intellectual disability
Research Papers
Practitioner's review: medication for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and comorbid conditions
Alleviating the multiple problems of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its comorbid conditions presents major challenges for the affected children, parents, and therapists. Because of a complex psychopathology, structured therapy and parent training are not always sufficient, especially for those patients with intellectual disability (ID) and multiple comorbidities. Moreover, structured therapy is not available for a large number of patients, and pharmacological support is often needed, especially in those children with additional attention deficit/hyperactivity and oppositional defiant, conduct, and sleep disorders.
View Full Paper →Facilitating Neurofeedback in Children with Autism and Intellectual Impairments Using TAGteach
Individuals with autism and intellectual impairments tend to be excluded from research due to their difficulties with methodological compliance. This study focuses on using Teaching with Acoustic Guidance-TAGteach-to behaviorally prepare children with autism and a IQ ≤ 80 to participate in a study on neurofeedback training (NFT). Seven children (ages 6-8) learned the prerequisite skills identified in a task analysis in an average of 5 h of TAGteach training, indicating that this is a feasible method of preparing intellectually-impaired children with autism to participate in NFT and task-dependent electroencephalography measures. TAGteach may thus have the potential to augment this population's ability to participate in less accessible treatments and behavioral neuroscientific studies.
View Full Paper →Epileptic Electroencephalography Profile Associates with Attention Problems in Children with Fragile X Syndrome: Review and Case Series
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability and a variant of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The FXS population is quite heterogeneous with respect to comorbidities, which implies the need for a personalized medicine approach, relying on biomarkers or endophenotypes to guide treatment. There is evidence that quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) endophenotype-guided treatments can support increased clinical benefit by considering the patient’s neurophysiological profile. We describe a case series of 11 children diagnosed with FXS, aged one to 14 years, mean 4.6 years. Case data are based on longitudinal clinically-observed reports by attending physicians for comorbid symptoms including awake and asleep EEG profiles. We tabulate the comorbid EEG symptoms in this case series, and relate them to the literature on EEG endophenotypes and associated treatment options. The two most common endophenotypes in the data were diffuse slow oscillations and epileptiform EEG, which have been associated with attention and epilepsy respectively. This observation agrees with reported prevalence of comorbid behavioral symptoms for FXS. In this sample of FXS children, attention problems were found in 37% (4 of 11), and epileptic seizures in 45% (5 of 11). Attention problems were found to associate with the epilepsy endophenotype. From the synthesis of this case series and literature review, we argue that the evidence-based personalized treatment approach, exemplified by neurofeedback, could benefit FXS children by focusing on observable, specific characteristics of comorbid disease symptoms.
View Full Paper →Effects of Neurofeedback Training on Attention in Children with Intellectual Disability
This study investigated effects of neurofeedback (NFB) training on attention in children with intellectual disability (ID). Twenty-one children with ID were assigned to an NFB training group (n = 7), to a visual perception (VP) training group (n = 7), or to a no-treatment group (n = 7). Two groups received 36 sessions of NFB or VP training, respectively, over 12 weeks. Children's Color Trails Test-2, Stroop Color and Word Test, and Digit Span were administered to all participants before and after training. The follow-up study was conducted with both the NFB and VP groups in the same way after 3 months. The EEGs of the NFB group also were measured. The NFB group showed significantly improved scores on the all tests compared to the 2 control groups. The brainwaves of the frontal lobes of the NFB group declined significantly in theta wave amplitude and theta-to-beta ratio. The NFB results were maintained in the follow-up study. Beta/SMR uptraining seemed to be an effective way to enhance attention in children with ID.
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