Anders Nordahl-Hansen

Østfold University College · Avdeling for lærerutdanning

Portrayals of characters with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in films and TV series are subject to intense debate over whether such representations are accurate. Inaccurate portrayals are a concern as they may lead to increased stereotypes toward the condition. We investigate whether portrayals of characters with autism spectrum disorder in film a...

In conjunction with the rise in prevalence of diagnosed autism spectrum disorders (ASD), there has been a boom in TV and movie characters who sit somewhere along—or in close proximity to—the autism spectrum. These media portrayals may have negative consequences, such as the reinforcement of stereotypes and stigma; however, they might also contribut...

Published research often address aspects related to “statistical significance” but fail to address the clinical and practical importance and meaning of results. Our main objectives in this article are to investigate the merit of common measures of Effect Size in statistical research and to highlight the importance of the simple Relative Risk ratio....

Background Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI) have been evaluated as the most promising interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder. In recent years, a growing body of literature suggests that technological advancements such as Virtual Reality (VR) are promising intervention tools. However, to the best of our kn...

In several ways, 2018 represents a global pivot point in research and care related to the intersection of gender diversity and autism, reflected by the increase in the number of studies on the intersection and broadening of topics. We conducted a scoping review of the literature published between September 2018 and January 2024 to summarize recent...

Developments in Virtual Reality (VR) technology have led to an increased use in research, practice, and for entertainment purposes. There is also a perceived applicability and suitability of the technology for educational purposes. For VR to be properly implemented in schools and special education, there is a need for understanding what teachers, s...

There are an increasing number of autistic characters seen in film and television, and an increasing number of autistic individuals entering the workforce. At the intersection of media and employment, only a small proportion of autistic characters are played by autistic actors. This study examines the experiences of professional autistic actors who...

This study aimed to explore whether music perception is correlated with the load of exposure to musical activities in daily life, such as attending musical events, playing an instrument, attending music classes (at school or for a social project), and the time children spend listening to music using a non-experimental design. We are reusing data fr...

The aim of this study was to explore how autistic adults experienced using social media to find information about autism, and how they experienced online autistic communities. There is little research on the rationale why autistic people look for information on autism via social media, and on how such information is perceived from an autistic viewp...

Background Young people who fail to develop language as expected face significant challenges in all aspects of life. Unfortunately, language disorders are common, either as a distinct condition (e.g., Developmental Language Disorder) or as a part of another neurodevelopmental condition (e.g., autism). Finding ways to attenuate language problems thr...

Introduction Guided internet-delivered therapy has shown promising results for patients with mild and moderate depressive disorder, but several challenges with the format have been reported. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate therapists’ experiences providing guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for patients with...

Background Literacy is one of the most important skills a students can achieve, as it provides access to information and communication. Unfortunately, literacy skills are not easily acquired, especially for students with intellectual disabilities who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). There are many barriers to literacy acqui...

Background: The availability and potential of virtual reality (VR) has led to an increase of its application. VR is suggested to be helpful in training elements of social competence but with an emphasis on interventions being tailored. Recognizing facial expressions is an important social skill and thus a target for training. Using VR in training t...

In this review we give an insight into peer-reviewed publications on types of savant abilities, and the historical progress over the years in autism research

Objective Cohen's d conventional effect size cutoffs [small (0.2), medium (0.5), and large (0.8)] might not be representative of the reported distribution of effect sizes across the different areas of health. Effect size cutoffs might vary not only depending on the area of research, but also on the type of intervention and population. That is, they...

Background: TV-series and movies are important sources of knowledge about autism for the general public. Aims: This study's purpose was to elicit autistic adults' opinions on portrayals of autistic characters in film and television productions and how this can be improved. Methods and procedure: In this study, we examined the recommendations o...

Background: Literacy is one of the most important skills students can achieve, as it provides access to information and communication. Unfortunately, literacy skills are not easily acquired, especially for students with intellectual disabilities who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). There are many barriers to literacy acquis...

Background Research on the use of digital technologies for delivering behavioral interventions has shown mixed evidence on their efficacy for improving both autistic symptoms and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Little knowledge exists on the specific use or efficacy of using social media in interventions aimed at autistic individuals. Objectiv...

Effect sizes of school-based intervention are commonly described as small to moderate when using Cohen’s conventional effect size cutoffs (small [0.2], medium [0.5], and large [0.8]). However, Jacob Cohen’s rule of thumb might vary across different areas of research, nature of the intervention, and population, because effect sizes are context-depen...

