Autistic Spectrum Disorders Special Interest Group

Background

The Autistic Spectrum Disorders SIG was formed at the PSI Annual Conference in Westport in November 2001. Among its stated aims is the promotion of research related to ASD and awareness of the needs of people with an ASD. It is an inclusive active group with regular meetings, events, and contributions to the Annual Conference.

Aims

1. To provide a forum for members to share knowledge and skills, and to promote good professional training and practice with regard to working with those with an ASD.

2. To promote understanding and awareness of the needs of people with an ASD, their families and carers.

3. To promote research related to ASD’s and to disseminate findings.

4. To develop and respond to policy statements on matters relating to ASD’s.

Contact Details

autisticspectrum@psihq.ie

Or write to

ASDSIG
The Psychological Society of Ireland
CX House, 2A Corn Exchange Place,
Poolbeg Street,
Dublin 2.

The Committee Members

Chair Mark Latimer
Secretary Miriam O’Donohue
Treasurer Rita Honan
Ordinary Committee Members Christine Chapple, Damien Connelly, Mitchel Fleming, Catherine Hallissey, Divida Hartman, Moira Kennedy, Aoife Martin, and Aisling Whelan.

Membership Information

The group is open to and welcomes all members of PSI.
The group is always interested in new members joining and adding to the group, as well as establishing links to further enhance the basis of professional psychological knowledge in the area of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. If you are interested in joining the group, have questions, or would like more information please contact us

Committee Meetings

Set at AGM

Annual General Meeting

Annual General Meeting 26 June 2009.
The AGM was held and included Reports from the committee, election of the committee, and an excellent and well received presentation by Lorraine Crawley Clinical Psychologist on Asperger’s & Girls; which generated a very interesting discussion.  In addition the group discussed the Annual Conference, the Theme and Plan for an end of Summer Event, and an Update on the progress of the “Best Practice Guidelines for the Assessment and Diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders”.

Annual General Meeting for 2010 to be decided.

CPD Events and Activities

•Professional Development Day 11th September 2009 - Diagnosing Asperger Syndrome - Trinity College Dublin

The presentations on the day were all well evaluated and of the highest professional standards.  Dr. Eimer Philbin–Bowman, gave an insightful and meaningful history of Asperger’s Syndrome particularly for an Irish context.  Dr. Rita Honan gave two excellent and informative presentations: “one clinician’s approach to diagnostic assessment; assessment tools for adults and kids” as well as demonstrating a Diagnostic Interview with an adult and his parent.  Roisin Egan then presented a brilliant and reflective “Providing the Diagnosis to individual and/or parents”.  The day finished with a Q&A and Panel discussion with focus on the diagnostic category PDD-NOS.

• Annual General Meeting 26 June 2009

The AGM was held and included Reports from the committee, election of the committee, and an excellent and well received presentation by Lorraine Crawley Clinical Psychologist on Asperger’s & Girls; which generated a very interesting discussion.  In addition the group discussed the Annual Conference, the Theme and Plan for an end of Summer Event, and an Update on the progress of the “Best Practice Guidelines for the Assessment and Diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders”; which we hope to launch at the Annual Conference.

• Meeting Friday 24th April 2009 6.00pm.
Venue: 0.09 in Aras an Phiarsaigh the School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin. Please click here for map

Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Mental Health - Presentation & Discussion by Miriam O’Donohue, Senior Clinical Psychologist (CPD credits available).

• The group is finalising the work on the Best Practice Guidelines for the Assessment and Diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. These guidelines are based on a research of the literature in this area, changing practices over the past few years, and discussions at ASD's SIG meetings. The guidelines are currently in draft form and will soon be forwarded to the society’s divisions and special interest groups for comment. Following this, they will be amended and forwarded to Council for approval. It is the group’s intention to launch the guidelines in the coming year.

• Plans are developing for a Professional Development Day in July 2009.

