The Immersive Theater Experience for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Despite growing public awareness of ASD, many caregivers of children with ASD struggle to find opportunities for participation in community activities with appropriate accommodations. The current study evaluated the experiences of individuals with ASD who attended immersive theater performances specifically designed for individuals with ASD. Parents and teachers of 256 children and adolescents completed questionnaires regarding their pre-show expectations and post-show satisfaction with the performance. Analyses revealed that, on average, parents' and teachers' levels of satisfaction significantly outweighed their pre-show expectations. Based on researcher observations, audience feedback, and past research, a list of best practices for successful theater programming for individuals with ASD was compiled with the goal of widespread dissemination to increase accessibility of theater performances for neurodiverse audiences.

Dynamical features in fetal and postnatal zinc-copper metabolic cycles predict the emergence of autism spectrum disorder.

Metals are critical to neurodevelopment, and dysregulation in early life has been documented in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, underlying mechanisms and biochemical assays to distinguish ASD cases from controls remain elusive. In a nationwide study of twins in Sweden, we tested whether zinc-copper cycles, which regulate metal metabolism, are disrupted in ASD. Using novel tooth-matrix biomarkers that provide direct measures of fetal elemental uptake, we developed a predictive model to distinguish participants who would be diagnosed with ASD in childhood from those who did not develop the disorder. We replicated our findings in three independent studies in the United States and the UK. We show that three quantifiable characteristics of fetal and postnatal zinc-copper rhythmicity are altered in ASD: the average duration of zinc-copper cycles, regularity with which the cycles recur, and the number of complex features within a cycle. In all independent study sets and in the pooled analysis, zinc-copper rhythmicity was disrupted in ASD cases. In contrast to controls, in ASD cases, the cycle duration was shorter (F = 52.25, P < 0.001), regularity was reduced (F = 47.99, P < 0.001), and complexity diminished (F = 57.30, P < 0.001). With two distinct classification models that used metal rhythmicity data, we achieved 90% accuracy in classifying cases and controls, with sensitivity to ASD diagnosis ranging from 85 to 100% and specificity ranging from 90 to 100%. These findings suggest that altered zinc-copper rhythmicity precedes the emergence of ASD, and quantitative biochemical measures of metal rhythmicity distinguish ASD cases from controls.