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SURVEY ON PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENTS AND TRAITS

OF AUTISM FROM SHADAB TRAINING INSTITUTE,
LAHORE

Nimra Saleem
Roll No: 1825138045
Session: 2018-2022
BS Zoology
Supervisor: Dr. Shagugta Naz
________________________________________________
DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY
LAHORE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN UNIVERSITY,
LAHORE 2
 INTRODUCTION

Impaired
Social
Interaction

AUTISM
Restricted and
Impaired
Repetitive
Communication
Behaviors
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 Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of neurodevelopmental
conditions.
 Leo Kanner described the classical behaviors of Autism in 1943.
 Approximately one in 68 children are identified with ASD annually
according to estimates from CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities
Monitoring (ADDM) Network.
 Included as a separate entity in the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders, 3rd edition’ (DSM III) in 1980.
 In 2013, the existing term ‘Pervasive developmental disorder’ was changed
to “Autism Spectrum Disorder” in DSM-V.
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 Behavioral triad of impairments.
 Symptom patterns, range of abilities and
characteristics are expressed in many
different combinations.
 Subtypes include Asperger Syndrome and
Pervasive developmental disorder not
otherwise specified (PDD-NOD)

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 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The aim was to observe the incidence of physical impairments and traits of
autism in different special education centers of Lahore

The Objectives were to:

 Find the prevalence of Autism in special education institutes of Lahore.
 Assess the physical impairments and traits of Autism.
 Analyze the primary characteristics of Autism in individuals with different
IQ levels.
 Estimate the preponderance of comorbid anomalies associated with Autism.
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 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
 A study was conducted to gain insight into the experiences of mothers caring for children with
autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in relation to the early life, resources and to address the
consequences of raising a child with ASD in Egypt. Findings suggested that provision of
inadequate education, healthcare and stigma constitute the main issues for mothers. ASD impacted
negatively on the social life and emotional well-being of mothers of children with ASD (Gobrial,
2018).
 A study investigated how sensory processing atypicalities were related with deficits in social skills,
impaired social cognition, and general adaptive functioning in a group of preschoolers with ASD.
Precise measures of social attention deployment were obtained using a custom-design eye-tracking
task depicting naturalistic social scenes. Within the group of children with ASD, higher intensities
of sensory issues were associated with more prominent social difficulties and lower adaptive
functioning (Kojovic et al,. (2019). 7
  The association between emotion regulation and anxiety was evaluated in a large, community-based
sample of youth with autism spectrum disorder and a wide range of intellectual and verbal abilities
and whether greater core autism spectrum disorder symptoms strengthened the association between
impaired emotion regulation and anxiety. Emotion regulation impairment significantly predicted
whether participants had elevated levels of anxiety; however, there was no interaction of emotion
regulation and autism spectrum disorder symptoms (Conner et al., 2020).

 The parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk for high stress levels. A study
examined the role of child’s age, social impairment, executive functions and adaptive skills on
parenting stress in mothers of children with ASD-ID. Mothers’ stress varied according to the child’s
educational stage and associated with poor metacognition. No associations were found between
parenting stress, age and adaptive skills of children. Social impairment also predicted parenting stress
above and beyond child factors (Tsermentseli and Kouklari, 2021). 
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 MATERIALS AND METHODS

 The research sample of 150 autistic individuals (107 males, 43 females) aged 3 to
18 years were collected from different Special Education Centers of Lahore.
 The participants fulfilled the criteria of Initial Screening for Autism according to the
DSM-IV.
 The Diagnostic Tools such as CARS (Childhood Autism Rating Scale) was also
used to confirm the prevailing characteristics of Autism in the selected children.
 Questionnaires were designed to collect information about variables such as age,
area, gender, Intelligent Quotient i.e. IQ level (mild, moderate, severe, and
profound), family history, and associated anomalies.
 Analysis was performed by SPSS 25. Percentages were calculated. Chi-Square (χ2)
technique was used to test the association between two qualitative parameters.
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 RESULTS

Figure No. 1: Pie Chart showing the ratio of Figure No. 2: Number of subjects in Rural and
Males and Females with autism. Urban population.
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Figure No. 3: Frequency of autistic children with Figure No. 4: Frequency of subjects with different age
different IQ Levels. groups. The age range of the samples was 3-18 years.

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 Figure No. 6: Percentage of different associated
Figure No. 5: Number of Family Members with Autism.
anomalies co-existing with Autism.

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 Table 1: Distribution and association of demographic variables (Residency) with different IQ
Levels of Autistic patients.

IQ LEVELS

p-value
    Mild Moderate Severe Profound Total
(χ2, df)

  24 14 8 2  
Rural (16%) (9.3%) (5.3%) (1.3%) 49
 
Residency
39 44 13 6
0.265
    (3.967,3)
Urban (26%) (29.3%) (8.6%) (4.0%) 101

Total 63 58 21 8 150
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Table 2: Distribution and association of demographic variables (Gender) with different IQ Levels of
Autistic individuals.

    IQ LEVELS     

p value
     Mild Moderate Severe  Profound  Total
(χ2, df)

47 39 19 2  
Male 107
(31.3%) (26.0%) (12.7%) (1.3%)
   
Gender 16 19 2 6
 Female
  0.005
(10.7%) (12.7%) (1.3%) (4.0%) 43
(12.966,3)
Total 63 58 21 8 150

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 Figure No. 7: Number of Autistic individuals with Figure No. 8: Frequency of Males and Females
different IQ Levels in Rural and Urban environments. autistic patients with different IQ Levels.

