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Background and Objective: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder of the brain,which occures in first few years of life, and characterized by symptoms such as qualititative impairments in verbal and non verbal communication, reciprocal social interactions, inability to communicate with others, stereotyped patterns of behavior, loss of eye contact and inappropriate facial expressions. Its prevalence is 2-5 in 10000 children and is greater in boys. Due to retarded language development, differential diagnosis other than those used with communication, behavioral and sensorial deficits should be made with Sensorineural or conductive hearing loss. The aim of this study was to determine whether children with autism have abnormalities affecting the cochlear nerve or auditory pathway in brainstem.

Materials and Methods: In this case – control study, auditory brainstem responses were recorded from 12 autistic children and 12 normal children aged 3-12 years in rehabilitation Zafar central in Tehran – Iran during 2005. Absolute latency values of waves I, III and V and interpeak latencies of I-III, III-V and I-V were compared with the results of 12 normal children as control group.

Results: Wave V could be traced down to 25 dB nHL in both normal and autistic groups. Absolute latency of Wave V and Interpeak latencies of III-V and I-V were significantly prolonged in Autistic children in comparison with control group.

Conclusion: This study showed a slowing in nerve conduction in auditory pathway in brainstem of autism patients. The brainstem lesion may be a part of neurological damage in autistic children that accounts for deviant language, cognition and social development. Prolongation of wave V, III-V and I-V IPLs can be a marker for early diagnosis of autism.

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Background and Objective: Autism spectrum disorder is a genetic-based cognitive and neurobehavioral disorder characterized by impairment in social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication and repetitive motor behavior. This study was done to evaluate the verbal fluency and working memory deficit in first-degree relatives of autistic children. Materials and Methods: In this case - control study, 49 first-degree relatives of autistic children from 33 families (32 mothers, 10 fathers, 6 sisters, and 1 brother) supported by Isfahan autism association were selected and compared with 51 first-degree relatives of typical children (23 mothers, 16 fathers, 7 sisters, and 5 brothers) of 27 families during 2010. The assessing tasks were phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tests to assess verbal fluency and forward and backward digiti span tests to assess low load and high load working memory. Data were analyzed using SPSS-19 and independent t-test and paired t-test. Results: Autistic relatives showed significant poor performance in phonemic (11.46±3.3 V.S. 14.08±3.8), semantic verbal fluency (16.83±3.3 V.S. 19.23±3.9), forward digiti span (5.22±0.6 V.S. 5.55±0.9) and backward digiti span (3.65±0.98 V.S. 4.14±0.8) (P<0.05) compared to healthy children of first-degree relatives. Conclusion: This study showed that parents and siblings of autistic children have a lower performance in phonemic and semantic, low and high load verbal fluency, which might be transmitted genetically.

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Background and Objective: Autism is one the most disturbing neurodevelopmental disorders associated with any kinds of communicative problems and physical objects. This study was done to evaluate the effectiveness of pivotal response treatment on communicative and behavioral disorder of 8-12 years-old autistic boys. Materials and Methods: This clinical trial study was done on 24 boys with autism (aged between 8-12 years) in pediatric rehabilitation clinic in Tehran, Iran, during 2011. Patients randomly were divided into two groups: control and pivotal response treatment (PRT). The interventional group was received 20 session of PRT during the two months, but the control did not receive any intervention. All patients were examined in the field of social communicative, interactive disorder and self-stimulation behavior, using autism diagnostic interview revised. Data were analyzed using SPSS-16 and MANCOVA test. Results: The mean±SD of social communicative (18.58±0.45), interactive disorder (17.13±0.46), self-stimulations behavior (1.92±0.36) in interventional group were significantly lower than control with following index, 26.33±0.45, 23.11±0.48 and 6.16±0.37, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed that pivotal response treatment can be useful in communicative behavioral disorder of 8-12 years old autistic boys.

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Background and Objective: Parents of children with autism have difficulty in their daily activities and social relationships and have a low quality of life. The negative effect of having a low intelligence or disabled child is more likely to cause tension and pressure on mother than the other family members. This study was conducted to determine the quality of life of mothers with autism children compared to mothers with normal children.
Methods: This case-control study was performed on 36 mothers with autistic child and 114 mothers with healthy children in Gorgan (Iran) during 2015. Sampling was done randomly and the data gathering tool was SF-36 quality of life standard questionnaire.
Results: The quality of life of mothers with autistic child had a significant reduction in comparison with the quality of life of mothers with healthy child (P<0.05). Also, items of quality of life including  general health, social function, and role limitation due to psychological, emotional and physical functioning in the group of mothers with autistic children were significantly lower than mothers with healthy ones (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Mothers with autistic children had low quality of life. Therefore, it is recommended to design suitable programs for improving the health status and quality of life as a priority of health care plans.

