Papers by Asimenia Papoulidi
Screening and Diagnostic Tools for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children with Visual Impairment: A Scoping Review.
Current Developmental Disorders Reports, 2025
Purpose of Review
The aim of the current paper was to review the literature on diagnostic and ... more Purpose of Review
The aim of the current paper was to review the literature on diagnostic and screening tools for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) used for children with visual impairment (VI), and describe and compare the modifications that had to be made in administration and scoring.
Recent Findings
The prevalence of ASD among children with VI is high. However, there is currently no validated and commonly accepted tool for diagnosing ASD in children with VI. Therefore, clinicians have to rely on the available tools for the identification of autistic features in this clinical population. Using a tool, though, that has been developed for sighted children raises concerns since many of the items depend on visual behaviours and have to be omitted or adjusted in order to fit their profile.
Summary
The literature search was performed through PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus. The articles that met inclusion criteria for this review were seventeen. Results showed that ten different tools have been used for the detection of ASD symptoms in children with VI. Of those three instruments were particularly developed for children with VI but have not undergone large-scale validation with diverse samples. This review demonstrates the challenges in diagnosing ASD in children with VI and highlights the need for developing a valid tool particularly designed for these children.
Resilience refers to an enduring and yet fluid characteristic that enhances children's adaptation... more Resilience refers to an enduring and yet fluid characteristic that enhances children's adaptation. It is a dynamic developmental process that is highly promoted by individuals' internal characteristics, such as self-efficacy and locus of control. The present study examined whether self-efficacy mediates the relationship between locus of control and resilience among Greek primary school students. Participants were 690 students aged 9-12 years who were enrolled at primary schools in Greece in Grades 4, 5, and 6. Participants completed a questionnaire including measures assessing resilience, locus of control, and self-efficacy. Structural equation modeling using AMOS 26.0 was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that locus of control and self-efficacy function as significant predictors for all dimensions of resilience, while demographic characteristics such as gender and grade only predict some dimensions of resilience. The hypothesized model was a good fit to the data, and self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between locus of control and resilience. Psychologists, instructors, and practitioners can develop and apply intervention programs in order to strengthen children's resilience by enhancing their self-efficacy and helping them adopt an internal locus of control.
Timing & time perception, Feb 15, 2017
Humans are endowed with an innate ability to produce rhythmic expressions that reveal intentions ... more Humans are endowed with an innate ability to produce rhythmic expressions that reveal intentions and feelings and attune their rhythmic behavior with that of another person who is attentive and affectionate. A small number of studies in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show that the rhythmic patterns of their expressions differ from those observed in typically developing (TD) children, and they are not well attuned to the expressions of their communicative partner. The aim of the present study was to assess rhythmic patterns in mother-child cooperative communication in children with ASD compared to TD children. Ten children with ASD and ten TD children, matched for mental age, were videotaped in their homes during play sessions with their mothers. For the microanalysis, the Eudico Linguistic Annotator was used and a coding system was developed for the annotation of communicative modalities. Results showed that children with ASD are less likely to initiate joint action and respond to mother's efforts for mutual interaction. Exploratory/relational play was their preferred means for initiation. Maternal responses were provided mainly through the modality of gaze for both ASD and TD children. Moreover, the gaze direction of the dyad indicates that ASD partners focus mainly on different directions, whereas TD partners look mostly at the same object. Analysis of their affective states demonstrates that affect attunement is difficult to achieve. These findings indicate that children with ASD exhibit disturbances in rhythmic interaction with their caregiver, which reveal severe deficiencies in the motive for interpersonal awareness.