Background: Developmental disabilities are disproportionately more investigated in higher-income countries. However, global prevalence of developmental disabilities indicate that a large proportion of individuals with disabilities reside in low- and middle-income nations. Aims: The present work therefore aims to conduct a scientometric review to...

BACKGROUND The availability and potential of virtual reality (VR) has led to an increase of its application. VR is suggested to be helpful in training elements of social competence but with an emphasis on interventions being tailored. Recognizing facial expressions is an important social skill and thus a target for training. Using VR in training th...

Objectives Research on typically developing (TD) children and those with neurodevelopmental disorders and genetic syndromes was targeted. Specifically, studies on autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, Rett syndrome, fragile X syndrome, cerebral palsy, Angelman syndrome, tuberous sclerosis complex, Williams-Beuren syndrome, Cri-du-chat syndrome,...

Background: Studies on guided internet-delivered treatment have demonstrated promising results for patients with depressive disorder. Objective: The aim of this study was to provide an overview of this research area and identify potential gaps in the research. Methods: In this scoping review, web-based databases were used to identify research pap...

Social robots interact with human beings and are used for a variety of therapeutic purposes, for example in interaction with children with neurodevelopmental disorders. A key ethical issue related to the application of social robots in these contexts is the idea of normativity, involved in both the design of social robots, i.e., the use of such rob...

This review provides an overview of the existing research on social media, autism, and physical activity. We searched for publications on PubMed, PsycInfo, Embase, Education source, ERIC, IEEE Xplore, and the proceedings from conferences on health informatics and autism. Eight studies were included in this review. Studies reported mixed results on...

Background: The development of COVID-19 vaccines has been crucial in fighting the pandemic. However, misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines is spread on social media platforms at a rate that has made the World Health Organization coin the phrase infodemic. False claims about adverse vaccine side effects, such as vaccines being the...

To determine the effects of non-pharmacological randomised controlled trials in adults with autism, a systematic review was conducted across five electronic databases. A total of 3865 abstracts were retrieved, of which 41 articles met all inclusion criteria: randomised controlled trial; non-pharmacological intervention; adults with autism; and Engl...

Competent mathematics teachers who have knowledge of gifted students’ needs can challenge them in math and prevent boredom and possible underachievement. This retrospective study explores how Norwegian gifted students perceive their earlier teachers’ mathematical competency, as well as their reflections about boredom in school. The data were collec...

Importance: Effect sizes are used to interpret the size of effects and in power calculations when planning research studies. However, as effect sizes are context-dependent, the rule of thumb proposed by Jacob Cohen might vary across different areas of research, nature of the intervention, and population. Objectives: To determine small, medium, and...

Given the emphasis on social and communication difficulties in the diagnostic criteria of autism, and the pivotal role they play in development generally, these domains are commonly key targets for autism interventions. This chapter provides an overview of different types of traditional social interventions, and evaluate their effectiveness and val...

Children with developmental disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are at high risk of school-refusal behavior (SRB) compared with their peers. One of the most used scales to assess SRB is the school refusal behavior scale – revised (SRAS-R). The SRAS-R has demonstrated good psychometric properties when used with the ge...

Background: On May 8, 2021, Elon Musk, a well-recognized entrepreneur and business magnate, revealed on a popular television show that he has Asperger syndrome. Research has shown that people’s perceptions of a condition are modified when influential individuals in society publicly disclose their diagnoses. It was anticipated that Musk's disclosure...

Background: The development of COVID-19 vaccines has been crucial in fighting the pandemic. However, misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines is spread on social media platforms at a rate that has made the World Health Organization (WHO) coin the phrase "infodemic." Misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines on social media is a major challenge, as...

The development of COVID-19 vaccines has been crucial in fighting the pandemic. Misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines on social media is a major challenge, as this is thought to contribute to vaccine hesitancy. Here, we review the research on misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines spread on social media platforms. The review is registered with the...

Is the assessment of motor milestones valid and scaled equivalently for all infants? It is not only important to understand if the way we use gross and fine motor scores are appropriate for monitoring motor milestones but also to determine if these scores are confounded by specific infant characteristics. Therefore, the aim of the study is to inves...