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 Table 3: Preponderance of Associated Anomalies in autistic patients with different IQ Levels.
 IQ LEVELS
       
 
p value
     Mild  Moderate Severe  Profound  Total
(χ2, df)
  36 27 9 3  
ID (24.0%) (18.0%) (6.0%) (2.0%) 75
  11 14 5 1  
ADHD (7.3%) (9.3%) (3.3%) (0.7%) 31
    5 5 3    
Associated Epilepsy (3.3%) (3.3%) (2.0%) 0 13  0.000
Anomalies   11 12 4 2   (39.556,12)
Aggression (7.3%) (8.0%) (2.7%) (1.3%) 29
Fragile X       2  
Syndrome 0 0 0 (1.3%) 2
           
Total 63 58 21 8 150
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Table 4: Impairments in Autistic patients

DEFICIT AREA PERCENTAGES

Vision Problems 12.7%

Hearing Issues 2.7%

Sleeping Problems 13.3%

Speech and
84%
Language Delays

Figure 10: Frequency of other Impairments in Autistic patients.

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 Table 5: Chi-Square values along with the mean and standard deviation on all the
scales of CARS.

Standard Chi-Square Standard Chi-Square

Variable * IQ Mean p-Value Variable * IQ Mean p-Value
Deviation Value Deviation Value

Relating to people 2.17 0.374 1.484 0.686

Fear or Nervousness 2.13 0.341 5.516 0.138
Imitation 2.19 0.396 5.740 0.125
Verbal
Emotional Response 2.15 0.362 2.528 0.470 Communication 2.14 0.348 4.626 0.201

Body Use 2.20 0.401 2.668 0.446 Non-Verbal

Communication 2.20 0.401 0.800 0.849
Object Use 2.16 0.368 5.898 0.117
Adaptation to Activity Level 2.14 0.348 4.123 0.248
Change 2.13 0.334 1.492 0.684

Level and
Visual Response 2.15 0.355 2.199 0.532 Consistency of
Intellectual 2.11 0.310 7.579 0.056
Listening Response 2.19 0.396 3.945 0.267 Response
Taste, Smell and
Touch Response and 2.19 0.396 3.987 0.263
General Impressions 2.03 0.180 1.274 0.735
Use
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 DISCUSSION
 The incidence of ID, ADHD, Epilepsy and Aggression was 50% (n=75), 20.67%
(n=31), 8.67% (n=13) and 19.33% (n=29) respectively. These results were in
concordance with those of a Norwegian study investigating about co-existing
disorders in pre-school children with autism, where the frequency of ID was found in
about 49% cases and that of ADHD was recorded in about 33% cases (Höglund et
al., 2013).

 In the present study, vision problems were observed in approximately 12.7% (n=19)
cases. That was related to a population based study investigating about the prevalence
of ophthalmologic diagnosis in children with autism in which the vision issues were
recorded in about 13.5% cases (Chang et al., 2021). 19
 The incidence of sleep problems in children with autism was analyzed in about
13.3% (n=20) cases in the present study. That was in contrast to a multi-centered
study conducted in China in which sleep problems had higher prevalence in
children with autism. The occurrence of various sleep problems were bedtime
resistance (25.6%), sleep anxiety (22.7%), sleep onset delay (17.9%) and daytime
sleepiness (14.7%). These problems were observed more commonly in autistic
children compared to the typically developing children (Chen et al., 2021).

 Biochemical abnormalities in circadian rhythm pathways involving melatonin

had also been postulated as possible contributor to sleep disturbances in children
with ASD (Tyagi et al., 2019).
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 CONCLUSION

 Analysis of recent study indicates significant association of IQ levels with the

Gender and Associated Anomalies such as, Intellectual Disability (ID), Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Epilepsy, Aggression and Fragile X
Syndrome.

 While the level of IQ of autistic patients were not significantly related to the
residence of the participants.

 High prevalence of Speech and language delays, vision and hearing problems as
well as sleep issues provide an insight to the basic problems and impairments of
the autistic population.
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 RECOMMENDATIONS
 The need to differentiate the autistic children from the children with other psychiatric
disorders should be highlighted for the better management of the disorder.

 Awareness should be provided to the local population for the early diagnosis and
better treatment of the victims.

 The therapeutic strategies such as language therapy should be upgraded to the use of
computers and multimedia by the teachers in order to improve the communication
and language skills of the children.

 These involve combinations of pictorial symbols, text, animation, sound and video,
which could be helpful in developing verbal and non-verbal skills of the patients. 22
 Chang, M. Y., Doppee, D., Yu, F., Perez, C., Coleman, A. L., and Pineles, S. L. 2021. Prevalence of
ophthalmologic diagnoses in children with autism spectrum disorder using the optum dataset: a population-
based study. American Journal of Ophthalmology, 221: 147-153.

 Conner, C. M., White, S. W., Scahill, L. and Mazefsky, C. A. 2020. The role of emotion regulation and core
autism symptoms in the experience of anxiety in autism. Autism, 24(4): 931-940.

 Gobrial, E. 2018. The lived experiences of mothers of children with the autism spectrum disorders in
Egypt. Social sciences, 7(8): 133.

 Kojovic, N., Ben Hadid, L., Franchini, M. and Schaer, M. 2019. Sensory processing issues and their association
with social difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of clinical medicine, 8(10): 1508.

 Höglund Carlsson, L., Norrelgen, F., Kjellmer, L., Westerlund, J., Gillberg, C., and Fernell, E. 2013. Coexisting
disorders and problems in preschool children with autism spectrum disorders. The Scientific World
Journal, 20(13). 23
 Any
Question
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