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The visual processing disorder is broadly observed among individuals with autism. This study was conducted to develop an integrated rehabilitation program based on vibroacoustics and virtual reality and to assess its effectiveness on the visual processing of autistic children. This experimental case report was conducted using an Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC) design on 5 children with autism referred to Zehnara Rehabilitation Clinic in the second half months of 2021. First, the integrated program was implemented for ten 30-minute sessions on 2 subjects randomly selected from among the samples. After determining the program validity, 3 more subjects were entered into the study. The sensory profile questionnaire-2 was used. The questionnaires were filled out at the baseline stage, at the end of each intervention session, and at the one-month follow-up stage. The visual analysis, the percentage of recovery, the percentage of non-overlapping data (PND), and the percentage of overlapping data (POD) were used for data analysis. The implemented intervention was evaluated to be effective for all five subjects so that for Subjects No. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, the PND rates were obtained to be 90%, 90%, 70%, 100%, and 90%, respectively. The results of this study demonstrated that the integrated sensory rehabilitation program could be used to improve the visual processing of children with autism.

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Background and Objective: The quality of life of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is influenced by the problems of this disorder. Numerous interventions have been recommended for mothers with such children, including supportive interventions, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), negative mood management training, parent-child interaction, and family-oriented interventions. One of these interventions is quality of life therapy. The present study was conducted aiming to determine the impact of training quality of life therapy on mothers with ASD children.
Methods: This clinical trial was conducted on 60 mothers of 6-13-year-old ASD children referring to the Ofogh Clinic in the city of Gonbad-e-Kavus, Golestan Province, during 2022-23. Mothers were selected by the convenience sampling method and were assigned to two 30-people control and intervention groups using the random number table. The psychotherapy training based on Frisch’s (2006) theory on the quality of life was implemented on mothers in the intervention group as a group in eight 90-minute sessions for two months. The World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF) was used to measure the mothers’ quality of life.
Results: The mean and standard deviation of the total quality of life score of mothers in the intervention group (76.15±8.85) had a statistically significant increase in the post-test compared to the control group (64.82±10.15) (P<0.05). Also, the mean and standard deviation of the quality of life of mothers in the intervention group showed a statistically significant increase in the post-test in the dimensions of physical health (65.12±6.24), psychological health (69.55±7.52), environmental health (60.66±16.8), and general health (78.33±10.9) compared to the control group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The quality of life of mothers with autistic children was improved by receiving quality of life-based therapy.

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Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in communication skills as one of its most prominent diagnostic criteria, and the initiation of intensive early interventions is a critical determinant in the prognosis of this disorder and the reduction of its severity. This study was conducted to determine the effect of the Parent-Implemented Early Start Denver Model (P-ESDM) interventions in improving communication skills and reducing the severity of symptoms in children with autism. This experimental case report with an A-B design was conducted on 4 children (3 boys and 1 girl) under the age of 60 months diagnosed with autism, who were referred to the Shekoufeha Autism Center in the city of Mahshahr, Iran during 2021. Initially, their parents received training in the P-ESDM interventions through 12 individual, one-hour, weekly sessions. The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) was used to assess communication skills, and the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Second Edition (GARS-2) was employed to assess autism severity. Assessments were conducted in 7 phases (2 baseline assessments, 3 assessments during the intervention, and 2 follow-up assessments). Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, within-condition and between-condition analyses, and an examination of the percentage of overlapping data (POD) and the percentage of non-overlapping data (PND). The implementation of the P-ESDM training culminated in the decreased mean scores, improved communication challenges, and decreased autism severity scores across all 4 subjects. In the within-condition analysis, the subjects’ communication challenges and autism severity scores exhibited a descending and stable trend. Moreover, in the between-condition analysis, the PND at the baseline and intervention phases was at its maximum (100%), and the POD was at its minimum (0%). The observed changes persisted until the follow-up stage. The findings of this study demonstrated that the implementation of the P-ESDM interventions could significantly reduce communication challenges and the severity of symptoms in children with autism, leading to improvements in their communicative skills.