The present study objectives were to examine the performance of the new M-CHAT-R algorithm to the original M-CHAT algorithm. The main purpose was to examine if the algorithmic changes increase identification of children later diagnosed with ASD, and to examine if there is a trade-off when changing algorithms. We included 54,463 screened cases from...

In the last decade, there has been an increase in publications on technology-based interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Virtual reality based assessments and intervention tools are promising and have shown to be acceptable amongst individuals with ASD. This scoping review reports on 49 studies utilizing virtual reality and augmented re...

The use of technology-based assessments to detect and/or confirm developmental disabilities, measure intervention effects, or monitor developmental trajectories has enormously increased in recent decades. However, even as striking basic science insights have reached our attention, the impact on early detection and intervention is still limited. As...

Autism is a highly heritable neurodevelopmental condition, with prevalence estimated at 1 in 100 people worldwide (Elsabbagh et al., 2012). Autism is diagnosed by behavioural presentation, and although there is substantial variability both within autistic people across the lifespan, and between autistic individuals, a set of core diagnostic criteri...

BACKGROUND On May 8, 2021, Elon Musk, a well-recognized entrepreneur and business magnate, revealed on a popular television show that he has Asperger syndrome. Research has shown that people’s perceptions of a condition are modified when influential individuals in society publicly disclose their diagnoses. It was anticipated that Musk's disclosure...

Autism Spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by early onset difficulties in social communication, and unusually restricted, repetitive behaviors and interests. Children with autism are often not naturally as motivated as others by social interaction and situations involving dyadic play, and this is considered to be proble...

An increasing number of characters with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are appearing in film and television, leading to increased public perceptions of ASD. This review examined the current state of research focused on ASD representations in film and television, and the extent to which characterizations of ASD have been studied. Eighty-seven charac...

The purpose of this study was to examine Internet trends data and sentiment in tweets mentioning autism, Asperger syndrome, and Greta Thunberg during 2019. We used mixed methods in analyzing sentiment and attitudes in viral tweets and collected 1074 viral tweets on autism that were published in 2019 (tweets that got more than 100 likes). The sample...

Parent and preschool teacher ratings of the 10 noun categories of MacArthur-Bates Communication Development Inventory (CDI) were used to study expressive language in 2–4-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (N = 58) across the home and preschool context. There was no significant difference in the total number of words the children...

Educational attainment is important from a societal and individual perspective. Leaving high school or upper secondary education without a diploma, referred as a dropout often creates severe difficulties for people in entering – and remaining in – the labour market, as well as problems with social integration in the society (Christle et al., 2007;...

Objectives: Children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have deficits in social and emotional skills. Virtual Reality (VR) represents a technological tool that can be used to train different social and emotional skills in an environment that mimics real-life situations and that, at the same time, is safe and comfortable. Research...

Purpose – Media play a significant role in the process of raising public awareness about autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite an increase in ASD media coverage, there is scarcity of research that examines how the actual frame is constructed and how the news stories are narrated. This study aims to examine the extent to which Finnish print media...

In this overview of the two neurodevelopmental disorders, intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders we systematically searched the literature for scientific publications of group-based designs that tested various interventions through the use of Virtual Reality technology. After screening of a total of n = 366 publications, n = 13 stu...

The number of publications on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Virtual Reality (VR) has increased considerably the past few years. Interventions using VR show promising effect in improving social skills and other daily living activities for persons with ASD. Researchers have expressed concerns regarding the acceptability among people with ASD to...

Background: Recent years have seen a surge of new films and TV shows about ASD (Rohr, 2015; Veltman, 2009). These portrayals of ASD can be useful, because despite of the increased prevalence, many people still have not had direct substantive contact or personal experience with individuals with ASD. Many people form personal perceptions of ASD based...

To ensure that behavior analytic research will be included as evidence-based research, rigorous designs and statistical analyses is needed. One indicator of quality within psychological research is the measure and analysis of inter-rater reliability (IRR). This article provides an overview of the number of articles in the Norwegian Journal of Behav...

This article presents a philosophical tour encircling the concept construct validity. Encapsulated by two major perspectives, realism and antirealism, we visit key topics within the philosophy of educational science such as representation and reference, truth, explanation and causation. We discuss how realism and antirealism deal with unobservables...

