-based practice' as initially defined in medicine and adult psychotherapy had limited applicability to autism interventions, but recent elaborations of the concept by the American Psychological Association (Am Psychol 61: 271-285, 2006) and Kazdin (Am Psychol 63(1):146-159, 2008) have increased its relevance to our field. This article discusses the TEACCH program (of which the first author is director) as an example of an evidence-based practice in light of recent formulations of that concept.

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“…As a manifestation of decreased utilization of context, research has supported the hypothesis that individuals with ASD have a restriction of flexibility of access to the semantic network, including decreased semantic clustering in verbal memory (Minshew and Goldstein, 2001), lack of increased recall of words when syntactic and semantic context is added (O'Connor and Hermelin, 1967;Hermelin and O'Connor, 1970;Hermelin and Frith, 1991), as well as superior performance on the "false memory" task (where the semantic and associative relationships between a heard word list and a not presented lure induce a false memory for the lure in typical individuals) (Beversdorf et al, 2000), despite a more typical performance by the same participants on most other cognitive tests for autism (Beversdorf et al, 1998). Superior performance in ASD has also been detected for "false memory" for a visuospatial task .…”

Section: Noradrenergic System Cognition and Autismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of the Noradrenergic System in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Beversdorf

2010

The Neurochemical Basis of Autism

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Psychological Studies of Childhood Autism: Can Autistic Children Make Sense of What They See and Hear?

Cited by 50 publications

References 10 publications

Sensory Sensitivities and Performance on Sensory Perceptual Tasks in High-functioning Individuals with Autism

Sensory Sensitivities and Performance on Sensory Perceptual Tasks in High-functioning Individuals with Autism

The TEACCH Program in the Era of Evidence-Based Practice

The Role of the Noradrenergic System in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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