What We Know Now! Autism Spectrum Disorders Attention Profile : 5 Case Studies

Abstract

The Autism Spectrum Disorder Attention Profile (ASDAP) is an unpublished protocol that aims to measure 15 factors of attention identified from the research. Attention is an under researched key behavioral phenotype for 50-70% of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet it is not classified as a trait of ASD (Hours et al., 2022). Attention requires the filtering of information at the level of the basal ganglia (Awh & Vogel, 2008), amygdala (Avino, et al., 2018), and cingulate cortex (Libero, 2015). The purpose of this study was to determine which ASDAP factors were consistent evidence of attention across five subjects. With IRB approval, participants were recruited based on existing or probable ASD diagnoses and were then assessed through both an informal observation in the UWEC CCD clinic in addition to an interview with a caregiver. Observations took place during informal therapy sessions, and the data collected during the caregiver interview was added to the ASDAP to provide a more thorough evaluation of attention in varying environments. The project is currently in the data analysis stage, and we expect to discover, evaluate, and present the results showing efficacy of the ASDAP factors in understanding attention in individuals with ASD.