• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.63-73
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• 2015

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of sensory diet home program for children with autism spectrum disorder who have sensory defensiveness and explore how this intervention affect to sensory modulation and social interaction ability. Methods : The subject of this case study was a 12-year-old girl with autism spectrum disorder who was struggling with her sensory modulation problem. Parent interview and evaluations were conducted and subject-tailored sensory diet home program was made by the therapist. Parent education for the home program was provided to parents and everyday, 3 times, 30minutes of home program activities were conducted to the child for 23 days. Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile and Social Maturity Scale were measured at pre and post intervention and parent wrote daily observation record about child during the intervention. Results : After the intervention, Low Registration, Sensory Sensitivity, Sensation Avoiding area of Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile included to the normal range and the scores of the Social Maturity Scale improved. Conclusions : Child's sensory defensiveness was relieved and sensory modulation and controling emotion ability were improved. While there was significant improvement for sensory modulation and social interaction ability, this was a case study and there was only one subject. So we need to study with larger sample size to generalize this intervention's effectiveness.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how accurately children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 9) recognized four basic emotions (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear) following musical or visual cues. Their performance was compared to that of typically developing children (TD; n = 14). All of the participants were between the ages of 7 and 13 years. Four musical cues and four visual cues for each emotion were presented to evaluate the participants' ability to recognize the four basic emotions. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the two groups between the musical and visual cues. In particular, the ASD group demonstrated significantly less accurate recognition of the four emotions compared to the TD group. However, the emotion recognition of both groups was more accurate following the musical cues compared to the visual cues. Finally, for both groups, their greatest recognition accuracy was for happiness following the musical cues. In terms of the visual cues, the ASD group exhibited the greatest recognition accuracy for anger. This initial study support that musical cues can facilitate emotion recognition in children with ASD. Further research is needed to improve our understanding of the mechanisms involved in emotion recognition and the role of sensory cues play in emotion recognition for children with ASD.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.61-88
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• 2023

This case study examined whether a cooperative musical instrument playing could enhance interactions between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their neurotypical (NT) siblings. It involved three children with ASD aged 7-12 years and three NT siblings aged 6-11 years. Each group, comprising a child with ASD and their NT sibling, participated in a 40-minute sessions twice weekly for eight sessions over four weeks. The intervention included three stages: simultaneous action, complementary action, and achieving a joint goal. Evaluation criteria included the initiation and response behaviors of each child, and sequential interactive behaviors and cooperative behaviors between pairs were measured. Additionally, before and after the intervention, parents and NT sibling assessed their perceived sibling relationships. Results showed increased interactive and cooperative behaviors. Post-intervention, both parents and NT siblings rated the sibling relationship highly, despite little change in sibling conflict and competition consciousness. These findings indicate that interactive instrument playing can enhance perceptions of siblings as cooperative play partners and aid in teaching them how to collaborate during interactions.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.115-128
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• 2023

This study examines the effects of a new app-based intervention program for conversational skills of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants in this study comprised 26 children diagnosed with autism, Asperger's syndrome, or pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). Participants were randomly assigned into a treatment group or a control group according to their ages, IQ, SCQ, and ASSQ scores. The treatment group met with teachers once a week for a single non-face-to-face class for nine weeks, along with conversation training at home using an app. The control group did not participate in any specific programs for conversational skills. Conversation data of all participants were collected before and after the intervention to compare the two groups based on changes in the conversational turn-taking and topic manipulation skills. When analyzed with respect to a Group X Period analysis of variance (ANOVA), the data indicated maintenance on the rate of appropriate listener's verbal responses in the treatment group, whereas the rate of inappropriate listener's verbal response significantly declined in the control group. In addition, the rate of conversation initiation and maintenance and the rate of appropriate initiation improved in the treatment group, whereas the rate of inappropriate initiation declined in this group. Overall, the study demonstrates promising effects of the novel App-based digital intervention on verbal conversational skills in children with high function ASD.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.69-87
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• 2024