of activity resulting from repetitive muscle movements with or without objects, for the shake of ... more of activity resulting from repetitive muscle movements with or without objects, for the shake of practicing sensorimotor schemes [4]. According to Piaget [1], functional play is the first of three successive stages preceding constructive and dramatic play. An adequate definition of this form of play was provided by Ungerer & Sigman [5]: "The appropriate use of an object or the conventional association of two or more objects, such as using a spoon to feed a doll or placing a teacup on a saucer". In this vein, it is suggested that functional play emerges from some form of representation [6], although there is no unanimity about the nature of this representation as well as its relation to symbolic function. Some authors propose a dissociation between functional play and symbolism explaining that unlike functional play, which requires a first order representation e.g. of a pen as a rocket, symbol requires a more complex representational system i.e. a secondorder representation about this representation (a metarepresentation), namely, that the representation is not true [7-9]. Nevertheless, a considerable amount of research does not support the view of dissociation; rather, evidence is provided that at least in typically developing children functional play not only is related to symbolic play and language, but it also facilitates these skills. Focusing on the relationship between functional play and language, Sigman and Ungerer [10] examined preterm and full-term infants in experimental conditions and found that functional play directed towards dolls and other persons as well as meaningfully related sequences of functional acts at 13½ months were associated with
Engagement detection for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face several difficulties in social communication. H... more Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face several difficulties in social communication. Hence, analyzing social interaction can provide insight on their social and cognitive skills. In this paper, we investigate the degree of engagement of children in interactions with their parents. Features derived from both participants including acoustic, linguistic and dialogue act features are explored. The effect of visual cues is also investigated. We experimented on the task of engagement detection using video-recorded sessions consisting of interactions of typically developing (TD) and ASD children. Results show that engagement is easier to predict for TD children than for ASD children, and that the parent's actions/movements are better predictors of the child's degree of engagement.
Ο ρυθμός και η διάρκεια της επικοινωνίας βρέφους-μητέρας ως δείκτες δυσλειτουργικών μοτίβων συμπεριφοράς και αυτιστικών χαρακτηριστικών
Decreasing trends in adolescent life satisfaction: the role of developmental and demographic factors
Αναπτυξιακή & εφηβική υγεία, Mar 17, 2022
Language, Socio-Emotional Skills, and School Performance of School-Aged Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability
Advances in educational technologies and instructional design book series, May 16, 2023
The purpose of the study was to investigate and compare the perceptions of parents who have prima... more The purpose of the study was to investigate and compare the perceptions of parents who have primary school-age children with ASD and ID in relation to their developmental skills (language, social, emotional, and academic skills) as well as their interests. A total of 89 parents participated in the study, of whom 61 had a child with ASD and 28 had a child with ID. A questionnaire was completed by the parents. The results showed that the parents of both groups of children reported good skills in vocabulary knowledge, vocabulary use, and phonological awareness, but lower skills in conversation endurance, articulation, changing tone of voice, and understanding metaphors, syntax, and grammar. Also, both groups of parents rated their children's emotional skills from “almost good” to “good.” Also, parents of children with ASD rated their children's academic skills “good” in general, while parents of children with ID rated their children in lower levels. Further analyses were conducted in order to investigate differences between the various skills examined within the same group of children.
Conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers: Developmental data from preschool children
Journal of Early Childhood Research, 2023
Children’s conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers is an important aspect of their cogn... more Children’s conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers is an important aspect of their cognitive development. Children use notations as representations that have a communicative value and begin to learn about formal differences between writing words and writing numbers at an early age before the onset of formal schooling. The aim of the present study was to examine preschool children’s conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers in an ecologically valid task with communicative value. One hundred and twenty Greek-speaking preschool children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old were assessed on the identity card task, which examined their production of notations for words and numbers during their effort to communicate personal information to others. The results demonstrated a developmental trend in the type of notation children produced with the younger children providing more “ambiguous” notations, for both tasks implying writing words and numbers, while as they got older, they provided more “writing-like” notations for the tasks implying writing words and more “number-like” notations for the tasks implying writing numbers. Understanding when and how children differentiate their symbolic representations for words and numbers can inform both theory and practice by expanding our understanding of whether certain constraints characterize the developmental course of a specific notational system. The findings of the present study could be incorporated in educational practice and enhance children’s emerging literacy and numeracy skills.
