Physiological Arousal and Emotion Regulation Strategies in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Gemma Zantinge, Sophie van Rijn, Lex Stockmann and 1 others
PMID 28593596WHAT IT FOUND
Children with ASD and typically developing children showed similar heart rate increases during frustration and recovery.
During the same task, children with ASD used fewer goal-directed coping strategies and more venting and avoidance.
Key findings
01Heart rate arousal during the locked-box task did not differ between children with ASD and typically developing children across baseline, frustration, and recovery.
02During the locked-box task, children with ASD had lower average constructive scores (2.29) than controls (2.72), higher venting scores (1.83 vs 0.98), and higher avoidance scores (0.84 vs 0.12).
03Within the ASD group, more compromised language skills predicted more avoidance strategies.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This was a one-visit comparison, not an intervention study, so it cannot show that language support would change coping. Heart rate analyses excluded ECG data from 1 control child and 9 children with ASD because motion artifacts could not be corrected. The locked-box task was solved for all children during recovery, so heart rate recovery may reflect receiving the correct key and toy rather than coping strategy. IQ and language scores were lower in the ASD group, and there was no IQ-matched control group, so differences may not isolate ASD. Only heart rate was measured as autonomic arousal, without heart rate variability or skin conductance.
Declared interests
The paper reports funding by WOP GGZ Rivierduinen; no author conflicts of interest are stated in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the similar heart rate result as evidence that children with ASD cope with frustration as effectively as their peers. The coping strategy scores differed, and the study did not test whether language support changes these behaviors.