This study investigated whether joint attention response behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) change in response to musical cues and reinforcing stimulus, and compared them with neurotypically developing (NT) children. The participants included 13 children with ASD and 14 NT children aged between 3 to 5 years. The study established six task conditions, involving cues (verbal vs. musical) for responding to joint attention (RJA) behaviors and reinforcing stimulus (verbal vs. sound vs. musical) for social referencing behaviors. These tasks were presented 12 times with two repetitions each. The results of the study showed that providing musical cues during the RJA phase increased levels of RJA in children with ASD, consistent with prior studies. Subsequently, musical reinforcing stimuli increased the frequency of social referencing behaviors in these children. This indicates that musical stimuli can extend beyond mere sensory cues, helping individuals to understand and respond to social and emotional cues from others. Moreover, these musical stimuli could serve as effective social reinforcement factors for this population.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.157-161
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• 2017

In sedation via the submucosal route, the drug is administered through the maxillary buccal submucosa. It is time saving, effective, and safe. Patients with autism, a mental disorder, often find it hard to make relationships with other people. These patients display a strong resistance to dental treatment and sedation. This study reports a successful case of behavioral management during dental treatment, using sedation via the submucosal route. The patient was strongly resistant to sedation via the oral, intramuscular, and intravenous routes. The drug used was 9 mg (0.1 mg/kg) of midazolam. Through this case report, we reaffirm the significance of sedation via the submucosal route, and expect that it will be used more frequently for patients with autism, who display behaviors that are difficult to manage, patients with other disabilities, and children.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.93-111
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• 2023

The authors investigated the artistic characteristics of autistic savant artists, hypotheses on the proximate and ultimate causes of their emergence, recent psychological and other studies about them, and psychological and neuroaesthetic studies about non-savant autistic individuals. The artistic features of autistic savant artists were significantly similar to those of outsider artists. Furthermore, the authors investigated the explanatory power of the paradoxical functional facilitation theory, the superior visual perception hypothesis, the "Hmmmmm" hypothesis, and the Neanderthal theory of autism regarding the emergence of autistic savant artists. In addition, we investigated whether an increase in savant characteristics was related to a decrease in the ability for social communication. The authors suggested that in studies on the aesthetic experience of non-savant autistic individuals, their aesthetic experience ability is never lower than that of neurotypical individuals and that some non-savant autistic individuals may potentially have artistic talent. Finally, the authors reviewed the effectiveness of the "autism savant spectrum syndromic disorder" proposed by some researchers. More scientific and systematic studies on autistic savant artists from a multidisciplinary perspective are warranted.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.394-395
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• 2022

Exergames are playing an important role in healthcare/rehabilitation. It has also been used to improve motivation among patients with reduced cognition. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of using augmented reality (AR) with game-based cognitive-motor training programs for executive function, restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) in children with autism spectrum disorder. Sixteen children aged 6 -16 years were randomly allocated to the experimental group and control group. Outcome measures were performed before and after the intervention and included executive function, restricted and repetitive behavior. A satisfactory survey was conducted post-intervention. A statistically significant improvement was observed in working memory and cognitive flexibility in the experimental group (P<0.05). However, despite no statistical improvements in cognitive inhibition and four subscales of RRBs, promising changes were observed in all the subscales of the executive function and the behavioral outcomes. Parents appreciated the program and children enjoyed the interaction with the AR game-based training. The findings of this preliminary feasibility study showed that AR using Kinect v2 motion with a cognitive-motor game content can be used for children with autism. However, there is a need for conducting a large-scale study to evaluate his effectiveness on executive function and restricted and repetitive behaviors.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.110-119
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• 1996

Heller recognized the children exhibiting developmental regression after normal period of development and proposed the term 'dementia' infanilis for the condition and reported it 1908. But the foolowing studies were insufficient, the diagnostic concept was not definded, and various names such as dementia infantilis, Heller's syndrome, disintegrative psychosis and childhood disintegrative disorder have been used for that condition. Recently the term childhood disintegrative disorder fir that condition was proposed as independent disease entity by DSM-IV and ICD-10, and the interset in that condition is increasing now. But because of insufficient previous studies on that condition, the definite concept, the characteristics, the relationship with autism or other similar conditions, the treatment and prognosis of that condition are not clear by this time, therefore we have not seen the official report on the condition in our country. These authors experienced a case considered as childhood disintegrative disorder and report it with the review of literatures.

• 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.