This entry addresses topics regarding students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disabilities (ID) in secondary and postsecondary education. This is a group of individuals on the autism spectrum that is often referred to as having a higher functioning autism (Zeliadt 2016) or has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome accordin...

Virtual Reality (VR) may be a more cost-effective and tolerable way of conducting behavior analytic training for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Technological devices, e.g., Head Mounted Displays (HMD) and tablets, are used within education. Since children and adolescents with ASD require a high amount of training hours per week to dev...

This protocol presents the plan for a systematic review that will investigate the effect of oral language interventions for children with intellectual disability (ID), language disorder (LD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Down syndrome (DS), Williams syndrome (WS), and fragile X syndrome (FXS). Language development is a highly frequent area of di...

An increasing number of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) enroll in inclusive schools and classrooms. The aim of this study was to research how students with ASD experience the social aspect of inclusive high schools. Five adolescences with Asperger syndrome were interviewed, and the results show that high school was perceived as an impo...

Findings: The students viewed upper high school as the key platform for social training and inclusion. The transition to upper high school left bullying and loneliness behind. RESULTS • School is the key arena for social training and getting friends. • Upper high school is a more inclusive environment with less bullying and loneliness for the parti...

Målsettingen med dette kapittelet er å gi en innføring i aspekter det er viktig at spesialpedagoger har kunnskap om knyttet til ASF. I første del av kapittelet presenteres en kort historisk oversikt, før vi presenterer kjennetegn ved diagnosen, samt noen mulige årsaksforklaringer og informasjon om forekomst av ASF. Videre blir tre teorier som har v...

In this chapter we explain the symptoms and behavioural features of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) as it is defined in current diagnostic manuals as well as presenting a historical overview of the diagnosis and classification. We discuss the changes in prevalence of ASD during the past decades, which has led to some common misconceptions and myths...

GİRİŞ Aşağıda kısaca değinilen konular, kitaba katkıda bulunan yazarlar tarafından yetkiyle ve ayrıntılı olarak ele alınıp tartışılmaktadır. Bunların başında Otizm konusu yer almaktadır. Otizm konusu, kitabın birinci bölümünü oluşturmaktadır. Otizm ile ilgili olarak Norveçli bilim insanlarından Prof. Dr. Anders Nordahl-Hansen ve Doç. Dr. Roald Oien...

Aşağıda kısaca değinilen konular, kitaba katkıda bulunan yazarlar tarafından yetkiyle ve ayrıntılı olarak ele alınıp tartışılmaktadır. Bunların başında Otizm konusu yer almaktadır. Otizm konusu, kitabın birinci bölümünü oluşturmaktadır. Otizm ile ilgili olarak Norveçli bilim insanlarından Prof. Anders Nordahl-Hansen ve Doç. Roald Oien, “Otizm: Sosy...

Here we address the earlier published review by Øien et al. (J Autism Dev Disord, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3686-7, 2018) and the subsequent comments by Zucker and VanderLaan (J Autism Dev Disord, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3748-x, 2018). The current commentary is a response to the corrections put forth by the latter authors where...

Background: There has been an increase of interventions using Head Mounted Display (HMD) through Virtual Reality (VR) technology in training with people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). VR-technology through the use of HMDs can be suitable for persons with ASD as, for instance, a simulated social environment can be perceived as less stressful...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heteroge- neous condition defined by social deficits, restric- tive interests, and repetitive behaviors. Individuals with ASD demonstrate highly vari- able levels of intellectual abilities, verbal skills, and adaptive functioning (American Psychiatric Association 2013). Psychiatric and medical comorbidities are f...

There has been a rise of character portrayals of persons with Autism or autistic traits in TV and film. In this quantitative study we analyse 26 films and TV-shows with characters with Autistic traits and how these relate to diagnostic criteria in DSM-5. Out of all 26 portrayals, 20 showed at least 10 of all 12 symptom items. Our main findings indi...

In this systematic map review, we aimed (1) at identifying studies including the co-occurrence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and gender dysphoria (GD) between 1946 and 2018, and (2) to present the papers included in this systematic map review to provide authors in the field of GD, sexuality and ASD with an important database of studies focusin...

The term Gender Dysphoria (GD) is defined as a mismatch between the phenotypic sex of an individual and that person’s perception of their biological gender (American Psychiatric Association 2013), and was previously defined as Gender Identity Disorder (American Psychiatric Association 2000; World Health Organization 1992). GD hereby used to describ...