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Background and aim: The aim of this study was to determine effect of home based lovaas approach on social interaction, Speech and language, Play and behavior skills, and intensity of autism in young children with Autism

Materials & Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental, interventional pre/post design. Thirty children with Autism were selected by convenience sampling in a rehabilitation center by matching closely, 8 years old, in Tehran city.

The impact of lovaas approach was evaluated in children with Autism. For evaluation total scores and dimension of social interaction skills speech and language play a behavior before and after therapeutic intervention we used The PDD assessment scale/screening questionnaire. The results were analyzed with paired T test and wilcoxon signed and multivariate T² Hotteling and SPSS software edition 17.

Results: After intervention PDD assessment scores decreased (P<0/001). Significant progress were observed in social interaction skills (P<0/001).Speech and language (P=0/001), play (p<0/001) and behavior (P= 0/002). Significant decrease wasn't seen in the intensity of PDD after intervention (P> 0/05).

Conclusion: The result showed that home based lovaas approach increased the social interaction, Speech and language, Play and behavior skills in children with Autism 

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Background and Aim:Set-shifting that is one of the most important executive functions in learning tasks and intelligence Quality (IQ) reactions was studied in high functioning children with autism. Mental ability can play an important role in learning tasks and activities of daily living. Assessment of this component is important in rehabilitation programs. The aim of this study is to compare set-shifting in high functoning children with autism and normal subjects between 6 to 12 years old. 

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 30 children between 6 to 12 years old were participated and divided in two groups randomly. The mean age of autism and normal groups was 7.86(1.38) and 8(1.68) respectively. Cambridge neuropsychological test automated battery and wechsler for children were used. Data were analyzed by t-test.

Results: High functioning children with autism showed significant differences in set-shifting in comparison with normal subjects particulary in extradimensional stages (stages 8 and 9).

Conclusion: High functioning children with autism have poor capability in set-shifting in comparison with normal subjects. 

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Background and Aim: Difficulties in sidedness of autistic students and their defected language and communication function can be in relationship with their educational state. This research was designed to investigate the possible relationship among sidedness, communicative function and educational state in autistic students. 

Materials and Methods: This is a described-analytic research and a kind of cross sectional and comparative one. For these purpose 40 autistic students with age average 10 years old and 8 months (SD=±2.5) were chosen. Communicative function questionnaire were completed by all subjects‘parents. We used observation check list to examine handedness, footedness, and dominant eye and ear. Using of T-test, covariance analysis data were analyzed.

Results :Data analysis indicated that there is not significant statistically difference  between communicative function and educational state(p<0.05),but participants with weak educational state less tend to definite sidedness preference-in hand and foot not in eye and ear (p>0.05).

Conclusion: These findings reveal that stability of sidedness, which obtains with interventions rehabilitation in autistic students, can perform important role in high language skills and appropriate educational state for them.

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Background and Aim: Many key problems in autistic children are related to executive dysfunction. This dysfunction is usually occurred due to structural and functional dissociation between brain regions. So neurofeedback can be used as a new treatment procedure in improving children's executive function through modifying brain waves but behavioral changes are usually reflection of long-term changes in the brain level. Therefore the purpose of this study is to investigate the overall effect of neurofeedback training and behavioral effects caused by adding occupational therapy based on cognitive rehabilitation.
Materials and Methods: Single system (A-B-A-B+C-A) design was used in this study. Participants were 2 children with autism spectrum disorder who completed 41 sessions during the study. They received neurofeedback intervention alone (B) during 20 sessions and in the following 12 sessions neurofeedback with occupational therapy (B+C). In this study, Wisconsin card sorting and tower of london tests were used for collecting information on children,s executive functions.
Results: According to the obtained results, the effect size of neurofeedback training on executive function was high for both participants. The rate of shifting attention was improved as one of the executive function items after adding occupational therapy and also the increasing effect of neurofeedback in planning was maintained.
Conclusion: The results of this study showed that neurofeedback can improve executive function in autistic children and the effect of neurofeedback can be more obvious if occupational therapy will be added. But gaining more significant behavioral changes after receiving occupational therapy needs more sessions.

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Background and Aim: Autism-Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are neural connectivity abnormalities at global and local of brain levels. A one-dimensional non-invasive technique that allows a highly accurate measurement of brain function and connectivity is Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG). This is a systemic review that encompasses the key finding of QEEG application in subjects with ASD, in order to assess the relevance of this approach in characterizing brain function and clustering phenotypes.

Materials and Methods: QEEG studies evaluating both the spontaneous brain activity and brain signals under controlled experimental stimuli were examined. In despite of conflicting results, literature analysis suggests that QEEG features are sensitive to modification in neuronal regulation dysfunctions which characterizes autistic brain but features types are very important.

Results: Therefore QEEG may help in detecting regions of altered brain function and connectivity abnormalities, in linking behavior with brain activity, and subgrouping affected individuals within the wide heterogeneity of ASD. The use of advanced techniques for the increase of the specificity and of spatial localization could allow finding distinctive patterns of QEEG abnormalities in ASD subjects, paving the way for the development of tailored intervention strategies.

Conclusion: Autism is a disorder in which multiple aspects of behavior, emotion, language and cognition are disrupted, among which, autistic individuals appear to have a range of perceptual processing abnormalities, expressed especially entirely by a high level of sensitivity to auditory and tactile stimuli. It seems Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is potentially caused by unbalanced portion of excitation/inhibition, in other words a disproportionate high level of excitation (or disproportionately weak inhibition) in neural circuits that mediate language and social behaviors. Holistic approaches could help us to have better detections

Keywords: Diagnosis autism-spectrum disorder, Quantitative electroencephalography, Coherence, asymmetry, Non-linear techniques