Broken bridges-new school transitions for students with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review on difficulties and strategies for success.

Transitioning to a new school is often challenging for students with autism spectrum disorder. Few studies have examined the transition needs of students with autism spectrum disorder or the benefits of specific supports. This review synthesizes research findings on the difficulties that school transitions pose for students with autism spectrum disorder and their parents and teachers, and the strategies used to support students and parents during school transition. The review included 27 studies (10 examining the transition to primary school, 17 the transition to secondary school), with data from 443 students with autism spectrum disorder, 453 parents, and 546 teachers, across four continents (North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia). Studies reported that children with autism spectrum disorder struggled with anxiety and increased social pressure, their parents felt overwhelmed with complex placement decisions and worried about the well-being of their children, and teachers strove to provide appropriate supports to their students with autism spectrum disorder, often with inadequate resources. Findings indicated that the most useful strategies involved helping the student adjust to the new school setting, individualizing transition supports, clarifying the transition process for parents, and fostering communication both between the sending and receiving schools, and school and home.

Parent Training for Feeding Problems in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Initial Randomized Trial.

Objective: Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have feeding and mealtime problems. To address these, we conducted a pilot randomized trial of a new 11-session, individually delivered parent training program that integrated behavioral strategies and nutritional guidance (PT-F). Methods: Forty-two young children (age: 2 to 7-11 years) with ASD and feeding problems were assigned to 11 sessions of PT-F intervention over 20 weeks or a waitlist control. Outcomes included attendance, parent satisfaction, therapist fidelity, and preliminary assessments of child and parent outcomes. Results: Of the 21 PT-F families, attendance was high (85%) as was parent satisfaction (94% would recommend to others). Treatment fidelity was also high (97%-therapist integrity; 94%-parent adherence). Compared with waitlist, children whose parents participated in PT-F showed significantly greater reductions on the two parent-completed primary outcomes (Brief Autism Mealtime Behavior Inventory-Revised; Twald = -2.79; p = .003; About Your Child's Eating; Twald = -3.58; p = .001). On the independent evaluator-completed secondary eating outcome, the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement, 48.8% of the participants in PT-F were rated as "responders" compared with 0% in waitlist (p = .006). General child disruptive behavior outcomes decreased more in PT-F but not significantly. Parent outcomes of caregiver stress showed nonsignificant trends favoring PT-F with moderate to small effect sizes. Conclusions: This trial provides evidence for feasibility, satisfaction, and fidelity of implementation of PT-F for feeding problems in young children with ASD. Feeding outcomes also appeared favorable and lends support for conducting a larger efficacy trial.

A pilot investigation of an iOS-based app for toilet training children with autism spectrum disorder.

We developed an iOS-based app with a transmitter/disposable sensor and corresponding manualized intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. The app signaled the onset of urination, time-stamped accidents for analysis, reminded parents to reinforce intervals of continence, provided a visual outlet for parents to communicate reinforcement, and afforded opportunity for timely feedback from clinicians. We compared this intervention with an intervention that uses standard behavioral treatment in a pilot randomized controlled trial of 33 children with autism spectrum disorder aged 3-6 years with urinary incontinence. Parents in both groups received initial training and four booster consultations over 3 months. Results support the feasibility of parent-mediated toilet training studies (e.g., 84% retention rate, 92% fidelity of parent-implemented intervention). Parents used the app and related technology with few difficulties or malfunctions. There were no statistically significant group differences for rate of urine accidents, toilet usage, or satisfaction at close of intervention or 3-month follow-up; however, the alarm group trended toward greater rate of skill acquisition with significantly less day-to-day intervention. Further development of alarm and related technology and future comparative studies with a greater number of participants are warranted.

Use of urine alarms in toilet training children with intellectual and developmental disabilities: A review.

The purpose of this review is to describe and evaluate the existing research on the use of urine alarms in the daytime toilet training of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). A systematic literature search yielded 12 studies, many of which were published over a decade ago. The findings suggest that interventions that incorporate the use of urine alarms are promising in the treatment of daytime enuresis for children with IDD; however, more carefully controlled research is needed to confirm these findings and elucidate the precise role urine alarms may play in toileting interventions. Methodological strengths and limitations of the body of research are discussed.