• Expand the ASDSIG web page to include a national directory of Autism services with appropriate links to information useful to parents and professionals. A member’s only area with resources available e.g. Best Practice Guidelines relevant to Psychologists.

• Develop further guidelines for Psychologists in the area of ASD.

• Symposiums and workshops at the PSI 2009 Annual Conference reflecting current research and developments.

• Establish greater links with other groups within PSI, such as the Learning Disability Special Interest Group.

Additional Notes

Annual Report April 2008 - March 2009

The past year has been a busy one for the ASDSIG with well attended meetings and events. The commitment of members was demonstrated both at the meetings, events, and in work taken on between meetings.

Over the year, some of the areas that were covered and activities engaged in were:

• An Annual Professional Development Day July 17th 2008 “Evidence Based Intervention”. The presentations on the day were all well received and of the highest professional standards. The group would like to thank all the presenters for their efforts. A brief summary of the speakers and presentations is included here:

Evidence Based Practices in Autism Education
Patricia Howlin is Professor of Clinical Child Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London.

Until recently, intervention research for young children with autism has been strongly criticised because of the paucity of well controlled comparative studies and particularly the lack of randomised control trials (RCT’s). Over the last decade, however, there has been a steady improvement of the quality of research in this area. RCT’s, although still relatively rare, have increased in number, and have been used to examine the effectiveness of a range of different treatment approaches, including parent management style; early, intensive behavioural interventions; social communication, joint attention and play programmes, and augmentative communication systems. Well controlled trials, involving closely matched groups of children have also added to our knowledge of treatment effects. The presentation focused on the evidence for a number of different treatment approaches, particularly those that aim to enhance early development, or improve communication and social skills. Overall, group results indicate moderate, but encouraging improvements for children involved in many of these interventions. However, at an individual child level, outcome is much more variable, with some children in each programme showing considerable change, others only minor improvements and some showing no improvement, or even deterioration over time. Identification of the children who respond most to specific types of intervention remains a major challenge for research in this field in the future.

TEACCH
Marie-Louise Hughes is a Senior Educational Psychologist specialising in Autistic Spectrum Disorder in Northern Ireland. This workshop examined the history and development of the TEACCH approach which is characterised by a system of individual assessment, structured teaching, environmental adjustments, and monitoring of progress. The rationale and typical classroom or home applications of the underpinning principles were outlined. The relationship between TEACCH and some other approaches was examined and, in keeping with the main theme of the day, the evidence base for TEACCH was discussed.

Marte Meo - Back To Basics
Catherine Berkeley and Monica Flynn are Clinical Nurse Specialists working in Beechpark Services for Children with Autism, based in Kildare. The presentation included: The results of the small scale research on the benefits of Marte Meo in supporting the child with Autism to develop social communication within the family environment, and an insight to the Marte Meo process by means of film in the family home and in the school setting.

The Picture Exchange Communication System
Angela Denholm, Senior Speech and Language Therapist with Beechpark Autism Services where she works as part of a Multi-Disciplinary Team providing therapeutic input to children on the Autistic Spectrum attending Specially Designated Classes. Donal Shea is a Senior Speech and Language Therapist for Beechpark Autism Service. A number of early studies carried out by Bondy and Frost suggested favourable outcomes for PECS such as increase in spontaneous communication, expanded vocabularies, and the development of speech. Recently, there has been more research into the efficacy of PECS aiming to replicate and expand on the evidence base. This session provided a brief summary of PECS and its use with children on the Autistic Spectrum, and then focused on the evidence base for this intervention.

