• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 2018

Although atypical sensory processing is a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is considerable heterogeneity among ASD individuals in the modality and symptoms of atypical sensory processing. The present study examined visual processing of children with ASD, focusing on the complexity and orientation of visual information. Age- and -IQ-matched Korean children (14 ASD and 14 typically-developing (TD) children) received an orientation discrimination task involving static spatial gratings varied in complexity (simple versus complex) and orientation (horizontal versus vertical). The results revealed that ASD children had difficulty perceiving complex information regardless of orientation, whereas TD children had more difficulty with vertical gratings than horizontal gratings. Thus, group-level differences between ASD and TD children appeared greater when gratings were presented horizontally. Unlike ASD adult literature, however, ASD children did not show superior performance on simple gratings. Our findings on typical and atypical processing of ASD children have implications for both understanding the characteristics of ASD children and developing diagnostic tools for ASD.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.129-135
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• 2015

Objectives : In children and adolescents, the prevalence of overweight has increased in the last 20 years. little research is available on the prevalence of obesity in children with autism spectrum disorders(ASD). The purpose of our study was to determine the prevalence of overweight among a clinical population of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders(ASD). Methods : Retrospective chart review of children ages 3-18 years seen between 2012 and 2015 at a Konyang University hospital psychiatric clinic. Diagnostic, medical, and demographic information was extracted from the charts. Body mass index(BMI) was calculated from measures of height and weight recorded in the child's chart. The Center for Disease Control's BMI growth reference was used to determine an age and gender-specific BMI z-score for the children. Results : In our study, children with ASD compared to non ASD group had significantly higher BMI percentiles (p=0.032). The prevalence of overweight($BMI{\geq}85th$ to 95th percentiles) and obesity($BMI{\geq}95th$ percentiles) was 35% and 19% respectively in children with ASD and without ASD. Conclusions : Despite noted limitations, our data suggest that overweight and obesity in children with ASD are more prevalent than without ASD. Longitudinal and further study is needed to examine the factors associated with obesity in this population.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.275-281
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• 2021

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by abnormalities in social communication/interaction and restrictive, repetitive patterns of behavior. ASD is a relatively common psychiatric disorder, with a prevalence of approximately 1.7% in children. Although many children and adolescents with ASD visit the hospital for medical help for emotional and behavioral problems such as mood instability and self-harming behavior, there are also many visits for sleep disturbances such as insomnia and sleep resistance. Sleep disturbances are likely to increase fatigue and daytime sleepiness, impaired concentration, negatively impact on daytime functioning, and pose challenges in controlling anger and aggressive behavior. Sleep disturbance in children and adolescents with ASD negatively affects the quality of life, nothing to say the quality of life of their families and school members. In this review, sleep disturbances that are common in children and adolescents with ASD and adolescents are presented. The developmental and behavioral impacts of sleep disturbances in ASD were also considered. Finally, non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatments for sleep disturbances in children and adolescents with ASD and adolescents are reviewed.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.230-237
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• 2015

Purpose: Various gastrointestinal factors may contribute to maladaptive behavior in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). To determine the association between maladaptive behavior in children with ASD and gastrointestinal symptoms such as severity, intestinal microbiota, inflammation, enterocyte damage, permeability and absorption of opioid peptides. Methods: This observational cross-sectional study compared children with ASD to healthy controls, aged 2-10 years. Maladaptive behavior was classified using the Approach Withdrawal Problems Composite subtest of the Pervasive Developmental Disorder Behavior Inventory. Dependent variables were gastrointestinal symptom severity index, fecal calprotectin, urinary D-lactate, urinary lactulose/mannitol excretion, urinary intestinal fatty acids binding protein (I-FABP) and urinary opioid peptide excretion. Results: We did not find a significant difference between children with ASD with severe or mild maladaptive behavior and control subjects for gastrointestinal symptoms, fecal calprotectin, urinary D-lactate, and lactulose/mannitol ratio. Urinary opioid peptide excretion was absent in all children. Children with ASD with severe maladaptive behavior showed significantly higher urinary I-FABP levels compared to those with mild maladaptive behavior (p=0.019) and controls (p=0.015). Conclusion: In our series, maladaptive behavior in ASD children was not associated with gastrointestinal symptoms, intestinal inflammation (no difference in calprotectin), microbiota (no difference in urinary D-lactate) and intestinal permeability (no difference in lactulose/manitol ratio). ASD children with severe maladaptive behavior have significantly more enterocyte damage (increased urinary I-FABP) than ASD children with mild maladaptive behavior and normal children.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.112-117
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• 2021

Objectives: This study identified changes in social communication and interaction among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) through Theraplay. Methods: This study included 20 children who were diagnosed with ASD by a child and adolescent psychiatrist and were recommended to undergo Theraplay in 2012-2017. The Marschak interaction method was used to identify and analyze the interactions between parents and their children. The Korean version of the Social Communication Questionnaire (K-SCQ) was used to evaluate symptoms of ASD. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the differences before and after Theraplay. Results: Upon comparing the differences in total K-SCQ scores, there were statistically significant changes (z=-3.269, p=0.001) in children with ASD. Changes were also confirmed in each category, namely social interaction, communication, and limited and repetitive behavior patterns (p=0.011, p=0.025, p=0.039, respectively). Conclusion: This study found that Theraplay may cause significant changes in social communication in children with ASD. Further studies are needed to establish the effectiveness of Theraplay in children with ASD.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2023

