• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.868-880
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• 2023

This study is a qualitative study conducted to analyze the functions and needs of social robots for parents of children with developmental disabilities in order to utilize care robots for treatment of children with developmental disabilities. The subjects of the study were 11 primary caregivers with children under the age of 18 whose children were diagnosed with developmental disabilities or who had been receiving special education for more than one year. The interview questionnaire was composed of a semi-structured questionnaire and consisted of awareness, necessity, expectation, concern, and other opinions about social robots. The interview was conducted as a non-face-to-face online video interview due to COVID 19. As a result of the study, 4 themes and 7 sub-topics were derived. The four topics were derived from the unfamiliar but soon-to-be-faced reality, social robots with active functions, opinions on the appearance and materials of social robots, and concerns about social robots. Through this study, it was possible to identify the expectations and suggestions of the main caregivers for social robots, which could not be identified in quantitative studies, and if these can be reflected in social robots to be developed in the future, it is expected that positive results with higher acceptance will be derived.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of providing familiar tasks as a treatment option to decrease echolalia. Two comparisons were made：One was to compare ‘conversation condition’ and ‘task performance condition.’ and the other was to compare ‘task performance alone condition’ and ‘task performance along with contingency of reinforcement condition.’ Two echolalic children aged 12 and 13 years participated in the experiment and A-B-A-B-BC-B-BC design was used, in which A was conversation only, B was task performance, and C was task performance along with contingency of reinforcement. In the A condition, the therapist asked easy and short questions to the child；in the B condition the child was given familiar tasks with short instruction, and in BC condition, each child was reinforced for his performance on given tasks, in which immediate echolalia was controlled through his hands being held down for 5 seconds. Delayed echolalia was recorded without any intervention being given. Each child was put into each of the 7 treatment conditions. With a 15 minutes session, each child went through 5 to 6 sessions per day for 2 weeks. The mean echolalia(immediate) rates across the 7 treatment conditions were：For child 1, A(99%)-B(65%)-A(95%)-B(10%)-BC(7%)-B(6%)- BC(7%) and for child 2, A(67%)-B(62%)-A(63%)-B(35%)-BC(8%)-B(4%)-BC(0%). As to the generalization of the treatment effect of immediate echolalia to the untreated delayed echolalia, there was shown a drastic reduction of delayed echolalia in child 2：A(35%)-B(57%)-A(56%)-B(40%)-BC(8%)-B(5%)-BC(9%). Child l’s delayed echolalia was negligible(mean=3%) pre-and post treatments. In conclusion, the results of this study clearly show that providing a task performance setting with familiar tasks can certainly be helpful for minimizing echolalic response, and along with the use of the contingency of reinforcement technique it can further not only correct echolalic behavior to a negligible degree but also help the echolalic child generalize its treatment effect to the child’ overall language improvement.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.173-179
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• 2013

In-utero exposure to valproic acid (VPA) has been known as a potent inducer of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), not only in humans, but also in animals. In addition to the defects in communication and social interaction as well as repetitive behaviors, ASD patients usually suffer from gastrointestinal (GI) problems. However, the exact mechanism underlying these disorders is not known. In this study, we examined the gross GI tract structure and GI motility in a VPA animal model of ASD. On embryonic day 12 (E12), 4 pregnant Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were subcutaneously injected with VPA (400 mg/kg) in the treatment group, and with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) in the control group; the resulting male offspring were analyzed at 4 weeks of age. VPA exposure decreased the thickness of tunica mucosa and tunica muscularis in the stomach and ileum. Other regions such as duodenum, jejunum, and colon did not show a significant difference. In high-resolution microscopic observation, atrophy of the parietal and chief cells in the stomach and absorptive cells in the ileum was observed. In addition, decreased staining of the epithelial cells was observed in the hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained ileum section. Furthermore, decreased motility in GI tract was also observed in rat offspring prenatally exposed to VPA. However, the mechanism underlying GI tract defects in VPA animal model as well as the association between abnormal GI structure and function with ASD is yet to be clearly understood. Nevertheless, the results from the present study suggest that this VPA ASD model undergoes abnormal changes in the GI structure and function, which in turn could provide beneficial clues pertaining to the pathophysiological relevance of GI complications and ASD phenotypes.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.239-250
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• 2005

