Asperger’s Syndrome

EDU 225-01

State University of New York at Fredonia

3/23/18

Erin Gawlak
Petrina, N., Carter, M., & Stephenson, J. (2017, June). Teacher perception of the importance of
friendship and other outcome priorities in children with autism spectrum disorder.
Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 52(2), 107-119.
Retrieved from http://daddcec.org

Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study was to investigate how teachers perceive the
importance of friendship compared to other learning priorities. Specifically, the opinions of
teachers working in special education rooms will be compared to the opinions of teachers in
mainstream classrooms.

Subjects: The subjects in this study were teachers who taught children enrolled in kindergarten
through third grade. The teachers had students who were formally diagnosed with Asperger’s
disorder or autistic disorder by a pediatrician or psychologist. There were 62 students total, 50
boys and 12 girls, all with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. The students were 6 years
old to 11 years old. 30 of the students were in special education classrooms and the other 32
were in mainstream classrooms. There were 54 teachers in this study. Of those teachers, 22
were in special education rooms and 32 were in mainstream classrooms.

Research Design/ Methodology: The children completed a range of assessments including the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, the Vineland-II, and Social Responsiveness to
illustrate their demographic characteristics. Teachers were given a survey with the six outcome
priorities for their students: social skills, physical skills and motor development, intellectual and
academic skills, creativity, emotional development, and friendships. In the first part of the
survey, the teachers had to give each priority a rating from 1 to 5, 1 being not important and 5
being very important. For the second part of the survey, the teachers were asked to rank the six
outcomes where 6 was the most important outcome and 1 had the lowest importance. The data
was then compared to data collected six months prior, where parents were asked to complete the
same task. The comparisons between teachers’ and parents’ priorities were limited to 55
students who had data from both teachers and parents.

Results:
• Special education and mainstream teachers both rated friendship, social skills, and
emotional development as having similar importance.
• When teachers were forced to rank the six outcomes, friendship was ranked third, behind
social skills and emotional development.
• Regardless of the severity of the student’s autism, friendship, social skills, and emotional
development were still the top 3 outcome priorities.
• Parents also rated and ranked friendship, social skills, and emotional development as the
top 3 most important outcomes, but teachers rated friendship higher than parents.
• Parents consistently rated all of the outcomes as more important than teachers did for the
students’ development.

Relationship of results to the purpose of the study: It was shown that both groups of teachers
ranked social skills, emotional development, and friendship as the most important outcome
priorities which shows that mainstream teachers, special education teachers, and even parents all
have the same goals for their students and children.
Zablotsky, B., Bradshaw, C.P., Anderson, C., & Law, P. (2012, May). Involvement in bullying
among children with autism spectrum disorders: Parents’ perspectives on the influence of
school factors. Behavioral Disorders, 37(3), 179-191. Retrieved from
http://www.ccbd.net

Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study was to observe the unknown about bullying of
children with autism spectrum disorder. Using a large sample size, this study aimed to see if
there was a correlation between parents’ school involvement and their opinions of the school
climate, and their child’s experience with bullying.

Subjects: The subjects in this study were recruited from the IAN which is a national, voluntary
registry for families who have children with autism spectrum disorder. There were a total of
1,221 participants for this study who were parents with children between the ages of 6 and 15
that were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The study was broken up into two groups,
the general group, and the incentivized group. Each group received the same amount of
information and emails, but the incentivized group received an additional letter to remind them
of the study and the chance to win an MP3 player. Of the 1,221 subjects, 94 percent were
mothers and 54 percent were incentivized.

Research Design/ Methodology: Information about the parent and child was obtained through
the IAN system. For the purpose of this study, “bullying” was defined as, “when a person or
group of people repeatedly say or do mean or hurtful things to someone on purpose. It typically
occurs when there is a power imbalance.” The survey also provided some examples of bullying
such as teasing, hitting, name-calling, threatening, etc. The first question the survey asked was,
“How frequently was your child bullied at school in the past month?” Parents would then choose
the range that best fit their child’s victimization. The next question was, “How frequently did
you child bully others at school in the past month?” Children were then placed into the victim or
perpetrator category, or both if they had been involved in both sides in the past month. Parents
also responded to 10 statements so as to understand how they felt about the school climate.
Parents would rate each statement on a four-point scale of strongly disagree, disagree, agree, or
strongly agree. Finally, to gather information about parental involvement in school, parents
would indicate the frequency-never, rarely, sometimes, often, very often, or almost always- that
they participate in school related activities.

