Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

V Bernard-Opitz

Publications and source records attributed to V Bernard-Opitz.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Enhancing social problem solving in children with autism and normal children through computer-assisted instruction.

Children with autism have difficulty in solving social problems and in generating multiple solutions to problems. They are, however, relatively skilled in responding to visual cues such as pictures and animations. Eight distinct social problems were presented on a computer, along with a choice of possible solutions, and an option to produce alternative solutions. Eight preschool children with autism and eight matched normal children went through 10 training sessions interleaved with 6 probe sessions. Children were asked to provide solutions to animated problem scenes in all the sessions. Unlike the probe sessions, in the training sessions problem solutions were first explained thoroughly by the trainer. Subsequently these explanations were illustrated using dynamic animations of the solutions. Although children with autism produced significantly fewer alternative solutions compared to their normal peers, a steady increase across probe sessions was observed for the autistic group. The frequency of new ideas was directly predicted by the diagnostic category of autism. Results suggest young children with autism and their normal peers can be taught problem-solving strategies with the aid of computer interfaces. More research is required to establish whether such computer-assisted instruction will generalize to nontrained problem situations in real-life contexts.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed2001

Epidemiology of autism in Singapore: findings of the first autism survey.

The report describes the results of a survey conducted on 176 parents of children with autism in Singapore. The ages of the children ranged from 3 to 12 years. The survey focused on the child's background, behaviour problems and skill profile, the home and school situation as well as the linguistic and social background. It was noted that the Singapore population confirms the international distribution regarding a predominance of boys over girls and a low incidence of birth complications. A positive trend noted was the fact that 60% of the children were diagnosed before the age of 3 years. Discussion focuses on possible risk factors and psychosocial adversities for autism such as a high frequency of caregivers who are foreign maids, the use of multiple languages and the high level of punitive educational practices. The possible influence of psychosocial deprivation on child development is discussed.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed2000

Teaching conversational skills to children with autism: effect on the development of a theory of mind.

This research examined whether children with autism could be trained to improve their conversational skills and whether this led to changes in standard tests of theory of mind (ToM). Three high-functioning children with autism participated in a multiple baseline across participants design. The children were taught how to initiate a conversation, take turns during conversation, listen attentively, maintain a conversation topic, and change a conversation topic appropriately. The children were tested for ToM using False Belief tasks before and after training sessions. Results indicate that the amount of shared interest exhibited by the children with autism during conversation with their caregivers increased during training sessions. The children also made more responses that were appropriate to the context of the conversation. Performance on the False Belief tasks remained constant throughout the study. Results are discussed with respect to the implications of results of performance in standard ToM tasks.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed2000

[Analysis of pragmatic aspects of communication behavior of verbal and nonverbal autistic children].

The analysis and intervention of communication is an important focus of autism research. The present study is a microanalysis of the communicative behaviour of 10 autistic children with their parents and a therapist. Protests, appropriate initiation and responses of the children were analysed in relation to demands and the specific feedback of the adults. After 20 months of structured therapy changes in the communicative behaviour of the participants were demonstrated. Autistic children showed different communicative pattern with their parents compared to a therapist. The non-verbal group exhibited significantly more protests and decreased responsivity with their parents compared to the therapist. The verbal group interacted with their parents predominantly by echolalia. After 20 months a significant reduction in protests, increased compliance and responsivity were obvious in the non-verbal group. The verbal group showed a reduction in echolalia as well as increased responsive and spontaneous communication. The results demonstrate that even non-verbal autistic children are sensitive towards different interaction partners. Over the observation period participants showed a reduction in behaviour problems and positive developments of communicative behaviour.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Childhood leukaemia: towards an integrated psychosocial intervention programme in Singapore.

A hospital-based behavioural intervention programme was developed for families of children with newly diagnosed or relapsed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). The programme's aim was to enhance the families' ability to cope with the emotionally distressing aspects of the illness and the medical treatment. Eight children and 10 parents participated in the programme for 12 weeks. The children received individual therapeutic play sessions and computer-assisted distraction activities, while the parents participated in a structured support group. The subjects were evaluated before, immediately after, and 6 months post-intervention, using both self-administered questionnaires and clinical observation by the psychosocial intervention team and the hospital staff. Findings indicated positive changes on the coping and the hopelessness measures, and an overall benefit for both parents and children. The hospital team reported better compliance and co-operation with treatment procedures by the children and their parents. The study concludes with an assessment of the benefits and feasibility of integrating a psychosocial programme into paediatric oncology services in Singapore.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

Comparison of personal and computer-assisted instruction for children with autism.

The potential of computer-assisted instruction in working with individuals who have autism has been a controversial topic for both teachers and parents since its introduction 2 decades ago. In the present study computer-assisted instruction was compared with personal instruction. Four children with autism participated. Although 3 of them showed better motivation and fewer behavior problems in computer-assisted instruction compared to personal instruction, this did not affect their learning-rate. Future directions of computer-assisted instruction research for individuals with autism were discussed.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1990

Computer assisted instruction for autistic children.

Since the beginning of 1980, Computer-Assisted-Instruction (CAI) has been used systematically in special education. The use of computers in the treatment of autistic children is highly controversial and emotional among parents and professionals. Fears of reinforcing autistic withdrawal are often mixed with insecurity and dislike of new technologies. On the other hand, positive effects of CAI on learning and behaviour are reported by parents and published as single case studies. The following paper relates perception, motivation, communication and behaviour--characteristics of autistic children to features of computer-assisted learning. Preliminary findings support the benefit of the use of computer-technology for the management of behaviour and learning of autistic children. In 12 autistics, video-taped evaluations showed higher enthusiasm ratings in computer-sessions than personal instruction sessions. Single case-studies demonstrated a positive influence of CAI on autistic children's behaviour-problems (e.g. avoidance of eye contact, echolalia) as well as improved spontaneous communication and better learning of academics.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

[Using computers with autistic handicapped children].

Since the beginning of 1980 computer assisted instruction ( = CAI) has been used systematically in special education. While England, the USA and Japan are experienced in this field, comparable attempts in Germany are rare. The possibility to use the computer for autistic children is discussed highly controversial and emotional among parents and professionals. Criticism and fears to "reinforce autistic withdrawal" are often mixed with insecurity or dislike of new technologies. On the other hand positive effects of CAI on learning and behavior are reported by parents or published as single case studies. The following paper summarizes theoretical issues, findings of the literature and experimental results. Perceptual, motivational, communication and behavior problems of autistic children are discussed under the aspect of computer assisted instruction.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Pragmatic analysis of the communicative behavior of an autistic child.

Differential responsiveness by social stimuli was demonstrated in the communicative performance of an 8-year-old autistic boy. The pragmatic behavior of the subject varied with different communicative settings (waiting vs. interaction conditions) as well as with different communicative partners (mother, stranger, clinician). Communicative intentions, relational communication, topic strategies and differential responding to adults to communicative and non-communicative utterances were analyzed. Results indicated that the adults' communicative performance was a function of their relationships with the subject (mother, stranger, clinician) as well as the different experimental conditions (waiting, interacting). The child's communicative behavior showed greater consistency in conditions with the same interlocutor than over comparable experimental settings. Conclusions were drawn on how to facilitate communicative behavior and how to enhance generalization of remedial effects to the subject's natural environment.

Autistic Disorder↗