Cross Alana Jade, Goharpey Nahal, Laycock Robin, Crewther Sheila Gillard
School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Front Psychol. 2019 Jun 21;10:1420. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01420. eCollection 2019.
Currently very little evidence is available regarding the biological characteristics and common comorbid behaviors that are associated with children characterized by learning difficulties who require additional support at school. These children are usually referred to as having Additional Health and Developmental Needs by the Australian Government and the associated public education system more broadly though the problems may arise from academic, social and/or emotional stressors and may or may not include children with clinically diagnosed Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between anxiety levels (Spence Children's Anxiety Scale- Parent Report), autism traits (Autism Spectrum Quotient - Child Version) and sleep quality (Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children) in children with Additional Health and Developmental Needs without an intellectual disability, but with either a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ( = 25), Speech and Language Impairment ( = 37) or Other Diagnosis ( = 22). Our results demonstrated that these children with Additional Health and Developmental Needs showed atypically high levels of anxiety and impaired sleep quality, with the ASD group reporting more impairments associated with comorbid anxiety and sleep quality than either of the other clinically diagnosed groups. In fact, greater anxiety level was associated with a greater number of autism traits and poorer sleep quality regardless of diagnostic group suggesting that anxiety is a common experience for children with Additional Health and Developmental Needs. It is suggested that assessment of anxiety, sleep behaviors and autism traits may be useful markers for early identification of children within this population, thus providing scope for early and targeted intervention.
目前，关于那些在学校需要额外支持、以学习困难为特征的儿童的生物学特性和常见共病行为的证据非常少。这些儿童通常被澳大利亚政府及更广泛的相关公共教育系统称为有额外的健康和发展需求，尽管这些问题可能源于学业、社交和/或情感压力源，并且可能包括也可能不包括临床诊断为神经发育障碍的儿童。因此，本研究的目的是调查在没有智力残疾、但诊断为自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）（n = 25）、言语和语言障碍（n = 37）或其他诊断（n = 22）的有额外健康和发展需求的儿童中，焦虑水平（斯宾斯儿童焦虑量表 - 家长报告）、自闭症特征（自闭症谱系商数 - 儿童版）和睡眠质量（儿童睡眠障碍量表）之间的关系。我们的结果表明，这些有额外健康和发展需求的儿童表现出异常高的焦虑水平和受损的睡眠质量，与其他临床诊断组相比，ASD组报告的与共病焦虑和睡眠质量相关的损害更多。事实上，无论诊断组如何，更高的焦虑水平都与更多的自闭症特征和更差的睡眠质量相关，这表明焦虑是有额外健康和发展需求的儿童的常见经历。建议对焦虑、睡眠行为和自闭症特征的评估可能是该人群中儿童早期识别的有用指标，从而为早期和有针对性的干预提供空间。
