Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a highly heterogeneous specific feature of neurodevelopment, whose general characteristics are defined by two basic dimensions: 1) deficits of communication and social interaction and 2) restrictive and stereotyped behaviours. Both dimensions are complemented by empirical evidence of the highly significant relationships of a predictive kind with the psychomotor functioning, which becomes most evident over development. Just, this research tries to answer to the following general goals: 1) examine the application of specific programs relating to development of basic psychomotor skills in students with several levels of ASD, age and sex, and 2) delimit the incidence of cognitive relationships between the concepts and learning categories. A total of 99 students have participated in this study, distributed according to ASD level, age and sex. Data have been analysed through the Univariate ANOVA Between-Subjects Effects Test. Results show that both the intersection of psychomotor and cognitive variables (critical sig: .00), as well variables separately (psychomotricity: .00, and relationship: .00), significantly affect to academic performance of students with ASD. Therefore, it can be concluded that relational cognitive components and psychomotor development are essential to facilitate the development of learning in people with ASD, whose R2 of explicative variance is significantly high: .913, being the adjusted R2 level: 86.3%. The influence of the fixed variables interactions: ASD level, age and sex have also been studied.
KEYWORDS:Autism Spectrum Disorder. Psychomotricity. Perceptive- Cognitive- Nodal Relationship. Conceptual and Categories. Academic Performance.
Summary:
The knowledge, diagnosis and treatment of clinical anxiety in people considered within the autism spectrum is a challenge since most of the instruments are designed based on research variables for people outside the autism spectrum. A total of 91 parents of children between 6 and 18 years of age, diagnosed with ASD in Metropolitan Lima participated in this study. In this sense, the general objective of this study is the validation of the anxiety scale: ANXIETY SCALE FOR CHILDREN WITH ASD (ASC ASD-P) in relation to anxious behaviors in people with ASD. The results show a significant validity of the Scale content; however, there are discrepancies in the allocation of reagents to the corresponding dimensions. The Exploratory Factor Analysis and the Alpha Values of Anxiety present the following data: 1) Anxiety due to Uncertainty (McDonald’s: .86 and Cronbach's Alpha: .85); 2) Performance Anxiety (McDonald’s: .81 and Cronbach's Alpha: .81); 3) Anxious Arousal (0.86 McDonald’s: .86 and Cronbach's Alpha: .8). Separation anxiety is excluded from the analysis due to its low factor value. These data allow us to affirm that the scale to evaluate the presence of ASC-ASD clinical anxiety, parent version, has adequate psychometric properties for the predictive measurement of anxiety in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Clinical Anxiety, Anxiety Scale Validation.
Localización del Instituto de Investagaciones Científicas en Autismo, localizado en la Universidad de Vigo.
