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- Creators: Braden, Blair
Description
Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly have co-morbid psychiatric symptoms which can decrease quality of life. Although many adults with ASD are achieving greater independence, including attending college, psychiatric symptoms are generally not well controlled in this group. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a program that has successfully been used to reduce the stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms in many clinical and non-clinical groups and may also be effective for college-aged students with ASD. The present investigation assessed the demand, practicality, implementation, adaptation, and acceptability of an MBSR course for college students with ASD. A total of 22 participants completed the questionnaire containing 53 questions and were between the ages of 18 to 64. We found that the MBSR therapy is in high demand for individuals with ASD, and that the participants would be willingly complete the intervention techniques. Participants generally stated that a therapy course like MBSR may help reduce their symptoms, and that they were eager to enroll. Participants were willing to attend all 8 classes during the summer, with a preference for afternoons. Also, modifications including yoga and background music would be accepted by each participant as well as any additional modifications made to the course to meet the needs of the individuals with ASD. Next steps include enrolling and randomizing students into the MBSR course or control group, as well as collect pre- and post-intervention data. We hypothesize MBSR will reduce the psychiatric symptoms and stress levels of individuals in college with ASD, demonstrating its effectiveness in this vulnerable population.
ContributorsJones, Rachel Michelle (Author) / Braden, Blair (Thesis director) / Baxter, Leslie (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
My Barrett Honors Thesis Paper synthesizes three components of my Thesis Project, which demonstrates the process of developing strong research from the beginning stage of investigation of a problem to implementation of an intervention to address that problem. Specifically, I engaged in research on the topic of mathematics and students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). My review of the literature demonstrated a current dearth in the knowledge on effective interventions in math for this population of students. As part of my project, I developed and implemented an intervention to address the problem and help improve the knowledge base in the fields of autism and mathematics. Through the initial research process it was determined that students with autism spectrum disorders are being included more frequently in the general educational setting, and are therefore increasingly expected to access and master core curricular content, including mathematics. However, mathematics often presents challenges to students with ASD. Therefore, the first part of my Thesis Project is a comprehensive literature review that synthesized eleven studies of mathematics intervention strategies for students with ASD. Researching the current literature base for mathematics interventions that have been implemented with students with ASD and finding only eleven studies that met the inclusionary criteria led to the writing of the second part of my Thesis Project. In this second portion, I present how three research-based practices for students with autism, self-management, visual supports, and peer-mediated instruction, can be implemented in the context of teaching a higher-level mathematics skill, algebraic problem solving, specifically to students with ASD. By employing such strategies, teachers can assist their students with ASD to benefit more fully from mathematics interventions, which in turn may help them strengthen their mathematics skills, increase independence when completing problems, and use acquired skills in community or other applied settings. As part of the second portion of my Thesis Project, I developed a visual support strategy called COSMIC (a mnemonic device to guide learners through the steps of algebraic problem solving) to help aid students with ASD when solving simple linear equations. With the goal of contributing to the current research base of mathematics interventions that can support students with ASD, for the final part of Thesis Project I worked with a local middle school teacher to assist her in implementing our COSMIC intervention with her student with ASD. Results indicated the student improved in his algebraic problem solving skills, which suggests additional interventions with students with ASD to be recommended as part of future research.
ContributorsCleary, Shannon Taylor (Author) / Barnett, Juliet (Thesis director) / Farr, Wendy (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
The Development of the Strengthening Skills Program for Autistic Adults: Feasibility & Acceptability
Description
The study focuses on the creation of the Strengthening Skills Program (SSP) and its feasibility and acceptability among autistic adults across the lifespan. Over the course of two years, the program has been developed and delivered to autistic adults with the aim of improving quality of life. The program included adapted social skills training from the UCLA Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) for young adults, adapted mindfulness training from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and custom executive skills training. Pre- and post-intervention acceptability questionnaires were gathered from 42 participants. Participants were separated into three groups (SSP, PEERS, and Delayed Treatment Control [DTC]; n=14 per group) stratified by age, gender, and if the participant had a program partner who would attend the program alongside as support. All groups were administered over Zoom once per week and lasted for 16 weeks each. The SSP group met for three hours each week and the PEERS group met for an hour and a half. Qualitative analysis was implemented on participant feedback to identify thematic codes related to their experiences with the programs. Overall, results suggest the SSP intervention had significantly higher acceptability ratings compared to PEERS alone and could be a useful addition to the limited interventions available for autistic adults.
ContributorsHill, Ethan Reed (Author) / Braden, Blair (Thesis advisor) / Matthews, Nicole (Committee member) / Dixon, Maria (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Little is known about how cognitive and brain aging patterns differ in older adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, recent evidence suggests that individuals with ASD may be at greater risk of pathological aging conditions than their neurotypical (NT) counterparts. A growing body of research indicates that older adults with ASD may experience accelerated cognitive decline and neurodegeneration as they age, although studies are limited by their cross-sectional design in a population with strong age-cohort effects. Studying aging in ASD and identifying biomarkers to predict atypical aging is important because the population of older individuals with ASD is growing. Understanding the unique challenges faced as autistic adults age is necessary to develop treatments to improve quality of life and preserve independence. In this study, a longitudinal design was used to characterize cognitive and brain aging trajectories in ASD as a function of autistic trait severity. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to derive a cognitive metric that best explains performance variability on tasks measuring memory ability and executive function. The slope of the integrated persistent feature (SIP) was used to quantify functional connectivity; the SIP is a novel, threshold-free graph theory metric which summarizes the speed of information diffusion in the brain. Longitudinal mixed models were using to predict cognitive and brain aging trajectories (measured via the SIP) as a function of autistic trait severity, sex, and their interaction. The sensitivity of the SIP was also compared with traditional graph theory metrics. It was hypothesized that older adults with ASD would experience accelerated cognitive and brain aging and furthermore, age-related changes in brain network topology would predict age-related changes in cognitive performance.
For both cognitive and brain aging, autistic traits and sex interacted to predict trajectories, such that older men with high autistic traits were most at risk for poorer outcomes. In men with autism, variability in SIP scores across time points trended toward predicting cognitive aging trajectories. Findings also suggested that autistic traits are more sensitive to differences in brain aging than diagnostic group and that the SIP is more sensitive to brain aging trajectories than other graph theory metrics. However, further research is required to determine how physiological biomarkers such as the SIP are associated with cognitive outcomes.
ContributorsSullivan, Georgia (Author) / Braden, Blair (Thesis advisor) / Kodibagkar, Vikram (Thesis advisor) / Schaefer, Sydney (Committee member) / Wang, Yalin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022