Ο ρυθμός και η διάρκεια της επικοινωνίας βρέφους-μητέρας ως δείκτες δυσλειτουργικών μοτίβων συμπεριφοράς και αυτιστικών χαρακτηριστικών
Οι άνθρωποι είναι προικισμένοι με την έμφυτη ικανότητα να παράγουν ρυθμικές εκφράσεις, οι οποίες ... more Οι άνθρωποι είναι προικισμένοι με την έμφυτη ικανότητα να παράγουν ρυθμικές εκφράσεις, οι οποίες αποκαλύπτουν τις προθέσεις και τα συναισθήματά τους, και να εναρμονίζουν τη ρυθμική συμπεριφορά τους με αυτή ενός άλλου ατόμου. Οι αρμονικές αλληλεπιδράσεις βρέφους - μητέρας χαρακτηρίζονται από ρυθμικότητα στις μεταξύ τους συμπεριφορές, η οποία αφορά σε συγχρονισμένες δράσεις, υψηλά επίπεδα θετικού συναισθήματος και εκτεταμένα διαστήματα προσοχής. Μελέτες σε παιδιά με Διαταραχή Αυτιστικού Φάσματος (ΔΑΦ) έχουν δείξει ότι τα πρότυπα των εκφράσεών τους διαφέρουν από των τυπικά αναπτυσσόμενων (ΤΑ), καθώς δυσκολεύονται να εναρμονιστούν με τις εκφράσεις του επικοινωνιακού τους συντρόφου και επιδεικνύουν ελλειμματική ανταπόκριση στις δράσεις της μητέρας. Ωστόσο, ο περιορισμένος αριθμός ερευνών, σχετικά με τα ρυθμικά πρότυπα συμπεριφοράς παιδιών με ΔΑΦ, καθιστά αναγκαία την περαιτέρω διερεύνηση του θέματος.Σκοπός της παρούσας έρευνας ήταν η συγκριτική μελέτη ρυθμικών προτύπων συμπεριφοράς παιδι...
Conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers: Developmental data from preschool children
Journal of Early Childhood Research
Children’s conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers is an important aspect of their cogn... more Children’s conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers is an important aspect of their cognitive development. Children use notations as representations that have a communicative value and begin to learn about formal differences between writing words and writing numbers at an early age before the onset of formal schooling. The aim of the present study was to examine preschool children’s conceptual knowledge of writing words and numbers in an ecologically valid task with communicative value. One hundred and twenty Greek-speaking preschool children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old were assessed on the identity card task, which examined their production of notations for words and numbers during their effort to communicate personal information to others. The results demonstrated a developmental trend in the type of notation children produced with the younger children providing more “ambiguous” notations, for both tasks implying writing words and numbers, while as they got olde...
Rhythm and duration of infant - mother communication as index of dysfunctional behavioral patterns and autistic characteristics
Humans are endowed with an innate ability to produce rhythmic expressions that reveal intentions ... more Humans are endowed with an innate ability to produce rhythmic expressions that reveal intentions and feelings and attune their rhythmic behavior with that of another person. Harmonic infant-mother interactions are characterized by rhythmicity in their behaviors which is associated with synchronous actions, heightened levels of positive affect and extended periods of mutual attention. Studies in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have shown that the rhythmic patterns of their expressions differ from those observed in Typically Developing (TD) children, since they present difficulties in attuning to the expressions of their communicative partner and show deficient response to the actions of their mothers. The limited number of studies concerning rhythmic patterns of behaviors in children with ASD makes further investigation of this topic necessary.The aim of the present study was to compare children with ASD and TD in relation to their rhythmic communicative behavior, by exa...
Teacher practices for teaching writing in Greek primary schools
Reading and Writing, 2022
Developing writing skills is a central part of the education curriculum in many countries, yet nu... more Developing writing skills is a central part of the education curriculum in many countries, yet numerous children have difculties in producing written texts. To our knowledge there is no systematic study examining the ways in which Greek teachers adapt their writing instruction strategies to accommodate the children’s needs. The aim of the present study was to identify the approaches teachers employ while teaching writing in Greek primary schools and to examine the nature and frequency of these diferent aspects of teaching writing. We replicated and extended the Dockrell et al. (Read Writ Interdiscip J 29(3):409–434, 2016) study, using the Not so Simple View of Writing framework. One hundred and three teachers responded to an online questionnaire, which consisted of questions regarding their academic qualifcations and their specifc teaching practices. The majority of the sample felt prepared and enjoyed teaching writing. However, almost all of the teachers found teaching writing challenging and half of them reported that supporting struggling writers was diffcult for them. Overall, teachers reported more work at word level, occurring almost weekly, than at text level. Diferences between Grade levels they taught were also evident for specifc domains of writing. Recommendations for future research and implications for educational practice are discussed.