Results:
• 38% experienced victimization, and 9.3% has perpetrated bullying in the past month.
• Children with Asperger’s, attending regular population schools, attending public schools,
and attending middle schools were more likely to be victimized in the past month.
• White children and those diagnosed with autism were less likely to be victimized.
• Children with Asperger’s were more likely to engage in bullying behavior.
• Parents more involved in school activities had a more positive view of the school climate.

Relationship of results to the purpose of the study: It was hypothesized that parents of
children who had been bullied would report lower views of the school climate, but higher school
involvement. The results of this study refute the hypothesis due to the fact that parents who were
more involved in school activities had a more positive view of the school climate.
Yang, S., Jessica, M., & Gilmore, L. (2016, January). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales: II
profile of young children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and
Developmental Disorders, 46(1), 64-73. doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2543-1

Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study was to examine the adaptive behavior of
children with Autism Spectrum Disorder using the Vineland-II by analyzing different factors
associated with adaptive functioning. The study then compared the adaptive behavior of verbal
subjects and non-verbal subjects.

Subjects: The subjects in this study were children between the ages of 2 years old and 5 years
old. There were 77children in total, and they had all been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum
Disorder. Of the 77 subjects, 64 were boys and 13 were girls. In addition, 26 of the children
were verbal, while 51 were non-verbal. They were also from culturally and linguistically diverse
backgrounds.

Research Design/ Methodology: The study began by assessing how many of the participants
were verbal and how many were non-verbal. To do this, parents were required to fill out a
questionnaire, one of the questions being, “Is she/he now able to talk using short phrases or
sentences?” It was then verified that all of the subjects had Autism Spectrum Disorder, and the
severity for each child was measured using the ADOS-G instrument. The Vineland-II
assessment was then used to assess adaptive behavior in four domains: Communication, Daily
Living Skills, Socialization, and Motor Skills. Each domain was scored and lower scores
indicated a higher level of impairment. The scores were then collected and analyzed. Then they
were separated into different groups according to whether the subject was verbal or non-verbal,
then again into age groups. Finally, results were compared between high-functioning or low-
functioning groups.

Results:
• For the verbal group, the highest scores were in Motor Skills, followed by Daily Living,
Socialization, and finally, Communication.
• For the non-verbal group, the highest scores were also in Motor Skills, then followed by
Socialization, Daily Living, and Communication.
• Chronological age only made a difference in the domain of Motor Skills.
• More severe autism symptoms were associated with poorer adaptive functioning, thus the
low cognitive functioning group showed much lower adaptive functioning.
• Socialization was the greatest weakness seen in both verbal and non-verbal participants.
• In the low cognitive functioning group, the subjects’ overall adaptive behavior scores and
and domain scores were higher than their cognitive scores.
• In the higher cognitive functioning group, the subjects’ overall adaptive behavior scores
were lower then their cognitive scores.

Relationship of results to the purpose of the study: This study supports the hypothesis and
found that testing measures such as Vineland-II can be valuable to understanding certain
challenges for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. They help in evaluating young children
with Autism Spectrum Disorder and provide a measure for the vital area of adaptive skills.
These measures can then be used to facilitate intervention and monitor progress in each area.
 References

Martorell, G., Paplia, D.E., & Feldman, R.D. (2014) A child’s world: Infancy through

adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

Petrina, N., Carter, M., & Stephenson, J. (2017, June). Teacher perception of the importance of

friendship and other outcome priorities in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 52(2), 107-119.

Retrieved from http://daddcec.org

Yang, S., Paynter, J.M., & Gilmore, L. (2016, January). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales: II

profile of young children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and

Developmental Disorders, 46(1), 64-73. doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2543-1

Zablotsky, B., Bradshaw, C.P., Anderson, C., & Law, P. (2012, May). Involvement in bullying

among children with autism spectrum disorders: Parents’ perspectives on the influence of

school factors. Behavioral Disorders, 37(3), 179-191. Retrieved from

http://www.ccbd.net