Objectives: Regression, while not a core symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), has been suggested to be a distinct subtype by previous studies. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the prevalence and clinical differences between those with and without regression in children with ASD. Methods: This study includes data from toddlers and young children aged 2-7 years acquired from other projects at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. The presence and characteristics of regression were explored using question items #11-28 from the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised. Chi-square and independent t-tests were used to compare various clinical measurements such as autistic symptoms, adaptative behavior, intelligence, and perinatal factors. Results: Data from 1438 young children (1020 with ASD) were analyzed. The overall prevalence rate of regression, which was mainly related to language-related skills, was 10.2% in the ASD group, with an onset age of 24 months. Regarding clinical characteristics, patients with ASD and regression experienced ASD symptoms, especially restricted and repetitive interests and behaviors, with greater severity than those without regression. Furthermore, there were significant associations between regression and hypertension/placenta previa. Conclusion: In-depth surveillance and proactive interventions targeted at young children with ASD and regression should focus on autistic symptoms and other areas of functioning.

• MALSORI
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• no.65
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• pp.51-65
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• 2008

The aim of this study is to compare ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) children with normal children in terms of the prosodic features. Materials are collected by the reading of Korean read sentences. They are composed of 10 declarative sentences, each of which was consisted of 5-6 words. Subjects are consisted of 10 ASD and 10 normal male children with a receptive vocabulary age of 5;0-6;5 years. We found out that both groups showed the differences not only in the tonal patterns at the end of the prosodic phrases, but also in both the degree of rising and falling slope related to pitch contour. While HL% and HLH% were highly emerged in sentence final position in normal group, HL% and HLH% were prominent in ASD group in the same position. LH% and LHL% IP types were observed only in ASD group in sentence medial position. The slope showing the variation in the fundamental frequency at the end of the prosodic phrase was twice as steep in the group of ASD children as in the group of normal children.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.41-45
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• 2020

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess serum, hair, and urinary magnesium (Mg) levels in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and both ASD and ADHD to reveal potential interactive effects. Methods: A total of 148 boys aged 4-9 years old were enrolled in this study, including 44 children with ADHD, 40 pediatric patients with ASD, 32 patients with both ADHD and ASD, as well as 32 healthy neurotypical children. Hair, serum, and urinary Mg levels were assessed using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Laboratory quality control was performed using certified reference materials of human hair, plasma, and urine. Results: No significant group difference in serum Mg levels was observed. Mg content in hair was found to be reduced in children with ADHD and ADHD+ASD compared to that in healthy controls by 11% and 15%, respectively. Urinary Mg levels in children with ADHD+ASD exceeded the control, ADHD, and ASD values by 51, 76, and 65%, respectively. Factorial analysis revealed significant contribution of ADHD to hair and urinary Mg levels. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that hair and urinary Mg levels were considered as significant predictors of neurodevelopmental disorder complexity. Conclusion: We propose that impaired Mg status may provide a link between ADHD and ASD.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.53-59
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• 2023

Detection of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on speech has relied on predefined feature sets due to their ease of use and the capabilities of speech analysis. However, clinical impressions may not be adequately captured due to the broad range and the large number of features included. This paper demonstrates that the knowledge-driven speech features (KDSFs) specifically tailored to the speech traits of ASD are more effective and efficient for detecting speech of ASD children from that of children with typical development (TD) than a predefined feature set, extended Geneva Minimalistic Acoustic Standard Parameter Set (eGeMAPS). The KDSFs encompass various speech characteristics related to frequency, voice quality, speech rate, and spectral features, that have been identified as corresponding to certain of their distinctive attributes of them. The speech dataset used for the experiments consists of 63 ASD children and 9 TD children. To alleviate the imbalance in the number of training utterances, a data augmentation technique was applied to TD children's utterances. The support vector machine (SVM) classifier trained with the KDSFs achieved an accuracy of 91.25%, surpassing the 88.08% obtained using the predefined set. This result underscores the importance of incorporating domain knowledge in the development of speech technologies for individuals with disorders.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2015

Objectives : Repetitive and stereotyped behaviors are core symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The purpose of our study was to investigate the frequency of motor stereotypes in ASD children and their clinical features. Methods : Among 171 ASD children (age range, 3-15), the ASD group with motor stereotypes was defined according to two items in the Korean version of Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (K-ADI-R). We compared the clinical features, behavior problems and severity of other domains in the K-ADI-R and executive functions between the ASD group with motor stereotypes and the ASD group without motor stereotypes. Results : Ninety (52.6%) of 171 ASD children had motor stereotypes. The ASD group with motor stereotypes had a lower intelligence quotient score (62.23 vs. 84.94, p<.001) compared to the ASD group without motor stereotypes. The ASD group with motor stereotypes had more impairments in the social interaction domain [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.11, p=.001] and communication domain (AOR 1.15, p=.008). Thought problems and lethargy were more frequent in the ASD group with motor stereotypes than the ASD group without motor stereotypes (AOR 2.059, p=.034 ; adjusted OR 1.045, p=.046). However, no significant differences in executive function were observed between the ASD group with motor stereotypes and the ASD group without motor stereotypes. Conclusion : The ASD group with motor stereotypes showed more impairment in social interaction and communication domains, which are core symptoms of autism. Motor stereotypes may indicate greater severity of ASD.