Psychosomatic Medicine, 2021
Eίναι καλά τeκμηριωμένο ότι η ικανότητα και το κίνητρο eμπλοκής μe άλλους σe συνeργατικές δραστηρ... more Eίναι καλά τeκμηριωμένο ότι η ικανότητα και το κίνητρο eμπλοκής μe άλλους σe συνeργατικές δραστηριότητeς μe κοινούς στόχους και αμοιβαίeς προθέσeις eίναι τα θeμeλιώδη eρeίσματα της ανθρώπινης μοναδικότητας. Ωστόσο, τα παιδιά μe Διαταραχή Αυτιστικού Φάσματος (ΔΑΦ) παρουσιάζουν δυσκολίeς στο να μοιράζονται τα κίνητρα, τις προθέσeις και τα συναισθήματά τους μe άλλους σχeτικά μe θέματα του πeριβάλλοντος και eμφανίζουν χαμηλά eπίπeδα eμπλοκής. Ο σκοπός της παρούσας έρeυνας ήταν να συγκρίνeι τα eπίπeδα eμπροθeσιμότητας και κοινωνικής eμπλοκής 10 παιδιών μe ΔΑΦ και 10 τυπικά αναπτυσσόμeνων παιδιών, αντιστοιχισμένων ως προς τη νοητική τους ηλικία, κατά τη διάρκeια eλeύθeρου παιχνιδιού μe τη μητέρα τους. Τα παιδιά μαγνητοσκοπήθηκαν καθώς έπαιζαν μe τη μητέρα τους σe νατουραλιστικές συνθήκeς μe παιχνίδια που τους χορήγησe η eρeυνήτρια. Για τη μικροανάλυση των μαγνητοσκοπήσeων χρησιμοποιήθηκe ο Γλωσσικός Eπισημeιωτής EUDICO, ο οποίος eπιτρέπeι την ανάλυση αμοιβαίων συμπeριφορών και eντοπίζeι α...
Engagement detection for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
2017 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2017
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face several difficulties in social communication. H... more Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face several difficulties in social communication. Hence, analyzing social interaction can provide insight on their social and cognitive skills. In this paper, we investigate the degree of engagement of children in interactions with their parents. Features derived from both participants including acoustic, linguistic and dialogue act features are explored. The effect of visual cues is also investigated. We experimented on the task of engagement detection using video-recorded sessions consisting of interactions of typically developing (TD) and ASD children. Results show that engagement is easier to predict for TD children than for ASD children, and that the parent's actions/movements are better predictors of the child's degree of engagement.
International Archives of Communication Disorder, 2019
of activity resulting from repetitive muscle movements with or without objects, for the shake of ... more of activity resulting from repetitive muscle movements with or without objects, for the shake of practicing sensorimotor schemes [4]. According to Piaget [1], functional play is the first of three successive stages preceding constructive and dramatic play. An adequate definition of this form of play was provided by Ungerer & Sigman [5]: "The appropriate use of an object or the conventional association of two or more objects, such as using a spoon to feed a doll or placing a teacup on a saucer". In this vein, it is suggested that functional play emerges from some form of representation [6], although there is no unanimity about the nature of this representation as well as its relation to symbolic function. Some authors propose a dissociation between functional play and symbolism explaining that unlike functional play, which requires a first order representation e.g. of a pen as a rocket, symbol requires a more complex representational system i.e. a secondorder representation about this representation (a metarepresentation), namely, that the representation is not true [7-9]. Nevertheless, a considerable amount of research does not support the view of dissociation; rather, evidence is provided that at least in typically developing children functional play not only is related to symbolic play and language, but it also facilitates these skills. Focusing on the relationship between functional play and language, Sigman and Ungerer [10] examined preterm and full-term infants in experimental conditions and found that functional play directed towards dolls and other persons as well as meaningfully related sequences of functional acts at 13½ months were associated with
Decreasing trends in adolescent life satisfaction: the role of developmental and demographic factors
Developmental and Adolescent Health
Rhythm in Interactions between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Mothers
Humans are endowed with an innate ability to produce rhythmic expressions that reveal intentions ... more Humans are endowed with an innate ability to produce rhythmic expressions that reveal intentions and feelings and attune their rhythmic behavior with that of another person who is attentive and affectionate. A small number of studies in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show that the rhythmic patterns of their expressions differ from those observed in typically developing (TD) children, and they are not well attuned to the expressions of their communicative partner. The aim of the present study was to assess rhythmic patterns in mother–child cooperative communication in children with ASD compared to TD children. Ten children with ASD and ten TD children, matched for mental age, were videotaped in their homes during play sessions with their mothers. For the microanalysis, the Eudico Linguistic Annotator was used and a coding system was developed for the annotation of communicative modalities. Results showed that children with ASD are less likely to initiate joint action an...