Positive Behaviour Support
Brian McClean M.A., M.Sc., Psych D. qualified as a Clinical Psychologist from the University of Surrey. It is clear that within a relatively short period of time, Positive Behaviour Support has established itself in many human services for developmental disabilities around the world. The selection of Positive Behaviour Support may entail that it is better adapted to an ecology that seeks to promote the personal dignity and social role valorisation of people with intellectual disabilities. Indeed some have likened the vociferous and unscientific criticisms of Positive Behaviour Support (e.g. Mulickk et al 2005) to an extinction burst, which actually calls on practitioners of Positive Behaviour Support to respond not with further ignoring, but with understanding, functional assessment and teaching better survival skills (LaVigna, 2005). We would argue that the acceptance, empowerment and citizenship of people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder is a higher value than the survival of any tool towards that goal, and hope that Applied Behaviour Analysis will evolve even beyond the capacity of Positive Behaviour Support to realise that goal.

Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (Applied Behaviour Analysis)
Dr. Rita Honan is a PSI Associate Fellow and Registered Psychologist, a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst, and Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin. She is the Course Director of the Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Behaviour Analysis and the newly approved MSc in Psychology (ABA) at TCD. This presentation provided attendees with an overview of ABA generally, and then provided a summary of the most salient research studies in support of this approach with a particular focus on early intervention in children with an autistic spectrum disorder. A bibliography selection of the many relevant articles published in peer reviewed journals reflecting the strong evidence-based practice of ABA with this population was highlighted in line with the theme of the conference day.

The Hanen Approach to Language Intervention
Dr Sinead Reynolds and Ms. Eimear O’ Keefe are both speech and language therapists working for Linn Dara HSE Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Dublin and Kildare. This session provided a brief summary of the Hanen approach to language intervention in children with Autistic Spectrum Diagnoses, and then focused on the evidence base for this intervention.

• The group organised a symposium and two workshops at the PSI Annual Conference November 2008. The papers presented for the Symposium were: on the theme of “Prevalence, Outcome, and Intervention with Autistic Spectrum Disorders”. Miriam Russell presented “Review of Prevalence studies findings and Prevalence rate issues in Autistic Spectrum Disorders”; Jennifer McMahon & V. Cullinan presented “The Roots of Success: An evaluation of Saplings school for children 0-6 with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)”; and Maura Madden et al presented “Multi-treatment packages to reduce the fiddling behaviour of an 8 year old boy with ASD”. Dr Iain McClure presented a Workshop on “The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Net, Assessment Diagnosis and Clinical Interventions for Children and Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorders” (http://www.sign.ac.uk/pdf/sign98.pdf ). The final Workshop was presented by Mary Gordon & Sinead Glennon on “Group Psychotherapy for Parents of Children with a Disability”.

• At the Meeting 2nd October 2008 Divida Hartman facilitated a presentation and discussion on the use of “Cognitive Behaviour Therapy with Autistic Spectrum Disorder”.

• A Professional Development Evening was held Tuesday, December 11, 2007 in the Walton Theatre, Arts Block, Trinity College Dublin. The theme of the evening was “Asperger Syndrome: Personal experiences of Diagnosis, Psychological follow-up & the Educational system”. This event was attended well by professionals and parents, and proved to be a very enlightening. A DVD of the evening is available to members for educational purposes as detailed below:

ASD Special Interest Group
Asperger Evening CPD Event on DVD

Borrowing Procedures

THIS DVD IS SOLELY FOR VIEWING FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY BY A PROFESSIONAL AUDIENCE

1. Contact PSI office (Shaun.adams@psihq.ie) with date you would like the DVD posted out to you and date you will post it back.

2. If it is available those dates, the office will email you a reservation form.

3. When complete the form, send it to Shaun Adams in the PSI office along with a cheque for €50 made out to: PSI ASD SIG. (This contributes towards the production costs incurred.)

4. The DVD will then be posted out to you along with a return envelope.

5. Insure you return the DVD on the date agreed so it is available for others.

The DVD is copyrighted by Trinity College Dublin so
no copies may be made under any circumstances
nor any part of it posted on a website
or used for any other purpose than stated above.

ASD SIG Asperger DVD Reservation Form

Date 7th April 2009

Back to Top