Hendry Alexandra, Hulks Victoria, Murphy Shona, Radford Holly, Smith Sally, Charman Tony, Mathers Sandra, Rhodes Sinead, Scerif Gaia
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
History, Geography and Social Sciences Department, Edge Hill University, Oxford, UK.
Res Involv Engagem. 2025 Jan 24;11(1):7. doi: 10.1186/s40900-025-00674-7.
Programmes designed to support children with known, or increased likelihood of, autism or ADHD often focus on reducing behaviours central to a clinical diagnosis. However, supporting children to pursue their own goals and cope with everyday life through fostering executive function (EF) development, without enforcing neuro-normative assumptions, may be more acceptable to neurodivergent people, and more beneficial. The co-production process for this neurodiversity-affirming programme involved: Review of research priorities identified during published public-and-clinician consultations; iterative programme development through two pilot rounds with a general community sample; and consultation with stakeholders (parents with a connection to autism or ADHD, alongside early years specialists, psychologists and therapists) to check acceptability of the proposal, and refine the logic model and materials. The logic model for the resultant programme-Supporting Toddlers with a connection to autism or ADHD to develop strong Attention, Regulation and Thinking skills (START)-involves three mechanisms of change: The child has appropriate play-based opportunities to practise EF skills; Parenting behaviours linked to strong EFs are encouraged; Parents are empowered to improve environmental-fit for their child so that EF stressors are reduced.
旨在支持患有自闭症或注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）的儿童，或有更高自闭症或ADHD患病可能性的儿童的项目，通常侧重于减少临床诊断的核心行为。然而，在不强制实施神经规范假设的情况下，通过促进执行功能（EF）发展来支持儿童追求自己的目标并应对日常生活，可能对神经差异人群更可接受，也更有益。这个肯定神经多样性的项目的共同制作过程包括：审查在已发表的公众和临床医生咨询中确定的研究重点；通过两轮针对一般社区样本的试点进行迭代项目开发；以及与利益相关者（与自闭症或ADHD有关联的家长，以及早期教育专家、心理学家和治疗师）进行协商，以检查提案的可接受性，并完善逻辑模型和材料。由此产生的项目——支持与自闭症或ADHD有关联的幼儿发展强大的注意力、调节能力和思维能力（START）——的逻辑模型涉及三种改变机制：儿童有适当的基于游戏的机会来练习EF技能；鼓励与强大的执行功能相关的育儿行为；赋予家长权力，使其改善孩子的环境适应性，从而减少EF压力源。