Objective : The purpose of this study was obtaining data on the efficacy and safety of risperidone in child and adolescent psychiatric patients. Method : Thirty one children and adolescents (males n=18, females n=13, age ranged from 5.4 to 17.3 years) treated with risperidone were selected among child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients of Seoul National University Hospital from January, 2001 to June, 2002, and charts for them were reviewed retrospectively. Results : The primary psychiatric disorders treated with risperidone were schizophrenia and other psychosis, bipolar I disorder with psychotic features, Tourette's disorder, autism spectrum disorders, mixed receptive and expressive language disorder, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. twelve of these had comorbid mental retardation. Primary target symptoms of risperidone were psychotic symptoms (n=13 or $41.9\%$), behavioral symptoms (n=10 or $32.3\%$) including aggression, impulsivity, hyperactivity, stereotypy nonresponsive to other psychiatric treatments, and chronic and severe tics (n=8, $25.8\%$). The efficacy of risperidone was measured by clinical global improvement (CGI) for target symptoms, $67.7\%$ of subjects showed moderate or marked improvements and its therapeutic effect appeared to be maintained during at least 7.5 months. Mean daily dosage of risperidone was $0.05{\pm}0.01mg/kg$, the group with psychotic symptoms had significantly higher mean daily dosage (0.07mg/kg) compared with other two groups (0.04mg/kg) with behavioral symptoms or tics. A variety of adverse events were reported in this study : weight gain (n=23) most commonly reported, extrapyramidal symptoms (n=15), autonomic symptoms (n=6), sedation (n=5) and symptoms related to hyperprolactinemia (n=2) etc. Although there was no drug change related to the adverse events of risperidone, and $90\%$ of subjects at their last visits were maintained on it, thus its tolerability appeared good. Conclusions Results suggest that risperidone may be relatively safe and effective drug in managing a wide variety of child and adolescent psychopathologies such as psychotic symptoms, behavioral symptoms including aggression, impulsivity, hyperactivity and stereotypy nonresponsive to other psychiatric treatments, and chronic and severe tics. Controlled and long-term studies of efficacy and safety of risperidone treatment for children and adolescents are recommended in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.139-152
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• 2002

Objectives：This study was conducted to compare the clinical and neuropsychological characteristics by DSM-IV subtypes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) patients who did not have comorbid psychiatric disorders. Methods：5-15 year old children with ADHD were recruited at psychiatric outpatient clinic of Yeungnam University hospital and the patients with comorbidity or neurological abnormalities were excluded. Finally, total 404 children with ADHD were selected for this study. There were 234 subjects of ADHD-C(57.9%), 156 subjects of ADHD-I(38.6%) and 14 subjects of ADHD-HI(3.5%), who fulfilled the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. The mean age of the total subjects was 9.63±2.49 years old. The psychopathology, IQ, behavioral problems, neuropsychological executive function were evaluated before pharmacological treatment. The measures were Korean Personality Inventory of Child(K-PIC) for psychopathology, 4 behavioral check lists(ADDES-HV, ACTeRS, CAP, SNAP) for behavioral symptoms of ADHD, K-ABC and KEDI-WISC for IQ and Conner's CPT, WCST, SST for neuropsychological executive functions. Results：1) The prevalence of subtypes was ADHD-C, ADHD-I, ADHD-HI in decreasing order. There was no sex difference of prevalence among three subtypes. The mean age of ADHD-I was older than other subtypes. 2) There was significant differences of psychopathology among subtypes, the ADHD-C and ADHD-HI had higher than the ADHD-I in the scores of delinquent, hyperactivity and psychosis；the ADHD-C had higher than the ADHD-I in the scores of family relation and autism, the scores of ego resilience were lower than the ADHD-I. However, there was no difference in anxiety, depression and somatization scores among them. 3) The results of behavioral symptom check lists, the ADHD-C had higher the score of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity than the ADHD-I. Meanwhile the results of ACTeRs, which rated by the teachers, were different. 4) There were significant differences of sequential processing scale and arithmetics among subtypes in IQ using K-ABC, but there was no significant difference between the ADHD-C and the ADHD-I after excluding the ADHD-HI due to small numbers. 5) There was numerical difference among subtypes but did not reach statistical significance in three neuropsychological executive function tests. Conclusion：In conclusion, our results revealed that there was significant difference in clinical features among three subtypes but, no significant difference in executive functions.