Teacher practices for teaching writing in Greek primary schools
Reading and Writing, 2022
Developing writing skills is a central part of the education curriculum in many
countries, yet ... more Developing writing skills is a central part of the education curriculum in many
countries, yet numerous children have difculties in producing written texts. To our
knowledge there is no systematic study examining the ways in which Greek teachers
adapt their writing instruction strategies to accommodate the children’s needs. The
aim of the present study was to identify the approaches teachers employ while teaching writing in Greek primary schools and to examine the nature and frequency of these diferent aspects of teaching writing. We replicated and extended the Dockrell
et al. (Read Writ Interdiscip J 29(3):409–434, 2016) study, using the Not so Simple
View of Writing framework. One hundred and three teachers responded to an online
questionnaire, which consisted of questions regarding their academic qualifcations
and their specifc teaching practices. The majority of the sample felt prepared and
enjoyed teaching writing. However, almost all of the teachers found teaching writing
challenging and half of them reported that supporting struggling writers was diffcult for them. Overall, teachers reported more work at word level, occurring almost
weekly, than at text level. Diferences between Grade levels they taught were also
evident for specifc domains of writing. Recommendations for future research and
implications for educational practice are discussed.
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Papers by Asimenia Papoulidi
The aim of the current paper was to review the literature on diagnostic and screening tools for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) used for children with visual impairment (VI), and describe and compare the modifications that had to be made in administration and scoring.
Recent Findings
The prevalence of ASD among children with VI is high. However, there is currently no validated and commonly accepted tool for diagnosing ASD in children with VI. Therefore, clinicians have to rely on the available tools for the identification of autistic features in this clinical population. Using a tool, though, that has been developed for sighted children raises concerns since many of the items depend on visual behaviours and have to be omitted or adjusted in order to fit their profile.
Summary
The literature search was performed through PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus. The articles that met inclusion criteria for this review were seventeen. Results showed that ten different tools have been used for the detection of ASD symptoms in children with VI. Of those three instruments were particularly developed for children with VI but have not undergone large-scale validation with diverse samples. This review demonstrates the challenges in diagnosing ASD in children with VI and highlights the need for developing a valid tool particularly designed for these children.
countries, yet numerous children have difculties in producing written texts. To our
knowledge there is no systematic study examining the ways in which Greek teachers
adapt their writing instruction strategies to accommodate the children’s needs. The
aim of the present study was to identify the approaches teachers employ while teaching writing in Greek primary schools and to examine the nature and frequency of these diferent aspects of teaching writing. We replicated and extended the Dockrell
et al. (Read Writ Interdiscip J 29(3):409–434, 2016) study, using the Not so Simple
View of Writing framework. One hundred and three teachers responded to an online
questionnaire, which consisted of questions regarding their academic qualifcations
and their specifc teaching practices. The majority of the sample felt prepared and
enjoyed teaching writing. However, almost all of the teachers found teaching writing
challenging and half of them reported that supporting struggling writers was diffcult for them. Overall, teachers reported more work at word level, occurring almost
weekly, than at text level. Diferences between Grade levels they taught were also
evident for specifc domains of writing. Recommendations for future research and
implications for educational practice are discussed.