Dr.  Andrew Schlegelmilch, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
Children, Adults, and Families
Specializing in working with Neurodiverse Individuals

Article: "A Systematic Review of Effects of Social Stories Interventions for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder." By Qi and others, in Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 33, 1. I recall the times when, in my graduate training, my professors reminded me that the guesses psychologists made about whether or not an interventions was successful was about as good as chance. The problem, they said, is not that psychologists make guesses like everyone else

Article: "Exploring the Effect of Gender and Age on Stress and Emotional Distress in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder." By McGillivray and Evert, in Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 33, 1. This study found that, among the people they surveyed, adults with ASD showed higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression than adults without the ASD diagnosis. In addition, females rated higher distress than males in that ASD group. A trend reported is that

Article: "Food Selectivity and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Guidelines for Assessment and Treatment." In Teaching Exceptional Children, 2018, 50, 6. Speak of the devil. I was just talking about food selectivity with a parent. It is not chance, however, that brings me and this article together. Food selectivity is extremely prevalent in the ASD population. This article states that in one study 72% of the children surveyed with ASD also reported a problem with food selectivit

Article: "Online Tools to Support the Delivery of Evidence-Based Practices for Students with ASD." By Sam, Kucharczyk, and Waters. In Teaching Exceptional Children, 50, 3, 2018. At first I thought this was a discussion of Internet-based Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs) that kids with ASD could use to learn things. What this is article is actually about is online tools that can help teachers working with kids with ASD learn to use EBPs. I just had another couple interactions

Article: Early Numerical Competencies in 4- and 5-Year-Old Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. By Titeca and others. In Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 2017, 32(4). This study may be looking at a more obscure issue (preschool math skills), but it was too elegant and wonderfully conceived to pass up. Everyone knows, or should know, that math is a challenging and enigmatic subject for many ASD individuals. Researchers were curious just how early th

Article: Parents' Educational Expectations for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. By Bush and others. In Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2017, 52(4). Years ago I had a supervisor who made profound discoveries in his research on relationships, but could not, for the life of him, explain his discoveries to the average person in a meaningful way. With that said, I will attempt to interpret the findings in this article. The authors s

Article: Exploring Predictors of Postsecondary Outcomes for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. By Nasamran and others. In Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2017, 52(4). There is more and more research directed at what is happening to ASD kids when they graduate high school. The good news, according to this article, is that the number of people with an ASD pursuing postsecondary options (college, trade, employment, etc.) seems to be incre

Article: Effects of a Story-Mapping procedure Using the iPad on the Comprehension of Narrative Texts by Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 2017, 32(4). By Browder and others. Learning to read is a complex task. I have never taught a child how to read, but there are people who do it every day, and I think we as a society under-appreciate the skill and the method of these teachers. Teaching ASD children to read i

Article: African American Parents' Perceptions of Diagnosis and Services for Children with Autism. By Pearson and Meadan. In Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2018, 53(1). This is another qualitative study and the authors do a good job explaining the research to date and how this study adds to that research. I think this article is a good summary of the research and will be valid as such for another 6-12 months as this field (ASD service acce

Article: Parent Perceptions About Autism Spectrum Disorder Influence Treatment Choices. By Mire and others. In Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 2017, 32(4). The authors suggest that while clinicians worry about applying empirically supported techniques (ESTs) in their work with ASD individuals, parents may have other ways to choose what interventions, if any, to use for their ASD child. The researchers state that this is a growing field of research, so

Article: Examining the Reliability and Validity of the Supports Intensity Scale-Children's Version in Children with Autism and Intellectual Disability. By Shogren and others. In Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 2017, 32 (4). It is a challenge to make this particular article relevant to the casual reader, but I do think that is a challenge worth attempting. The reader may know that the medical community (A.K.A., DSM-5) has been struggling to define Auti

Article: School-Based Social Skills Training for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, by Radley and others. In Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 2017, 32(4). If there is one thing I can do standing on my head, it's run a social skills group. Now that I think of it, it's probably the thing I'm most qualified to do. Well-run groups can do wonders for kids; poorly-run groups can be a huge waste of time and quite possibly have a negative impact on the ch

Article: Social Story Effectiveness on Social Interaction for Students with Autism: A Review of the Literature. By Karal and Wolfe, in Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2018, 53(1). The authors mention, again, that even though IDEA has recommended focus on social skills training in schools, schools seem to be struggling to move beyond the act of adding goals in social skills training to the IEP, and actually provide adequate social skills train

Article: Special Interest Areas and Employment Skills Programming for Secondary Students with Autism. By Bross and Travers, in Teaching Exceptional Children, 2017, 50(2). Where to begin with this article? The basic message of this article is that teachers can use an Autistic child's special interest to help them plan for post-secondary employment or education. The truth is that unemployment for adult high-functioning ASD individuals is extremely high, and teachers need all

Effects of Response Cards on Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Intellectual Disability. By Bondy and Tincani, in Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2018, 53(1). One thing I have noted in my work with ASD individuals is that many of them struggle to participate in conversations, and especially group conversations. Without going into it, I have surmised that groups conversations may be the most challenging activity our brains can attempt

Article: Experiences of African American Mothers of Sons with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Lessons for Improving Service Delivery. By Lovelace and others. In Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2018, 53(1). This was a qualitative study. I am dubious about the basic premise of the study-that there is limited research looking at the experience of minority parents of children with ASD, and so they need to do a qualitative study. It is true that ther

Article: Finding Common Ground: Exploring Undergraduate Student Volunteering as a Support for Parents of Children with Autism. By Breithaupt and others. In Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 2017, 32(3). In summary: Undergraduate volunteers can be a great resource for families needing a break from their children with ASD. Researchers ran a "focus-group" style discussion with groups of potential volunteers, and families who might benefit from the services

Article: Children with Autism Less Likely to be Vaccinated, Study finds. https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/26/health/vaccination-rates-children-autism-study/index.html A friend of mine asked me the other day about my opinion on the connection between vaccines and Autism. He said he had watched a documentary supporting the belief that vaccines cause Autism. Initially I did not understand the question because the premise seemed so outlandish, but the belief that vaccines cause Auti

Article: Preliminary Randomized Trial of Function-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy to Treat Obsessive Compulsive Behavior in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. By Vause and others. In Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disorders, 2017, 32(3). It is studies like these that make me want to apprentice myself to someone. Some of you may be familiar with the symptoms of both ASD and OCD and ask, how can you tell which is which? After all, both ASD and OCD include t

Book: Mindbindness: An Essay on autism and Theory of Mind, by Simon Baron-Cohen (1997). Mindblindness, from various sources, is an inability to use empathy; an inability to "conceptualize, understand or predict knowledge, thoughts and beliefs, emotions, feelings and desires, behaviour, actions and intentions of another person." I got that last part from Wikipedia. Mindblindness seems to be synonymous with the inability to use Theory of Mind. The opposite of mindblindness i